Reading Room Document

Military Interrogation of Alien Unlawful Combatants Held Outside the United States

This opinion, colloquially known as one of the "torture memos" and subsequently rescinded, considers whether military interrogation of alien "enemy combatants" is legal under domestic and international law. It concludes that neither the Fifth and Eighth Amendments or federal criminal laws apply to such military interrogations; in the unlikely case of criminal proseuction against the U.S. government, necessity or self-defense could provide justification for any criminal liability. Finally, the opinion finds that under customary international law and the U.N. Convention Against Torture, the U.S. government is only obliged to follow its domestic standards against torture and cruel punishment. The OLC does not provide release dates for its opinions, so the release date listed is the date on which the opinion was authored. The original opinion is available at https://justice.gov/olc/docs/memo-combatantsoutsideunitedstates.pdf.

March 14, 2003