Baring torture

McClatchy Washington Bureau writes Bush bars CIA from using torture, but details remain cloudy.

And should we tell the enemy exactly what we will do, so that they can train their people to combat it?

President Bush signed an executive order Friday barring the CIA from using torture, acts of violence and degrading treatment in the interrogation and detention of terrorism suspects, but human rights experts questioned its scope.

What do they want us to do to people that will blow themselves up just kill others, even innocent civilians. And how should we treat people that will cut little girl's heads off just for going to school. We certainly don't want to be mean to them.

.... While Bush's order broadly outlines what the CIA can and cannot do to prisoners, and sets standards for what the agency must provide in terms of food and shelter for detainees, it says nothing about specific controversial interrogation techniques.

For very good reasons. We don't want the enemy to know what to expect.

Some experts in human-rights law said Bush's order contains "loopholes" that would allow the CIA to continue using aggressive interrogation techniques that others would consider torture.

Some idiots would say withholding dessert is torture.

"Let's not forget that the administration's theory of executive authority is very broad. They reserve the right to interpret laws in ways no one agrees with in emergency situations," said John Sifton of Human Rights Watch, a nonprofit activist group.

What would John Sutton want us to do if we caught someone that was going to blow up his building, or do something to his children?

The Bush administration received heavy criticism globally over CIA interrogators using "water-boarding," which simulates drowning,

But which does no permanent harm to the person being water boarded. We even subkect our own military to water boarding when training them to resist spilling military secrets if captured by the enemy.

and for allowing the CIA to operate secret prisons in Europe.