By Kerry Sheridan in Washington
US President George W. Bush plans to veto legislation passed by the Senate to bar the CIA from using harsh interrogation methods including waterboarding.
“The President will veto that Bill,” White House spokeswoman Dana Perino said.
“The United States needs the ability to interrogate effectively, within the law, captured al-Qaeda terrorists.”
“Bush doesn’t favour torture”
The Democratic-led Senate yesterday voted 51-45 in favor of a Bill calling for the Central Intelligence Agency to adopt the US Army Field Manual, which forbids waterboarding and other types of coercive interrogation methods.
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.