WASHINGTON – The Senate has passed a measure aimed at ensuring that the United States never tortures detainees again.
The Senate voted 78 to 21 on Tuesday to ban torture.
The amendment to the defense policy bill was introduced by Republican Sen. John McCain of Arizona and Democratic Sen. Dianne Feinstein of California.
The amendment bolsters current law and makes the U.S. Army Field Manual on Interrogations the standard for all interrogations conducted by the U.S. government. It also gives the International Committee of the Red Cross access to every detainee held by the U.S.
The vote comes just months after the Senate intelligence committee released findings of a classified investigation that said the CIA’s brutal interrogations of al-Qaida detainees after Sept. 11 were harsher than previously thought.
