Could Yoos Memo Have Caused Abuses, Or Cause Them in the Future?
While Yoo does not expressly discuss torture in his memo, it seems impossible that the issue would not have been on his mind. After all, he co-wrote the memo in the wake of September 11, when the interrogation of suspected terrorists and other suspected hostile persons was already a priority for the Bush Administration. In addition to the Abu Ghraib abuses, there have also been much less publicized reports of possible acts of torture and abuse by U.S. forces in connection with the war on terrorism elsewhere – in Guantanamo, and in Afghanistan’s prisons. Yoo’s memo may have played a causal role in fostering these possible abuses – not only because of what it said, but because of what it did not say. Had the memo taken an opposite view, would-be torturers might have thought long and hard before going ahead. Indeed, had the memo even been written more equivocally, and more responsibly – for instance, stressing the immorality of any torture, while expressing the view that it was technicall
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