The McCain amendment on torture passed the Senate 90-9.(National Defense Authorization Act for Fiscal Years 1988-1993)(Brief article)

The McCain amendment on torture passed the Senate 90-9. That sort of margin usually means legislation is meaningless or noxious. The McCain amendment might be a little of both. It codifies the Army Field Manual with regard to the treatment of prisoners and reaffirms the prohibition on cruel and inhuman treatment in the Convention Against Torture. Since the U.S. already uses the Army Field Manual for its prisoner policy and abides by the anti-torture convention, the McCain amendment is, strictly speaking, a redundancy. The rub is how the vague terms in the Army manual and the convention are defined. If the McCain amendment were more than grandstanding, it would say explicitly whether all stress techniques are prohibited, and if not, in what broad circumstances they are acceptable. Our view is that it is right and in our interest that enemy prisoners be ...