Abstract
The international legal agreements that prohibit the bodily harm defined by the term “torture” are particularly stringent and well entrenched. A basic protection against torture is enshrined in the post-World War II human rights agreements, and with the adoption of the 1984 Convention Against Torture, which has over 100 state signatories who have additionally passed domestic legislation to comply with its mandate, the prohibition of the use of torture became one of the most well-established human rights norms in existence.1
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Notes
Ann Florini, “The End of Secrecy,” Foreign Policy, no. 111 (1998): 50–63.
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Ron Kampeas, “They Have Ways of Making Al-Qaida Talk,” The Associated Press, April 28, 2002.
Kenneth Anderson, “What to Do with Bin Laden and Al Qaeda Terrorists? A Qualified Defense of Military Commissions and United States Policy on Detainees at Guantanamo Bay Naval Base,” Harvard Journal of Law &Public Policy 25, no. 2 (2002).
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Doug Saunders, “U.S. Walks a Fine Line to Make Prisoners Talk,” The Globe and Mail, September 17, 2002.
Mark Forbes and Marian Wilkinson, “Voices from the Shadows Predict Horrors to Come,” The Age, October 19, 2002.
Raymond Bonner and Don Van Natta, Jr, “A Dark Jail for Qaeda Suspects,” The International Herald Tribune, March 11, 2003.
Joby Warrick, “CIA Played Larger Role in Advising Pentagon,” The Washington Post, June 18, 2008.
Andrew Gumbel, “American Admits Suspects Died in Interrogations,” The Independent, March 7, 2003; Jonathan Turley, “U.S. ‘Interrogations’ Border on Torture,” The Times Union, March 11, 2003.
James P. Pfiffner, Torture as Public Policy: Restoring U.S. Credibility on the World State (Boulder, CO: Paradigm Publishers, 2010), 1319–20.
Robert M. Pallitto, ed. Torture and State Violence in the United States: A Short Documentary History ( Baltimore: The Johns Hopkins University Press, 2011 ), 752.
Dana Priest and R. Jeffrey Smith, “Memo Offered Justification for Use of Torture,” The Washington Post, June 8, 2004.
David Rennie, “Ban on Torture Overruled in Pentagon,” The Daily Telegraph, June 8, 2004.
Karen J. Greenberg and Joshua L. Dratel, The Torture Papers: The Road to Abu Ghraib (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2005), 183.
Frank Griffiths, “Guantanamo Suicide Attempts Continue,” Associated Press Worldstream, February 19, 2003.
Neil A. Lewis, “Red Cross Finds Detainee Abuse in Guantanamo,” The New York Times, November 30, 2004.
Mark Danner, Torture and the Truth: America, Abu Ghraib, and the War on Terror (London: Granta Books, 2004), 6–7.
Andrew Sullivan, “How America Tiptoed into the Torture Chamber,” Sunday Times, October 2, 2005.
Neil Mackay, “Torture of Iraqis Was ‘Stress Relief,’ Say US Soldiers,” The Sunday Herald, October 2, 2005.
Eric Schmitt and Carolyn Marshall, “In Secret Unit’s ‘Black Room,’ a Grim Portrait of U.S. Abuse,” The New York Times, March 19, 2006.
James Resen, David Johnston, and Neil A. Lewis, “Harsh C.I.A. Methods Cited in Top Qaeda Interrogations,” ibid., May 13, 2004.
Eric Schmitt and Tim Golden, “Pentagon Plans Tighter Control of Questioning,” ibid., November 8, 2005.
David P. Forsythe, The Politics of Prisoner Abuse: The United States and Enemy Prisoners after 9/11 (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2011), 74.
Susan Schmidt, “Disclosure of Authorized Interrogation Tactics Urged,” The Washington Post, July 3, 2004.
Neil A. Lewis and Eric Schmitt, “Inquiry Finds Abuses at Guantanamo Bay,” The New York Times, May 1, 2005.
Damien Henderson, “CIA Flights: Rice Tells Europe to Back Off,” The Herald, December 3, 2005.
Dana Priest, “CIA Holds Terror Suspect in Secret Prisons,” The Washington Post, November 2, 2005.
Cited in Denis Staunton, “CIA Hurriedly Closed Down Secret Prisons in Europe—Report,” The Irish Times, December 7, 2005.
Douglas Jehl, “Report Warned C.I.A. On Tactics in Interrogation,” The New York Times, November 9, 2005.
Francis Harris, “CIA Agents Insure against Torture Lawsuits,” The Daily Telegraph, September 12, 2006.
Colin Freeman, “Washington Makes U-Turn on What Is Meant by ‘Torture’,” Sunday Telegraph, January 2, 2005.
R. Jeffrey Smith and Michael Fletcher, “Bush Says Detainees Will Be Tried,” The Washington Post, September 7, 2006.
R. Jeffrey Smith and Charles Babington, “White House, Senators near Pact on Interrogation Rules,” ibid., September 22. 2009
Peter Ian Honigsberg, Our Nation Unhinged: The Human Consequences of the War on Terror (London: University of California Press, 2009), 184.
