House Passes Ban On Waterboarding

Approves Intelligence Bill Outlawing Harsh CIA Interrogation Techniques

(AP)  The House of Representatives on Thursday approved an intelligence bill that bans the Central Intelligence Agency from using waterboarding, mock executions and other harsh interrogation methods.

The 222-199 vote sent the measure to the Senate, which still must act before it can go to President Bush. The White House has threatened a veto.

The bill, a House-Senate compromise to authorize intelligence operations in 2008, also blocks spending 70 percent of the intelligence budget until the House and Senate intelligence committees are briefed on Israel's Sept. 6 air strike on an alleged nuclear site in Syria.

The 2008 intelligence budget is classified, but it is more than the $43 billion approved for 2007.

Most of the bill itself also is classified, although some portions were made public. One provision requires reporting to the committees on whether intelligence agency employees are complying with protections for detainees from cruel, inhumane and degrading treatment. Another requires a report on the use of private contractors in intelligence work.

It is the first intelligence authorization conference bill Congress has produced in three years.

The White House threatened to veto the measure this week in a lengthy statement, highlighting more than 11 areas of disagreement with the bill.

The administration particularly opposes restricting the CIA to interrogation methods approved by the U.S. military in 2006. That document prohibits forcing detainees to be naked, perform sexual acts, or pose in a sexual manner; placing hoods or sacks over detainees' heads or duct tape over their eyes; beating, shocking, or burning detainees; threatening them with military dogs; exposing them to extreme heat or cold; conducting mock executions; depriving them of food, water, or medical care; and waterboarding.

Waterboarding is a particularly harsh form of interrogation that involves strapping down a prisoner, covering his mouth with plastic or cloth and pouring water over his face. The prisoner quickly begins to inhale water, causing the sensation of drowning.

The CIA is known to have waterboarded three prisoners but has not used the technique since 2003, according to a government official familiar with the program who spoke on condition of anonymity because the information is classified. CIA Director Michael Hayden prohibited waterboarding in 2006. The U.S. military outlawed it the same year.

The intelligence authorization bill also creates a new internal watchdog to oversee all the intelligence agencies. It requires Senate approval for the first time of two agency heads the National Reconnaissance Office, which manages the nation's spy satellites, and the National Security Agency, the outfit that conducted warrantless wiretapping on American phone and computer lines in what the White House calls the Terrorist Surveillance Program.

Separately on Thursday, the Senate Judiciary Committee rejected legislation that would have protected telecommunications companies from civil lawsuits over helping the government eavesdrop on Americans' communications without court orders. The legislation would have made the government the defendant in such lawsuits, rather than telecommunications companies. The 5-13 vote sank the measure pushed by Sen. Arlen Specter, a Republican who hoped it could be a compromise in the dispute over whether to immunize the companies from lawsuits.

In competing legislation written in October, the Senate Intelligence Committee granted legal immunity to telecom companies. The House passed a bill that does not protect the companies. The White House has also threatened to veto that bill.

Director of National Intelligence Mike McConnell was briefing the Senate in a closed session about the matter on Thursday.

[mudrose-2009]

===Sorry rafterman time doesn''''''''t move all that fast.===
posted by muddy

Which is why the world is a sh*t hole of violence, death and destruction.

Posted by rafterman1

And that''s the reason why we should amend the Constitution to address all the violence, death and destruction? Are you sane?

[mudrose-2009]

Then what do we do when a situation comes up that isn''''t directly addresed in the Constitution? Ignore it and hope it goes away? All we have is the spirit of the Constitution to guide us and to try and interpret what the founding fathers would have done.
Posted by rafterman1

The Constitution, by its silence, means it does not address issues like abortion or g/ay rights so stop trying to amend it by judicial fiat.

[mudrose-2009]

===No they couldn''''t have imagined a country where the right to abortion existed either===

By the way, in the 18th and 19th centuries, abortion was allowed in some situations by both English and American common law. So the founding fathers imagined it just fine - and didn''''t addresss it in the Constitution.

Posted by rafterman1


And I''m sure it was unfetted, at will and partial birth? Sorry rafterman time doesn''t move all that fast. And the spirit of the Constitution is a load of garbage. We don''t create laws by judicial fiat. We don''t go outside to international law to create new rights and we don''t regard the Constitution as a living, breathing documents. That''s not spirit, that''s dismantling the Constitution. Sorry ratty, no spirit, just law. Congressional or Constitutional.

