Advocacy on Trial

Abstract

In his recently published memoir, Decision Points, George Bush documents the decision to authorise enhanced interrogation techniques, one of the more controversial products of his presidency. Interestingly, in his reflections on this decision, he explicitly notes the role of his lawyers, in statements that manage to be both defensive and self-congratulatory. Discussing the criticism the administration received in the years after the event, Bush notes: Once the threat seemed less urgent and the political winds had shifted, many lawmakers became fierce critics. They charged that Americans had committed unlawful torture. That was not true. I had asked the most senior legal officers in the US government to review the interrogation methods, and they had assured me that they did not constitute torture. To suggest that our intelligence personnel violated the law by following the legal guidance they received is insulting and wrong.