On December 2, 2002 the U.S. Secretary of Defense, Donald Rumsfeld, signed his name at the bottom of a document that listed eighteen techn... read full description
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Jan 04, 2012
Julie
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Fascinating and disturbing look at how quickly ages-old human rights traditions and even signed conventions can be tossed aside in the name of [insert current bogeyman here]. The case examined with perfect concision here is that of the alleged "20th hijacker" who was held at Guantanamo and tortured by US Army personnel for 50-odd days, ostensibly because he had information of urgent national security value (a supposed ticking-time-bomb-Jack-Bauer-must-save-the-world-scenario). The ques
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Aug 09, 2011
Lawrence
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A remarkable synthesis of legal scholarship and investigative reporting by a British international lawyer that lays out the origins of the Bush Administration's infamous torture memos and makes the case that senior officials and lawyers in the US Government are parties to the commission of war crimes under the Geneva Conventions. Insightful, dispassionate and based on unprecedented access to key players throughout the entire chain of command, Phillipe Sands' book is essential to understanding th
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Jun 17, 2009
Ed
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A bit overly detailed, as the author recounts how the civilian leadership of the Rumsfeld/Bush defense department first authorized torturing captives at Guantanamo and then attempted to back away from responsibility for giving the orders. Sands shows how the orders themselves were greater violations of the Geneva Convention, the precedents of the Nuremburg trails and the U.N. Convention against Torture than were the activities of the interrogators at the prison.
He recounts every mee More...
He recounts every mee More...
Nov 07, 2010
Wendy
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This is not an easy book to read. It's a very detailed account of how aggressive new interrogation techniques came to be used on prisoners at Guantanamo and the chain of legal advice that led to those new interrogation techniques being deemed not to be torture. It shifts repeatedly from technical legal reasoning to presenting excerpts from interrogation law, with occasional digressions through the bureaucratic doublespeak of Bush administration officials trying to cover their asses. It's a fasci
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Jul 07, 2008
Jonathan
rated it:
A measured but forceful book. Philippe Sands, an international law professor, is not shy about his own evaluation of the case; he argues that top Bush administration lawyers are vulnerable to prosecution for human rights crimes. But he makes his case pretty carefully. He weaves together the publicly available facts about the "torture memos," the record of the 54-day interrogation of Mohammed al-Qahtani, and the story of his own investigation of the matter. He interviewed key figures in
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Jul 23, 2009
Emily
rated it:
This is soooo good. I usually hate name game books about political anything because I have such a hard time keeping up, but this is really really interesting. For a lawyer, Sands is completely readable without trying to prose it up too much or keep his recounting parched and distanced. I admire his objectiveness regarding certain questions and his methodology makes it so that you're not coming into this pointing fingers all over the place. Obv., if you pick this u, you're brining some heurist
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Nov 18, 2009
Sarah
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Ohhhh this book mad me so mad. I think it's safe to say we all know Rumsfeld and Bush screwed up, but this book goes in depth about all sorts of things they did behind our backs. Every time I picked this book up to read it I was in an instant debate/angry mood.
Jun 30, 2009
Beth639
rated it:
Eye-opening and disturbing. I heard Doug Feith talk after reading this. He explains it all away as "you had to be there to understand the pressure we were under" all the while showing a slide show of him with important people to impress us.
Dec 29, 2008
Diane C.
rated it:
If you want to understand more detail on the issues surrounding the Bush administration's endorsement of torture at Abu Ghraib and Gitmo, read this book, written in a journalistic style.
An eye opener!
An eye opener!
Oct 22, 2009
Jeff
rated it:
Lost interest about 2/3 of the way through. Perhaps it's just not aging well in the age of Obama, perhaps it's just my stubbornly American worldview....or perhaps it's just too much info.
I might give this "current political" genre another shot, but for now, it's on to (mostly) Solzhenitsyn novels.
I might give this "current political" genre another shot, but for now, it's on to (mostly) Solzhenitsyn novels.
Feb 15, 2010
Colleen
rated it:
The inside story of the early decisions about torture in the Bush administration. Eye-popping. Appalling
Jun 12, 2011
Patty
rated it:
A detailed and moving investigation of the steps that led the Bush administration from upholding the Geneva convention and universal human rights to condoning the inhumane treatment of Guantanamo detainees. Along the way, Sands provides many historical details as well as medical, legal and other definitions of torture. I found this to be as balanced as any discussion of torture could be, and was left wondering how these people have yet managed not to be tried as war criminals.
Jan 10, 2012
Kelly
rated it: 
I couldn't finish it due to too many renewals at the library, but I found it almost excessively detailed. The book contained a number of typos.
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