What interrogation techniques are allowed under the new Military Commissions Act?
The law allows hearsay and coerced evidence (that is, evidence produced from “high value” terrorist suspects by what the president calls “alternative interrogation procedures”) if the judge rules the evidence is “reliable” and serves the “interests of justice.” “Coercion” is defined to exempt anything done before the 2005 Detainee Treatment Act and anything else the president chooses to exempt. If, for example, he declares that electric shocks are not “cruel and inhumane,” that interrogation method is permissible and could be kept secret. The prosecution may also use evidence obtained outside the U.S. without a search warrant. The Detainee Treatment Act prohibited inhumane treatment of prisoners but when the president signed the bill into law, he declared in a “signing statement” that his first responsibility was “protecting the American people from further terrorist attacks” and that nothing should stand in the way of his meeting that responsibility. This meant that he felt free to ig
