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Washington: US President George Bush has drawn criticism from Democrats and human rights activists for vetoing a bill passed by Senate and Congress that would have banned the CIA from using coercive interrogation methods, such as “water boarding”.
Bush said the techniques have helped to foil terrorist plots and have been used to gain vital information from suspected terrorists.
He rejected the bill saying it “took away one of the most valuable tools in the war on terror”.
But critics have said some of the methods amount to torture and damage America’s reputation.
"This president had the chance to end the torture debate
for good, yet he chose instead to leave the door open to
use torture in the future," said Democratic Sen. Dianne
Feinstein of California, a member of the Senate Intelligence Committee.
The bill would have limited the CIA to 19 interrogation techniques that are used by the military and spelled out in the US Army Field Manual.
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