Wish List/Gloves Off pewter, 2007
Oil on linen, 4 elements
102.25 x 316 x 1.5 in.

Location: East Gallery

By the summer of 2003, the insurgency in Iraq had taken a toll on coalition forces, and U.S. Army interrogators, many with little training or experience, were finding reliable and actionable intelligence hard to obtain. One Army captain circulated an e-mail requesting a “wish list” of interrogation methods for dealing with unprivileged belligerents. This sparked an internal debate, with some soldiers arguing that “enhanced” techniques were justified by the need to protect Americans, while others insisted that ethical principles must come first.

The original source document for this work can be found here.