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Feith claims that the U.S. is “entitled to moral authority,” that it is “one of the few governments that actually is entitled to moral authority.” As this is a self-professed, self-claimed authority, it has no claim to reality, to any moral superiority over any other country or culture. It is another of the many claims to U.S. exceptionalism, most of which are self-proclaimed and contrary to evidence – the actions taken do not support the grand rhetoric and jingoism that go with them.

Complicity

Sands continues with his arguments carefully, arriving at the conclusion that the “most senior lawyers bear direct responsibility for decisions that led to violations of the Geneva Conventions.” He notes that they have “immunity from criminal process [as] built into US law, and to which several of these lawyers contributed.”

Complicity in the war crimes reaches much deeper than that. In consultation with European sources, Sands reveals the extent of that complicity. The development of war crimes conventions after World War II made a doctrine from which “there would be no refuge for the torturer or the international criminal,” with duties imposed “on every person who was involved in the decision-making process.” As for the legal advice, any writing that “had opened the door to abuse or even torture…on specific individuals, then in theory the responsibility would go back to the author of the legal advice….” Avoiding the issue does not help either, as “contributing to the avoidance of an investigation of a crime could itself give rise to complicity.”

The societal impact of 9/11 on U.S. culture in its broadest sense was enormous. Having long before ‘won’ the Cold War with the Soviet Union, “a pervasive sense of threat…hung in the air a year after the September 11 attacks.” Much of that “palpable and real” fear was created deliberately under the neocon culture that could now focus the U.S. citizen’s worries on the new ‘global war on terror.’ 9/11 “gave rise to a conscious decision to set aside international rules constraining interrogation. Along with that “A new culture of cruelty had been unleashed,” one that captured Europe as well, as the “CIA’s programme of ‘extraordinary rendition’ was the product of the same mindset, and it seems to have ensnared various European and other countries in a culture of complicity.”

The actions taken were not “mere accident or oversight,” but were “motivated by a combination of factors, including fear and ideology and an almost visceral disdain for international obligations.”

Into the future

Starting from a few singularities Sands draws broad sweeping conclusions on the complicity of many levels of the U.S. government and its advocates and advisors. It reaches overseas into NATO’s (and other nation’s) complicity in the rendition program. It is also the cause of the actions taken at Abu Ghraib in Iraq. Many in the Bush administration and those that served them fall into Sand’s description of complicity in war crimes.

It leaves a lingering question – if “contributing to the avoidance of an investigation” results in complicity, wherein do the actions of Barak Obama fall? He has given a deadline for the termination of the Guantanamo detention centre, he has sworn that within the U.S. torture will not be used, but nothing has apparently changed with overseas renditions, and he has indicated that he would not “look back” and prosecute anyone for war crimes. The final chapter of Torture Team has yet to be lived and written, but it is a valuable and strongly researched work up to that point.

Jim Miles is a Canadian educator and a regular contributor/columnist of opinion pieces and book reviews for The Palestine Chronicle. Miles’ work is also presented globally through other alternative websites and news publications.