Book contents
- Frontmatter
- Contents
- Preface
- List of abbreviations and acronyms
- 1 Torture and political morality in historical perspective
- 2 Political morality and the Bush Administration
- 3 Bush lawyers: the politics of legal interpretation
- 4 The military: Afghanistan, Guantánamo, Iraq
- 5 The CIA: kidnapping, Black Sites, extraordinary rendition
- 6 Due process: detention classification, Military Commissions
- 7 Prisoner abuse and the politics of transitional justice
- Annex A Cast of principal characters
- Annex B Reports on US policy toward enemy prisoners
- Annex C Some relevant legal norms: selected provisions
- Annex D Timeline, selected events, Bush Administration
- Index
Preface
Published online by Cambridge University Press: 05 June 2012
- Frontmatter
- Contents
- Preface
- List of abbreviations and acronyms
- 1 Torture and political morality in historical perspective
- 2 Political morality and the Bush Administration
- 3 Bush lawyers: the politics of legal interpretation
- 4 The military: Afghanistan, Guantánamo, Iraq
- 5 The CIA: kidnapping, Black Sites, extraordinary rendition
- 6 Due process: detention classification, Military Commissions
- 7 Prisoner abuse and the politics of transitional justice
- Annex A Cast of principal characters
- Annex B Reports on US policy toward enemy prisoners
- Annex C Some relevant legal norms: selected provisions
- Annex D Timeline, selected events, Bush Administration
- Index
Summary
This is a book about US policies toward enemy prisoners after the Al-Qaeda terrorist attacks on New York and Washington of September 11, 2001. It analyzes the central moral, political, and legal factors in the US policy making process that led the George W. Bush Administration to abuse prisoners on a widespread basis. It also covers the early years of the Barack Obama Administration.
This study is based primarily on information already in the public domain. Its creativity and originality lies in the synthesis presented and the conclusions drawn. It does not purport, for the most part, to have uncovered new evidence from primary sources. That the United States abused prisoners after 9/11 is not in doubt. Questions remain about the scope of the abuse, the thinking of various officials in the making and implementation of policy, how often the abuse rose to the level of torture or inhuman treatment, and how often it led to increased US security. The undeniable fact is that high US officials knowingly authorized the severe abuse of various prisoners in various places, often as part of enforced disappearances or secret detention, in the face of legal prohibitions. How this came about merits full discussion. So does the question of what to do after the fact.
- Type
- Chapter
- Information
- The Politics of Prisoner AbuseThe United States and Enemy Prisoners after 9/11, pp. ix - xiiiPublisher: Cambridge University PressPrint publication year: 2011