Bush Administration and sanctions on policy of torture on detainees - Research Paper Example

7 6. Conclusion……………………………………………………………………………… 7 7. Works Cited……………………………………………………………………….…… 8 Torture is an unquestionable crime and cannot be justified with any rationale, no matter how reasonable it may sound. Torture is prohibited by all civilized societies and both the US and International laws hold it in strict abhorrence. According to the US as well as International laws, those convicted of assault and tortures are liable to be punished.

The US code lays out strict rules on torture and all other acts that come under its purview, with clear orders on the punishments and penalties that should be meted out to its violators. In spite of such regulations, it is alleged that the US administration under the presidency of George W. Bush, indulged in torturing detainees alleged for terrorism and other crimes. The entire world expressed outrage over such US policies, blaming them to be the reason behind the increased insurgence of terrorism and the lack of support from allies, however, it is surprising to note that many others justified it as being legal and the need of the hour.

The Bush Administration refuted all such claims, saying that no such policies on torture of detainees were sanctioned, but the piling list of evidences against it speaks otherwise. This calls for a formal inquiry by the Obama Administration as well as the US Justice Department into all the policies sanctioned under the Bush Administration. If President Bush and all the other policy makers are convicted of resorting to torture, they must be brought to book and should be penalized with full justification to the US penal code, failing which would be the greatest failure of law and order in our times.

According to the UN Universal Declaration of Human Rights, the Third and Fourth Geneva Conventions, the Convention against Torture and Other Cruel, Inhuman or Degrading Treatment or Punishment and the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights, torture is a punishable act and the violators of these are bound to be penalized. Accordingly, the Bush Administration is punishable by law, as its secret policies on torture are not secret anymore. Tortures under the Bush administration According to Taylor1, the US government recognized all the international conventions against torture.

Nevertheless, the Bush administration secretly sanctioned torture methods for the interrogation of detainees of its “War on terror” post September 11. It justified such acts as being legal and “morally permissible”, when they became known in public. The Bush administration sanctioned water boarding, forced nudity, sleep deprivation, temperature extremes, stress position and prolonged isolation as "safe, legal, ethical, and effective" enhanced interrogation techniques which were previously considered torture and forbidden by the United Nations Committee Against Torture1.

Torture became a state policy of the United States under Bush administration wherein prisoners of War on Terror were tortured as a matter of policy and practice at Abu Ghraib prison by American troops as well as more experienced torturers (Masciulli, Molchanov and Knight 349). According to news reports, President Bush had authorized the use of waterboarding2 and other inhumane tortures against criminals in its war on terror. Innumerable evidences of torture are