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TechnoratiBook: "A Policy of Deliberate Cruelty"
TAMPA, Florida - Perhaps the most thorough and informative book about the George W. Bush administration's approval of the use of torture and "extraordinary renditions" of alleged terrorists to third countries has continued to stay on bestseller lists.
![[Anti-torture activists protest the Republican National Convention in St. Paul, Minnesota. Mayer, a reporter for The New Yorker magazine, shows in detail how high-level officials of the Bush administration, particularly in the office of Vice President Dick Cheney, took advantage of the fear and paranoia that gripped the country after the terrorist attacks of Sep. 11, 2001 to launch "an ideological trench war" and "a policy of deliberate cruelty that would've been unthinkable on Sept. 10". (AFP/Getty Images/Max Whittaker)]](http://www.commondreams.org/files/article_images/torture.0910.jpg "torture.0910.jpg")
First published in July, "The Dark Side:
The Inside Story of How the War on Terror Turned into a War on American
Ideals" (Doubleday) by Jane Mayer is still listed among the top 10
nonfiction best-selling books of 2008 by The New York Times.
In the book, Mayer, a reporter for The New Yorker magazine, shows in detail how high-level officials of the Bush administration, particularly in the office of Vice President Dick Cheney, took advantage of the fear and paranoia that gripped the country after the terrorist attacks of Sep. 11, 2001 to launch "an ideological trench war" and "a policy of deliberate cruelty that would've been unthinkable on Sept. 10".
While Bush supported the overall strategy, he was almost a minor player, Mayer reports. "President Bush is not typically interested in fine details. He left those to others in the formation of the military commissions, and other areas," she told IPS.
Arguably, the two administration officials whose post-9/11 policy decisions are most responsible for leaving the United States' "reputation as a lead defender of democracy and human rights...in tatters", in Mayer's words, were Cheney and his Chief of Staff David Addington, whom Mayer notes the vice president came to rely on heavily for legal advice in prosecuting the "war on terror".
In June this year, Addington was subpoenaed to testify before the House Judiciary Committee -- along with former Justice Department attorney John Yoo -- about detainee treatment, interrogation methods and the limits of executive authority.
Mayer, who was in the room when Addington testified, said "I...was struck by his utter contempt for both the Congressional panel that was quizzing him, and the gathering press."
"He evidently thought that hauteur was the way to win the day, which was another example of his astoundingly poor political sense...I think at the moment, it's a stretch to think that there is the necessary political will to prosecute top administration figures like Addington, who could argue that they were simply doing what they thought was necessary to protect the country."
Regarding Cheney, she writes in "The Dark Side" that the vice president lived in such a state of anxiety after the 9/11 attacks that "...he was chauffeured in an armoured motorcade that varied its route to foil possible attackers. On the back seat behind Cheney rested a duffle bag stocked with a gas mask and a biochemical survival suit."
Mayer asked repeatedly to interview Addington and Cheney and was refused. A one-paragraph statement by the CIA, regarding the conduct of its agents in the interrogation of alleged terrorists, is on the last page of "The Dark Side".
However, she did manage to interview hundreds of sources in and around the Bush White House, as well as sources from the Red Cross, compiling a grim picture of interrogation and abuse of prisoners in Iraq, Guantanamo Bay and elsewhere.
The book describes the use of alleged forms of torture by members of a little-known U.S. military programme called SERE (Survival, Evasion, Resistance, and Escape). It also explores the CIA's hiring of psychologists of questionable abilities and morals, who proceeded to encourage the use of interrogation methods that were created decades ago, ironically enough by the former Soviet Union's KGB secret police agency, and points out how essentially no piece of relevant information has ever resulted from such interrogations.
Mayer also looks at renditions, the transfer of suspected terrorists by U.S. authorities, mainly the CIA, to countries known to employ harsh interrogation techniques and torture. Asked if she believed that renditions were still being done by U.S. government agents, even though the practice has now been exposed by the world's media, Mayer told IPS, "After the bad publicity surrounding them, there is likely a greater effort to ensure that they (U.S. government agencies) are not 'rendering' mistaken suspects, or sending them to be tortured, in contravention of the law, but the programme exists in a classified realm where this is hard to determine."
Among the many disturbing incidents recounted in the book is the last night of Manadel al-Jamadi.
He was an Iraqi suspect who was detained outside of Baghdad at approximately four a.m. local time on Nov. 4, 2003. "An hour later, he was dead. An autopsy performed by military pathologists classified his death as a homicide," writes Mayer.
