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<font face="Arial, Helvetica" size=5><b>Bush Alters Rules for CIA
Interrogations</b></font><font size=3> <br>
<a href="http://www.guardian.co.uk/worldlatest/story/0,,-6794815,00.html" eudora="autourl">
http://www.guardian.co.uk/worldlatest/story/0,,-6794815,00.html<br><br>
</a></font><font size=2><b>Friday July 20, 2007 11:31
PM</b></font><font size=3> <br><br>
</font><font size=2><b>By KATHERINE SHRADER</b> <br><br>
<b>Associated Press Writer</b> <br><br>
WASHINGTON (AP) - President Bush breathed new life into the CIA's terror
interrogation program Friday in an executive order that would allow harsh
questioning of suspects, limited in public only by a vaguely worded ban
on cruel and inhuman treatment. <br><br>
The order bars some practices such as sexual abuse, part of an effort to
quell international criticism of some of the CIA's most sensitive and
debated work. It does not say what practices would be allowed. <br><br>
The executive order is the White House's first public effort to reach
into the CIA's five-year-old terror detention program, which has been in
limbo since a Supreme Court decision last year called its legal
foundation into question. <br><br>
Officials would not provide any details on specific interrogation
techniques that the CIA may use under the new order. In the past, its
methods are believed to have included sleep deprivation and
disorientation, exposing prisoners to uncomfortable cold or heat for long
periods, stress positions and - most controversially - the simulated
drowning technique known as waterboarding. <br><br>
The Bush administration has portrayed the interrogation operation as one
of one of its most successful tools in the war on terror, while opponents
have said the agency's techniques have left a black mark on the United
States' reputation around the world. <br><br>
Bush's order requires that CIA detainees ``receive the basic necessities
of life, including adequate food and water, shelter from the elements,
necessary clothing, protection from extremes of heat and cold, and
essential medical care.'' <br><br>
A senior intelligence official would not comment directly when asked if
waterboarding would be allowed under the new order and under related -
but classified - legal documents drafted by the Justice Department.
<br><br>
However, the official said, ``It would be wrong to assume the program of
the past transfers to the future.'' <br><br>
A second senior administration official acknowledged sleep is not among
the basic necessities outlined in the order. <br><br>
Both officials spoke on condition of anonymity to discuss the order more
freely. <br><br>
Skeptical human rights groups did not embrace Bush's effort. <br><br>
Tom Malinowski, Washington director for Human Rights Watch, said the
broad outlines in the public order don't matter. The key is in the
still-classified guidance distributed to CIA officers. <br><br>
As a result, the executive order requires the public to trust the
president to provide adequate protection to detainees. ``Given the
experience of the last few years, they have to be naive if they think
that is going to reassure too many people,'' he said. <br><br>
The order specifically refers to captured al-Qaida suspects who may have
information on attack plans or the whereabouts of the group's senior
leaders. White House press secretary Tony Snow said the CIA's program has
saved lives and must continue on a sound legal footing. <br><br>
``The president has insisted on clear legal standards so that CIA
officers involved in this essential work are not placed in jeopardy for
doing their job - and keeping America safe from attacks,'' he said.
<br><br>
The five-page order reiterated many protections already granted under
U.S. and international law. It said that any conditions of confinement
and interrogation cannot include: <br><br>
- Torture or other acts of violence serious enough to be considered
comparable to murder, torture, mutilation or cruel or inhuman treatment.
<br><br>
- Willful or outrageous acts of personal abuse done to humiliate or
degrade someone in a way so serious that any reasonable person would
``deem the acts to be beyond the bounds of human decency.'' That includes
sexually indecent acts. <br><br>
- Acts intended to denigrate the religion of an individual. <br><br>
The order does not permit detainees to contact family members or have
access to the International Committee of the Red Cross. <br><br>
In a decision last year aimed at the military's tribunal system, the
Supreme Court required the U.S. government to apply Geneva Convention
protections to the conflict with al-Qaida, shaking the legal footing of
the CIA's program. <br><br>
Last fall, Congress instructed the White House to draft an executive
order as part of the Military Commissions Act, which outlined the rules
for trying terrorism suspects. The bill barred torture, rape and other
war crimes that clearly would have violated the Geneva Conventions, but
allowed Bush to determine - through executive order - whether less harsh
interrogation methods can be used. <br><br>
The administration and the CIA have maintained that the agency's program
has been lawful all along. <br><br>
In a message to CIA employees on Friday, Director Michael Hayden tried to
stress the importance and narrow scope of the program. He noted that
fewer than half of the less than 100 detainees have experienced the
agency's ``enhanced interrogation measures.'' <br><br>
``Simply put, the information developed by our program has been
irreplaceable,'' he said. ``If the CIA, with all its expertise in
counterterrorism, had not stepped forward to hold and interrogate people
like (senior al-Qaida operatives) Abu Zubaydah and Khalid Sheikh
Mohammed, the American people would be right to ask why.'' <br><br>
For decades, the United States had two paths for questioning suspects:
the U.S. justice system and the military's Army Field Manual. <br><br>
However, after the 9/11 attacks, the Bush administration decided more
needed to be done. With Zubaydah's capture in 2002, the CIA program was
quietly created. <br><br>
Since then, 97 terror suspects are believed to have been held by the
agency at locations around the world, often referred to as ``black
sites.'' <br><br>
The program sparked international controversy as details slowly emerged,
with human rights groups saying the agency's work was a violation of
international law, including the Third Geneva Convention's Common Article
3 protections, which set a baseline standard for the treatment of
prisoners of war. <br><br>
In September, Bush announced the U.S. had transferred the last 14
high-value CIA detainees to the military's detention facility at
Guantanamo Bay, Cuba, where they would stand trial. The CIA has held one
detainee since then - an Iraqi who the U.S. considered one of al-Qaida's
most senior operatives. He was also eventually transferred to Guantanamo.
