Mark Danner

Fighting terrorism — and the urge to ignore our basic American principles

Author: Alberto Mora

In late 2002, the Naval Criminal Investigative Service uncovered evidence that detainees were being abused during interrogations at the Guantanamo Bay Naval Base. Concerned about the lawlessness and the professional incompetence of the interrogators, they sought out a senior attorney in the Defense Department’s office of general counsel. Nothing could be done, the attorney blandly informed them. “The decision has been taken,” he said, “and, anyway, if the public were to find out, no one would care.”

Mark Danner is in the camp of those who do care. He has produced incisive journalism and books over the past three decades exploring the moral dimension of war and foreign policy. His essays in the New York Review of Books on Abu Ghraib were among the first to reveal the bleak reality and moral vacuum of the George W. Bush administration’s torture policy.

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