City Libraries, City of Gold Coast

The torture debate in America, edited by Karen J. Greenberg

eng

index present

non fiction

The torture debate in America

dictionaries

edited by Karen J. Greenberg

As a result of the work assembling the documents, memoranda, and reports that constitute the material in The Torture Papers the question of the rationale behind the Bush administration's decision to condone the use of coercive interrogation techniques in the interrogation of detainees suspected of terrorist connections was raised. The condoned use of torture in any society is questionable but its use by the United States, a liberal democracy that champions human rights and is a party to international conventions forbidding torture, has sparked an intense debate within America. The Torture Debate in America captures these arguments with essays from individuals in different discipines. This volume is divided into two sections with essays covering all sides of the argument from those who embrace absolute prohibition of torture to those who see it as a viable option in the war on terror and with documents complementing the essays

Introduction : the rule of law finds its golem : judicial torture then and now / Karen J. Greenberg -- Torture : the road to Abu Ghraib and beyond : panel discussion with Burt Neuborne, Dana Priest, Anthony Lewis, Joshua Dratel, Major Michael (Dan) Mori, and Stephen Gillers -- section 1: Democracy, terror, and torture. Liberalism, torture, and the ticking bomb / David Luban -- How to interrogate terrorists / Heather MacDonald -- Torture : thinking about the unthinkable / Andrew C. McCarthy -- The curious debate / Joshua Dratel -- Is defiance of law a proof of success? : magical thinking in the war on terror / Stephen Holmes -- Through a mirror, darkly: applying the Geneva Conventions to "a new kind of warfare" / Scott Horton -- Speaking law to power : lawyers and torture / Richard B. Bilder and Detlev F. Vagts -- Torture : an interreligious debate / Joyce S. Dubensky and Rachel Lavery ---section 2: On the matter of failed states, the Geneva Conventions, and international law. Unwise counsel: the war on terrorism and the criminal mistreatment of detainees in U.S. custody / David W. Bowker -- Rethinking the Geneva Conventions / Lee A. Casey and David B. Rivkin, Jr. -- If Afghanistan has failed, then Afghanistan is dead : "failed states" and the inappropriate substitution of legal conclusion for political description / David D. Caron -- War not crime / William H. Taft IV -- section 3: On torture. Legal ethics and other perspectives / Jeffrey K. Shapiro -- Legal ethics : a debate / Stephen Gillers -- The lawyers know sin : complicity in torture / Christopher Kutz -- Renouncing torture / Michael C. Dorf -- Reconciling torture with democracy / Deborah Pearlstein -- Great nations and torture / M. Cherif Bassiouni -- Section 4: Looking forward. Litigating against torture : the German criminal prosecution / Michael Ratner and Peter Weiss -- Ugly Americans / Noah Feldman ---Relevant documents. 1: Taft-Haynes March 22, 2002 memo re: President's decision about applicability of Geneva Conventions to al Qaeda and Taliban / William Taft IV to William Haynes, March 22, 2002 -- 2: Bybee-Gonzales August 1, 2002 memo re: Standards of conduct for interrogation, aka the "Torture memo" / Jay Bybee to Alberto Gonzales, August 1, 2002 -- 3: Levin-Comey December 30, 2004 memo re: legal standards applicable under 18 U.S.C. Sec. 2340-2340A / Daniel Levin to James B. Comey, December 30, 2004 ---JAG memos re: recommendations of the Working Group to assess the legal, policy, and operational issues relating to interrogation of detainees held by the U.S. Armed Forces in the war on terrorism, February-March 2003 / Jack Rives, Major General USAF memo, February 5, 2003 ; Jack Rives memo, February 6, 2003 ; Michael Lohr memo for the GCAF, February 6, 2003 ; Kevin Sandkuhler memo, February 27, 2003 ; Thomas Romig memo for GCAF, March 3, 2003 ; Lohr comments on March 6 report, March 13, 2003 (incorrectly dated 2002) -- Afterthought: To the American people: report upon the illegal practices of the United States Department of Justice / Zechariah Chafee, Felix Frankfurter, Ernst Freund, Roscoe Pound, et al., May 1920