9 Ways 9/11 Changed U.S. Politics Forever

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“In its untethered language,” Karen Greenberg, director of the Center on National Security at Fordham University School of Law, tells Teen Vogue, “the AUMF stated no geographical limits, no naming of an enemy, and no end date.” This problematically vague phrasing allowed for the expansion of armed conflict in the 21st century under the dubious justification of “fighting terror.”

“In a way, coming back from the expansiveness of the Bush years, it was a big selling point," says Greenberg. "Like, ‘We’re gonna do this war but do it strategically.’ However, it completely changed the legal framework. Who says who gets targeted?” She points out that the U.S. Constitution, outside of armed conflict, forbids killing Americans without due process, which is protected under the Fifth Amendment. But several Americans, including children, have been killed through drone warfare and targeted kill lists.

In January 2002, the Bush administration established Guantánamo Bay Detention Camp in Cuba as a place where terrorism suspects could be detained indefinitely without due process and interrogated through torture, outside the bounds of law. Importantly, the men held in Guantánamo were not called “prisoners," but “detainees.” “'Prisoner' evokes legal standing,” says Greenberg. And legal standing means legal rights, which, by design, don’t exist in Guantánamo.

During this period, the use of torture against suspected terrorists became official policy. Euphemistically known as “enhanced interrogation,” this program was designed by the highest officials in the Bush administration, with the explicit support of the Department of Justice, the Department of Defense (DOD), and the CIA. “The idea that torture would be considered legal by the Department of Justice was unthinkable before 9/11 and should have been unthinkable after,” says Greenberg. Instead, waterboarding, stress positions, extreme temperatures, psychological abuse, and more became routine.

“Torture is wrong, indefinite detention is wrong, assassination is wrong,” states Greenberg. “And yet nobody has been held accountable. We ask ourselves how we got to where we are today and it’s like, ‘Hello!’” Not a single high-ranking official from the Bush or Obama administration, the DOJ, the DOD, or the CIA has been held responsible for implementing policy outside the bounds of the Constitution or international law. This has established a norm that those with power — even in a functioning democracy — are not liable for their actions.