Paper
One week after 9/11, when Congress approved the Authorization for the Use of Military Force
(AUMF) (PL 107–40) against those who planned or aided the 9/11 attacks, it unwittingly laid the
foundation upon which the President would construct an illegal framework for torture, endless
detention, inhuman assassinations, and other violations of international law.
The Iraq War Resolution a year later allowed the continued expansion of those activities. Hundreds of thousands of individuals have been detained in the ten years since 9/11, with 83,000 detained in only the first four years of the war effort, and over 100,000 in Iraq alone.12 Many were determined to be innocent and some were released, but their unjust detention and treatment helped embed mistrust towards the United States across an entire region. Additionally, anti-American sentiment will likely linger for another generation in the children who observed their fathers, brothers, uncles and cousins taken away without trial.