Senior Administration Officials Holds White House Background Briefing On the Geneva Conventions

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Senior Administration Officials Holds White House Background Briefing On the Geneva Conventions

SENIOR ADMINISTRATION OFFICIALS HOLDS BACKGROUND BRIEFING ON THE GENEVA CONVENTIONS

JULY 20, 2007

SPEAKERS: SENIOR ADMINISTRATION OFFICIALS

[*] SENIOR ADMINISTRATION OFFICIAL: Thank you. I will just briefly describe the executive order and what it does and put a little context into what the president has done today; provide a little background to it. And I'll try to be brief. And then we will turn it over for questions, and I'm sure you have some, and we'd be happy to take your questions.

This is the executive order that culminates the process that started with the Military Commissions Act last fall, and these are the provisions of the act that were enacted by Congress in response to the Supreme Court's decision in Hamdan, the Hamdan case, which decided that Common Article 3 of the Geneva Conventions applies to our armed conflict with Al Qaida.

That raised questions that needed, in the president's estimation, resolution. Questions about what some of the terms in Common Article 3 mean and how they will be applied in this novel context of an armed conflict with international terrorist organizations.

And that has particular import for the ability of the Central Intelligence Agency to continue forward with a very important program of detention and interrogation.

SENIOR ADMINISTRATION OFFICIAL: That was described by the president last September.

Congress gave the president the ability to do that in the Military Commissions Act by defining a list of specified and serious offenses whi...

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