Resisting accountability: transitional justice in the post-9/11 United States

Abstract

The field of transitional justice has traditionally focused on accountability for human rights violations amid regime change, often accompanied by democratisation, rebuilding states and revitalising national communities. But concepts drawn from transitional justice can also shed light on the dynamics of accountability within the ordinary course of political change in a stable and mature democracy. This article utilises transitional justice as a heuristic to frame the post-9/11 United States’ effort to confront torture and other grave human rights violations committed in the war on terrorism. The article concludes that not seeking accountability in the face of political opposition and resistance carries significant costs. Terrorism poses particular concerns for adherence to human rights, even in mature democracies, given the multiple pressures to sacrifice liberty for security. A state's failure to pursue accountability may mitigate political controversy and avoid straining the social fabric, particularly where responsibility for torture and other illegal conduct reaches the top echelons of government. But it also propagates a competing security-based narrative that legitimises exceptions to the categorical moral judgements on which a robust and effective human rights regime depends.

Keywords:

• transitional justice
• terrorism
• United States
• torture
• 11 September 2001
• human rights
• accountability

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author.

Notes on contributor

Jonathan Hafetz is Associate Professor of Law, Seton Hall University School of Law and Visiting Associate Research Scholar, Princeton University Law & Public Affairs Program, 2014–2015.

Notes

1 Eric Lichtblau and Scott Shane, ‘Report Faults 2 Authors of Bush Terror Memos', New York Times, 19 February 2010.

2 Ruti Teitel, ‘Transitional Justice Genealogy’, Harvard Human Rights Journal 16 (2003): 69.

3 Dustin N. Sharp, ‘Addressing Economic Violence in Times of Transition: Toward a Positive-Peace Paradigm for Transitional Justice’, Fordham International Law Journal 35 (2012): 786.

4 Martha Minow, Between Vengeance and Forgiveness: Facing History after Genocide and Mass Violence (Boston, MA: Beacon Press, 1998).

5 Christine Bell, ‘Transitional Justice, Interdisciplinarity, and the State of the “Field” or “Non-Field”’, International Journal of Transitional Justice 3 (2009): 15.

6 Nasser Hussain and Austin Sarat, ‘Responding to Lawlessness: What Does the Rule of Law Require’, in When Governments Break the Law: The Rule of Law and the Prosecution of the Bush Administration (New York: New York University Press, 2010), 20.

7 Linton Weeks, ‘Obama Orders Guantanamo Bay Prison Closure’, NPR, 22 January 2009, http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=99728679.

8 Mark Mazzetti, ‘Behind Clash Between C.I.A. and Congress, a Secret Report on Interrogations', New York Times, 7 March 2014; Mark Mazzetti and Scott Shane, ‘Senate and C.I.A. Spar Over Secret Report on Interrogation Program’, New York Times, 19 July 2013.

9 Mark Mazzetti, ‘New Head of C.I.A.'s Clandestine Service Is Picked, as Acting Chief Is Passed Over’, New York Times, 7 May 2013; Scott Shane, ‘C.I.A.'s History Poses Hurdle for an Obama Nominee’, New York Times, 6 March 2013.

10 Senate Select Committee on Intelligence, Committee Study of the Central Intelligence Agency's Detention and Interrogation Program (Executive Summary) (3 December 2014), http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-srv/special/national/cia-interrogation-report/document/.

11 David Cole, ed., Torture Memos: Rationalizing the Unthinkable (New York: New Press, 2009); Jonathan Hafetz, Habeas Corpus after 9/11: Confronting America's New Global Detention System (New York: New York University Press, 2011); Joseph Margulies, Guantanamo and the Abuse of Presidential Power (New York: Simon & Schuster, 2006).

12 Larry Siems, The Torture Report: What the Documents Say about America's Post-9/11 Torture Program (New York: OR Books, 2012); Human Rights Watch, Getting Away with Torture: The Bush Administration and the Mistreatment of Detainees (New York: Human Rights Watch, 2011).

