Draft Trump order on terrorist detainees drops ‘black site’ proposal: report

Language that would have paved the way for the CIA to reopen “black site” prisons has been dropped from the draft of an order on the handling of terrorism detainees, according to a copy published Wednesday by The New York Times.

This latest public iteration of the document, circulated within the Trump White House for internal comment, keeps language directing the Pentagon to bring captured terrorists to Guantanamo Bay.

A previous draft of the order, which would have reversed a series of Obama administration rules limiting the use of torture, sparked an uproar last month.

{mosads}Specifically, that iteration of the order would have revoked executive orders that closed the sites, granted Red Cross access to all detainees and required interrogators to only use techniques approved in the Army Field Manual.

In place of those Obama-era rules, the order would have resurrected a 2007 George W. Bush order that designated only specific prisoner abuses as war crimes — protecting interrogators from prosecution for the use of techniques not on the war crimes list, including, for example, extended sleep deprivation.

Congress later codified the Obama administration rule limiting the use of so-called enhanced interrogation techniques. That law remains in place.

The White House immediately tried to distance itself from the initial draft proposal, with press secretary Sean Spicer at first insisting that it was “not a White House document.”

But the draft nevertheless met with widespread condemnation from Capitol Hill, where lawmakers have long been jumpy that the president would order interrogators to make use of brutal tactics currently prohibited by law.

“The president can sign whatever executive orders he likes. But the law is the law. We are not bringing back torture in the United States of America,” Senate Armed Services Chairman John McCain (R-Ariz.) said in a statement at the time.

Trump has repeatedly said that he believes harsh techniques that are currently forbidden under the Army Field Manual — such as waterboarding — ”work.”

Lawmakers continue to carefully watch the CIA for signs that the administration is weighing a return to the use of banned techniques.

Some Senate Democrats are currently urging the administration to withdraw Gina Haspel, Trump’s pick for the number two slot at the CIA, over reports that she was involved with the agency’s clandestine torture program.