Interrogation methods open to question

[maddezmom]

WASHINGTON - One prominent feature is missing in debate over President Bush's deal with Senate leaders on the treatment of alleged terrorists in custody: an open and explicit accounting of interrogation techniques that may be used.

The deal, which the House and Senate are expected to vote on before Congress adjourns this week, prohibits consequences more than actions, and leaves much open to interpretation. For example, interrogators would not only be barred from causing captives "prolonged" mental suffering, as they are now, but would be prevented from inflicting "serious and nontransitory" mental harm, whether the technique is prolonged or not.

Exactly what techniques may and may not be used under such strictures is unclear even to those who negotiated the agreement. It gives Bush leeway to interpret the language and to produce regulations that senators say they can challenge if the steps go too far. But it's unlikely Bush will lay out techniques in enough detail for everyone to be sure what's allowed and what's beyond the pale.

Measures used against detainees in secret CIA prisons have not been fully discussed in an open forum for fear of hampering interrogators or helping terrorists train people to deal with such steps. But a partial picture has emerged in public reports and conversations with intelligence officials who have discussed interrogation on condition they not be identified.

Among the tens of thousands of people held by U.S. authorities during the war on terrorism, 96 are thought to have been in secret CIA custody.


more:http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20060926/ap_on_go_ca_st_pe/terrorism_techniques;_