ABSTRACT

This introduction presents an overview of key concepts discussed in the subsequent chapters of this book. The al-Qaeda attacks on New York and Washington in 2001 marked the event that caused the existing US campaigns against al-Qaeda and related organisations to crystallise into the Global War on Terrorism (GWOT). The book evaluates specific cultural productions in depth. It then analyses the ways in which the post-9/11 torture debate recycles specific tropes, arguments, and ideas that were seen in the torture debate that accompanied French torture during the decolonisation of Algeria. The book also examines Errol Morris Standard Operating Procedure (2008), which performs a similar critique and extends the potential for compassion, controversially and challengingly, to the Abu Ghraib Military Police. Finally, it examines Kevin Toolis Complicit (2013), a recent anti-torture film that articulates a cogent anti-torture position from within the genre of counterterrorism fiction.