Straightening the record

摘要

Could it be that the penny has finally dropped? Ever since the terrorist attacks on September nth 2001, dismay has grown around the world at the Bush administration's apparent willingness to ignore both domestic and international laws in pursuit of its war on terror. "We will take the gloves off!" Donald Rumsfeld, the defence secretary, famously declared. In retrospect, that seemed like a euphemism for what was to follow: Guantanamo, Abu Ghraib, the torture memos, indefinite detention without trial, extraordinary rendition, warrantless eavesdropping, secret CIA prisons, "ghost" detainees.