The return to September 10th

Today's executive order eliminating all interrogation techniques not listed in the Army Field Manual, officially granting Geneva Conventions protections to terrorists as a "baseline", and eliminating the CIA's ability to detain captives goes a long way towards rolling back our defense and intelligence apparatus to a pre-9/11 mindset. Amusingly, the order is quite explicit about the date to which it rolls back our capabilities:

All executive directives, orders, and regulations inconsistent with this order, including but not limited to those issued to or by the Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) from September 11, 2001, to January 20, 2009, concerning detention or the interrogation of detained individuals, are revoked to the extent of their inconsistency with this order

Interpretations of Common Article 3 and the Army Field Manual. From this day forward, unless the Attorney General with appropriate consultation provides further guidance, officers, employees, and other agents of the United States Government may, in conducting interrogations, act in reliance upon Army Field Manual 2 22.3, but may not, in conducting interrogations, rely upon any interpretation of the law governing interrogation -- including interpretations of Federal criminal laws, the Convention Against Torture, Common Article 3, Army Field Manual 2 22.3, and its predecessor document, Army Field Manual 34 52 issued by the Department of Justice between September 11, 2001, and January 20, 2009.