US and the Lawless Age of ‘War on Terror,’ Contextualizing the Ubiquity of Torture Practices

Abstract

Though inarguably condemned in practice, the practice of torture conducted by state entities remains a common narrative in the human rights discourse. Though commonplace worldwide, such practices have been immensely surfaced since the tragic events that took place 11 September 2001, with numerous states such as the US, deliberately normalizing torture as one of the essential means taken to gather counterterrorism-related intelligences. The resurface of enhanced interrogation techniques reflects ambiguities of how this has come to be, despite the conspicuous human rights regimes illegalizing such barbaric practices, and the familiarity of the US echo of civil rights protection globally. Thus such fundamental concerns above raises the question of how the US throughout the years, normalized torture practices under the deliberately constructed lawless age of ‘War on Terror.’ It argues of the purposive assembling of terrorism classification as essentially distinct compared to numerous types of combatants present historically and in the status quo, thus shaping the entitlement of an inhumane status, unbound nor limited from existing International laws. It further argues of the general weaknesses of existing human rights regimes in limiting state practices in the lawless age of terror, reflecting the human rights regime’s inability to exert power and reflecting the prevalence of torture-backed politic