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Executive Order: Interpretation of the Geneva Conventions Common Article 3 as Applied to a Program of Detention and Interrogation Operated by the CIA

Executive Order: Interpretation of the Geneva Conventions Common Article 3 as Applied to a Program of Detention and Interrogation Operated by the Central Intelligence Agency, July 20, 2007.

  • President Bush Signs Executive Order: “This afternoon, the President signed an Executive Order that interprets for the United States “Common Article 3” of the Geneva Conventions, as authorized in the Military Commissions Act. The Order interprets the meaning and application of Common Article 3 with respect to certain detentions and interrogations. Specifically, the interpretation of Common Article 3 set forth in this Order is applied to the Central Intelligence Agency’s detention and interrogation program whose purpose is to question captured Al Qaeda terrorists who have information on attack plans or the whereabouts of the group’s senior leaders.
    The Order requires that any CIA interrogation program that might go forward comply with all relevant federal statutes, including the prohibition on “cruel, inhuman, or degrading treatment or punishment” in the Detainee Treatment Act of 2005, the federal prohibition on torture, and the War Crimes Act, all of which protect against violations of Common Article 3. The Order imposes other explicit limitations on interrogation techniques and conditions of confinement in a CIA program. It bars, “acts of violence serious enough to be considered comparable to murder, torture, mutilation, and cruel and inhuman treatment.” It also prohibits “willful and outrageous acts of personal abuse done for the purpose of humiliating or degrading the individual in a manner so serious that any reasonable person, considering the circumstances, would deem the acts beyond the bounds of human decency.” And the Order forbids acts intended to denigrate detainees’ religion, religious practices, or religious objects.”
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