Section 327 of the proposed Intelligence Authorization Act would have limited the intelligence agency's interrogation methods by requiring that they comply with the Army Field Manual on Interrogations. This would have effectively ruled out a range of practices including the use of waterboarding, sleep deprivation, stress positions and electric shocks.
The Senate’s majority leader, Harry Reid of Nevada, said Mr. Bush disregarded the advice of military commanders, including Gen. David H. Petraeus, who argued that the military’s interrogation techniques were effective and that the use of any others could create risks for any future American prisoners of war.The Washington Weekly (which devotes its current issue to essays criticizing such practices) says it for me:
“He has rejected the Army field manual’s recognition that such horrific tactics elicit unreliable information, put U.S. troops at risk and undermine our counterinsurgency efforts,” Mr. Reid said in a statement.
It was a profound moral and strategic mistake for the United States to abandon long-standing policies of humane treatment of enemy captives. We should return to the rule of law and cease all forms of torture, with no exceptions for any agency.
