President Bush aan de Rekening van de vetomarteling

Door Kerry Sheridan in Washington

De V.S. President George W. De plannen van Bush aan de vetowetgeving die door de Senaat wordt overgegaan om de CIA te versperren van het gebruiken van ruwe ondervragingsmethodes met inbegrip van het waterboarding.

De „voorzitter zal die Rekening weigeren,“ de spreekbuis Dana bovengenoemde Perino van het Witte Huis.

De „Verenigde Staten hebben de capaciteit nodig om effectief, binnen de wet, gevangen terroristen te ondervragen al-Qaeda.“

„Bush keurt geen marteling goed“

De democratisch-Geleide Senaat stemde gisteren over 51-45 ten gunste van een Rekening die het Centrale Agentschap van de Intelligentie verzoekt om het Handboek van het Gebied van het Leger van de V.S. goed te keuren, dat waterboarding en andere soorten dwangondervragingsmethodes verbiedt.

However, the vote fell short of the two-thirds majority needed to overcome a presidential veto. The House of Representatives passed similar legislation in December.

Democratic New York Senator Charles Schumer said that if Bush “vetoes intelligence authorisation, he will be voting in favour of waterboarding.”

Future techniques not ruled out

Asked by a reporter if President Bush, who leaves office in 2009, would be labelled as the first US president who favored torture, Ms Perino rejected the assertion and dismissed Senator Schumer’s argument as simplistic.

“Across the board people will see, over time, that this was a president who put in place tools to protect the country against terrorists,” Ms Perino said.

“The president does not favour torture. The president favours making sure we do all these programs within the law,” she said, adding that “all the interrogations that have taken place in this country have been done in a legal way”.

Ms Perino said the United States does not currently use waterboarding, a simulated drowning technique denounced by rights groups as torture, even though the CIA has admitted using the technique in the past.

She reiterated the administration’s assertion last week that it would not rule out the use of such techniques in the future.

“Currently under the law it is not (allowed),” she said.

“As we said last week as well, we are not going to talk about what may or may not be lawful in the future.”

Manual too weak

The Senate Bill would limit the CIA and other intelligence agencies to the 19 interrogation techniques outlined in the military’s manual. Waterboarding is not among them.

Ms Perino said the intelligence community’s view is that the Army Field Manual sets an inappropriate standard for seasoned CIA interrogators who are working to extract information from sophisticated militant operatives.

“Today with this Bill that they are sending to us they would basically repeal the terrorist interrogation program in favor of something that will definitely weaken our ability to protect the country,” Ms Perino said.

McCain votes against Bill

Rival Democratic White House hopefuls Senators Hillary Clinton and Barack Obama were on the road campaigning and did not take part in the vote Wednesday.

The likely Republican nominee, Arizona Senator John McCain, voted against the Bill. The former prisoner of war however said that his vote was consistent with his anti-torture stance.

“We always supported allowing the CIA to use extra measures,” he said.

“I believe waterboarding is illegal and should be banned,” Senator McCain said.

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