Ten Years Later: Torture, Indefinite Detention, Military Tribunals

By ANDREW ROSENTHAL
NYT

An absorbing article by Andrew Cohen on the Atlantic’s website has reminded me that today marks a very special 10th anniversary. Ten years ago policies were established that led to Abu Ghraib, the secret C.I.A. prisons, the Guantanamo Bay detention camp and torture; that led, in other words, to a period that ranks among the worst in American history for the abuse of executive power, the shredding of civil liberties and the undermining of the judicial system. At the time, we didn’t know it was happening, because it was done in secret.

Mr. Cohen’s article concerns an executive memorandum with the ironic title “Humane Treatment of Taliban and al Qaeda Detainees.” It was written by several Bush administration officials, including John Yoo (who went on to author the infamous torture memos), and was approved by Alberto Gonzales, Mr. Bush’s mob lawyer – I mean White House counsel.

This memo advanced the notion that the President could honor the Geneva Conventions only when he felt like doing so, and that in any case, they did not apply to prisoners associated with al Qaeda or the Taliban.

It was the underpinning of everything that came later:

• The authorization to torture prisoners.
• The idea that Mr. Bush could arrest any foreign citizens he wanted anywhere in the world and hold them indefinitely without charge (or even evidence sometimes).
• The institution of military tribunals where the rules of evidence and American justice do not apply.
• The idea that terrorist suspects should be considered military prisoners even though the F.B.I. and the Justice Department had a long track record of arresting, charging and convicting them.

(More here.)