On the 25th anniversary of the September 11 attacks, Amnesty International warns that the abuses perpetrated in the name of the "war on terror" following the U.S. response remain unpunished, consolidating since then a global dynamic of impunity and absence of accountability.
The organization argues that the reaction to the Al Qaeda attacks "did not seek a world governed by justice and Human Rights" and became a "blank check" to violate fundamental rights. "In the face of the horror of that crime against humanity that impacted the entire world, governments did not choose to reinforce the rules to protect us from horror, but rather to shed them," noted Esteban Beltrán, director of Amnesty International Spain.
Beltrán emphasizes that that decision "continues to have lethal consequences 25 years later" and recalls that "the use of torture was allowed in the United States in its operations abroad" as well as "secret detentions in secret prisons, targeted killings, indefinite detentions for decades without charges, trials without guarantees in military courts, and mass surveillance of innocent people."
Additionally, he underscores that this policy facilitated the invasion of Afghanistan and Iraq by the United States, which "led to many other violations of Human Rights."
According to Amnesty International, "The blank check to commit Human Rights violations in the name of security that Congress gave to George Bush then continues to apply today with Donald Trump," warning of the progressive erosion of "the current legality in the name of the presumed future good."
Beltrán points out that "Atrocities that were committed then can have their reflection in the current world: the authorization of the use of torture then is seen today in extrajudicial executions that the United States commits impunely in attacks on boats leaving Venezuela and Ecuador," and adds that the claims over Greenland or the collusion of big tech companies with military campaigns illustrate the same logic inaugurated after the September 11 attacks.