Truth and torture in the war on terror
Document Type
Article
Publication Date
2019
ISSN
0140-6736
Publisher
Elsevier
Language
en-US
Abstract
The Report, Scott Z Burns new thriller, adopts one of two conflicting narratives about post-9/11 torture by the USA. The “Cheney–Brennan narrative” is that torture is a “black art” that must be deployed in national security emergencies to save lives. The counter narrative, the human rights and science-based narrative, is that torture is a crime against humanity that produces only false information. When images of torture become public, they are horrifying and provoke outcry. For example, the 2004 photographs from Abu Ghraib of US Army troops brutally abusing Iraqi prisoners were devastating to the reputation of the USA. The Abu Ghraib photos taught the US Central Intelligence Agency (CIA), which was running its own torture programme at “black sites” around the world at that time, that videotapes of waterboarding could not become public.
Recommended Citation
George J. Annas,
Truth and torture in the war on terror
,
in
394
The Lancet
1981
(2019).
Available at:
https://doi.org/https://doi.org/10.1016/S0140-6736(19)32791-6
