House vote bans waterboarding, more

WASHINGTON – The House of Representatives voted Thursday to prevent the CIA from using waterboarding and other harsh interrogation methods that already are banned from use by the U.S. military.

The bill, which would fund and set policies for U.S. intelligence agencies, passed 222-199. It next goes to the Senate, where it faces strong Republican opposition.

Even if the Senate approves the bill, the White House said in a statement that the president’s advisers recommend that he veto it. The White House objects to the interrogation provision and other sections that would increase congressional oversight.

The legislation would require the CIA and other intelligence agencies to use only interrogation techniques authorized for the military in the United States Army Field Manual on Human Intelligence Collector Operations.

U.S. law and the 1949 Geneva Convention on treatment of prisoners of war ban torture and cruel treatment.

President Bush said in a July executive order that the CIA’s secret detention and interrogation system complied with the law. But his order didn’t specify whether intelligence agencies could use waterboarding and other procedures banned by the Army manual.

Waterboarding involves holding a person down and pouring water into his nose or mouth until he feels he’s drowning.

Other torture tactics the legislation would ban include forced nudity, beatings and electric shocks, and putting hoods over captives’ heads or duct tape over their eyes.

“This would mean no more torture and no more questions about what the CIA is allowed to do behind closed doors,” said Rep. Janice Schakowsky, D-Ill.