MCCAIN DOUBLE TALKS ON TORTURE

SF GATE - When President Bush vetoed legislation Saturday that would have prohibited the CIA from using physical force in interrogations, he had the support of Sen. John McCain - the most outspoken of any presidential candidate in his opposition to torture.The Arizona Republican has described his own torture by the North Vietnamese, who captured him in 1967 after his plane was shot down on a bombing run. He spoke out against the near-drowning technique called waterboarding when it was being defended by other Republican candidates and by Vice President Dick Cheney. And McCain won the signature of a reluctant Bush on 2005 legislation that prohibited military interrogators from using waterboarding and other 'cruel, inhumane or degrading' methods.

On Saturday, however, McCain backed Bush's veto of a bill that would have barred the CIA from employing those same techniques - or any others not authorized by the Army Field Manual - when questioning prisoners. . . Campaign aides said Saturday that McCain believes waterboarding violates both U.S. and international law and is forbidden to all federal agencies. Randy Scheunemann, foreign policy director for McCain's campaign, denied any inconsistency between the senator's record and his position on the bill. . .

He said McCain opposed the bill for the same reason he exempted the CIA from his 2005 legislation: his belief that the agency should not be limited to methods spelled out in a public Army manual. McCain feels 'it's a good thing that (the CIA can use) enhanced interrogation techniques that are not revealed in your newspaper,' Scheunemann said. He declined to identify methods that McCain believes should remain available to the CIA while being off-limits to military interrogators.