13 The Constitution Project, The Report of the Constitution Project's Task Force on Detainee Treatment (Washington, DC: The Constitution Project, 2013), http://detaineetaskforce.org/pdf/Full-Report.pdf.

14 Jameel Jaffer, ‘Known Unknowns', Harvard Civil Rights-Civil Liberties Law Review 48 (2013): 457.

15 Kathryn Sikkink, The Justice Cascade: How Human Rights Prosecutions are Changing World Politics (New York: W.H. Norton & Co., 2011); Naomi Roht-Arriaza, The Pinochet Effect: Transitional Justice in the Age of Human Rights (Philadelphia: University of Pennsylvania Press, 2006).

16 Testimony of Cofer Black to Joint House and Senate Select Intelligence Committee, 26 September 2002, http://www.fas.org/irp/congress/2002_hr/092602black.html.

17 John Yoo and Robert J. Delahunty to William J. Haynes II, Memorandum: ‘Application of Treaties and Laws to al Qaeda and Taliban Detainees', 9 January 2002, in Karen J. Greenberg and Joshua L. Dratel, eds, The Torture Papers: The Road to Abu Ghraib (New York: Cambridge University Press, 2005), 38–79; Jay S. Bybee to Alberto R. Gonzales and William J. Haynes, Memorandum: ‘Application of Treaties and Laws to al Qaeda and Taliban Detainees', in Greenberg and Dratel, eds, The Torture Papers, 81–117.

18 Tadic Appeal on Jurisdiction, Case No. IT-94-1-AR72, 2 October 1995, 70.

19 War Crimes Act of 1996, Pub. L. No. 104-192, 110 Stat. 2104 (1996) (codified at 18 U.S.C. § 2441).

20 18 U.S.C. §§ 2340, 2340A.

21 Convention against Torture and other Cruel, Inhuman and Degrading Treatment, art. 2, 10 December 1984, S. Treaty Doc. No. 100-20, 1465 U.N.T.S. 85.

22 Memorandum from Jay S. Bybee, Assistant Attorney General, Office of Legal Counsel to Alberto R. Gonzales, Counsel to the President, 1 August 2002, in Greenberg and Dratel, eds, The Torture Papers, 172–222.

23 David Luban, ‘Liberalism, Torture, and the Ticking Time Bomb’, in The Torture Debate in America, ed. J. Karen Greenberg (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2006), 35–83.

24 Jack Goldsmith, The Terror Presidency: Law and Judgment inside the Bush Administration (New York: W.W. Norton, 2007), 144.

25 David Cole, ‘The Taint of Torture: The Roles of Law and Policy in Our Descent to the Dark Side', Houston Law Review 49 (2012): 59.

26 Detainee Treatment Act of 2005, Pub. L. No. 109-148, § 1003, 119 Stat. 2739.

27 Scott Shane, David Johnston, and James Risen, ‘Secret U.S. Endorsement of Severe Interrogations', New York Times, 4 October 2004.

28 Hamdan v. Rumsfeld, 548 U.S. 557 (2006).

29 Military Commissions Act of 2006, Pub. No. 109-366, § 6, 120 Stat. 2600, 2632–35 (2006).

30 Scott Shane and David Stout, ‘White House Moves to Save Mukasey Nomination’, New York Times, 1 November 2007.

31 Mary Jo White, ‘No Easy Answers to al-Qaeda Threat’, USA Today, 14 November 2007.

32 Jane Mayer, ‘Whatever It Takes; The Politics of the Man Behind “24”', New Yorker, 19 February 2007.

33 Elisa Massimino, ‘Leading by Example?: Torture Ten Years after 9/11′, Human Rights 38 (Winter 2011): 21; Amy Zegart, ‘Controversy Dims as Public Opinion Shifts', New York Times, 7 January 2013.

34 Executive Order No. 13,491, 74 Fed. Reg. 4893 (27 January 2009).

35 Ibid.

36 Executive Order No. 13,492, 74 Fed. Reg. 4897 (27 January 2009); ‘Obama Signs Order to Close Guantanamo Bay Facility’, CNN.com, 22 January 2009, http://www.cnn.com/2009/POLITICS/01/22/guantanamo.order/index.html?eref=rss_us.

