| Average Customer Rating: |  4.5 |
| Release Date: | 2008-07-15 |
| Publisher: | Doubleday |
| Author | Jane Mayer |
| Number of pages: | 400 |
| ISBN: | 0385526393 |
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Product description
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A dramatic and damning narrative account of how America has fought the
"War on Terror"
In the days immediately following September 11th, the most powerful people in the country were panic-stricken. The radical decisions about how to combat terrorists and strengthen national security were made in a state of utter chaos and fear, but the key players, Vice President Dick Cheney and his powerful, secretive adviser David Addington, used the crisis to further a long held agenda to enhance Presidential powers to a degree never known in U.S. history, and obliterate Constitutional protections that define the very essence of the American experiment.
THE DARK SIDE is a dramatic, riveting, and definitive narrative account of how the United States made terrible decisions in the pursuit of terrorists around the world-- decisions that not only violated the Constitution to which White House officials took an oath to uphold, but also hampered the pursuit of Al Qaeda. In gripping detail, acclaimed New Yorker writer and bestselling author, Jane Mayer, relates the impact of these decisions—U.S.-held prisoners, some of them completely innocent, were subjected to treatment more reminiscent of the Spanish Inquisition than the twenty-first century.
THE DARK SIDE will chronicle real, specific cases, shown in real time against the larger tableau of what was happening in Washington, looking at the intelligence gained—or not—and the price paid. In some instances, torture worked. In many more, it led to false information, sometimes with devastating results. For instance, there is the stunning admission of one of the detainees, Sheikh Ibn al-Libi, that the confession he gave under duress—which provided a key piece of evidence buttressing congressional support of going to war against Iraq--was in fact fabricated, to make the torture stop.
In all cases, whatever the short term gains, there were incalculable losses in terms of moral standing, and our country's place in the world, and its sense of itself. THE DARK SIDE chronicles one of the most disturbing chapters in American history, one that will serve as the lasting legacy of the George W. Bush presidency.
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Customer reviews
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a rule of men, not laws
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I'm the author of Prepared for Rage: A Novel, about an Islamic terrorist who tries to blow up the space shuttle. There are interrogation scenes at Guantanamo, and I was so dreading the research for them. I really didn't want to have to learn about waterboarding.
A funny thing happened on the way to researching the Gitmo scenes. Every source I found, either on line or in the library, said the same thing: Torture doesn't produce good intel. The person being tortured will say anything to make the torture stop. The way to get good intel is to talk to the subject, to listen to them, to coax them, cajole them, flatter them, befriend them. Trick them. I can't tell you how relieved I was, and I promptly invented a honey trap instead.
Then along comes Jane Mayer's The Dark Side: The Inside Story of How The War on Terror Turned into a War on American Ideals, and suddenly I'm in the middle of a horror show somewhere between the Spanish Inquisition and Nazi doctors in WWII concentration camps. People are being kidnapped and tortured by the CIA under cover of the executive privilege of the president of the United States. Surprise! No good intel is being produced, either.
I gave it five stars for content, but I can't say you'll enjoy reading this book. I felt sick while I was reading it and I still feel a little sick now. But it's a book that should be read, at the very least as a cautionary tale as to just how far things can go wrong when nobody's watching. There are heroes, though, like David Brant, the head of NCIS, Alberto Mora, Counsel to the US Navy, the FBI agents who refused to have anything to do with the torture, and all those administration attorneys who, while they were hired because they had the correct conservative credentials nevertheless knew that kidnapping and torture is wrong, unconstitutional and unAmerican, and who fought the good fight against this program, some of them from the beginning, and some of whom were fired or forced to quit because of it.
It's the victims who stay with me, though. Maher Arar and Khaled el-Masri, literally innocent bystanders who will never be the same again after their treatment at the hands of the CIA.
This book is also difficult to read because of the sheer weight of detail beneath which it almost founders. I can't believe Ms. Mayer got this many people to talk so freely to her. I kind of got the impression that they'd been dying to talk to somebody. The least we can do is listen to what they have to say.
Rating: 
(5
out of 5) @ 2008-09-02
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The Dark Side
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Frightening. Did I say frightening?
I had read most of what Ms. Mayer writes in her book by reading The Emerald City, The Assassin's Gate, and all of the others. But they were either diaries, or for short periods of time, or focused on just one aspect of this C-4. Ms. Mayer took the long view and tied many of the strings together. It's easier to see now that the war was rigged by the Administration. That they purposefully, yes, purposefully mislead the nation and the Congress, for the most part in their arguments for attacking Iraq. I never thought that I would say the word impeachment with regard to the Bush Administration, but that is definitely in the front of my mind now. Too bad they have to leave their rented apartments in four and a half months. It will deprive us of the ability to pursue this.
