JURIST - Paper Chase: US House passes intelligence bill restricting CIA interrogation tactics

[JURIST] The US House of Representatives voted 222-199 [roll call] Thursday to pass an intelligence funding bill [HR 2082 materials] that would restrict CIA interrogators to using only those interrogation techniques explicitly authorized by the 2006 Army Field Manual. Army interrogation guide Field Manual 2-22.3 [PDF text; press release] explicitly prohibits the use of waterboarding, electrocution, sensory deprivation, inducing hypothermia, or depriving the subject of food, water, or medical care. The 2006 manual also specifies that the Geneva Conventions [ICRC materials] apply to all detainees [JURIST report] and eliminates separate standards for the questioning of prisoners of war and enemy combatants [JURIST news archive]. The bill now goes to the Senate. AP has more.

The proposed restriction on CIA interrogations may face a veto challenge from President George W. Bush, who in July 2007 signed [JURIST report] a controversial executive order [text] that prohibits cruel and inhuman treatment during the interrogation of terror suspects detained by the CIA, but allows "enhanced interrogation techniques" and may exempt the CIA from Common Article 3 of the Geneva Conventions. The order does not specify what specific interrogation techniques are now disallowed, but the order prohibits "acts intended to denigrate the religion, religious practices, or religious objects of the individual," and "torture" as defined in 18 USC 2340 [text].

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