Coming to Their Senses about Torture

Coming to Their Senses about Torture

December 16, 2005

The Bush administration did an about face yesterday and finally accepted Sen. John McCain's (R-AZ) amendment to the Defense Authorization Bill prohibiting "cruel, inhuman, and degrading treatment" of U.S. detainees and establishing "the Army Field Manual as the uniform standard for the interrogation of Department of Defense detainees." For weeks the White House threatened to veto this amendment, adding to the decline of the moral standing of the U.S. While it is good that Bush has come around on the McCain amendment, much must still be done to ensure that the other branches of the government aren’t undermining the anti-torture amendment by other means.

• Yesterday’s news was a positive step towards fixing the image of the U.S. The White House finally realized what the rest of the government already knew – that torture does not work. The McCain amendment was approved in the Senate 90 to 9 and the House voted 308 to 122 on similar language in an unusual bipartisan rebuke of the White House.
  
  
• There are still forces trying to undermine the McCain amendment. The new Army Field Manual gives cause for concern; it includes a 10-page classified addendum that gives “specific guidelines that would help teach [interrogators] how to walk right up to the line between legal and illegal interrogations.” And The White House is still trying to shield itself from McCain's torture ban by supporting the Graham-Levin amendment.
  
  
• There are still steps that need to be taken to improve detainee treatment. The Bush administration has been on the defensive ever since reports emerged that the CIA was hiding and interrogating some terror suspects at a secret “Soviet-era compound in Eastern Europe.” CIA sources revealed that these sites have since been shut down and prisoners have been moved "to a CIA site somewhere in north Africa." The Bush administration needs to move beyond yesterday’s photo op and ensure that the McCain amendment is fully enforced and all allegations of torture and questionable tactics are carefully investigated.