Measure banning private sector interrogators fails in Senate [View All]

Overriding Democrats' contention that private contractors should not be engaged in interrogating military detainees, the Senate voted 54-43 Wednesday against a bid by Sen. Christopher Dodd, D-Conn., to ban the use of non-military interrogators.

Dodd's amendment to the fiscal 2005 defense authorization bill sprang from reports that some contract interrogators had been involved in abuses of prisoners at the Abu Ghraib prison in Iraq. Under Dodd's proposal, civilian contractors would no longer be used as interrogators and civilian interrogators at the Guantanamo facility in Cuba would have to leave after a year.

"We should not have people doing this intelligence activity who are outsourced. There is no accountability, no chain of command, and they have virtual immunity to the provisions of the Uniform Code of Military Justice," Dodd said.

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Three Democrats -- Sens. Zell Miller of Georgia, Bill Nelson of Florida and John (Jay) Rockefeller of West Virginia -- joined Republicans to table Dodd's proposal.

http://www.govexec.com/dailyfed/0604/061604cdpm4.htm