Question of decency

Saturday, Feb. 16, 2008 | 2:06 a.m.

President Bush has vowed to veto legislation passed by the Senate this week that would ban harsh interrogation techniques such as waterboarding, claiming that federal authorities need such methods in order to get information.

The measure, which the House passed in December, would require that the CIA and other U.S. interrogators use only the methods allowed in the Army Field Manual on Interrogation. The manual prohibits the use of physical force and harsh techniques, including waterboarding.

The technique simulates the sensation of drowning by pouring water on a cloth that is draped over the face of a detainee who is lying on a board. It was used during the 15th century’s Spanish Inquisition.

Evidently, Bush believes that the U.S. government hasn’t, in the 21st century, developed better ways in which to obtain information from terrorist suspects.

The Republicans’ presumptive presidential nominee, Sen. John McCain, R-Ariz., voted against the legislation, saying that although he thinks waterboarding “is illegal and should be banned,” the CIA needs other “extra measures” that the legislation would ban.

Sen. Charles Schumer, D-N.Y., said that in vetoing the legislation, Bush would be “voting in favor of waterboarding.”

U.S. intelligence officials have admitted to using waterboarding on at least three al-Qaida suspects after the 9/11 terrorist attacks. The Pentagon and the CIA banned the technique in 2006.

On Thursday, Steven Bradley, acting chief of the Justice Department’s Office of Legal Counsel, told a House subcommittee that current U.S. law does not allow waterboarding. But later the same day Bradley said the department also hasn’t determined that waterboarding is against the law.

This entire discussion is becoming a farce that could almost be comical if it concerned something trivial. But we’re talking about torture, an activity in which no nation — especially a civilized one such as the United States — should engage.