Kenneth Roth, a former executive director of Human Rights Watch, argues that George W. Bush's abusive response to the September 11 attacks, which went unprosecuted, has enabled Donald Trump's current lawless policies. Roth asserts that if senior Bush officials had been prosecuted for ordering torture and endless detention, Trump would be less able to pursue similar actions today.
Bush's Post-9/11 Abuses
Twenty-five years ago, Roth witnessed the 9/11 attacks from the Human Rights Watch office in the Empire State Building. Bush and Vice-President Dick Cheney responded by deploying torture and indefinite detention without trial at Guantanamo. Initially, many Americans accepted these extraordinary measures due to fear, but dissent grew as the brutality became apparent.
The Detainee Treatment Act of 2005, sponsored by Senator John McCain, closed some legal loopholes, but no senior official was ever prosecuted for the torture. Roth highlights a May 2009 meeting with Barack Obama, where he and colleagues urged prosecution of senior Bush officials. Obama declined, prioritizing healthcare reform and other issues, leaving a legacy of impunity.
Legacy of Impunity
Roth notes that later administrations, including Biden's and Trump's, have not revived torture but have continued military aid to Israel despite its systematic torture of Palestinian detainees. Trump's deportation agents have used excessive force, suggesting confidence in similar impunity for immigration enforcement.
Bush's indefinite detention at Guantanamo has had lethal consequences, Roth argues. The "enemy combatant" label was a legal device to sidestep criminal prosecution, but there was no organized military force on the other side. Roth warned at the time that this could lead to suspects being killed, as in war there is no duty to capture.
Trump's Fake War on Drugs
Trump has now concocted a war on drug traffickers, declaring suspected traffickers in boats in the Caribbean and eastern Pacific as "narcoterrorists" to justify killing them by drone rather than capturing them. Roth points to Obama and Biden administrations' summary killings in Yemen and Pakistan, which invoked an imminent threat exception, but that is not applicable for drug suspects whom the Coast Guard can interdict.
Roth concludes that past abuses, when glossed over, set precedents that return. He urges state and international prosecutors to act now, insisting the next administration should address Trump's abuses. "It is too late to address the Bush-era atrocities, but it is not too late to address Trump's," he writes.
