ABSTRACT
This chapter addresses a deliberately heterogeneous selection of the texts about war prisons in order to reflect the multidisciplinary nature of the cultural response to Global War on Terrorism (GWOT) torture. It discusses three representations of war prisons that frame compelling critiques of torture and counterterrorism which cannot be defused by or incorporated into justificatory discourse. The field of intelligibility has been reframed through which counterterrorist torture is made legible by emphasising the routine, concentrationary and disciplinary nature of torture and indefinite detention in the post-9/11 war prison. The Representations may absorb critique and rearticulate it in ways that subordinate it to the demands of counterterrorism, showing human rights as complicit with terrorism and incorporating exposure of war prisons into justifications of torture; however, just as much as representations can dehumanise prisoners and justify torture, representations can reframe questions, enable compassion, and present resistance to the normalisation of torture.