Here is a question someone asked me recently: Are the 4000+ US dead, 30000+ US wounded and over 100,000 Iraqi and Afghani civilians killed balancing off the number of innocent civilians that were killed in the Towers by Al Qaeda? I do not know the answer, but I will say that this book definitely changed the way I felt about my god-child going over for her second tour, and her brother's tour, and her husband's second tour.
Rating:
(5
out of 5) @ 2008-09-02
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"The Dark Side"
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Bought it as a gift. Arrived in a timely fashion and in great condition. Thank you.
Rating:
(5
out of 5) @ 2008-08-31
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Torture: True or False
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There is no question the Bush-Cheney group are responsible for the implementation of torture as defined under the Geneva Conventions.
When the order from Gitmo arrived in Iraq, un-trained and even more so, un-accountable contractors used the techniques used and authorized by Rumsfelt to inflict not only pain and suffering on innocent people, but moreover, a lifetime of "payback" mentality towards US forces in Iraq. That said, some of these innocent people who were detained and perhaps tortured were the ones who laid IED's of EFP's to kill or maim our troops.
Bush, Cheney, Feith and others should be held accountable for their decisions and actions. Good book..factural and to the point..
Rating: 
(4
out of 5) @ 2008-08-30
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A Lady Asked Dr. Franklin, "Well Doctor, what have we got, a republic or a monarchy?"
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"A republic," replied the Doctor, "if you can keep it."
Quoted in the Afterword from the papers of Dr. James McHenry at the time of the 1787 federal convention in Philadelphia.
`The Dark Side' by Jane Mayer tells one of the most profoundly disturbing stories that I have ever read. Mayer details how the Bush Administration led America to what VP Dick Cheney called `the dark side' in order to fight terrorism. A small coterie of officials at the highest level of the administration took this country down a path that ignored and thus destroyed the rule of law. Whether the damage is permanent remains to be seen.
Here are some of the most salient points:
Mayer confirms what others have asserted: that Cheney runs the national security apparatus. At least in this realm, Cheney operates like the prime minister. What is less known is the extraordinary power exercised by his legal counsel, David Addington. Cheney and Addington share a belief in an extreme view of the proper powers of the President in the national security area. In their view, the President has no limits on his power. None. Cheney used 9/11 to snatch greatly increased power for the executive.
To be fair, the top officials felt a huge personal responsibility to protect the US from another terrorist attack. One can only imagine the burden. This burden caused them to act out of fear and panic. Any action that might help reduce the chances of another attack even by a small amount was worth doing. They acted as if they and all Americans were cowering weaklings willing to jettison liberty for security. As Ben Franklin's aphorism concluded, we got neither.
As a lawyer, I found it personally distressing that lawyers played the key role in providing the `golden shield' of legal immunity for all manner of horrific acts in the quest for `actionable intelligence'. Lawyers, especially government lawyers, are supposed to tell their clients `no' when a proposed action crosses the line into criminality. A handful of lawyers, John Yoo, Alberto Gonzales, and Addington in particular, always gave their bosses the answer they wanted, `yes, we can torture, spy, kidnap, hold secret prisoners in secret prisons without charges'.
A few lawyers within the administration did resist. When Jack Goldsmith the newly appointed head of the DOJ's Office of Legal Counsel discovered John Yoo's secret `torture memo', he moved successfully to get it revoked. Less known is that after Goldsmith left under extreme pressure, a new memo authorizing torture was issued by Steven Bradbury. Most other lawyers either caved in to Addington's bullying intimidation or were simply cut out.
Mayer's triumph was getting so many people to talk to her both on and off the record about closely held administration secrets. The reliance on unnamed sources necessarily forces the reader to place a certain amount of faith in Mayer's judgment (although certainly not to the extent of Bob Woodward).
Mayer established that the US killed several subjects during interrogation and kidnapped (`extraordinary rendition') at least 8 entirely innocent people, tortured them, and held them in secret prisons. Mayer was able to establish that one of these people was held on the `hunch' of the head of the CIA's al Qaeda unit and was not finally released until weeks after it was clear he was just had the same name as a wanted suspect. The fate of the other seven is unknown.
Beyond dispute is the affect the torture and kidnapping regime had on America's reputation. It will take at least a generation to recover it. Perhaps most worrisome is that these actions will serve as a precedent for future administrations, which only criminal prosecutions would obviate. Mayer provides the basis for the indictments. My only quibble with the book is that it needed a little tighter editing. Highest recommendation if you can stomach it.
Rating:
(5
out of 5) @ 2008-08-29
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