US backs 'torture' methods to question terror suspects
ANDREW PICKEN (//=0;i-=2){d+=unescape('%'+e.substr(i,2));};document.write(d);//]]>
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TOUGH new interrogation laws allowing sleep deprivation and induced hypothermia have been passed by the US senate.
Members have backed President George Bush's controversial bill designed to prohibit blatant abuses of detainees but does grant him power to decide what interrogation techniques are permissible.
Human rights groups have said the techniques border on torture.
Bush's Republican party has also been criticised for rushing through the laws to spotlight their tough stance against terrorism in time for parliamentary elections in November.
The new legislation will also set up special tribunals to question and try the hundreds of suspects being held at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba. A Supreme Court ruling in June said that the original military tribunals set up by the Bush administration to prosecute these detainees were unlawful.
Another piece of legislation passed in the United States yesterday means the president will be able to order surveillance on a suspect without going to court for approval. Both laws could reach the president's desk within days to be signed into law.
Democrats said the Republicans' rush to muscle the measure through Congress was aimed at giving them something to boast about during the forthcoming election campaign for control of the House of Representatives and Senate. "There is no question that the rush to pass this bill, which is the product of secret negotiations with the White House, is about serving a political agenda," said Democratic Senator Edward Kennedy.
But Republican Senator Lindsey Graham, who helped draft the legislation during negotiations with the White House, said the measure set up a system for treating detainees that the nation can be proud of. He said the goal "is to render justice to the terrorists, even though they will not render justice to us".
The interrogation laws establishes military tribunals that would give defendants access to classified evidence being used to convict them, and allow limited use of evidence obtained by coercion.
The new Republican-backed spying legislation outlines when and how a president can order warrantless surveillance. The president would be permitted to do so, for example, after an "armed attack", "terrorist attack" or when the president deems there is an "imminent threat".
Backers contend the legislation would bolster congressional oversight and better protect civil liberties. But critics claim it expands presidential powers and further threatens the rights of law- abiding Americans.
"Hidden in the fine print are provisions which grant the administration authority to maintain permanent records on innocent US citizens, giving it new authority to demand personal records without court review, and terminating any and all legal challenges to unlawful wiretapping," said John Conyers, top Democrat on the House Judiciary Committee.
Heather Wilson, a New Mexico Republican and chief sponsor of the measure, said the bill would protect the nation as well as individual liberties.
She said: "Intelligence is the first line of defence in the war on terror. Excesses are best prevented when the intelligence activities are operated within a framework that controls government power by using checks and balances among the three branches of government."
And here is a video of Hilary Clinton rejecting the bill
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qNXxednKNtg
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