37 President Barack Obama, ‘Remarks by the President on National Security at the National Archives, Washington, D.C.’ (21 May 2009), http://www.whitehouse.gov/the_press_office/Remarks-by-the-President-On-National-Security-5-21-09/.

38 George Stephanopoulos, ‘Obama Leaves Door Open (a Bit) on Prosecuting Bush Officials', ABC News, 11 January 2009, http://abcnews.go.com/blogs/politics/2009/01/obama-leaves-do/.

39 Statement by President Obama on Release of OLC Memos, 16 April 2009.

40 The White House, Press Conference by the President, 1 August 2014, http://www.whitehouse.gov/the-press-office/2014/08/01/press-conference-president.

41 Statement by the President on the Report of the Senate Select Committee on Intelligence, 9 December 2014, http://www.whitehouse.gov/the-press-office/2014/12/09/statement-president-report-senate-select-committee-intelligence.

42 Press Release, US Department of Justice, ‘Attorney General Eric Holder Regarding a Preliminary Review into Interrogation of Certain Detainees', 24 August 2009, http://www.justice.gov/ag/speeches/2009/ag-speech-0908241.html.

43 Ibid.

44 Rachel L. Swarns, ‘Cheney Offers Sharp Defense of C.I.A. Tactics', New York Times, 31 August 2009.

45 Former CIA Directors' Letter to Obama, 18 September 2009, http://www.keepamericasafe.com/?page_id=221.

46 Scott Shane, ‘No Charges Filed on Harsh Tactics Used by the C.I.A.’, New York Times, 30 August 2012.

47 Press Release, Department of Justice, ‘Statement of Attorney General Holder on Closure of Investigation into the Interrogation of Certain Detainees', 30 August 2012, http://www.justice.gov/opa/pr/2012/August/12-ag-1067.html.

48 Michael S. Schmidt, ‘Ex-C.I.A. Officer Sentenced to 30 Months in Leak’, New York Times, 25 January 2013.

49 Shane, ‘No Charges Filed'.

50 Ibid.

51 Mark A. Drumbl, Atrocity, Punishment, and International Law (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2007); Alex Boraine, A Country Unmasked: Inside South Africa's Truth and Reconciliation Commission (New York: Oxford University Press, 2000).

52 Mohamed v. Jeppesen Dataplan, Inc., 614 F.3d 1070 (9th Cir. 2010) (en banc).

53 Lebron v. Rumsfeld, 670 F.3d 540, 550 (4th Cir. 2012); Ali v. Rumsfeld, 649 F.3d 762 (D.C. Cir. 2011).

54 Memorandum from Attorney General, ‘Policies and Procedures Governing Invocation of the State Secrets Privilege’, 23 September 2009, http://legaltimes.typepad.com/files/ag-memo-re-state-secrets-dated-09-22-09.pdf.

55 Jonathan Hafetz, ‘Reconceptualizing Federal Courts in the War on Terror’, Saint Louis University Law Review 56 (2012): 1055.

56 US Department of Justice, Office of Professional Responsibility, ‘Investigation into the Office of Legal Counsel's Memoranda Concerning Issues Relating to the Central Intelligence Agency's Use of “Enhanced Interrogation Techniques” on Suspected Terrorists', 29 July 2009, https://www.aclu.org/files/pdfs/natsec/opr20100219/20090729_OPR_Final_Report_with_20100719_declassifications.pdf.

57 David Margolis, Associate Deputy Attorney General, ‘Memorandum of Decision Regarding the Objections to the Findings of Professional Misconduct in the Office of Personal Responsibility's Report of Investigation into the Office of Legal Counsel's Memoranda Concerning Issues Relating to the Central Intelligence Agency's Use of “Enhanced Interrogation Techniques” on Suspected Terrorists', 5 January 2010, http://www.aclu.org/files/pdfs/natsec/opr20100219/20100105_DAG_Margolis_Memo.pdf.

