Durbin Anti-Torture Amendment Awaiting Bush Signature
In the wake of the Abu Ghraib scandal, Senator Dick Durbin proposed an amendment to the Defense Authorization bill that reaffirms America's adherence to the Geneva Convention. Specifically, the amendment states that America will not engage in torture or otherwise conduct cruel, inhuman, or degrading treatment. It requires the Secretary of Defense to draft guidelines, to be submitted to Congress, to ensure that no such measures are taken.
Despite opposition in the House, the Durbin Amendment remained in the bill post-conference. The bill was passed by both houses of Congress on Saturday and now awaits the President's signature.
An analogous amendment was passed by the Senate as part of its Intelligence Reform bill, which must still be reconciled with the version of the bill passed by the House. (Thanks to TalkLeft for extensive coverage of this story.)
Written By:Kasper On October 11, 2004 7:23 PM Written By:BitterModerate On October 12, 2004 1:06 AM
It is still shocking that we need something like this. Thanks Judge "Torture Memo" Bybee.
Given the current administrations stance on federal treaties and allowing foreign bodies and rules, like that darn geneva convention, it will be interesting to see if the election pushes Bush to sign....
As the second link says, TalkLeft's gonna post the names of the Conferees on that intelligence bill when they're announced, to encourage a lobbying campaign to keep it in that bill as well.