Bush threatens to veto anti-torture Bill

Washington: US President George W. Bush has threatened to veto a Bill that bans the CIA from using waterboarding, mock executions and other harsh interrogation methods that the White House has permitted during the war on terror.

The Bill was passed late Thursday by the Democrat-controlled House of Representatives and now makes its way to the Senate, where it is likely to be passed.

It tackles one of major controversies of the Bush administration: the use on terror suspects of waterboarding, a harsh form of interrogation that involves strapping down a prisoner, covering his mouth with plastic or cloth and pouring water over his face. The prisoner quickly begins to inhale water, causing the sensation of drowning.

The CIA has admitted using the practice three times since the September 11 attacks on America, but the agency's director Michael Hayden said he banned it in 2006.

A former CIA officer involved in the questioning of Abu Zubaydah, a senior Al Qaida operative, said this week that the use of waterboarding on the prisoner had proved highly effective in gleaning information, though the officer did consider it a form of torture.

Opposition

The Bush administration remains opposed to restrictions on harsh interrogation methods, despite the fact they have been disavowed by the military, which in 2006 outlawed not only waterboarding, but sexually humiliating prisoners, placing hoods over their heads, threatening them with dogs, conducting mock executions or depriving them of food and water. The restrictions were imposed after the abuse scandal at Abu Ghraib prison in Iraq in 2004.

If the president vetoes the Bill, it would be another defeat for the Democrats in Congress. They swept to power in November 2006 confident that they would be able to set the agenda for the remainder of the Bush years.

War funds authorised

The Democratic-led Congress has authorised more Iraq war spending, sending President George W. Bush a defence Bill requiring no change in strategy after failing again to impose a timetable for US troop withdrawals.

The defence policy Bill, approved 90-3 by the US Senate, also expanded the size of the US Army and set conditions on the Bush administration's plan to build a missile defence system in Europe.

The measure already had passed the House of Representatives and now goes to Bush, who is expected to sign it into law.

It authorises Pentagon programmes expected to cost $506.9 billion (Dh1,861.6 billion) during fiscal 2008, which began in October. The Bill authorised another $189.4 billion for the Iraq and Afghan wars, for which Congress has already approved some $600 billion.

- Reuters