U.S. Senate passes ban on torture

The Senate on Tuesday reaffirmed a ban against torturing detainees and moved ahead on a more than $600 billion defense policy bill that is entangled in a broader fight in Congress about caps on Pentagon and non-military spending. The Senate overwhelmingly voted 78 to 21 to approve an amendment that bolsters current law and makes the U.S. Army Field Manual on interrogations the standard for all interrogations conducted by the U.S. government. It also gives the International Committee of the Red Cross access to every detainee held by the U.S. The vote comes just months after the Senate intelligence committee released findings of a classified investigation that said the CIA’s brutal interrogations of al-Qaida detainees after 9/11 were harsher than previously thought.

This amendment provides greater assurances that never again will the United States follow that dark path of sacrificing our values for our short-term security needs.

Senator John McCain

Democratic Sen. Dianne Feinstein of California, who introduced the amendment with Republican Sen. John McCain of Arizona, said it was important because the presidential executive order banning torture could one day be lifted by a future president. The amendment will not become law until the defense bill passes both the Senate and House of Representatives, and the House would have to back the measure. If it passes, it would make it much more difficult for a future president to reinstate the use of the degrading methods.