Senate panel bans private contractors in CIA interrogations

WASHINGTON - The Senate Intelligence Committee moved on Thursday to ban the CIA from using private contractors to interrogate detainees.

The restriction is part of a bill that authorizes intelligence spending for 2009, which the panel approved on a 10-5 vote, sending it to the full Senate for further action.

The bill would also require the intelligence agencies to give the International Committee of the Red Cross access to all their prisoners. That would prevent the United States from holding "ghost detainees" — anonymous prisoners detained incommunicado and without records.

This is the first time the committee has mandated Red Cross access to all prisoners since ghost detainees were documented in 2004.

more:http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20080501/ap_on_go_co/cia_interrogations;_ylt=AiaFJLahCq4NhrjvbvF2igc8KbIF