Obama To End Harsh Interrogations…Maybe

President-elect Obama’s aides have said that one of his first acts of office will be to end the use of certain “harsh” interrogation techniques, including waterboarding, employed by US intelligence agencies. The new policy under consideration will require the CIA interrogators to follow techniques outlined in the US Army Field Manual.

The article I’ve linked mentions that the CIA discontinued use of waterboarding in 2006, but still uses other methods of information extraction, including sleep deprivation and disorientation, stress positions and exposing prisoners to uncomfortable cold and heat for long periods. That doesn’t sound like torture; that sounds like college.

No word on whether the waterboarding ban will be extended to CIA field operative training, as the centuries-old technique is still in use and endorsed by bad guys around the world.

Also notably absent from discussion appears to be the issue of extraordinary rendition, the policy of transferring foreign terrorism suspects to third countries who are not bound to the rules of the US Army Field Manual.

In a beautiful illustration of his duality, Obama is considering a “classified” loophole to allow the CIA to use some interrogation methods not specifically authorized by the Pentagon. It will be interesting to see how often this loophole is exercised once the rubber meets the road.