By MARK SHERMAN, Associated Press Writer 4 minutes ago
SAN FRANCISCO - President Bush's recent order on CIA interrogations of terror suspects should be overturned because it still allows harsh treatment in violation of international treaties, two American Bar Association committees say.
The CIA should follow the same rigorous standards adopted by the military that are intended, in part, to ensure that captured U.S. soldiers are extended the same protections, according to a resolution the ABA is expected to adopt next week at its annual meeting here.
"The CIA should not be exempted from rules that guide even our armed forces," ABA president Karen Mathis said Friday.
The executive order that Bush issued July 20 bans torture, cruel and inhumane treatment, sexual abuse, acts intended to denigrate a religion or other degradation "beyond the bounds of human decency." It pledges that detainees will receive adequate food, water and medical care and be protected from extreme heat and cold.
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CIA interrogations had been in limbo since a Supreme Court decision last year called their legal foundation into question.
The order contains ample exceptions to allow for especially tough treatment in some circumstances, the ABA said.
The lawyers' group echoes complaints raised by former Marine Commandant P.X. Kelley and University of Virginia professor Robert Turner. "As long as the intent of the abuse is to gather intelligence or to prevent future attacks, and the abuse is not 'done for the purpose of humiliating or degrading the individual' — even if that is an inevitable consequence — the president has given the CIA carte blanche to engage in 'willful and outrageous acts of personal abuse,'" they wrote in an essay published in the Washington Post.
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