Abstract
While not publicly acknowledged, after 9/11 the systematic deployment of torture on captured Islamists became America’s policy and practice. It is utilized for the purpose of counterinsurgency intelligence-gathering. Based exclusively on publicly available documentation (prior to the Abu Ghraib revelations), it is conclusively demonstrable that the Bush administration deliberately chose this policy option. The evidence of this authorization includes: post 9/11 testimony before Congress; statements to news media by intelligence operatives who engaged in physical coercion in secret facilities; and a focused, aggressive legal strategy to strip suspected terrorists of all human rights. This legal posture included positive representations to the federal courts that the Executive has entitlement to torture; and an official determination that the Geneva Convention protection against coercive interrogations would be circumvented.
