As
the first anniversary of 9/11 approached, and a prized Guantanamo
detainee wouldn’t talk, the Bush administration’s highest-ranking
lawyers argued for extreme interrogation techniques, circumventing
international law, the Geneva Conventions, and the army’s own Field
Manual. The attorneys would even fly to Guantanamo to ratchet up the
pressure –then blame abuses on the military. Philippe Sands follows the
torture trail, and holds out the possibility of war crimes charges.
by
Phillippe Sands
May 2008 Vanity Fair
Changing the long-accepted rules on interrogation
required concerted action. From left: Undersecretary of Defense Douglas
J. Feith, then vice-presidential counsel David S. Addington, then White
House counsel Alberto Gonzales, President George W. Bush, and Vice
President Dick Cheney. Photo illustration by Chris Mueller.
The abuse, rising to the level of torture,
of those captured and detained in the war on terror is a defining
feature of the presidency of George W. Bush. Its military beginnings,
however, lie not in Abu Ghraib, as is commonly thought, or in the
“rendition” of prisoners to other countries for questioning, but in the
treatment of the very first prisoners at Guantánamo. Starting in late
2002 a detainee bearing the number 063 was tortured over a period of
more than seven weeks. In his story lies the answer to a crucial
question: How was the decision made to let the U.S. military start
using coercive interrogations at Guantánamo?
The Bush administration has always taken refuge behind a “trickle
up” explanation: that is, the decision was generated by military
commanders and interrogators on the ground. This explanation is false.
The origins lie in actions taken at the very highest levels of the
administration-by some of the most senior personal advisers to the
president, the vice president, and the secretary of defense. At the
heart of the matter stand several political appointees-lawyers-who, it
can be argued, broke their ethical codes of conduct and took themselves
into a zone of international criminality, where formal investigation is
now a very real option. This is the story of how the torture at
Guantánamo began, and how it spread. See the whole article.