58 John Yoo, ‘Litigating for Terrorists', Wall Street Journal, 3 May 2012.

59 Ibid.

60 John Yoo, ‘My Gift to the Obama Presidency’, Wall Street Journal, 24 February 2010.

61 John Yoo, ‘Closing Arguments: Finally, an End to Justice Dept. Investigations', Philadelphia Inquirer, 28 February 2010.

62 Senate Select Committee on Intelligence, Committee Study of the Central Intelligence Agency's Detention and Interrogation Program; Minority Views, 5 December 2014, http://www.intelligence.senate.gov/study2014/sscistudy3.pdf.

63 Cheryl Gay Stolberg and Eric Lichtblau, ‘Ex-Chief Leads Vocal Defense of C.I.A.’, New York Times, 12 December 2014.

64 Amy Davidson, ‘Torture in a Dick Cheney Minute’, New Yorker, 14 December 2014, http://www.newyorker.com/news/amy-davidson/torture-dick-cheney-minute.

65 The website is entitled ‘CIA Saved Lives'.

66 Mark Mazzetti and Matt Apuzzo, ‘C.I.A. Director Defends Use of Interrogation Tactics, Avoiding Issue of Torture’, New York Times, 11 December 2014.

67 Ibid.

68 Central Intelligence Agency, ‘CIA Fact Sheet Regarding the SSCI Study on the Former Detention and Interrogation Program’, https://www.cia.gov/news-information/press-releases-statements/2014-press-releases-statements/cia-fact-sheet-ssci-study-on-detention-interrogation-program.html.

69 Ruti G. Teitel, Transitional Justice (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2000).

70 Jon Elster, Closing the Books: Transitional Justice in Historical Perspective (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2004).

71 Paul Horwitz, ‘Democracy as the Rule of Law’, in Hussain and Sarat, eds, When Governments Break the Law.

72 David Luban, Torture, Power, and Law (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press 2014), 283.

73 Philip Rucker, ‘Leady Proposed Panel To Investigate Bush Era’, Washington Post, 10 February 2009.

74 Michael Scharf and Valerie Epps, ‘The International Trial of the Century?: A “Cross-Fire” Exchange on the First Case Before the Yugoslavia War Crimes Tribunal', Cornell Journal International Law 29 (1996): 638, n.8.

75 Basic Principles and Guidelines on the Right to a Remedy and Reparation for Victims of Gross Violations of International Human Rights Law and Serious Violations of International Humanitarian Law, para. 18 G.A. Res. 60/147, annex, UN Doc. A/RES/60/147 (2006).

76 Jane Mayer, ‘Eric Holder and the Battle over Khalid Sheikh Mohammed’, New Yorker, 15 February 2010.

77 ACLU, The U.S. Torture Program: A Blueprint for Accountability, https://www.aclu.org/sites/default/files/assets/torture_accountability_blueprint.pdf; Kenneth Roth, ‘The CIA Torturers Should be Prosecuted’, Washington Post, 12 December 2014; Amnesty International, ‘USA: “We Torture Some Folks”; The Wait for Truth, Remedy, and Accountability Continues as Redaction Delays Release of Senate Report on CIA Detentions' (2014), http://www.amnesty.org/en/library/asset/AMR51/046/2014/en/8d0c7580-56f8-4b33-b8c9-78994c4e2c55/amr510462014en.pdf.

78 National Religious Campaign against Torture, ‘Torture is a Moral Issue’, http://www.nrcat.org/post-911-detainees/commission-of-inquiry.

79 Scott Shane, ‘Amid Details on Torture, Data on 26 Who Were Held in Error', New York Times, 12 December 2014.

80 Bell, ‘Transitional Justice’.

81 I am grateful to Jo-Marie Burt for this observation. For example, during the early 1980s, the most violent period of the Guatemalan civil war, government forces systematically raped, tortured and murdered thousands of members of indigenous Mayan communities as part of a ‘scorched earth' campaign. See Center for Justice and Accountability, Guatemala, ‘Silent Holocaust’: The Mayan Genocide, http://www.cja.org/article.php?list=type&type=294. In Peru, the poor, rural and indigenous were often the targets of grave human rights violations committed during that country's internal armed conflict. See Jo-Marie Burt, ‘Guilty as Charged: The Trial of Former Peruvian President Alberto Fujimori for Human Rights Violations', International Journal Transitional Justice 3, no. 3 (2009): 384.