[mudrose-2009]

The Founders couldn''t imagine anyone insinuating the Religion could not be practiced in the public square. It would have been unheard of. They couldn''t imagine medicare/medicaid, Schip. They couldn''t imagine anyone trying to call the First and Second Amendments unconstitutional. They couldn''t imagine people not be responsible for themselves, their care. They couldn''t and wouldn''t know what the hell this country is today that you lefties are trying to make of it.

[mudrose-2009]

===What a Constitutionalist, Polly-Wanna as opposed to a Constructionist?===
posted by muddy

A Constitutionalist believes in a fairly strict interpretation of the Constitution, both the written word and, in the presence of a future that the founding fathers could not possibly have imagined, the spirit. Americans conducting torture is against both the written word (no cruel or unusual punishment) and the spirit of the Constitution.

Posted by rafterman1

No they couldn''t have imagined a country where the right to abortion existed either. They couldn''t imagine a country where g/ay marriage would even be contemplated. They couldn''t imagine a country where judges go outside the constitution to grant new rights. They couldn''t imagine judges legislating. They couldn''t imagine a lot of things, but apparently the lefties feel that the Constitution is a living, walking document subject to interpretation anyway they d/amn well please.

[antoniof123]

The 222-199 vote sent the measure to the Senate, which still must act before it can go to President Bush. The White House has threatened a veto.

So the GOP says torture is OK. So folks if you believe in torture then vote for the GOP they are just as bad as the Islamic fundamentalist oh wait they are the Christan fundamentalist so yes they are just as bad. They are digging a hole so deep they will never get out.

McCarthy was not lesson enough for these clowns they just don''t learn or can''t not sure which one and if it makes a difference.

[abdoul_pasha]

Goodevening!

[mudrose-2009]

Telling the CIA they cant torture is like telling the army they cant shoot their guns. Making a detterent presence isnt always sufficient.

Posted by verifyuser

Could you clarify, please. I''m not sure of your last sentence.

[mudrose-2009]

Mudrose, you know, the more posts of yours that I read, the more I become convinced that you are one of those people who actually erote at the very thought of inflicting pain on a fellow human being. I bet you if you had an opportunity of doing it with immunity, you wouldn''''t even need a reason, you would do it simply for elation. Your mind has come to the point of repeating mantras without understanding them; you know, like : you don''''t like torture, you must hate our troops. How sick!


posted by ajayvee

See, that''s why I know you never served in the military. What do you think the military is for? Do you think the military is for the service of humanity? Or do you think the military is for defense? But if you want to sing Kumbia that''s your business. Don''t bother me with your so-called moral righteousness. Especially when the Dimnowits advocate abortion, euthanaisa, etc.

[ajayvee]

Mudrose, you know, the more posts of yours that I read, the more I become convinced that you are one of those people who actually erote at the very thought of inflicting pain on a fellow human being. I bet you if you had an opportunity of doing it with immunity, you wouldn''t even need a reason, you would do it simply for elation. Your mind has come to the point of repeating mantras without understanding them; you know, like : you don''t like torture, you must hate our troops. How sick!

[mudrose-2009]

Posted by parrot2

What a Constitutionalist, Polly-Wanna as opposed to a Constructionist?

[mudrose-2009]

===could tell that she''''s educated and has a good grasp of issues===

I still don''''t know if muddy is a he, she or it.

Posted by rafterman1

Nobody knows what you are either. Probably vegetable or mineral I would guess. Ha!

[chicnlittle]

===We have to wonder if the rest were water boarded themselves if they would still vote as they did?===

In most police departments, before cops are issued tasers, they must undergo a "tasing" against themselves first. Maybe we should do the same for politicians - before voting for waterboarding, they need to undergo the procedure themselves first.



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Posted by rafterman1 at 11:11 AM : Dec 14, 2007


You liberals crack me up. Let''s see, if Al Gore, Hillary or maybe one of your sons or daughters was held by terrorists and we had an informant who knew where they were, would you agree to waterboarding to find out?

[macusweil]

GOP in the House should all be very very ashamed in the except for these few: ( We have to wonder if the rest were water boarded themselves if they would still vote as they did?)

