The Senate Armed Services Committee Report on Detainee Treatment was declassified and released in 2009 . It stated , The abuse of detainees in U.S. custody can not simply be attributed to the actions of " a few bad apples " acting on their own . The fact is that senior officials in the United States government solicited information on how to use aggressive techniques , redefined the law to create the appearance of their legality , and authorized their use against detainees . Those efforts damaged our ability to collect accurate intelligence that could save lives , strengthened the hand of our enemies , and compromised our moral authority . On 14 September 2001 , Congress passed the Authorization for Use of Military Force Against Terrorists , giving the President of the United States broad powers to prosecute a War on Terror in response to the September 11 attacks . Secretary of State Colin Powell and State Department Legal Advisor William Howard Taft IV advised that the President must observe the Geneva Conventions . Colonel Lawrence Morris proposed holding public hearings modeled on the Nuremberg trials . Major General Thomas Romig , the Judge Advocate General of the United States Army , recommended any new military tribunals be modeled on existing courts-martial
September 11 attacks
September 11 attacks
Guantanamo Bay detention camp