On the recordNovember 30, 2011
obtaining intelligence from high-value terrorist detainees is an urgent national security priority that is essential to protecting Americans. Unfortunately, under current law, terrorists need look no further than the Internet to find out everything they need to know about our interrogation practices and how they can circumvent them. Under President Obama's 2009 Executive Order 13491, all U.S. Government interrogators are limited to the interrogation techniques that are available online and described in the Army Field Manual. As a result, all members of the intelligence community, including the non-Department of Defense intelligence professionals who support the high-value detainees interrogation group, must conform to the procedures in the Army Field Manual, which was written by the U.S. Army for the U.S. Army; that is, there is little flexibility permitted under these rules, and they are easy for those who want to harm us to circumvent them and to know exactly what techniques we will use to gather information to protect our country if they are detained as an enemy combatant.
