The Torture Report: A Graphic Adaptation

Jacobson and Colón's first collaboration, The 9/11 Report: A Graphic Adaptation, began their journey of turning wordy government documents into graphic works, which continues here. Using the 525-page summary from the Senate Intelligence Committee, they draw sometimes shocking and very disturbing black-and-white images from the true stories contained therein. This all began after September 11, 2001, when President George W. Bush allowed the CIA to capture and imprison known or suspected terrorists in locations outside of U.S. jurisdiction. This meant the prisoners were not held to conventional standards of treatment, according to then Attorney Gen. John Ashcroft. In other words, they could be tortured. For the next few years, many prisoners were subjected to waterboarding, thrown against walls, slapped in the face and abdomen, kept awake for days at a time, fed just enough to keep them alive, forced to endure cold environments without clothes, and other "Enhanced Interrogation Techniques," as the CIA called them. Several of these accounts are told for specific prisoners. In nearly all cases, the torture revealed no new or useful information.