JURIST - Paper Chase: Senate backs intelligence bill restricting CIA interrogation tactics

[JURIST] The US Senate voted 51-45 [roll call] Wednesday to approve the conference report for an intelligence funding bill [HR 2082 materials], which includes a provision that would restrict CIA interrogators to using only those interrogation techniques explicitly authorized by the 2006 Army Field Manual. Field Manual 2-22.3 [PDF text; press release], Human Intelligence Collector Operations, explicitly prohibits the use of waterboarding [JURIST news archive], 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 US House agreed to the conference report [JURIST report] in December. The conference report [text] represents negotiations between both houses of Congress to reconcile differences between the versions of HR 2028 passed in 2007 by the House of Representatives and 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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