First off, the latest Executive order by Bush says something like this:
Via The Washington Post:
Bush administration officials unveiled a bold new assertion of executive authority yesterday in the dispute over the firing of nine U.S. attorneys, saying that the Justice Department will never be allowed to pursue contempt charges initiated by Congress against White House officials once the president has invoked executive privilege.
So, then you read about the "new" torture proclamation by the Bushies and wonder what happens if they don't do it right. And what about this part of the conference call - no apologies here:
On a White House-organized conference call, organized on the condition that the briefer not be named, one senior Bush aide refused to discuss whether any detention or interrogation practices, or how many detainees, were affected.
He refused to discuss specifically the order's impact on "waterboarding," in which a prisoner is tied down and water is poured over the face or over a cloth stretched over the face, producing the sensation of drowning.
He sidestepped a question about why sleep was not included in a section explicitly granting detainees "the basic necessities of life, including adequate food and water, shelter from the elements, necessary clothing, protection from extremes of heat and cold, and essential medical care." "And as to sleep, that's not something that is traditionally numerated in the Geneva Convention provisions," the official said.
