Right: the twin towers of the World Trade Centre burn after being struck by hijacked airliners. The act led to changes in laws and suspension of some civil liberties as America entered the "war on terror".
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Background information
The United States use of torture in the 'War on Terror'
(The information found below has been extracted from a number of Wikipedia entries.
The full entry on 'Torture and the United States' can be accessed at http://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Torture_and_the_United_States&redirect=no
The full entry on 'Abu Ghraib torture and prisoner abuse' can be accessed at http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Abu_Ghraib_torture_and_prisoner_abuse
The full entry on 'Guantanamo Bay detention camp' can be accessed at http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Guantanamo_Bay_detention_camp
The full entry on 'Black site' can be accessed at http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Black_site
United Nations definition of 'torture'
The United Nations convention against torture defines torture as 'any act by which severe pain or suffering, whether physical or mental, is intentionally inflicted on a person for such purposes as obtaining from him or a third person information or a confession, punishing him for an act he or a third person has committed or is suspected of having committed, or intimidating or coercing him or a third person, or for any reason based on discrimination of any kind...'
Certain practices of the United States military, civilian agencies such as the CIA, and private contractors have been condemned both domestically and internationally as torture. A fierce debate regarding non-standard interrogation techniques exists within the United States civilian and military intelligence community, with no general consensus as to what practices under what conditions are acceptable.
These practices have resulted in a number of deaths. According to Human Rights First, at least as many as eight detainees have been tortured to death in United States custody in Iraq and Afghanistan.
Conflicting definitions of torture
In 2003 and 2004 there was substantial controversy over the 'stress and duress' or 'enhanced interrogation' methods that were used in the United States War on Terrorism, which had been sanctioned by the United States Executive branch of government at Cabinet level.
Some techniques within the "stress and duress" category, such as water boarding, have long been considered as torture, by both the United States government and human rights groups.
In its annual 'Country Reports on Human Rights Practices', the United States State Department has described the following practices as torture: stripping and blindfolding of prisoners; subjecting prisoners to prolonged sun exposure in high temperatures and tying of hands and feet for extended periods; sleep deprivation and 'suspension for long periods in contorted positions'; sleep deprivation and solitary confinement; prolonged standing and isolation.
On the other hand, the legal definition of torture produced by the United States Justice Department tightly narrowed the term, defining as torture only actions which 'must be equivalent in intensity to the pain accompanying serious physical injury, such as organ failure, impairment of bodily function, or even death', and argued that actions that inflict any lesser pain, including moderate or fleeting pain, do not necessarily constitute torture.
Legal liability of those using 'enhanced interrogation techniques'
The Bush administration told the CIA in 2002 that its interrogators working abroad would not violate United States prohibitions against torture unless they 'have the specific intent to inflict severe pain or suffering', according to a previously secret Justice Department memo released on 24 July 2008. The interrogator's 'good faith' and 'honest belief' that the interrogation will not cause such suffering protects the interrogator, the memo adds, 'Because specific intent is an element of the offense, the absence of specific intent negates the charge of torture.'
Torture at Abu Ghraib
During the war in Iraq that began in March 2003, personnel of the United States Army and the Central Intelligence Agency committed a series of human rights violations against detainees in the Abu Ghraib prison in Iraq. These violations included physical and sexual abuse, torture, rape, sodomy, and murder. The abuses came to light with reports published in late 2003 by Amnesty International and the Associated Press. The incidents received widespread condemnation both within the United States and abroad, although the soldiers received support from some conservative media within the United States.
The United States Department of Defense removed seventeen soldiers and officers from duty, and eleven soldiers were charged with dereliction of duty, maltreatment, aggravated assault and battery. Between May 2004 and March 2006, these soldiers were convicted in courts-martial, sentenced to military prison, and dishonourably discharged from service. Two soldiers were sentenced to ten and three years in prison. The commanding officer of all detention facilities in Iraq was reprimanded and demoted to the rank of colonel. The prison has now been closed.
Torture at Guantanamo Bay
The Guantanamo Bay detention camp, also referred to as Guant namo, G-bay or GTMO, is a United States military prison located within Guantanamo Bay Naval Base, which fronts on Guant namo Bay in Cuba. At the time of its establishment in January 2002, Secretary of Defense Donald H. Rumsfeld said the prison camp was established to detain extraordinarily dangerous persons, to interrogate detainees in an optimal setting, and to prosecute detainees for war crimes. Detainees captured in the War on Terror, most of them from Afghanistan and much smaller numbers later from Iraq, the Horn of Africa and South Asia were transported to the prison.
Current and former detainees have reported abuse and torture, which the Bush administration denied. In a 2005 Amnesty International report, the facility was called the 'Gulag of our times'. In 2006, the United Nations called unsuccessfully for the Guantanamo Bay detention camp to be closed. In January 2009, Susan J. Crawford, appointed by Bush to review Department of Defense practices used at Guantanamo Bay and oversee the military trials, became the first Bush administration official to concede that torture occurred at Guantanamo Bay on one detainee.
The International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC) inspected the camp in June 2004. In a confidential report issued in July 2004 and leaked to The New York Times in November 2004, Red Cross inspectors accused the United States military of using 'humiliating acts, solitary confinement, temperature extremes, use of forced positions' against prisoners. The inspectors concluded that 'the construction of such a system, whose stated purpose is the production of intelligence, cannot be considered other than an intentional system of cruel, unusual and degrading treatment and a form of torture.' The United States Government reportedly rejected the Red Cross findings at the time.
A 2013 Institute on Medicine as a Profession report concluded that health professionals working with the military and intelligence services 'designed and participated in cruel, inhumane and degrading treatment and torture of detainees'. Medical professionals were ordered to ignore ethical standards during involvement in abusive interrogation, including monitoring of vital signs under stress-inducing procedures. They used medical information for interrogation purposes and participated in force-feeding of hunger strikers,
Secret detention facilities or 'black sites'
In military terminology, a 'black site' is a location at which an unacknowledged black project is conducted. Recently, the term has gained notoriety in describing secret prisons operated by the United States Central Intelligence Agency (CIA), generally outside of United States territory and legal jurisdiction. The term includes those facilities that are controlled by the CIA and used by the United States government in its War on Terror to detain alleged unlawful enemy combatants. United States President George W. Bush acknowledged the existence of secret prisons operated by the CIA during a speech on September 6, 2006.
Many European countries have officially denied hosting black sites to imprison suspects and no country has confirmed hosting black sites. However, a European Union (EU) report adopted on February 14, 2007, by a majority of the European Parliament stated that secret detention centres were operated in Poland and Romania. They are believed to operate in a number of other jurisdictions.
The legal status of detainees
Black sites are embroiled in controversy over the legal status of the detainees held there, the legal authority for the operation of the sites (including the collaboration between governments involved), and full (or even minimal) disclosure by the governments involved.
An important aspect of black site operation is that the legal status of black site detainees is not clearly defined. In practice, inmates in black sites have no rights other than those given by the captors.