exception or equivocation that the United States of America does not torture , '' he said during an address to a joint session of Congress in February . More than 400 people have been disciplined based on investigations involving detainee abuse , according to Pentagon spokesman Bryan Whitman . He said the punishments have ranged from prison sentences to demotions and letters of reprimand . `` The policy of the Department of Defense is to treat prisoners humanely , and those who have violated that policy have been investigated and disciplined , '' he said . The most notorious of the cases centered on Abu Ghraib prison in Iraq . In 2004 , images leaked to the media showed U.S. troops abusing Iraqi prisoners . Some prisoners were stacked atop each other while naked , and others were being threatened by dogs . See disturbing images from Abu Ghraib -LRB- discretion advised -RRB- '' One widely disseminated photograph showed an Iraqi prisoner hooded and wired , as if an electrocution were about to take place . Eleven American soldiers were tried and convicted of Abu Ghraib offenses , and some officers were reprimanded . Some received prison sentences . Janis
-LRB- CNN -RRB- -- The current debate over controversial interrogation practices -- tactics that some say constitute torture -- is rooted in the early years of the fight against terrorism and the Iraq war . The photographs from Abu Ghraib prison in Iraq sparked outrage across the globe . After the September 11 terrorist attacks on the United States , the Bush administration crafted the legal basis for aggressive interrogation techniques of prisoners and terrorism suspects . The techniques included keeping the prisoner in stress positions for extended periods of time , sleep deprivation , slapping , enclosing the prisoner in a box with insects , and waterboarding , which simulates drowning . Those techniques were detailed in four Bush-era legal memos -- one from 2002 and three from 2005 -- released by the Obama administration last month . The memos concluded that such techniques did not constitute torture and were not illegal . See timeline of events '' The Obama administration disagrees . President Obama formally banned the techniques by issuing an executive order requiring that the U.S. Army field manual be used as the guide for terror interrogations . `` I can stand here tonight and say without