BBC on the Senate Interrogation Deal: An Agreement for 'Limited Torture'

September 22nd, 2006 5:23 PM

MRC's Michelle Humphrey noticed that the BBC World rebroadcast Thursday night on Washington PBS affiliate WETA described Bush and McCain agreeing to a regime of "limited torture."

Reporter Matt Frei: "The President has basically agreed with, the White House has agreed with these rebel Republicans, that there will be a specific list, to quote here, to 'enumerate the actions that would constitute grave breaches of the Geneva Convention.' In other words, they will respect the Geneva Convention, especially Article Three which talks about the treatment of prisoners and if there are grave breaches of that article, then they, these people, CIA interrogators would be prosecuted and would not get the protection of the White House. And this is the key thing: we don't know what these grave breaches are --"

Anchor Katty Kay: "So we don't know if they're still committing acts of torture."

Frei: "If you want -- They're not using that word, of course, but I think what this boils down to, Katty, is limited torture or what one Senator calls aggressive techniques of interrogation would pass."