The Torture Debate in America

by Edited by Karen J. Greenberg

• ISBN13: 9780521674614
• ISBN10: 0521674611
• Format: Paperback
• Copyright: 2005-11-28
• Publisher: Cambridge University Press

Summary

As a result of the work assembling the documents, memoranda, and reports that constitute the material in The Torture Papers the question of the rationale behind the Bush administration's decision to condone the use of coercive interrogation techniques in the interrogation of detainees suspected of terrorist connections was raised. The condoned use of torture in any society is questionable but its use by the United States, a liberal democracy that champions human rights and is a party to international conventions forbidding torture, has sparked an intense debate within America. The Torture Debate in America captures these arguments with essays from individuals in different discipines. This volume is divided into two sections with essays covering all sides of the argument from those who embrace absolute prohibition of torture to those who see it as a viable option in the war on terror and with documents complementing the essays.

Table of Contents

Acknowledgments	ix
List of Contributors	xi
Introduction: The Rule of Law Finds Its Golem: Judicial Torture Then and Now	1	(12)
Karen J. Greenberg
THE ISSUES
Torture: The Road to Abu Ghraib and Beyond	13	(22)
Panel Discussion with Burt Neuborne, Dana Priest, Anthony Lewis, Joshua Dratel, Major Michael (Dan) Mori, and Stephen Gillers
ESSAYS
Section One: Democracy, Terror and Torture
1 Liberalism, Torture, and the Ticking Bomb	35	(49)
David Luban
2 How to Interrogate Terrorists	84	(14)
Heather MacDonald
3 Torture: Thinking about the Unthinkable	98	(13)
Andrew C. McCarthy
4 The Curious Debate	111	(7)
Joshua Dratel
5 Is Defiance of Law a Proof of Success? Magical Thinking in the War on Terror	118	(18)
Stephen Holmes
6 Through a Mirror, Darkly: Applying the Geneva Conventions to "A New Kind of Warfare"	136	(15)
Scott Horton
7 Speaking Law to Power: Lawyers and Torture	151	(11)
Richard B. Bilder and Detlev F. Vagts
8 Torture: An Interreligious Debate	162	(21)
Joyce S. Dubensky and Rachel Lavery
Section Two: On the Matter of Failed States, The Geneva Conventions, and International Law
9 Unwise Counsel: The War on Terrorism and the Criminal Mistreatment of Detainees in U.S. Custody	183	(20)
David W. Bowker
10 Rethinking the Geneva Conventions	203	(11)
Lee A. Casey and David B. Rivkin, Jr.
11 If Afghanistan Has Failed, Then Afghanistan Is Dead: "Failed States" and the Inappropriate Substitution of Legal Conclusion for Political Description	214	(9)
David D. Caron
12 War Not Crime	223	(6)
William H. Taft IV
Section Three: On Torture
13 Legal Ethics and Other Perspectives	229	(7)
Jeffrey K. Shapiro
14 Legal Ethics: A Debate	236	(5)
Stephen Gillers
15 The Lawyers Know Sin: Complicity in Torture	241	(6)
Christopher Kutz
16 Renouncing Torture	247	(6)
Michael C. Dorf
17 Reconciling Torture with Democracy	253	(3)
Deborah Pearlstein
18 Great Nations and Torture	256	(5)
M. Cherif Bassiouni
Section Four: Looking Forward
19 Litigating Against Torture: The German Criminal Prosecution	261	(6)
Michael Ratner and Peter Weiss
20 Ugly Americans	267	(16)
Noah Feldman
RELEVANT DOCUMENTS
1 Taft—Haynes March 22, 2002 Memo Re: President's Decision about Applicability of Geneva Conventions to al Qaeda and Taliban	283	(34)
William Taft IV to William Haynes, March 22, 2002
2 Bybee—Gonzales August 1, 2002 Memo Re: Standards of Conduct for Interrogation, aka the "Torture Memo"	317	(44)
Jay Bybee to Alberto Gonzales, August 1, 2002
3 Levin—Comey December 30, 2004 Memo Re: Legal Standards Applicable Under 18 U.S.C. Sec. 2340-2340A	361	(16)
Daniel Levin to James B. Comey, December 30, 2004
4 JAG Memos Re: Recommendations of the Working Group to Assess the Legal, Policy and Operational Issues Relating to Interrogation of Detainees Held by the U.S. Armed Forces in the War on Terrorism, February—March 2003	377	(18)
February 5, 2003, Jack Rives, Major General USAF Memo
February 6, 2003, Jack Rives Memo
February 6, 2003, Michael Lohr Memo for the GCAF
February 27, 2003, Kevin Sandkuhler Memo
March 3, 2003, Thomas Romig Memo for GCAF
March 13, 2003 (incorrectly dated 2002) Lohr Comments on March 6 Report
AFTERTHOUGHT
To the American People: Report upon the Illegal Practices of the United States Department of Justice	395	(10)
Zechariah Chafee, Felix Frankfurter, Ernst Freund, Roscoe Pound, et al., May 1920
Index	405