House Passes Bill That Would Forbid CIA From Waterboarding

Team Infidel

Forum Spin Doctor
USA Today
December 14, 2007
Pg. 11
By Richard Willing, USA Today
WASHINGTON — The House of Representatives narrowly approved an intelligence bill Thursday that would forbid the CIA from using waterboarding and other severe interrogation techniques on detainees.
The bill also would authorize spending about $80 million on "earmarked" special projects in 2008, including a drug intelligence center the nation's intelligence director has called unnecessary.
The measure, which must be approved by the Senate to take effect, passed by a 222-199 vote.
The overall amount of intelligence spending is classified. The intelligence community's budget last year was about $43.5 billion, according to figures made public in October by Director of National Intelligence Mike McConnell. Rep. Silvestre Reyes, D-Texas, the House intelligence committee chairman, said the 2008 budget is larger but offered no details.
Reyes called the measure a "good bill" that would reduce funds for some "non-performing" spying in Iraq while "robustly funding" intelligence activity against al-Qaeda and terrorism in Afghanistan.
Rep. Pete Hoekstra of Michigan, the committee's top Republican, said the bill favors "pork barrel spending" over "human intelligence capabilities" and "national security."
Hoekstra pointed to a $23 million provision that would keep alive the National Drug Intelligence Center (NDIC), a Johnstown, Pa., facility that analyzes information on narcotics trafficking collected by other agencies.
McConnell sought to close the center, which is located in the district of Rep. John Murtha, D-Pa., who is chairman of the House subcommittee that writes the defense budget.
In June, USA TODAY reported that Murtha wrote the House Intelligence Committee to say the little-known drug center was about to take over responsibility for the "vitally important" terrorist "no-fly list." According to the Justice Department, the NDIC's parent agency, there were no such plans.
Intelligence officials led Murtha to believe the no-fly list might be transferred to the center, said Matthew Mazonkey, Murtha's spokesman. Though those plans have stalled, Mazonkey said, Murtha believes the center's "excellent work" monitoring drug trafficking has contributed to recent reported declines in teen drug use.
An earmark included in an intelligence bill the House passed in May was not included in Thursday's measure. That was a $500,000 proposal to give anti-terrorist training to Phoenix police.
In June, USA TODAY reported that the amount of the earmark was six times the cost of the program and that Phoenix police had paid for the training themselves and no longer sought an earmark.
The bill passed Thursday would restrict CIA officers to interrogation techniques OK'd for the military in 2006. Those exclude the simulated drowning technique called waterboarding, as well as placing hoods or sacks over detainees' heads or threatening them with dogs.
This week, President Bush threatened to veto any bill that included such restrictions, saying they endanger American lives by hindering interrogators.
Former CIA officer John Kiriakou told ABC News this week that al-Qaeda leader Abu Zubaydah, uncooperative after his capture in Pakistan, began to provide valuable information after about 35 seconds of simulated drowning in 2002.
Some of bill's $80 million in pet projects
The intelligence bill passed by the House on Thursday includes 26 special projects, or "earmarks," worth about $80 million requested by individual members of Congress. They include:
•$10 million for a "tactical gateway" that "fuses multiple intelligence feeds" for use by analysts. Requested by Rep. Dutch Ruppersberger, D-Md.
•$4 million for an Alabama company to develop technology for "rapid identification of foreign missile events." Requested by Reps. Bud Cramer, D-Ala., and Terry Everett, R-Ala.
•$6.2 million in upgrades for the Air Force's RC-135 reconnaissance plane. Requested by Rep. Ralph Hall, R-Texas.
•$2 million to the Geospatial Data Project to produce maps of Chinese cities. Requested by Everett.
by Richard Willing
 
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