82 Jo-Marie Burt, ‘The New Accountability Agenda in Latin America: The Promise and Perils of Human Rights Prosecutions', in Challenges of the Past and Challenges for the Future, ed. Katherine Hite and Mark Ungar (Washington, DC: Woodrow Wilson Center for International Scholars Press, 2013), 105.

83 Lisa J. Laplante, ‘Outlawing Amnesty: The Return of Criminal Justice in Transitional Justice Schemes', Virginia Journal International Law 49 (2009): 915.

84 José Zalaquett, ‘Balancing Ethical Imperatives and Political Constraints: The Dilemma of New Democracies Confronting Human Rights Violations', in Transitional Justice: How Emerging Democracies Reckon with the Past, ed. Neil Kritz (Washington, DC: United States Institute of Peace, 1992).

85 Burt, ‘The New Accountability Agenda in Latin America’; Sikkink, The Justice Cascade.

86 Burt, ‘The New Accountability Agenda in Latin America’.

87 Elaine Scarry, ‘Presidential Crimes: Moving On Is Not an Option’, Boston Review, September–October 2008.

88 George W. Bush, Decision Points (New York: Crown, 2010), 169–70.

89 Anne E. Kornblut, ‘In Interview, Bush Defends Iraq War and Waterboarding’, Washington Post, 9 November 2010.

90 Chris McGreal, ‘Dick Cheney Defends Use of Torture on al-Qaida Leaders', The Guardian, 9 September 2011.

91 Ibid.

92 Dick Cheney, ‘Speech to American Enterprise Institute’, 21 May 2009, http://www.politico.com/news/stories/0509/22823_Page2.html.

93 Davidson, ‘Torture in a Dick Cheney Minute’.

94 Marc A. Thiessen, Courting Disaster: How the CIA Kept America Safe (Washington, DC: Regnery Publishing, 2010).

95 Marita Sturken, ‘Comfort, Irony, and Trivialization: The Mediation of Torture’, International Journal of Cultural Studies 14 (2011): 423.

96 Hussain and Sarat, ‘Responding to Lawlessness', 20.

97 Horwitz, ‘Democracy as the Rule of Law’.

98 Adam Goldman and Peyton Craighill, ‘New Poll Finds Majority of Americans Think Torture was Justified after 9/11 Attacks', Washington Post, 16 December 2014.

99 Convention against Torture, arts 7, 12.

100 King, ‘Amnesties in a Time of Transition’, 603; Naomi Roht-Arriaza, ‘Combating Impunity: Some Thoughts on the Way Forward’, Law & Contemporary Problems 59 (1996): 93, 94.

101 Mary E. McCleod, Acting US Legal Advisor, US Department of State, Opening Statement before the UN Committee against Torture, 12–13 November 2014, https://geneva.usmission.gov/2014/11/12/acting-legal-adviser-mcleod-u-s-affirms-torture-is-prohibited-at-all-times-in-all-places/.

102 See Elizabeth B. Ludwin King, ‘Amnesties in a Time of Transition’, George Washington International Law Review 41 (2010): 577, 604.

103 See Velásquez-Rodríguez v. Honduras, Merits, Judgment, Inter-Am.Ct.H.R. (ser. C) No. 4, P 166 (29 July 1988) (ruling that implicit in a state's duty to ensure the rights recognised in the American Convention on Human Rights is the duty to ‘prevent, investigate, and punish' violations of those rights); Barrios Altos v. Peru, Merits, Judgment, Inter-Am. Ct. H.R. (ser. C) No. 75, P 41 (14 March 2001) (ruling that an amnesty law enacted by Peru after a government death squad massacred 15 people violated the American Convention on Human Rights and that the perpetrators could be held accountable).

104 Charlie Savage, ‘Election to Decide Future Interrogation Methods in Terrorism Cases', New York Times, 27 September 2012.