Congressional leaders had hopes for new restrictions, paper says
Updated: 1:49 a.m. ET Jan. 13, 2005
NEW YORK - At the urging of the White House, congressional leaders scrapped a legislative measure last month that would have imposed new restrictions on the use of extreme interrogation measures by American intelligence officers, The New York Times reported Wednesday.
The defeat of the proposal affected one of the most obscure arenas of the war on terrorism, involving the CIA’s secret detention and interrogation of top terror leaders, according to the newspaper, citing congressional officials.
The Senate had approved the new restrictions, by a 96-2 vote, as part of the intelligence reform legislation, the article said. They would have explicitly extended to intelligence officers a prohibition against torture or inhumane treatment and would have required the CIA as well as the Pentagon to report to Congress about the methods they were using, said the report on the Times’ Web site.
In closed-door negotiations, four senior members from the House and Senate deleted the restrictions from the final bill after the White House expressed opposition, the Times reportedhttp://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/6820470/