<br><br>
--- <br><br>
Associated Press writers Deb Riechmann and Lara Jakes Jordan contributed
to this report. <br>
**************************************************************************************************************<br>
</font><font size=3>July 20, 2007<br><br>
</font><h1><b>C.I.A. Allowed to Resume Interrogations
</b></h1><font size=3>
<a href="http://www.nytimes.com/2007/07/20/washington/20cnd-intel.html?hp" eudora="autourl">
http://www.nytimes.com/2007/07/20/washington/20cnd-intel.html?hp<br><br>
</a>By
<a href="http://topics.nytimes.com/top/reference/timestopics/people/m/mark_mazzetti/index.html?inline=nyt-per">
MARK MAZZETTI</a><br><br>
WASHINGTON, July 20 After months of behind the scenes wrangling, the
White House said Friday that it had given the
<a href="http://topics.nytimes.com/top/reference/timestopics/organizations/c/central_intelligence_agency/index.html?inline=nyt-org">
Central Intelligence Agency</a> approval to resume its use of some harsh
interrogation methods in questioning terrorism suspects in secret prisons
overseas. <br><br>
With the new authorization, administration officials said the C.I.A.
could now proceed with an interrogation program that has been in limbo
since the
<a href="http://topics.nytimes.com/top/reference/timestopics/organizations/s/supreme_court/index.html?inline=nyt-org">
Supreme Court</a> ruled last year that all prisoners in American
captivity be treated in accordance with Geneva Convention prohibitions
against humiliating and degrading treatment of detainees.<br><br>
An executive order signed by President Bush allows the C.I.A. to use some
interrogation methods banned for military interrogators but that the
Justice Department has determined do not violate the Geneva
strictures.<br><br>
In a message to agency employees on Friday, General
<a href="http://topics.nytimes.com/top/reference/timestopics/people/h/michael_v_hayden/index.html?inline=nyt-per">
Michael V. Hayden</a>, the C.I.A. director, said the executive order
allows agency employees to “focus on our vital work, confident that our
mission and authorities are clearly defined.” General Hayden said that
information obtained through the interrogation program had been
“irreplaceable,” though he said extraordinary techniques had been used on
fewer than half of about 100 prisoners who had spent time in C.I.A.
custody.<br><br>
The White House order brought condemnation from human rights groups, who
argued that harsh interrogation practices are neither permitted under
international law nor are an effective tool for obtaining information
from detainees. <br><br>
The specific interrogation methods now approved for the C.I.A. remain
classified, but several officials said that the C.I.A. has abandoned some
of the most controversial past techniques, including “waterboarding,”
which induces a feeling of drowning, that human rights organizations and
some members of Congress have said are equal to torture. <br><br>
The long-delayed order comes nearly 10 months after President Bush signed
legislation that included the first formal Congressional authorization of
the C.I.A’s secret detention and interrogation program, which the White
House has called an essential tool for thwarting future terror attacks.
<br><br>
It was a requirement of the bill that the C.I.A. draw up a list of
interrogation methods and that the methods be approved by the Justice
Department, which recently completed a legal opinion that all of the
methods meet Geneva Convention standards. <br><br>
The delay was the result of often intense disagreements within the Bush
administration about just how far to push the boundaries for
interrogations and exactly which methods are legal. Earlier this year,
State Department officials rejected a draft of the executive order
because they believed that the language was too permissive and could open
the Bush administration to challenges from American allies that the White
House was legalizing methods that approach torture. <br><br>
<br><br>
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