Ian Fishback


Ian Fishback is a former United States Army officer, who became known after he sent a letter to Senator John McCain of Arizona on September 16, 2005, in which Fishback stated his concerns about the continued abuse of prisoners held under the auspices of the Global War on Terror.
McCain, along with Republican Senators John Warner and Lindsey Graham afterward wrote an amendment to a Senate bill which would make illegal previous Bush administration claims for the use of extreme methods of abuse.

Biography

Fishback is a 1997 graduate of Newberry High School in Newberry, Michigan.
He was admitted to West Point and achieved the rank of Major in the U.S. Army Special Forces.
He served four combat tours in the US Army, one in Afghanistan and three in Iraq.
In May 2012, Fishback received an M.A. in Political Science from the University of Michigan, writing a master thesis on just war theory.
From 2012 to 2015, he served as an instructor at West Point.
He is currently a Ph.D. student in Philosophy at the University of Michigan, Ann Arbor researching the interplay of morality and law in regards to proportionality and necessity.

Letter to McCain

Fishback expressed concern about what he perceived as a military culture that was permissive toward the abuse of prisoners.

Recognition

During debates over his amendment, Senator McCain said:
On May 8, 2006, Fishback was chosen by TIME magazine as one of the 100 most influential people in the world for taking the stand against torture.
Matthew Harwood, an associate editor at Security Management magazine, wrote in Attitudes aren’t free: Thinking deeply about diversity in the US Armed Forces that Fishback's letter to Senator McCain "is a testament that inside the US military lies redemption."