Bush vetoes waterboarding ban
2008-03-08 18:47
Washington - US President George W Bush said on Saturday he had vetoed legislation on intelligence funding because of a provision aimed at cutting back harsh interrogation methods like waterboarding.
The bill calls for the Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) to question suspected terrorists under the rules of the US Army Field Manual, which forbids the controlled-drowning tactic and other methods widely seen as torture.
"The bill Congress sent me would take away one of the most valuable tools in the war on terror - the CIA programme to detain and question key terrorist leaders and operatives," Bush said in his weekly radio address.
"So today, I vetoed it," said the US president.
The legislation cleared the US Congress by a margin shy of the two-thirds majority needed to overcome Bush's veto.
"Were it not for this program, our intelligence community believes that al-Qaida and its allies would have succeeded in launching another attack against the American homeland," Bush declared.
"And it has helped us understand al-Qaida's structure and financing and communications and logistics," he said.
Rights groups have alleged that abuse and torture of detainees routinely take place at secret CIA detention facilities around the globe, and some US intelligence officials have questioned whether the programme has been as productive as the White House insists.
The 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.
"The bill Congress sent me would not simply ban one particular interrogation method, as some have implied," said Bush, challenging the portrayal of the legislation as banning waterboarding.
"Instead, it would eliminate all the alternative procedures we've developed to question the world's most dangerous and violent terrorists. This would end an effective program that Congress authorised just over a year ago," he said.
"This is no time for Congress to abandon practices that have a proven track record of keeping America safe," he said.
- AFP