Trump to Consider Lifting Ban on 'Black Site' Prisons

President Trump is asking for a review of America's methods for interrogating terror suspects and the possible reopening of CIA-run "black site" prisons outside the United States, according to a draft executive order obtained by the AP. The order would also reverse America's commitment to closing the US detention facility in Guantanamo Bay, Cuba. The document instructs top national security officers to "recommend to the president whether to reinitiate a program of interrogation of high-value alien terrorists to be operated outside the United States and whether such program should include the use of detention facilities operated by the Central Intelligence Agency."

The document says US laws should be obeyed at all times and explicitly rejects "torture." But its reconsideration of the harsh interrogation techniques banned by President Obama and Congress is sure to inflame passions in the United States and abroad. The Washington Post notes that the CIA would likely resist given that the agency faced criminal investigations over the previously used techniques. While some former government leaders insist the program was effective in obtaining critical intelligence, many others blame it for some of the worst abuses in the "war on terror" after the Sept. 11, 2001, attacks in the United States. (More interrogation techniques stories.)