“In July [20] 2007, President Bush signed an Executive Order [No. 13400] listing new interrogation techniques for terrorism suspects, yet it cast little light on what the limits of these ‘enhanced interrogation’ techniques were. It is fair to assume that the Bush Administration knew it was in unchartered waters, and the likelihood that subsequent decisions would be considered unlawful induced them to present it in a way that contained defenses such as they were acting reasonably. Most likely the Order was no more than a cover for a future argument of ‘plausible deniability.’ ”
– M. Cherif Bassiouni, The Institutionalization of Torture by the Bush Administration, Page 192