Introduction

In the waning days of George W. Bush's presidency, pundits, commentators, and political analysts speculated on whether and how the incoming Obama administration would hold Bush officials accountable for the coercive techniques used in its tenure fighting the “war on terror.” The concern traveled into the confirmation hearings for the Obama administration's Attorney General and was voiced as a question in President Obama's first national press conference on 9 February 2009. ¹ It culminated in a debate over whether photos of particular interrogations conducted during the Bush administration should be released to the public. Throughout the Spring 2009, the Obama administration pushed for the actual release of photos and defended the release on several occasions. In an April briefing, White House press secretary Robert Gibbs claimed that because the Second Circuit Court had on the matter ruled that the photos had to be released, “the Department of Justice decided based on the ruling that it was hopeless to appeal,” and thus that “the administration, the Pentagon, and the court entered into an agreement to release those photos” (White House, 2009b). And yet the force of the court ruling was not enough, it seemed, for the administration reversed course as the day of release approached, culminating in a 13 May press conference where Obama invoked a national security reason for keeping the photos hidden—their release would have a “chilling effect” on current and future interrogators in trying to acquire information and would endanger US soldiers who were then in harm's way.