History of Enhanced Interrogation:
- When and why was it created?
- Legislation addressing enhanced interrogation (is it legal/when did it become legal?)
- When did America start using these methods?
- If Presidents used these methods/agreed with them
- Bush Administration
- Dick Cheney
- Obama
- War on Terror
- Guantanamo Bay
- Which methods were used initially
Treaties US is involved in (partied to) regarding torture:
- Geneva Convention (1955) which prohibits the parties to the treaty from acts upon prisoners including “violence to life and person, in particular murder of all kinds, mutilation, cruel treatment and torture”
- International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights (1922) which insures that no one will be subjected to torturous or cruel treatment by any means
- United Nations Convention Against Torture and Other Cruel, Inhumane Degrading Treatment (1994) which specified that each state would have to do everything they could to prevent and cruel, inhumane, and degrading treatment
Bush vs. Obama:
- The Executive Order 13440, signed by President George W. Bush, it states “I determine for the United States that members of al Qaeda, the Taliban, and associated forces are unlawful enemy combatants who are not entitled to the protections that the Third Geneva Convention provides to prisoners of war”. The order continues to approve enhanced interrogation techniques that are to be created and approved by the Director of the Central Intelligence Agency. The order does not state specific techniques allowing almost free range of any kind of techniques some of which may never go public.
- Seven days after becoming President, Obama signed off on Executive Order 13491. This order revoked Bush’s Executive Order 13440 and its entirety. Its purpose was to ensure lawful interrogations by his interpretation of the law and treaties. Then Obama exonerated any other interpretations of the law, allowing only his own. The order also included the closing of all detention facilities operated by the Central Intelligence Agency including Guantánamo and termination of The Special Task Force.
- Obama only allowed nineteen interrogation techniques to remain which are available in the Army Field Manual.
I think there is a lot of good content in your script. It’s very interesting looking back to see how this was created and how people began to justify it. Good job.
There is a lot of useful information in your script and it is clear that you did a lot of research to aid in the validity of our documentary. Look forward to seeing it all come together!
I am very interested in the anti-torture treaties signed by United States officials. It is not a surprise that high school textbooks do not mention that the United States government broke (arguably) a legal document following the 9/11 attacks. This unusual layer of the controversy will enrich our documentary’s content.