Officials of the Bush administration also insisted in the aftermath of September 11 that the United States need not be bound by international law in pursuing the war on terrorism. They were especially eager to sidestep the Geneva Conventions and the International Convention Against Torture, which regulate the treatment of prisoners of war and prohibit torture and other forms of physical and mental coercion. In January 2002, the Justice Department produced a memorandum stating that these rules did not apply to captured members of Al Qaeda as they were “unlawful combatants,” not members of regularly constituted armies. White House counsel Alberto Gonzales, who later became attorney general, advised the president that the Geneva Accords were “quaint” and “obsolete” in this “new kind of war.” In February 2003, President Bush issued a directive that denied Al Qaeda and Taliban prisoners the Geneva protections.
Amid strong protests from Secretary of State Powell and senior military officers who feared that the new policy would encourage the retaliatory mistreatment of American prisoners of war, in April 2003 the president prohibited the use of torture except where special permission had been granted. Nonetheless, the Defense Department approved methods of interrogation that most observers considered torture. In addition, the CIA set up a series of jails in foreign countries outside the traditional chain of military command and took part in the “rendition” of suspects—that is, kidnapping them and spiriting them to prisons in Egypt, Yemen, Syria, and former communist states of eastern Europe, where torture is practiced.
In this atmosphere and lacking clear rules of behavior, some military personnel—in Afghanistan, at Abu Ghraib prison in Iraq, and at Guantanamo—beat prisoners who were being held for interrogation, subjected them to electric shocks, let them be attacked by dogs, and forced them to strip naked and lie atop other prisoners. Some prisoners in U.S. custody died from their maltreatment. As it turned out, the military guards and interrogators who committed these acts had not been adequately trained for their missions. Indeed, some took photographs of the maltreatment of prisoners and circulated them by e-mail. Inevitably, the photos became public. Their exposure around the world in newspapers, on television, and on the Internet undermined the reputation of the United States as a country that adheres to standards of civilized behavior and the rule of law.
The military investigated prisoner abuse but punished only a few low-level soldiers, not the commanders who were supposed to be in charge of these prisons and had tolerated or failed to halt the abuse. After much debate, Congress in 2005 inserted in the Defense Appropriations Act a measure sponsored by Senator John McCain of Arizona (a former prisoner of war in Vietnam) banning the use of torture. President Bush signed the bill but issued a “signing statement” reaffirming his right as commander-in-chief to set rules for the military by himself.
Based on an infamous photograph, circulated around the world, of an Iraqi prisoner abused while in American custody, this 2004 cartoon suggests how such mistreatment damaged the image of the United States.
Freedom: Certain Restrictions Apply. This work by the artist George Mill includes language that parodies the small print in advertisements and consumer warranties. The disclaimer reads: “Certain restrictions apply. Subject to change without notice. The right of freedom is made available ‘as is’ and without warranty of any kind.” This was part of a 2008 exhibit in which artists produced works on the theme “Thoughts on Freedom.” Many of the works suggested that the policies of the Bush administration had made Americans’ freedom more precarious.
QUESTIONS
1. What “restrictions” on freedom do you think the artist has in mind?
2. What is the purpose of juxtaposing the large word “FREEDOM” with the small print?
Late in 2008 and early the following year, previously secret government documents were released demonstrating that torture was the result not of missteps by a few “bad apples,” as the administration had claimed, but decisions at the highest levels of government. Secretary of Defense Donald Rumsfeld, Attorney General Alberto Gonzales, and other officials had authorized the torture of persons captured in the war on terrorism, over the objections of many in the military. Ironically, some of the techniques used, especially water-boarding (simulated drowning), had been employed by the government during the Korean War to train soldiers how to withstand torture if captured by the enemy. No one in the administration seemed concerned about what these practices might do to the reputation of the United States as a law-abiding nation. The revelations left a difficult question for the administration of Barack Obama—whether or not to prosecute officials and interrogators who had violated international treaties and American laws.