by TASSC International
November 8, 2007, 2:42 pm
Courtesy of Nadler's office, here is the text of the American Anti-Torture
Act introduced today. The bill expands the McCain amendment (which TASSC did
not support) to cover non-DoD personnel. The text below contrasts the
Anti-Torture Act with the McCain amendment.
UNIFORM STANDARDS FOR THE INTERROGATION OF PERSONS UNDER THE DETENTION OF
THE DEPARTMENT OF DEFENSE UNITED STATES.(a) In General- No person in the custody or under the effective control of
the Department of Defense or under detention in a Department of
Defense facility United States shall be subject to any treatment
or technique of interrogation not authorized by and listed in the United States
Army Field Manual on Intelligence Interrogation. (b) Applicability- Subsection (a) shall not apply with respect to any person
in the custody or under the effective control of the Department of
Defense United States pursuant to a criminal law or immigration
law of the United States. (c) Construction- Nothing in this section shall be construed to affect the
rights under the United States Constitution of any person in the custody or
under the physical jurisdiction of the United States.
We at TASSC thank Rep. Nadler and Rep. Delahunt for their dedication to
ending torture. However, it is important to realize that this legislation, while a good thing, is a compromise and we have some concerns.
- There are already
multiple laws and treaties making torture illegal. Many survivors feel
troubled that legislation is introduced over and over again to make
torture illegal and wonder: what is
going on here?
- There is no enforcement
mechanism, civil or criminal, in the McCain amendment or the American
Anti-Torture Act.
- The law that can be used to
prosecute torturers, the War Crimes Act, is pre-empted by the Military
Commissions Act, a law designed to hide torture and let the president
shape the definition of what constitutes torture. This law does nothing to
change that.
- The Anti-Torture Act would
limit interrogation techniques to what is in the Army Field Manual, but we
do not know what is in the Army Field Manual. Thanks to the Bush
Administration, for the first time ever, there is a classified section in
the Army Field Manual's interrogation techniques.
More on this tomorrow.
Subjects:
Congress |
Legislation
You are not at the home page for this blog. (Blog Home)
|