She goes on to report that "Jamadi was driven first to an Army base for debriefing, where the (U.S. Navy special forces unit) SEALs punched, kicked, and struck him with their rifle muzzles for some 20 minutes." Jamadi was later interrogated by CIA operatives at Abu Ghraib prison, where he was hung up by his wrists, and subsequently killed.
Eight members of the SEALs platoon received administrative punishment for abuse of al-Jamadi and other prisoners, but Mark Swanner, the CIA interrogator, has faced no charges.
"I hope readers (of "The Dark Side") come away with a vivid sense of how far from American traditions the Bush administration strayed in choosing to set aside the rule of law, in it's approach to the war on terror," noted Mayer. "There have been other lapses in the past, but as Arthur Schlesinger Jr., the late presidential historian told me 'Nothing has hurt America more (in the world) ever.'."
19 Comments so far
Show AllRobert Kennedy on Democracy Now
http://www.democracynow.org/2008/9/8/we_need_to_remind_people_that
"You know, during the Revolutionary War, George Washington was approached by his generals with the idea of torturing British soldiers to extract strategic information. At that time, the British were torturing our soldiers in New York Harbor on coffin ships and killing them by the dozens every day. Washington said to them, “I would rather lose the war, because this is the first nation in history that is based upon an idea, and the idea is one of essential human dignity and justice.” And he said, “We’re not—I’d rather the British continue to rule us than become—than to lose that.” And, you know, he established codes of conduct for the treatment of prisoners, fair treatment of prisoners and humane treatment. And the Hessians that he captured on Christmas Eve were so shocked by the good treatment they received from the American captors that after two weeks in prison, they agreed to walk unguarded all the way to POW camps in western Pennsylvania, and not a single one escaped.
During the Civil War, Lincoln’s general suggested—made the suggestion of torture, and he was so horrified by the idea, that he created a committee to establish a standards—a report with standards for the fair treatment and humane treatment of prisoners of war. And eighty years later, that document became the Geneva Convention.
During World War II, Eisenhower was asked about torturing Germans at a time when Nazis were torturing our prisoners and POWs. And Eisenhower said, “Americans don’t do that.” And he said—and during World War II, German soldiers surrendered to American soldiers by the thousands, because they had heard from their fathers, who fought in World War I, “Always surrender to an American, because Americans don’t torture people.”
You know, a few weeks ago, I had John Dean on my show on Air America. And John Dean, as you know, was the counselor to President Nixon during the Watergate scandal. And Dean said to me—Dean went to prison for his participation in the cover-up. And he said, “You know, we eavesdropped illegally on one office, and I went to jail for four months, and my boss was impeached and then forced to resign.” And he said, “These people have illegally eavesdropped on hundreds of thousands of Americans.” And he said, “Where’s the impeachment? Where are the convictions? Where’s the imprisonment? Where’s the jail term? Where is the American press? Where is the indignation?”
And, you know, we need to continually remind ourselves that the Bill of Rights is not a luxury we can no longer afford and that America is not just a place where people come to, you know, increase the size of their pile, and whoever dies with the most stuff wins. Our nation is an exemplary nation. And that’s the way the world regards us, and that’s what they want from us. And when we start lowering our standards, we lose our prestige, we lose our capacity to influence world events, and we lose the soul of our country. And we now need to gain that back."
If hell had a flag, it would be red, white and blue.
"The only means of strengthening one's intellect is to make up one's mind about nothing, to let the mind be a thoroughfare for all thoughts." - John Keats
But no you cry!
We are "good Christians" who would never do such a thing.
I counter that there is no such thing, and that the natural state of christians is to flood offering plates with untraceable funds which nearly always find their way into the bank accounts of arms dealers. This has been going on for hundreds of Christian years (and most recently in the form of "faith based initiatives.")
Click here to understand what the Christian faith is really about:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_crusades
If you ask me, all religion is a mental disorder.
That's the "Spanish Inquisition" in case you are a product of the GWB "no-child-not-left-behind" education program.
You won't really understand state-sponsored torture until you read this article:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Spanish_Inquisition
Quote:
". I remember when they used to call the USA a Christian country. That Republicans still consider themselves Christian while backing such people as Dick Cheney and George Bush is a great American mystery. Under George W. Bush, Jesus was the anti-Christ."
Why are you so surprised? This is exactly what real Christians DO. Rape, pillage and plunder. Kill everybody different than they are.
Where the hell have you been for the last thousand years? Ever hear of the "Crusades?"
