Peter Roskam Casts Another Vote in Favor of Torture

On December 13th, 2007, Peter Roskam cast another vote in support of the continued use of torture by CIA interrogators.

The vote was on the conference report for HR 2082, the intelligence funding bill, and Roskam voted against it. The bill, if signed into law, would explicitly prohibit the use of such inhumane interrogation techniques as waterboardiing, electrocution, sensory deprivation, induced hypothermia, and deprivation of food, water and medical care. The bill also would require that all detainees be accorded the protections of the Geneva Conventions, ending the practice by the Bush administration of using the “enemy combant” designation invented by the Bush administration as a means of escaping its obligation to meet minimum standards in the treatment of prisoners of its so-called “War on Terrorism”.

It is unclear whether Roskam’s vote reflects a pro-torture conviction on his part or is just another “rubber stamp” of approval on administration policy. It is also possible that Roskam is simply too distracted by his principal agenda of promoting corporate interests to fully attend to the question of torture.

As of this writing, Roskam’s House web site is silent on the issue of torture.

President Bush has threatened to veto the bill because it would be “inconsistent with the effective conduct of intelligence activities”, which can be translated, essentially, as he wants to be able to continue to practice torture.

I believe that Roskam is clearly out of touch with the will of the majority of his constituents on this issue. Hopefully they will express their outrage by calling his office in Washington at (202) 225-4561 or in Bloomingdale at (630) 893-9670.