Tortures

A memoir by a former Abu Ghraib interrogator

The infamous photos of torture at Abu Ghraib prison in Iraq that became public in spring 2004 — a pyramid of naked prisoners, a hooded man forced to stand in a crucifixion-like pose, a cowering man on a dog leash — were evidence not of just a “few bad apples” among the prison guards but, as an Army investigation found, documentation of a systemic problem: military personnel had perpetrated “numerous incidents of sadistic, blatant, and wanton criminal abuses”. The abuses had roots in decisions made at the highest levels of the George W. Bush administration, which asserted that the United States need not abide by the Geneva Conventions in its war on terror.

Powerful and damning accounts of the Bush administration’s determination to work what Vice-President Dick Cheney called “the dark side” and its elaborate efforts to legalise torture (including arduous attempts to narrowly define torture as leading to “serious physical injury so severe that death, organ failure or permanent damage” is likely to result) can be found in two essential books...