Also posted at The Next Hurrah
It's sad if Congress has to pass a law that says "hey, stick to the Constitution":
Congress barred the government on Tuesday from using any money in a newly passed emergency spending bill to subject anyone in American custody to torture or "cruel, inhuman or degrading treatment"
that is forbidden by the Constitution.
Proponents said the little-noticed provision, in an $82 billion bill devoted mostly to financing military operations in Iraq and Afghanistan, amounted to a significant strengthening of current policies and practices in the treatment of prisoners.
Drafted since the disclosure of abuses in Afghanistan and Iraq and at Guantánamo Bay in Cuba, it lays out a definition of illegal treatment that human rights groups say is broader than the Bush administration's current interpretation, and links the ban directly to military spending.
"This sends a clear message to our own government that certain conduct is simply unacceptable," Senator Richard J. Durbin, the Illinois Democrat who sponsored the provision, said in an interview. "And it reminds the world that what happened at the Abu Ghraib prison is not American policy and is not tolerated."
(Emphasis mine)
Gee, who would have thought that the Bush administration would - gasp - ignore the Constitution, and engage in "certain [illegal] conduct"? A certain someone must be very, very disappointed now.
More below the fold.
I'm certainly no legal expert, so I don't know if the following is a potential loophole or not:
Human rights advocates said
it was unclear whether the prohibition would restrict the ability of the C.I.A. or other government agencies to conduct so-called renditions - that is, to send terrorism suspects to be interrogated in other countries, even those that are known to engage in abusive treatment of prisoners.
Representative Edward J. Markey, a Massachusetts Democrat who sponsored a version of the provision in the House, said that in his view the measure effectively banned renditions if military financing provided by the bill was involved. Other officials said the issue was not so clear-cut.
Cheers to the Democrats for managing to include this provision in the bill.
We can only hope that Alberto "the Grand Inquisitor" Gonzales won't find a way to sidestep the provision.