Walter Pincus, “CIA Chief Complains About Agency’s Critics in Europe,” The Washington Post, April 17, 2007.
Andy Sullivan, “Suspected Terrorist Co-Operated after ‘Waterboard’ Interrogation,” National Post, December 12, 2007.
Scott Shane, “Waterboarding Focus of Inquiry by Justice Dept.,” The New York Times, February 23, 2008.
Dan Eggen, “Justice Probes Authors of Waterboarding Memos,” The Washington Post, February 23, 2008.
Mark Mazzetti, “Letters Outline Legal Rationale for C.I.A. Tactics,” The New York Times, April 27, 2008.
U.S. Department of Defense, “DoD News Briefing—Secretary Rumsfeld and Gen. Pace,” Office of the Assistant Secretary of Defense (Public Affairs), January 22, 2002.
Ian Hurd, “Breaking and Making Norms: American Revisionism and Crises of Legitimacy,” International Politics 44, no. 2–3 (2007): 210.
Peter Beaumont, “Without Prejudice: American Cant: The Treatment of Al-Qaeda and Taliban Prisoners by the United States Offends a Sense of Justice,” The Observer, January 13, 2002.
Brian Knowlton, “Rice Again Avoids Answering Question About CIA Camps,” The International Herald Tribune, November 30, 2005.
Dan Eggen, “Bush Poised to Veto Waterboarding Ban,” The Washington Post, March 8, 2008.
Philip Shenon and James Risen, “Traces of Terror: The Investigation; Terrorist Yields Clues to Plots, Officials Assert,” The New York Times, June 12, 2002.
Carol Rosenberg, “A Kinder and Gentler Room to Question Terror Suspects?,” The Miami Herald, February 20, 2006.
Con Coughlin, “Camp Delta Detainees ‘Knew London Bombers’,” The Daily Telegraph, February 21, 2006.
David Stout, “U.S. Tells U.N. That It Continues to Oppose Torture in Any Situation,” The New York Times, May 7, 2005.
Douglas Jehl, “Nominee Promises Tighter Control over US Intelligence Agencies,” The New York Times, April 13, 2005.
Carol Rosenberg, “Six U.S. Soldiers Chared in Abuse of Iraqi Captives,” The Miami Herald, March 21, 2004.
Mike Allen, “Bush Speaks out on Iraq Abuse,” The Washington Post, May 15, 2004.
Senate Judiciary Committee, The Department ofJustice and Terrorism, December 6, 2001.
Manuel Roig-Franzia, “Guantanamo Was Prepared for Suicide Attempts,” The Washington Post, March 2, 2003.
Dan Eggen, “Justice Official Defends Rough CIA Interrogations,” The Washington Post, February 17, 2008.
Annabel Crabb, “Bush: I Don’t Mind Protests,” The Age, October 16, 2003.
Judy Dempsey and James Kanter, “EU Looking into Report of Secret CIA Jails,” The International Herald Tribune, November 4, 2005.
Andrew Sparrow, “Captives Have No Complaints, Says No 10,” The Daily Telegraph, January 22, 2002.
Joel Brinkley, “Rice Appears to Reassure Some Europeans on Treatment of Terror Detainees,” The New York Times, December 9, 2005.
Nick Butterly and Peter Veness, “Torture Ban Puts ‘Limit’ on Terror,” The Courier Mail, October 2, 2006.
Benedict Brogan, “Bush’s ‘Deep Disgust’ at Jail Abuse of Iraqi PoWs,” The Daily Telegraph, May 1, 2004.
Paul Hamilos, “Spain Drops Extradition Attempt against Guantanamo Torture Pair,” The Guardian, March 7, 2008.
Raymond Bonner and Jane Perlez, “British Report Criticizes U.S. Treatment of Terror Suspects,” The New York Times, July 28, 2007.
Travcy McVeigh, “US Tells Lies About Torture, Say MPs,” The Observer, July 20, 2008.
David Gardner, “‘Show Trial’ Fears over 9/11 Suspects,” Daily Mail, February 13, 2008.
Gardiner, “Guantanamo.” For a similar demand after Abu Ghraib, see Andrew Buncombe, “War on Terror: Guantanamo: Shocking Prisoner Abuses Are Revealed,” The Independent, August 4, 2004.
Brian Knowlton, “Anger Grows over Iraqi Prisoners,” The International Herald Tribune, May 4, 2004.
Jeff Sallot, “There Are No Circumstances That Justify Torture: Arbour,” The Globe and Mail, October 21, 2005. See also “Mary Robinson.”
Morris et al., The Rise and Fall of Norms in International Politics. (Unpublished Manuscript, 2009), 5–6.
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© 2014 Vincent Charles Keating
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Keating, V.C. (2014). Torture. In: US Human Rights Conduct and International Legitimacy. Palgrave Macmillan, New York. https://doi.org/10.1057/9781137358028_3
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1057/9781137358028_3
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