War and Mass Media

Bush Vetoes Bill to Ban Waterboarding

“The best source of information about terrorist attacks is the terrorists themselves.”

The ongoing debate of whether or not the use of torture is an imperative method of fighting the war on terrorism continues. This struggle to prohibit ‘inhumane’ methods of torture and advocating harsh methods still remains at the head of controversy.

President Bush authorized a veto on a bill that would have outlawed waterboarding and other harsh methods of torture. bush emphasized that one of the most valuable tools in the war on terror is the use of tough interrogation methods.

Is this no longer a fight between party lines of the Democrats and Republicans? Sen. John McCain of Arizona, the presumptive GOP presidential candidate and a former prisoner of war in Vietnam, voted against the bill. McCain has led past efforts to ban cruel treatment of prisoners. But he said at the time of the vote that, although he believes waterboarding was illegal under U.S. law, he did not want to hinder U.S. intelligence officers with restrictions designed for the military (Waterboarding, 12).

http://www.latimes.com/news/nationworld/nation/la-na-veto9mar09,0,4477504.story

Filed under: War in Iraq