All atrocities are forgivable when you believe in the God Delusion that some mythical deity is putting voices into the puny brain of GWB. In saner days, GWB would have been put in a straighjacket for telling people "God was talking to him."
The real problem is the U.S. population. 70% believe that in the fantasy that homo sapiens is so important that a more powerful God created this world for bacteria like us! Nothing is more unlikely.
Most likely we will go extinct like 99.9 percent of all species before us because we can't distinguish fact from fiction. We are just not smart enough to cast off the foolishness of mixing superstition with government. Until we can get 51% of the population to understand that a "separation of church and state" is not some liberal fringe devil plot to kill us all..... We are lost. If we can't re-instate the wisdom of the founding fathers who knew first hand how dangerous lunatic Christians in power are really are, we are resigned to a nightmarish repeat of the "inquisition" for all of us.
To return sanity in this world, will require a return to a secular U.S. government.
I completely concur. America has become the darkness, reaching for the darkness. And in broad daylight, with the complicity and even whole-hearted support of millions of Americans. I challenge you to go out on the street and ask 20 random citizens what their opinion of torture by the U.S. government is. I guarantee you that at least 50-60% will say either 1) The U.S. doesn't torture (because anything we do is perfectly good and legal because we are the U.S.A!) despite all the evidence that we do, or 2) It's ok because we only do it to terrusts to protect the innocent and prevent evil. Probably more like 75-80%.
This country has become that which it used to stand against. We are lost. The only way for America to become a "good" country again (realizing as I say that how horrible the US has been over the last 3 centuries in many ways) is to lose it all. EVERYTHING. The economy must tank, the remainder of our civil liberties must be taken away, we must become anathema to the rest of the world (well, we're almost there now), we must become bankrupt so that our military can't be funded to the tune of 80 gazillion dollars/year, we must have the rest of the world unite against us militarily and economically, and we must be forced off the cliff to stare into the mirror of what we have become: EVIL.
Maybe then change will occur. I'm not hopeful. Even so, i don't want to be around when it happens - which it will. All evil Empires fail eventually. The US will be no different. Sad that it will take this purging to cleanse the evil that America has become, but it will. So much needless suffering. If I could afford to, I would be a New Zealander tomorrow. Unfortunately, I will have to stick around to watch the US fall to the depths of hell in person....
Should be darned educational, while painful.
"The only thing required for evil to flourish is that good men do nothing."
As an addendum to your comments: the Bush administration sought to redefine the term "torture," so that the intent of the torturer became the controlling variable. Obviously, it's impossible to prove that someone had this or that thought while committing an atrocity. Therefore, in the neocons' twisted universe, they believe that they don't torture.
It takes a dramatic loss of humanity to sink to such depths.
Where's snowwolf? In the thread quoted below
http://www.commondreams.org/headline/2008/09/07-2
He's argued that the torture was solely the fault of clinton's generals, made up and without substance. One would think he'd be on this thread too, arguing that the cruelty never happened. Or if any cruelty did occur it was only those dastardly democrats and muslims who were responsible.
Sadly, myself and several of my family members and friends have all expressed interest in leaving the U.S. I never thought I would live to see the day that I would be so ashamed of my country and feel such nauseating vile loathing toward the actions of my government, and the actions of many of the American public for its ignorance, hatred, and absolute disregard for other countries, innocent people, and thirst for war/revenge becuase of their ignorance. It just gets worse by the day. Politicians and elected officials speak so often of liberty, justice, democracy, equality, blah, blah, blah -- totally meaningless once you delve into the history of this country both past and present. It's sickening. Hate to say it, but maybe if the country really fails -- I mean really fails economically -- there won't be anything left for the U.S. government to abuse others around the world anymore, just maybe. The only other alternative is revolution, probably unlikely -- there is a huge swath of the American people that are too complicit, too self absorbed, and frankly, too stupid to support anything but the status quo.
Even during the regimes of Nixon or Reagan, when I thought our nation had lost its moral compass and sunk to evil depths, I never gave much consideration of emigrating to another country. Usually, it seemed, that the excesses of our worst leaders in government would be corrected by more thoughtful and honorable ones, who would bring the nation back to the path our nation's founders intended. But now, our nation is led by psycopaths, enabled by sycophants and sellouts, on such a disasterous course that, I fear, has doomed my beloved country. I believe it is time to seek another nation where the extremism of our nation's leaders hasn't poisoned the principals of its citizens. I fear the USA has begun a descent into a very dark era indeed. I weep for us all!
Cheney has every right known to man to feel anxiety and paranoia.
