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From:Jane Mayer , Doubleday ,
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User Rating: Amazon Sales Rank:#829 |
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 FRIGHTENING AND EMBARRASSING IN EQUAL MEASURE, 2008-09-27
(From a conversation with the author on a local radio call-in program)
Somehow, i endured to the end of this frightening book. It frightened me in ways i didn't know i could be frightened. I found your vignettes well-supported and the story they tell, coherent and overwhelming. They are even more overwhelming when read as a whole than as a series of episodes.
By the time I got to the bottom of page 274, and read that Ramzi Kassem, whom you describe as having taught at Yale Law School, had reported that his Yemeni client "told him that during his incarceration in the Dark Prison [which you report as being near Kabul Airport] he had attempted suicide three tines by ramming his head into the walls..." By that point, knowing that I still had 60 nightmarish pages to finish, i found myself considering beating my own head with the book, so i wouldn't have to read them.
I have three questions. First, how have you defended "The Dark Side" against people who continue to support what i'd term Cheney/Bush's "security über allez" irrespective of constitutionality approach? Second, have you faced charges that you are merely "swiftboating" Cheney/Bush; if so, how would you defend yourself? I ask these questions so that i might better help you defended your book when people around me question your work. [The author answered that not a single claim had been challenged by anyone involved, or by any agent of the government,]
Finally, in view of Dan Levin's 'magic footnote' (my term) which stated that "nothing that the [US} government had previously authorized would be considered criminal under [Levin's] new interpretation of the law" (page 306, bottom), do you, Ms. Mayer foresee any possibility of criminal charges being brought against either Cheney or Bush under US laws? ... or War Crime charges being brought at the World Court? Is it possible that any of the Principles Group cold be arrested under international law, as General Pinochet was in England? [The author responded that this was unlikely to happen in the US,, but more likely to happen in another country---so, I say, let's start up a Bush/Cheney/Rumsfeld international travel fund!]
Thank you for writing this truly troubling book.
3 of 4 customers found the following review helpful:
The most essential book written in the past 10 years., 2008-09-22
If you truly love your country, you must read this book. I have to be honest, because I love my country, because the ideals of this nation are so important, because due process and the rule of law are what separate us from our enemies, I felt incredible sadness, even shame as an American, reading this book. Still, it must be read, and it should be read by everyone planning to vote in November. Quite simply, Bush, Cheney, Addington, Yoo and others betrayed this nation and, I believe, should be brought up on war crime charges. And, if you think I'm just another liberal, you're wrong. I supported the first President Bush and John McCain in 2000, and I honor of memory and legacy of Ronald Reagan.
The truth is never easy to accept, but it must come out. We should always remember John 8:32.
7 of 17 customers found the following review helpful:
 An adult argentinian reader, 2008-09-21
1)I purchased the book with great expectations after watching in "youtube" an interview to the author.
2) I can tel you aint cheap to buy a USA printed book from Argentina
3)Read anxoiusly and carrefully expecting to understad at least partially what was going on in the "war on terror"
4)Atonished enough I found a boy''s scout history.
5) Above because being a 60 year old argentinian citizen, all the what is written in the book we saw it on a much more larger scale, torture wise and number of people killed or "desaparecida" in our country
6)Pls don 't get me wrong , I'm, not a leftiest, I was presumably on the "right side" i.e I didn't expect militaries to pick me on the middle of the night, as it happened so often.
7)Above being said please let me say tha at a minumin the author of the book didn't studied what happened with the "war on terror" indoctrinated to the argentinan miltaries, by their US advisor on the 70's & the 80's., which I can assure you, where much but much worst/horrible of what had happened in the Irak.
8)Maybe we, in the southern corn of the hemisphre we are not, these days, strategically important, but nevertheless it's quite depressing reading a description of horrors, that bein what they are HORRORS, are nor different of what we saw in this part of the world for do many years, without the wordl taking notice a that time
2 of 2 customers found the following review helpful:
A detailed account of sick, and immoral behavior by trusted government officials, 2008-09-19
Jane Mayer has written a brilliant and well documented book about the abuses and immoral behavior of the Vice President Richard Cheney and his staff of lawyers. At no time in American history have we seen an abuse of power so blatant and so shocking as to leave the reader shaking with disbelief, shame and anger. Ms. Mayer documents the slide of American laws and constitution into the gutter by those who not only misinterpreted the law, but perverted the law, which ultimately resulted in the torture and death of the alleged and the innocent. The reader will quickly realized while reading the book that those responsible for this travesty of justice will ultimately go free, or will never face a day in court for their criminal behavior.
Ms. Mayer's exhaustive documentation implicates VP Cheney and his lawyers Addington and Yoo for spearheading the most immoral information gathering program in American history. There are others, such as the office of the Sec. Def who pressed subordinates to ratchet up torture, then denied any and all involvement when the media discovered the abuses at Abu Ghraib. The CIA Director also turned a blind eye to his agents as they tortured and murdered those suspected of terrorism, whether justified or not.
This book is a must read. It should be part of law classes throughout the US as an example of what not to do, and should be a warning to law administrators everywhere that ethics is more than a one semester class.
2 of 2 customers found the following review helpful:
 Disturbing, but important reading, 2008-09-19
This book makes very clear how the current administration has violently mistreated prisoners under the banner of the "war on terror" and then had to prevent cases from going to trial because of the legal exposure. People have been "disappeared" with little or no evidence of any wrongdoing. Torture forces people to say something/anything to make the pain stop and has been proven to not provide reliable information.If you aren't already angry and disgusted at the abuse of power by the current administration, then you need to educate yourself by reading Jane Mayer's book.
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