It's not enough to do it by Executive Order - human right should not exist at the whim of the a national leader - in force now, but overturned by the next guy to take office.

Instead of corrections, what you'll more likely see is attempts to blame Panetta for any and all future terrorist attacks. Marc Thiessen has already started at (of course) NRO; no doubt Andy McCarthy has chimed in by now.

That's what's left of the intellectual legacy of WF Buckley: openly cheerleading for war crimes. These assholes deserve to lose the War On Terror - it's just a shame the rest of us will suffer along with them.

What does "more likely than not" mean? If a country only tortures 1/3 of their prisoners, but you've gotten the nudge and wink that your rendered guy will get the special treatment, is that acceptable by this account?

JD: What the Convention Against Torture says is:

"1. No State Party shall expel, return ("refouler") or extradite a person to another State where there are substantial grounds for believing that he would be in danger of being subjected to torture.
2. For the purpose of determining whether there are such grounds, the competent authorities shall take into account all relevant considerations including, where applicable, the existence in the State concerned of a consistent pattern of gross, flagrant or mass violations of human rights."

sidewinder: the Convention Against Torture is a ratified treaty, which makes it the supreme law of the land. So in principle no executive order would be needed. But in fact, the previous administration violated the law. No new law can restrain future administrations if violators aren't punished.

hilzoy: I'm sure we will shortly see corrections from Hot Air, Pat Dollard, Moe Llane, Jonah Goldberg, et al.

You were snarking and rightly so, but I think Nat at 11:09 correctly predicts the wingnut response to this policy clarification: endless cries of existential danger and hysterical assertions of emboldening terrorists by abandoning the "deterrent" of torture.

I'm annoyed at the Daschle brouhaha, and disappointed at the message slip on the stimulus, and outright flummoxed by the whole NH Senator thing...

but, damn! it's all worth it when we get something like this. No matter what the missteps of the first fortnight, this Administration has done more to restore American dignity and secure American freedom and safety in 14 days than the last four Republican administrations in their combined 18 years.

I'm sure we will shortly see corrections from Hot Air, Pat Dollard, Moe Llane, Jonah Goldberg, et al.

LOL, not likely. I put up a comment at Moe Lanes place right after the LA Times article came out politely asking if he'd actually read the Exec. Order, and it was promptly deleted. I guess a talking point was more important than gathering a fact. No surprise there.:)

I seem to remember a time that Moe Lane was a reasonable person. Did I imagine this, or has he changed for the worse?

Did anyone see Keith Olberman special comment about the former Vice president in his speech about Obama? Were he criticized Obama for shutting down Gitmo? Olberman’s comment was much of the same very gripping and snarling, and convincing in the sense Vice President Cheney was a Sadistical Maniac ranting and raving creating more fear than Taliban. Cheney the leader of the Republican Taliban Party. Let’s face it no matter what Cheney will not go down unless someone will cut him down. Hint, hint, its indictment time at the O.K. Corel for Cheney and Bush…

Another group that needs to be taken down: “Joe in the Morning� completely turning America into a confusion as to its needs. And continuously referring to other journalist, many who have been swinging their axe for several days against Obama. For me I have read the basic HR Bill and its content has nothing to do with much of the explanations.

The biggest pork bill has to do with the fleet of cars for government use to be purchased form “Detroit�. My conclusion the Red State are furious likely they may not be able to retool as fast as Detroit to build these cars. The South that has been attracting the European Auto makers in non union jobs is the basic argument. MSNBC is spooking everyone with trade wars and rich Banking International problems. It’s simple and they have to convince America too that what ever happens Obama is wrong or it’s their job.

Something is happening they even took the HR 620 off the web. It was a fifty page report on the recovery package.

From what I read it was pretty good sounded like a lot of jobs. What gets me angered is when Journalist like Joe in the Morning can rant how bad this package is and make no reference any where to the fifty page report no page reference at all. Just rant it’s bad. Joe in the morning is wrong and they way they report it is wrong.

Just remember "The terrists hate us for our freedoms".

Therefore, when we get rid of all our freedoms, the terrorists will love us.

It is obvious to repugnicans & their shrills that the only way to keep amerika safe is to 'disappear' people, torture them, abrogate our Constitution, and ignore our laws.

The rest of us are just too obtuse to understand this.

I love the smell of clarity in the morning. Now let's see if the newspaper's pick up on this and run it with the headline "No Means No".

Then add the reactions of all the cowardly bullies like O'Reilly, Pat Dollard, Jonah Goldberg, and especially Joe Scarborough whining, "heeeeey!!! How can we win if we can't cheat!!!!????"

It's not enough to do it by Executive Order - human right should not exist at the whim of the a national leader - in force now, but overturned by the next guy to take office.

The Executive Order basically requires compliance with treaty obligations of which violations are already a federal crime (and often a capital crime), so given that with the executive order the policy is now in:
1) a ratified treaty,
2) federal criminal statute,
3) an executive order

I think all reasonable bases are covered.

Bush wasn't making use of a gray area in the law to rendition people for torture he was—as with warrantless wiretapping before Congress changed the law to accommodate him, and as with many other things—simply ignoring existing statute law on the basis that he was above the law.

Strictly speaking, this executive order should be superfluous, but given the Bush example it is essential for the new President to unequivocally and specifically articulate his commitment to the rule of law in major areas where the previous administration notoriously and flagrantly defied the law.