The man has done nothing but create harm and evil.
Everyone has to live with the consequences of their actions.
I don't remember which one but part of a Nazi war criminal's defense at his trial was "Nobody told me it was wrong."
That is probably a defense that George might offer. After all, Daddy George was head of the CIA and did things which, if junior knew about them, provided him with a moral compass about equal to that of a wild pig.
Mama, judging from her remarks about the New Orleans Refugees, has the maternal instincts of a reptile, and the morality you might expect from one who considers subhuman anyone with a net worth of less than a hundred million dollars.
It's only a matter of time before the shit hits the fan, and the longer it is delayed, the more messy, painful, and bloody will be the change, and the more difficult will be life for the survivors.
If you can't leave, and I can't, get out of debt, buy a shotgun, and learn to grow your own food.
"There have been other lapses in the past, but as Arthur Schlesinger Jr., the late presidential historian told me 'Nothing has hurt America more (in the world) ever.'."
I would just nuance this to say that it is not just that this is another “lapse”, or that this is a worse lapse. In the past, the US kept wars more secret, for example the secret bombing of Cambodia, or the secret funding of the Contras. When they were found out by the press, there had to be some, albeit minor consequences. The defining feature of American misconduct in our times is that this lapse has been approved of by the courts (Is Bush in jail?), codified by congress (Did they vote to end the war?), officially ordered by the executive (hundreds of signing statements) and ignored by the corporate media (Bush and Brokow et al laughing it up at the press core dinners, Bush:“yuk, where are the WMD, not under my desk, ha ha!!”).
Yes guilty. All guilty, all along: guilty starting back when the government was torturing and slaughtering First Nation peoples, to the present time. Guilty: the executives, the courts, the Congress, the major media - and the people, the masses, who knew, who know now, and who ignore the horror.
Yes, the people, US citizens, the masses, who knew, who know now: guilty of aiding, abetting, through voting, paying taxes, of supporting the troops of torture, murder, and maiming millions of innocent people around the world.
We know, we all know, not just here in CD: the Dumbocrats I know that supported Hillary, that support Obama, know. And the Reptillians - yes, I know many of them too, they also know. And all continue to support the American way: murdering third world peoples for huge profit of few, and lower prices for the masses. That is the American way.
The majority of US citizens are enablers to mass murder and torture. To say the people of the US are wonderful decent people who have simply been duped by their lying government and their co-conspirators in corporate media is a incredible delusion.
If the masses are really duped by their government as so many claim- something I don't believe for a nanosecond, then Michael Moore was absolutely correct when he said, "Americans are the stupidest people on the planet."
And I don't believe they are.
Sadly enough, there is plenty of evidence that it gets easier as you go along. The first torture, the first murder, the perp goes out back and pukes. The second time, he's uncomfortable, but doesn't want to appear a "wimp." After a while, it becomes fun and he looks forward to it, gets a "lift" from it.
We the People are getting so desensitized to all of this stuff through games and TV that we, too, for the most part are not revolted, but titillated by it.
Many of the people involved in this, when they finally get out of it, commit suicide, or go off the deep end in violence.
This has become a very sick nation, and our "leaders" are continually upping the ante, to keep us that way.
I remember watching the KGB show trials many years ago and they reminded me of the "trials" in Orwell's "1984." The people on trial would admit to anything they were accused of, rat out anyone the prosecutors suggested. It was obvious to all that they confessed, hoping to be executed rather than be tortured again.
What was it that Superman used to say he fought for? Ah, yes, "Truth, Justice and the American Way."
Ladies and gentlemen, stay close to your loved ones, find something in this life about which you can be passionate, or maybe just enthiastic, batten down your hatches and if you don't have the means to get out of this country, give some very serious thought to what you will do when it all goes down.
Sounds like just the information the American people need to give four more years to the Republican Party. I remember when they used to call the USA a Christian country. That Republicans still consider themselves Christian while backing such people as Dick Cheney and George Bush is a great American mystery. Under George W. Bush, Jesus was the anti-Christ.
Unless, or until, Bush and those he worships are exposed for what they really are, this country will continue to spiral down and down. Voting for McCain will only accelerate the decline.
Obama is not much better than McCain. It is all rigged.....little will change with either McCain or Obama.
Uh, this has been going on since WWII ended. Bush only compounded it. Besides, America has been trained to act amorally and until we reverse that and clamp down on our pols MISrepresenting us and the monied elites that own them lock stock and barrel, getting the average Joe and Jane to read this book will be as easy as teaching pigs to sing.