House fails to override Bush's veto of ban on waterboarding as torture

By Johanna Neuman
Los Angeles Times
Article Launched: 03/12/2008 01:32:11 AM PDT

WASHINGTON - House Democrats failed Tuesday to override President Bush's veto of a ban on waterboarding and other harsh interrogation techniques and castigated the administration for subjecting prisoners to torture in the fight against terrorism.

"We are on stronger ground ethically and morally . . . when we do not torture," said House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, D-San Francisco, in closing the debate. "Our ability to lead the world depends not only on our military might but on our moral authority."

With a two-thirds vote required to overturn the veto, the vote fell short, 225-188.

The bill Bush vetoed authorized money for intelligence agencies and included a provision to limit the CIA and other U.S. intelligence agencies to interrogation tactics allowed by the Army manual used by military interrogators. The manual outlaws eight techniques, including waterboarding, a method that simulates drowning and is widely considered torture.

The Democrats knew they would not win the vote. Instead, the debate hit upon hot-button issues likely to stoke the presidential election this year.

"Torture is no proper tool in the arsenal of democracy," said Rep. Lloyd Doggett, D-Texas. "If we abandon our American values, we lose who we are as Americans. . . . And if the administration and all of its apologists . . . continue to force America to abandon our values, we will lose the war."

Torture, he said, "is not only un-American, it is ineffective."

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How did Judy Biggert and Peter Roskam vote?  I have a guess (and I bet you do, too), but I'll investigate and let you know for sure.

Update: Ah yes, here it is.  Representatives Biggert and Roskam voted to sustain the veto (and support torture).  Well done, you two!