ACLU: 10 Years Later: Our First Step Toward Torture

[marmar]

10 Years Later: Our First Step Toward Torture


Our country’s embrace of torture after 9/11 may have seemed like a quick one: one day we didn’t torture, and the next we did, with the so-called “torture memos” to blame for the rapid shift. But the reality is that proponents of “enhanced interrogation techniques” (and other euphemistically titled cruelties) had to overcome substantial barriers in their efforts to justify torture. The first major barrier fell 10 years ago, today—many months before the torture memos were issued.

On February 7, 2002, President Bush signed a memorandum, Humane Treatment of Taliban and al Qaeda Detainees, that became his administration’s opening volley against the laws prohibiting abusive interrogations. In it, he concluded that the Geneva Conventions—which specify minimum standards of humane treatment for everyone in times of armed conflict—somehow did not protect al Qaeda members detained by the United States.

That legal sleight of hand paved the way for the more notorious torture memos that would follow, and it all but ensured a break from our country’s tradition of treating captives humanely.

The February 7, 2002, memo is important for another reason. Together with the later memos that built upon its twisted logic, the February 7 memo created a golden shield for the senior officials who authorized torture. When later confronted in court by the victims of their unlawful policies, senior officials could simply hide behind their legal memos. ..............(more)

The complete piece is at: http://www.aclu.org/blog/national-security/10-years-later-our-first-step-toward-torture

[Solly Mack]

1. K&R

And America's war criminals are where?

Says it all.

[shraby]

2. I for one, was never so disappointed in my country than then. Absolutely mortified

by the information that our government would do such a thing, even with the Geneva Convention in place in the constitution. It was a war crime then, a war crime now and will forever be a war crime...there is no statute of limitations on war crimes and may the guilty parties someday be made to account for their actions.

[annabanana]

3. +1000

[Vattel]

4. Then, after SCOTUS ruled in the Hamdan case that Geneva common article 3 did apply to Al Qaeda,

Bush and company passed the Military Commissions Act which retroactively amended the War Crimes Act so that many violations of common article 3 standards of detainee treatment were suddenly no longer criminal, and even waterboarding was no longer clearly and unambiguously criminal. And once Obama and the Democrats took power, they didn't even repeal the Military Commissions Act, or stregthen the War Crimes Act. The best Obama could do was a weak-ass executive order forbidding waterboarding (until the next President rescinds the order). That was a huge failure to seriously address the potential for torture in the future!