Bush threatens veto on Bill to stop CIA using torture
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 which the White House has permitted during the war on terror.
The Bill was passed late on 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 form of interrogation which involves strapping down a prisoner, covering his mouth with plastic or cloth and pouring water over his face.
The prisoner begins to inhale water, causing the sensation of drowning.
The CIA has admitted using the practice three times since the September 11 attacks, but the agency's director Michael Hayden said he banned it in 2006.
If the president vetoes the Bill, it would be another defeat for the Democrats in Congress. Since sweeping to power in November 2006, they have lost almost every significant battle, thanks chiefly to Mr Bush's intransigence and the Democrats' majority of two in the Senate, where they have failed to get legislation passed or to muster the two-thirds majority required to overturn a presidential veto. (© Daily Telegraph, London)
- Alex Spillius in Washington
