First Principles

Yesterday the House passed the intelligence bill, and it included a provision that intelligence agencies must follow the Army Field Manual list of approved techniques for interrogations. This is a moral imperative, a reaffirmation that we are better as a nation than one that tortures individuals. 189 House Republicans voted against it.

There you have it.

In doing so, they disagreed with thirty retired admirals and generals, who urged the Congress to ban techniques like waterboarding from the CIA. (Waterboarding is already illegal several times over, but these military leaders explain why)

"We believe it is vital to the safety of our men and women in uniform that the United States not sanction the use of interrogation methods it would find unacceptable if inflicted by the enemy against captured Americans," the military officials write. "That principle, embedded in the Army Field Manual, has guided generations of American military personnel in combat. The current situation, in which the military operates under one set of interrogation rules that are public and the CIA operates under a separate, secret set of rules, is unwise and impractical."

We now know that the FBI was so furious upon hearing about the CIA using waterboarding that they threatened to arrest the agents responsible. There are still some people working in Washington with scruples.

The President will veto this bill. Obviously what should happen then is that the intelligence community wouldn't get its money. At some point you have to stand up for principle.