Difference between revisions of "Bush-Cheney administration/torture"

Latest revision as of 14:33, 15 December 2014

About

Although there were persistent reports (many of them documented) of US use of torture as a part of the War on Terror during George W. Bush's administration, it was officially denied until President Obama's 2014 admission that "we tortured some folks", which was followed a few months later by the release of the (highly redacted) US Senate Intelligence Committee's report on the CIA's use of torture.

The first such incident to come to light was the Abu Ghraib abuses, but there have been others (e.g. Guantánamo).

Quotes

"The United States does not torture. It's against our laws and it's against our values. I have not authorised it and I will not authorise it." -- George W. Bush [1]

Law

Apparently Senator John McCain tried to add an amendment (to the 2006 Department of Defense Appropriations Bill) which would have banned "torture and inhumane treatment of prisoners"; VP Cheney has been campaigning hard to have the amendment modified to exempt the CIA from the ban. This article apparently describes what ultimately happened.

court decisions

Hamdan v. Rumsfeld (2006) held that military commissions set up by the Bush administration to try Guantanamo detainees "violate both the UCMJ and the four Geneva Conventions"
Rasul v. Bush (2004) established that the U.S. court system does have the authority to decide whether foreign nationals (non-U.S. citizens) held in Guantanamo Bay were rightfully imprisoned

Links

Reference

Wikipedia: Khalid El-Masri, a German citizen falsely detained, flown to Afghanistan, and tortured by the CIA as part of the war on terror

Filed Links

redirect template:links/smw

News & Views

2007-10-06 President Bush defends U.S. interrogation tactics
2006-10-26 Cheney confirms waterboarding: "Vice President Dick Cheney has confirmed U.S. interrogators subjected captured senior al-Qaida suspects to a controversial interrogation technique called waterboarding, which creates a sensation of drowning. .. Cheney indicated the Bush administration doesn't regard waterboarding as torture and allows the CIA to use it. "It's a no-brainer for me," Cheney said."
2006-10-06 Marine Swears Gitmo Guards Bragged Of Abuse (Associated Press)
2006-09-16 Bush's Fight with Congress over Torture Defines Our Character
2006-08-10 The Unending Torture of Omar Khadr by Jeff Tietz, Rolling Stone
2006-05-23 How Torture Became Mainstream by Alfred W. McCoy, Amnesty International
2006-03-05 US Operatives Torture Detainees to Death in Afghanistan and Iraq (item #7) by Dahr Jamail
2005-11-07 Cheney Fights for Detainee Policy by Dana Priest and Robin Wright, Washington Post Staff Writers
2005-11-02 CIA Holds Terror Suspects in Secret Prisons: "Debate Is Growing Within Agency About Legality and Morality of Overseas System Set Up After 9/11" by Dana Priest

Blog Posts

"Body and Soul" blog:
- 2005-11-07 14:55, 15:40
- 2005-11-09
- 2005-11-11

@@ Line 1: / Line 1: @@
-{{seed}}
+<hide>
-==Overview==
+[[page type::article]]
-There have been persistent reports, many of them documented, of official use of [[torture]] as a part of the [[War on Terror]] during [[George W. Bush]]'s [[2000-2007 US Presidential Administration|administration]].
+{{subpage}}
+</hide>
+==About==
+Although there were persistent reports (many of them documented) of US use of [[torture]] as a part of the [[War on Terror]] during [[George W. Bush]]'s [[Bush-Cheney administration|administration]], it was officially denied until President Obama's 2014 admission that "we tortured some folks", which was followed a few months later by the release of the (highly redacted) US Senate Intelligence Committee's [[US/gov/CIA/torture/report|report]] on the CIA's use of torture.
 The first such incident to come to light was the [[Abu Ghraib abuses]], but there have been others (e.g. [[Guant&aacute;namo]]).
-Publicly, administration officials and spokespeople deny sanctioning or approving of torture, but certain of their legislative efforts appear to contradict this stance.
 ==Quotes==
 * "The United States does not torture. It's against our laws and it's against our values. I have not authorised it and I will not authorise it." -- [[George W. Bush]] [http://www.abc.net.au/4corners/content/2006/s1738419.htm]