Yesterday, the Obama administration’s Special Task Force on Interrogations and Transfer Policies announced that future interrogations would be conducted in accordance with the Army Field Manual, and only the Army Field Manual. From the Task Force (emphasis added):
Question: Did the task force determine that the techniques specified in the Army Field Manual were sufficient for the likes of Khalid Sheikh Mohammed? Here is the Inspector General’s Report, also released yesterday, on KSM’s interrogations:
The task force says that the Intelligence Community was “unanimous” in the value of the techniques in the Army Field Manual. But, how can that be? The CIA determined previously that it did not think such techniques were sufficient, otherwise it would not have requested to use techniques such as those on the list of enhanced interrogation techniques (EITs). Does the CIA now think that it could have gotten all of the valuable intel out of KSM, as documented in the OIG’s report and the two other reports released yesterday, using the Army Field Manual? That’s hard to believe.
