When the United States turned to torture after 9/11, it remained a closely guarded secret for over two years. Yet the early signs were there in public for those who knew how to interpret them. Images were released in January 2002 of detainees in Guantanamo Bay wearing orange uniforms, manacled, masked and kneeling on the ground with heads bowed. Officials spoke of the detainees in dehumanising terms in speeches and interviews which were littered with tough talk. As one CIA official told a reporter, “After 9/11, the gloves came off.” Two months after the Hamas attack on October 7, we saw the fi…