ABSTRACT
In April 2013, an independent nonpartisan review panel determined that “it is indisputable that the United States engaged in the practice of torture” and that high-level officials were responsible (Indisputable Torture 2013). Commenting on the human rights violations that were committed during the George W. Bush administration and the rationalizations of them, Arthur Schlesinger Jr. noted, “No position taken has done more damage to the American reputation in the world-ever” (cited in Heine 2011, 571).1 Although the existence of secret prisons and abuses was made public since at least 2004 and 2005, the U.S. Congress and the world reacted most profoundly to the abuses after the release in December 2014 of the Senate Intelligence Committee’s report on the CIA’s detention and interrogation program, known as the Torture Report. Senator Dianne Feinstein (D-CA), who chaired the investigative committee, said that the CIA’s interrogation program was “a stain on our values and our history” (Mazzetti 2014). While President Obama came to office with a clear pledge to stop all torture, he did not seek out accountability for those involved in abuses under the Bush administration. Rather than a resounding cry of “never again”, there is instead continued justification of the practices by many, including former President Bush and Vice President Dick Cheney, and talk of continuing some of the practices by Republican presidential hopefuls in the 2016 race for the White House.
