U.S. naval base at Guantánamo Bay

White House spokesman Sean Spicer says a three-page draft executive order calling for a review of U.S. methods of interrogating suspected terrorists and the possibility of reopening the CIA’s infamous black sites “is not a White House document” and he has “no idea where it came from.”

The document was obtained and reported on by The New York Times here and the Associated Press here. The AP noted that the review would "recommend to the president whether to reinitiate a program of interrogation of high-value alien terrorists to be operated outside the United States." Spicer said in his daily briefing:

"It is not a White House document, and I would just urge those people who have reported on it, this is now I think the second day that we've had a document that was not a White House document get reported on as a factual document [...] It is not a White House document. I have no idea where it came from."

White House sources told Fox News that the draft order dates back to the transition when thousands of these were being written. There is, they said, no plan to revive overseas "black sites" or to review official interrogation procedures laid out in the Army Field Manual.

If what these sources say is true—an introductory clause that should be attached to nearly every statement emanating from named or unnamed White House sources these days—it’s good news. But as Joshua Keating writes at Slate:

“It’s not quite clear from this whether ‘not a White House document’ means it didn’t actually come from the White House or if it’s merely not official yet. If it’s really under consideration, though, or even just an indication of the administration’s thinking, it’s disturbing.

The fact of the matter is, the draft order comports with what Pr*sident Trump said more than once during his campaign. Charles Savage reports: