Owning Up to American Torture
Within days of the 9/11 terrorist attacks, some officials in the Bush聽administration began contemplating the notion that captured suspects聽might need to be tortured in order to collect “actionable聽 intelligence.” Over the next few months, the ground was laid–through聽an executive order, legal opinions, and policy directives–for what聽developed into the US torture program involving both the military and聽the CIA. Between 2006 and 2009, the program collapsed and finally was聽ended. However, there has been no accountability for those responsible for perpetrating or abetting the crime of torture, and this has聽enabled an increasingly vocal pro-torture constituency within the US.聽In this talk, I will explain the connections among legal聽accountability, empirical knowledge and analytical accuracy to make an聽argument about the need for a turn in domestic politics that owns up聽to the legacy of torture which is now a part of this nation’s history.
Lisa Hajjar,聽Professor of Sociology, UC Santa Barbara, has an MA in Arab Studies with a concentration in International聽Affairs from Georgetown University (1986) and a PhD in Sociology from聽The American University (1995). Her areas of expertise include聽 sociology聽of law, law and society, international and global studies,聽 and political聽sociology. Her research interests include human rights,聽 international聽law, torture, war and conflict. She is the author of聽 Courting Conflict:聽The Israeli Military Court System in the West Bank聽 and Gaza (University聽of California Press, 2005) and Torture: A聽 Sociology of Violence and聽Human Rights (Routledge, 2012). She is聽 currently working on a book about聽anti-torture lawyering in the United聽 States in the post-9/11 period.聽 She will be the Edward W. Said Chair of American Studies at the聽 American University of Beirut in 2014-2015.