Talk:Obama administration

Trouble with sentence

I can't understand the sentence

A second order banned torture by the U.S. Military, in effect terminating the Bush administration's authorization of extensive CIA interrogation techniques.

What does "extensive CIA interrogation techniques" mean? Some military personnel unquestionably tortured. Some CIA personnel and contractors unquestionably tortured. In both situations, the impetus fairly clearly came from senior Administration officials. If you are saying the CIA somehow has a specialty of developing and using methods of torture, I think that needs to be sourced. Most intelligence professionals, military or civilian, do not consider torture an effective human-source intelligence technique, certainly outside the "ticking bomb" situation if even there (the Spetsnaz technique in that situation was not what many think of obtaining information by torturing suspects). The most significant Western exception, on a doctrinal basis, was Roger Trinquier of France. It's not insignificant that Geoffrey Miller, then a major general who set up Guantanamo and Abu Ghraib, was not an intelligence specialist. A Senate investigation found widespread condemnation in the U.S. government, outside Administration pressure. [1]. Howard C. Berkowitz 03:10, 23 January 2009 (UTC)

'Extensive' was me trying to find an alternative phrase to "the Bush administration's CIA program of enhanced interrogation methods" that CNN refers to. Do as you see fit. John Stephenson 10:10, 23 January 2009 (UTC)