The House has just voted on overriding the President's veto of the
Intelligence Authorization bill (H.R. 2082), but the veto was sustained with
220 Democrats and only 5 Republicans voting to override. The President vetoed the bill over the provision that extends to U.S. intelligence agencies and personnel the current prohibitions in the Army Field Manual against waterboarding and other torture.
Failing to prohibit in statute the use of waterboarding and other torture undermines our nation's moral authority, puts American military and diplomatic personnel at risk, and weakens the quality of intelligence. Indeed, in 2007, General David Petraeus wrote, "Some may argue that we would be more effective if we sanctioned torture or other expedient methods to obtain information from the enemy. That would be wrong. Beyond the basic fact that such actions are illegal, history shows that they also are frequently neither useful nor necessary."
| Speaker Nancy Pelosi: "In the words of retired Rear Admiral Donald Guter, a former Navy Judge Advocate General: 'There is no disconnect between human rights and national security... they're synergistic. One doesn't work without the other for very long.' Failing to legally prohibit the use of waterboarding and other harsh torture techniques also risks the safety of our soldiers and other Americans serving overseas. In a letter to the Congressional intelligence committee chairmen, 30 retired generals and admirals--including General Joseph Hoar, the former head of U.S. Central Command--stated: 'We believe it is vital to the safety of our men and women in uniform that the United States not sanction the use of interrogation methods it would find unacceptable if inflicted by the enemy against captured Americans...'" |
| Rep. Anna Eshoo (CA-14): "And I think we can defeat America's enemies today without lowering ourselves, without allowing ourselves to become the organizers against us. That's what we have done, and we have not only degraded ourselves but helped to chip away at the magnificent credibility of our great nation that people before us provided, and now we stand on their shoulders, and a president of the United States vetos a bill because he stands for torture. We should slam that door shut. And the way we do it is by overriding this president's veto. There isn't any room in our country for this. And for everyone to describe these things as being sissies because you stand against torture -- that is really shameful. That's really shameful, with all due respect. This is a tough position. It's the right position." |
| Rep. Rush Holt (NJ-12): "The heads of the Defense Intelligence Agency and the FBI have testified that the non-torture guidelines in this bill are adequate for their people to follow in interrogation of dangerous people. If the President were serious about restoring our reputation in the world, and about providing moral and legal clarity for all government employees involved in the handing or interrogation of detainees, he would never have vetoed this bill. Providing that moral and legal clarity is our Constitutional obligation." |
| Rep. Lloyd Doggett (TX-25): "President Bush is not the first Texan to think of this and to believe that horrific wrongs can justify drowning the culprit. An earlier Texas waterboarder is not in the White House, he was sent to the big house. A Texas judge said that this waterboarding Texas sheriff put law enforcement 'in the hands of a bunch of thugs that would embarrass a dictator,' the judge said. The sheriff was sentenced to 10 years for waterboarding. The judge was right, and this administration is so very wrong. America seems to have been sentenced to 8 years of Dick Cheney, who claims that such water torture is quote, 'a no brainer.' No brainer. That sounds a little like the way you can describe many of the Administration's policies at home and abroad. Torture is no proper tool in the arsenal of democracy." |