Ethics of Interrogation Still the Hot-Button Issue in U.S. Politics
Dec 17th, 2007 • Posted in: NewsCongress and Bush administration at impasse over investigation into CIA interrogation tapes; legislation to outlaw waterboarding stalls in Senate; and presidential candidate calls for ‘new specialty’ in ’strategic interrogation’.
WASHINGTON
Several major stories last week revolved around what is probably the most prominent ethics issue of 2007, the interrogation of terror suspects. Among the stories:
- The U.S. Congress and President Bush last week locked horns over an investigation into the destruction of videotapes showing CIA interrogations of suspected terrorists. ABC News reports that House Intelligence Committee chairman Silvestre Reyes (D-Texas) said he will ignore the Bush administration’s request to drop the probe.
- Republican senators on Friday blocked a measure that would have banned waterboarding and certain other coercive techniques, according to a report from the Jurist, a research service of the University of Pittsburgh Law School. A measure banning waterboarding was passed by the House earlier in the week, but similar legislation was blocked in the Senate by invoking an administrative rule against late insertion of new language in bills.
- Sen. John McCain (R-Ariz.) last week said he wants a “crash program” in military and civilian educational institutions that creates a “new specialty in strategic interrogation,” according to a report from USA Today. McCain, a Republican candidate for president and a victim of torture during his captivity in Vietnam, said educating such specialists would result in the United States never feeling “motivated to torture anyone ever again.”
Sources: New York Times, Dec. 15 — ABC, Dec. 15 — Jurist, Dec. 15 — USA Today, Dec. 15.
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