Republican presidential candidate John McCain said President Bush should veto a measure that would bar the CIA from using waterboarding and other harsh interrogation methods on terror suspects. McCain voted against the bill, which would restrict the CIA to using only the 19 interrogation techniques listed in the Army field manual.
"I knew I would be criticized for it," McCain told reporters Wednesday in Ohio. "I think I can show my record is clear. I said there should be additional techniques allowed to other agencies of government as long as they were not" torture. "I was on the record as saying that they could use additional techniques as long as they were not cruel, inhumane and degrading treatment," McCain said. "So the vote was in keeping with my clear record of saying that they could have additional techniques, but those techniques could not violate" international rules against torture. Source
I believe McCain was
not on record as saying they could use additional techniques. Three years ago he sponsored an amendment to a DoD appropriations bill that required CIA interrogations to comply with the Army field manual.
Now he doesn't want that restriction anymore.
After McCain's amendment passed, along with the bill to which it was attached, the Army field manual chapter pertaining to interrogations was rewritten and large portions of it are now classified. It's reasonable to suspect that the guidelines were loosened somewhat. Not to mention the signing statement Bush attached which effectively nullified significant provisions of the amendment from the Executive point if view.
The Army field manual was good enough for McCain before. But today, even after being revised, it puts too many restrictions on CIA personnel. What happened to the McCain of three years ago?
The Detainee Treatment Act, maybe?
McCain spokeswoman Jill Hazelbaker noted that McCain believes that waterboarding is already banned by the Detainee Treatment Act of 2005, which includes an amendment he wrote barring inhumane treatment of prisoners. The act prohibited cruel, inhuman and degrading treatment for all detainees in U.S. custody, including CIA prisoners.
I guess McCain forgot the fact that it was modified by the Graham-Levin Amendment, which expanded the prohibition of habeus corpus and allows information literally beaten out of witnesses to be admissable in court.
And maybe he's also forgetting about the Military Commissions Act, which also modified the Detainee Treatment Act to give retroactive immunity to government personnel who engaged in torture, and allows the suspension of habeus corpus for anyone labeled an "enemy combatant" which includes U.S. citizens.
Or maybe he's just not genuinely concerned about whether the U.S. treats people like crap.
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