The Torture Debate in America

by Karen J. Greenberg (Editor)

Widely acclaimed as a publishing milestone, The Torture Papers (Cambridge, 2005) constitutes the definitive book of public record detailing the Bush Administration's policies on torture and political prisoners. In the process of assembling the documents, memoranda, and reports that comprise the material in The Torture Papers, a vital question arose: What was the rationale behind the Bush Administration's decision to condone the use of coercive techniques in the interrogation of detainees suspected of terrorist connections? The use of these techniques at Abu Ghraib and Guantanamo has sparked an intense debate in America. The Torture Debate in America captures the arguments on torture that have been put forth by legislators, human rights activists, and others. It raises the key moral, legal, and historical questions that have led to current considerations on the use of torture. Divided into three sections, the contributions cover all sides of the debate, from absolute prohibition of torture to its use as a viable option in the War on Terror.

Genres: Nonfiction

436 pages, Paperback

First published September 29, 2001

Reviews

[Joseph Stieb · Rating 4 out of 5]

This is a useful volume with a lot of good essays on the US detention and interrogation policies of the early Cold War. It is 90% legal argument with some philosophy thrown in. My main complaint about it is that at a certain point the essays get repetitive. For instance, half of the memos take the time to to explain the Bybee memo's contents, so by the end of the book you have read that about ten times. The overall tenor of the book is critical toward the Bush admin's policies and legal reasoning (with a particularly strong essay by NOah Feldman), but Greenberg did a nice job including a range of viewpoints on the torture memos and interrogation policies more generally. Useful mainly for legal scholars but also for historians of this era (2002-2004, mainly: the release of the expansive "torture memos" by Bush's OLC to their refutation by OLC lawyers in December 2004.

[K. · Rating 3 out of 5]

The first chapter is the best. Very useful

[Steven · Rating 4 out of 5]

This book is even-handed almost to a fault, presenting views both in favor of, and opposed to, the U.S. government using torture. It's grimly enlightening to read that, in one contributor's opinion, we should have a court to issue torture warrants (chapter 3),or that the methods of torture used aren't really torture (chapter 2, as in the Bush administration's line.)
I didn't read all the essays in this book, and it's one that a reader can simply draw some honest opinions on.
I still have to say it's tragic that we're debating whether torture is wrong.