Bartlett (MD)
Gilchrest
Johnson (IL)
Jones (NC)
Smith (NJ)
----------
following did not vote~
Cubin
Paul -
Heller
Jindal
Gary

[macusweil]

Rest of traitors:

Mack
Manzullo
Marchant
Marshall
McCarthy (CA)
McCaul (TX)
McCotter
McCrery
McHenry
McHugh
McKeon
McMorris Rodgers
Mica
Miller (FL)
Miller (MI)
Moran (KS)
Murphy, Tim
Musgrave
Myrick
Neugebauer
Nunes
Pearce
Pence
Peterson (PA)
Petri
Pickering
Pitts
Platts
Poe
Porter
Price (GA)
Pryce (OH)
Putnam
Radanovich
Ramstad
Regula
Rehberg
Reichert
Renzi
Reynolds
Rogers (AL)
Rogers (KY)
Rogers (MI)
Rohrabacher
Ros-Lehtinen
Roskam
Royce
Ryan (WI)
Sali
Saxton
Schmidt
Scott (GA)
Sensenbrenner
Serrano
Sessions
Shadegg
Shays
Shimkus
Shuster
Simpson
Smith (NE)
Smith (TX)
Souder
Stark
Stearns
Sullivan
Tancredo
Terry
Thornberry
Tiahrt
Tiberi
Turner
Upton
Walberg
Walden (OR)
Walsh (NY)
Wamp
Waters
Weldon (FL)
Weller
Westmoreland
Whitfield (KY)
Wicker
Wilson (NM)
Wilson (SC)
Wolf
Woolsey
Young (AK)
Young (FL)

[macusweil]

Partial list of traitors:

Aderholt
Akin
Alexander
Bachmann
Bachus
Baker
Barrett (SC)
Barton (TX)
Biggert
Bilbray
Bilirakis
Bishop (UT)
Blackburn
Blunt
Boehner
Bonner
Bono
Boozman
Boustany
Brady (TX)
Broun (GA)
Brown (SC)
Brown-Waite, Ginny
Buchanan
Burgess
Burton (IN)
Buyer
Calvert
Camp (MI)
Campbell (CA)
Cannon
Cantor
Capito
Carter
Castle
Chabot
Coble
Cole (OK)
Conaway
Crenshaw
Culberson
Davis (IL)
Davis (KY)
Davis, David
Davis, Tom
Deal (GA)
Dent
Diaz-Balart, L.
Diaz-Balart, M.
Doolittle
Drake
Dreier
Duncan
Ehlers
Emerson
English (PA)
Everett
Fallin
Feeney
Ferguson
Flake
Forbes
Fortenberry
Fossella
Foxx
Franks (AZ)
Frelinghuysen
Gallegly
Garrett (NJ)
Gerlach
Gingrey
Gohmert
Goode
Goodlatte
Granger
Graves
Hall (TX)
Hastings (WA)
Hayes
Hensarling
Herger
Hobson
Hoekstra
Hulshof
Hunter
Inglis (SC)
Issa
Johnson, Sam
Jordan
Keller
King (IA)
King (NY)
Kingston
Kirk
Kline (MN)
Knollenberg
Kucinich
Kuhl (NY)
LaHood
Lamborn
Latham
LaTourette
Lee
Lewis (CA)
Lewis (GA)
Lewis (KY)
Linder
LoBiondo
Lucas
Lungren, Daniel E.

[mudrose-2009]

Posted by rafterman1

You hate anything that doesn''t conform to your idea of what socialism should be in America. Face it. You are socialists. You will conform only to the Reich and be the puppets of George Soros. He wants to destroy the upper classes too, so that he alone can have total influence in America. Meanwhile he has all his assets off-shore. Why don''t you check Pewlosi''s records and see where her money is. Check the Clintons and Al Bore''s while you are at it. They advocate a socialist society but they will be that society''s elitists and you all kiss their azzes. Hahahahahaha.

[mudrose-2009]

Makes me wonder whom these mudrose sick-heads are going to hate when it is no longer fashionable to hate Muslims?


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Posted by ajayvee at 09:58 AM : Dec 14, 2007
+ report abuse
You can just feel the Christian-like love and compassion oozing out of the these Right Wing Republican zealots - just makes me want to run out and worship with them! NOT. The most hate-filled and miserable people I''''ve ever heard..........

Posted by simonsez40

Yes, just like the Dimnowits have such compassion for the people. They''d skewer you in a huckster''s minute and you can''t see the forest for the trees. And to the other numbnut. Americans don''t hate Muslims, they hate Islamofascists who stole Islam.

[ajayvee]

Makes me wonder whom these mudrose sick-heads are going to hate when it is no longer fashionable to hate Muslims?

[simonsez40]

You can just feel the Christian-like love and compassion oozing out of the these Right Wing Republican zealots - just makes me want to run out and worship with them! NOT. The most hate-filled and miserable people I''ve ever heard..........