House backs anti-torture amendment [View All]

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The House of Representatives on Wednesday gave overwhelming support to a measure requiring the humane treatment of prisoners in U.S. custody, piling pressure on President George W. Bush to agree to put into law a ban on the torture of detainees. The House voted 308-122 to instruct negotiators working on a final version of a defense spending bill to accept an amendment pushed by Arizona Republican Sen. John McCain that would bar the cruel, inhuman or degrading treatment of military prisoners. Although the House motion was not binding, it should boost the clout of McCain, who was locked in talks with the White House on a final version of his amendment.

"Torture scars not only its subject, it scars those who perpetrate it and those who are witnesses to it," said Rep. John Murtha, a Pennsylvania Democrat, who pushed for the House vote. Two hundred Democrats and 107 Republicans voted for Murtha's motion. In a brief debate on the measure, Republican Rep. Bill Young of Florida, who is guiding the defense spending bill, said it was "important that we make it very clear that we are opposed to the use of torture, period."

But Young said he was "offended" by provisions in the amendment that he said would give terrorists constitutional protections enjoyed by U.S. citizens. The administration has been hammered by scandal over the sexual and physical abuse of detainees by U.S. soldiers at Abu Ghraib prison in Iraq, harsh interrogations at U.S. facilities at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba, and in Afghanistan, and reports that the CIA has run secret prisons abroad to hold terrorism suspects.

While saying the United States does not engage in torture, the White House opposed McCain's amendment, contending that putting anti-torture rules into law would hamper interrogators' ability to obtain information from prisoners by making them less fearful. The administration has backed off trying to kill the amendment or getting a broad exemption for the CIA, but it is seeking some protections from prosecution for interrogators accused of violating it. McCain contends that would undermine his amendment. "We will not grant immunity. There will be no immunity for anyone," he said. His amendment swept the Senate 90-9.

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