Torture memo : en legitimering av tortyr som normaltillstånd

Sammanfattning: After 9/11 2001, the U.S. government proclaimed war on terror. In the purpose to prohibit future attacks on the U.S. and their civilian a secret work started at the Office of Legal Councile to define and guideline actions in the war of terror. The first memorandum is named The Bybee Torture Memo and started up an extensive activity to legitimize the use of torture against terror suspected. From several sources this has been lifted to a legitimization of interrogation methods and considered a normalization of torture. The purpose of my paper is, with the help of normalization theory, to examine whether the Bybee Torture Memo can considered being part of a normalization process of torture. I have used a theory named Normalization Process Theory (NPT) to make an analyze of the Bybee Torture Memo to see if it is possible even to theoretically talk about it as a normalization. I have made a content analyze of the memorandum with the help of NPT and come to the conclusion that it is possible to talk about the memorandum as a part of a normalization process. I had to leave some part of the NPT beside as I have not studied the institutional process as a whole. If I could include even the other memorandums that use to be included in the Torture memo and if I could follow the organizational practice in field, the analyze could be more complete and perhaps also have changed the outcome. Key words: The Bybee Torture Memo, Torture, Torture Memo, Normalization, Normalization Process Theory Abstrakt Efter attackerna den 11 september år 2001 proklamerade den amerikanska staten kriget mot terrorism. I jakten på terrorister har det genom hemligstämplade dokument som läckt till media visat sig att speciella förhörsmetoder av fångar tillämpas för att utvinna information om terrornätverk och dess planer. Från flera håll har det lyfts att en legitimering av förhörsmetoderna skapar en normalisering av tortyr. Syftet med uppsatsen är att med hjälp av Normalization Process Theory (NPT) för att göra en analys av Bybee Torture Memo för att se om det är teoretiskt möjligt att tala om en normalisering. Metoden jag använder mig av är utformad från Normalization Process Theory. Med hjälp av NPT når jag slutsatsen att det är möjligt att tala om Bybee Torture Memo som en del i en normaliseringsprocess.