2001/10: Justice Department writes the first torture memo: international
torture law does not cover "stress factors".
2001/12/28: DoJ Office of Legal Counsel writes a second torture memo:
Guantanamo is outside of all court jurisdiction.
2002/01: General Rick Baccus treats the first group of Guantanamo prisoners
humanely, tells them Geneva Convention rights. Rumsfeld later relieves
him of command.
2002/01/09: John Yoo and Robert Delahunty write torture memo to Department
of Defense: the laws of war do not apply in Afghanistan, and international
law has "no binding legal effect on either the President or the military".
2002/01/11: State Department Legal Adviser William Taft IV says Yoo
memo is "seriously flawed", wants to follow Geneva Conventions.
2002/01/22: Updated torture memos passed to White House Counsel.
2002/01/25: Alberto Gonzales and David Addington write
response
memo directly to Bush: "this new paradigm renders obsolete Geneva's
strict limitations on questioning of enemy prisoners and renders quaint
some of its provisions", and "substantially reduces the threat of domestic
criminal prosecution under the War Crimes Act".
2002/01/26: Colin Powell personally objects.
2002/02/01: John Ashcroft writes letter to Bush: "If a determination
is made that Afghanistan was a failed state, various legal risks of liability,
litigation, and criminal prosecution are minimized".
2002/02/07: White House decides that a few Geneva Conventions apply
to Afghanistan, but not the parts about PoWs.
2002/04: Al Qaida official Abu Zubaydah captured, tortured.
2002/07: Halliburton/KBR gets $16 million
to keep building cells.
2002/08/01: Jay
Bybee writes torture memo to Gonzales titled "Standards of Conduct
for Interrogations": "certain acts may be cruel, inhuman, or degrading,
but still not produce pain and suffering of the requisite intensity to
fall within Section 2340A's proscription against torture". And besides,
"necessity or self-defense may justify interrogation methods that might
violate Section 2340A".
2002/09/26: Maher
Arar, a Canadian citizen, is detained in New York while boarding a
plane for home. He is sent to a prison in Syria and tortured
with electric cables for a year.
2002/10: Guantanamo commanders ask for permission to use stronger methods.
2002/10/25: General James Hill passes request to the Joint Chief, with
a few misgivings: "I am particularly troubled by the use of implied or
expressed threats of death of the detainee or his family".
2002/11/27: William Haynes sends Action Memo to Donald Rumsfeld on behalf
of Guantanamo.
2002/12: Rumsfeld authorizes hooding, nakedness, dark rooms, and "using
detainees' individual phobias (such as fear of dogs) to induce stress".
2002/12: At least two prisoners beaten to death in Afghanistan.
2003/01/15: After Navy interrogators object to the new techniques, Rumsfeld
takes it back.
2003/03/06: Pentagon writes memo: "the prohibition against torture [in
the 1994 criminal statute] must be construed as inapplicable to interrogations
undertaken pursuant to his commander-in-chief authority".
2003/04: Rumsfeld approves new list of allowed interrogation methods.
2003/04: Judge Advocate General's office secretly contacts international
human rights lawyer Scott Horton, asks him to go to court since they can't
intervene.
2003/05: Four soldiers plea-bargain to beating Iraqi prisoners, quietly
discharged.
2003/05: Guantanamo General Geoffrey Miller writes "72-point matrix
for stress and duress" which recommends hooding, nakedness, dark rooms,
and increasing levels of pain.
2003/??: CIA interrogators and CACI
contractors hold secret prisoners in Iraq.
2003/06/01: US withdraws military aid from 50
countries for supporting international prosecution of war crimes.
2003/06: General Karpinski takes command of prisons. Like most of her
troops, she has no experience with prisons.
2003/??: CIA "ghost detainees" shuttled around different cells to avoid
being seen by Red Cross.
2003/09: General Miller visits Karpinski, puts Abu Ghraib prison under
command of military intelligence.
2003/10: General Ryder investigates prisons.
2003/11/05: Ryder report indicates lack of controls. Pentagon calls
for second inquiry.
2003/11: Undocumented prisoner killed during interrogation, then packed
in ice, given fake IV, listed as medical mortality.
2003/12: General Karpinski says "living conditions now are better in
prison than at home. At one point we were concerned that they wouldn't
want to leave."
2003/several: Red Cross detects abuse. Their reports "repeatedly asked
the U.S. authorities to take corrective action".
2004/01: General Taguba questions prison guards, gets confessions.
2004/01/??: General Karpinski reassigned. The abuse continues.
2004/02/??: Taguba report explicitly verifies abuse. No action taken.
2004/04/15: CBS gets abuse photos, asks DoD, then holds story for two
weeks. No action taken.
2004/04/29 morning: Donald Rumsfeld meets with Senate Armed Services
committee, does not mention abuse problem.
2004/04/29 evening: Abuse at Abu Ghraib on
60 Minutes II.
2004/04/30: New Yorker publishes
Hersh article, excerpts of Taguba report.
2004/06/08: Congressional 9/11 Commission asks for torture memos. John
Ashcroft refuses, says there is no link between the administration redefining
torture and the soldiers committing torture.
2004/06/28: Supreme Court rules that indefinite detainees have a right
to judicial review.
2004/07/07: Paul Wolfowitz stalls for time by proposing rigged
tribunals.
