Senator: Ban torture but give CIA interrogation leeway

By PAMELA HESS Associated Press Writer

WASHINGTON (AP) - Seeking to referee a stalemate over how the CIA can interrogate prisoners, a top Senate Republican says Congress should ban waterboarding and seven other abusive methods of interrogation but allow the spy agency some leeway in how it questions detainees.

Missouri Sen. Kit Bond, the senior Republican on the Senate Intelligence Committee, outlined his proposal in nonbinding language accompanying a bill that sets out the intelligence community's policies, programs and spending for fiscal year 2009. An unclassified summary was released Thursday.

Like the 2008 version of the authorization bill - which President Bush vetoed - the bill restricts the CIA to using only the 19 interrogation techniques approved by the military in the Army Field Manual. Bond said he would seek to attach his proposed compromise to this or other legislation.

Rather than prescribe what the intelligence agency is allowed to do in an interrogation, Bond wants to write into law only what the CIA cannot do: force detainees to be naked, perform sexual acts, or pose in a sexual manner; have hoods or sacks placed over their heads or duct tape over their eyes; be beaten, shocked, or burned; threatened with military dogs; exposed to extreme heat or cold; subjected to mock executions; deprived of food, water, or medical care; or waterboarded.

Waterboarding 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. CIA Director Michael Hayden acknowledged this spring that three CIA prisoners were waterboarded in 2002 and 2003. He prohibited the practice by the CIA in 2006, but it could still be used if authorized by the president and the attorney general.

Hayden has opposed the field manual limitation, saying the military list does not include all interrogation techniques that are consistent with U.S. law and the Geneva Conventions, such as sleep deprivation.