US Military Interrogation Policy (Things that make me hopeful...)

I have one complaint. In the spirit of the time, however, let's start with everything the new administration got right about this. I saw on CNN that there would be a presidential order regarding detainees and Guantanamo. I wondered how transparent the white house site really was, so I went to whitehouse.gov. Two clicks, and no searching later, I was looking at the new order. The have all of them, by date, listed on a page accessed one click from the front page. A sitemap adorns the bottom of every page - I've never seen it before, but it's a great idea.

Then I read the order. It was clear - the CIA cannot run detention centers. Guantanamo is to be closed expeditiously. Creation of a very high level task force to review what works, and what doesn't, what is legal and what is not. Prisoners must be treated humanely. My favorite part of the order, of course, is that the International Committee of the Red Cross gets notification of, and access to all prisoners. A Non-US group, internationally respected, and the one on which we rely to evaluate everyone else, is allowed to look at our prisoners as well. Now all we need is for congress to pass this as well. Hell, it should be in the constitution, but let's not push this too far for now.

The biggest single point, the one I was hoping to see, wasn't there. It is the single biggest deterrent to abusive interrogation, and should be used any time anyone is being held by a governmental agency - every interaction the prisoner has should be taped. This measure has proven effective in preventing abuse for civilian police detainment where it is required, and should be universal. I'm not saying that they need to be accessible in real time (though police interrogations largely should be.) I just think that somewhere, FOIA-able, there should be a set of tapes. They can be classified, but I want to know that at some point, we will be able to verify that whatever was done was done, if not perfectly, at least in a manner that the persons doing the interrogation would not mind having shared with the news media in the future.

But I have hope that this type of order will show the world that we have rejected the tactics that we are so reviled for internationally, and know that with the type of transparency the White House is currently displaying, we will all be better off.