“Known as the McCain Amendment, after its chief sponsor, Arizona Republican Senator John McCain, the legislation [signed into law on December 30, 2005] prohibits cruel, inhuman, and degrading treatment by both the military and intelligence agencies. It limits interrogation methods to those specified in the military field manual (a new edition is under development to replace the 1987 version). …McCain’s amendment did not explicitly prohibit necessity or self-defense as common law defenses. Thus, under the law, these defenses will continue to exist, as they did in the earlier 1994 antitorture law.”
– John Yoo, War By Other Means, Page 200