George Orwell once said that the natural language of politics was euphemism. In his era, bombing campaigns were termed “pacification”; later decades saw civilian deaths be reduced to “collateral damage,” and kidnappings become “rendition operations.”
With the war on terror, a phrase that is itself worthy of scrutiny, euphemism flourished. Senior US officials were the innovators—speaking of “enhanced” and “alternative” interrogation techniques, when what was going on was torture—but the media followed close behind.
“We do not torture,” said President Bush in 2005, in response to mounting evidence of abuse. It was a straightforward, declaratory statement, the kind that Orwell liked, except it was also a bald lie. The following year, when Bush announced that 14 “high value” detainees were being transferred from CIA custody to Guantanamo, he said that the CIA had not tortured them, but had used an “alternative set of procedures.”
The interrogation methods the CIA used were, in his words, “tough,” “safe,” “lawful,” and “necessary.”
Credible legal experts have long characterized the Bush administration’s abusive methods as torture. But the U.S. media, in contrast, has avoided the term. Media outlets such as National Public Radio and the New York Times have preferred to discuss the Bush administration’s “harsh interrogat…
