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| Torture Team: Rumsfeld's Memo and the Betrayal of American Values | 
 enlarge | Author: Philippe Sands
Publisher: Palgrave Macmillan
Category: Book
List Price: $26.95
Buy New: $15.59
You Save: $11.36 (42%)
New (31) Used (11) from $14.99
Avg. Customer Rating:  19 reviews
Sales Rank: 11463
Media: Hardcover
Number Of Items: 1
Pages: 272
Shipping Weight (lbs): 0.5
Dimensions (in): 9.2 x 6 x 0.9
ISBN: 0230603904
Dewey Decimal Number: 341.48
EAN: 9780230603905
ASIN: 0230603904
Publication Date: May 13, 2008
Availability: Usually ships in 1-2 business days
Condition: BRAND NEW, IN-HOUSE READY TO SHIP!!! NOT A BARGAIN, REMAINDER OR BOOKCLUB BOOK!!! WE ARE A 5 STAR SELLER.
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| Customer Reviews:
 More pieces in the puzzle ... May 21, 2008
5 out of 6 found this review helpful
We don't yet have a comprehensive account of America's descent into torture under Bush and Cheney. What we do know has to be pieced together from the declassified documents, the work of journalists like Jane Mayer, Dana Priest, and Sy Hersh, blogs like Balkinization, books like "The One-Percent Doctrine" -- and, now, this book.
Indispensable though it is, I would've preferred more analysis. Sands's approach is to follow the narrative of his own interviews, moving from one figure to another. This is effective storytelling and an understandable choice. However, I would've liked a final chapter that tied it all up.
Also, surprisingly perhaps for a book by a noted lawyer, I found the book a bit weak on its legal discussions. Again, I can see the point here -- the publisher probably feared that the legal layman's eyes would glaze over. Still, extensive endnotes or appendices could've touched on these issues in greater detail.
None of this should dissuade anyone from reading the book, but just remember that this is not "THE book" on American torture post 9/11. That book remains to be written -- and whoever writes it, will cite heavily to Philippe Sands among others.
 Tortured memos May 30, 2008
5 out of 6 found this review helpful
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 the horrors, disgrace and implications of 'Gitmo' and Abu Ghraib.
Logical and meticulous, Sands' disposition of the facts and reasoned analysis lays the foundation for the potential prosecution of Bush, Cheney and Rumsfeld, as well as their senior lawyers and officials,including Alberto Gonzales, Douglas Feith, William Hayes, David Addington, John Yoo and Jay Bybee.
A critically important work, not only for policymakers, legislators, lawyers and scholars, but for anyone interested in the restoration of American values of rights, freedoms and the rule of law in the pending post-Bush world.
MASTERFUL,TRAGIC, AND DEPRESSING June 12, 2008
5 out of 6 found this review helpful
This case is closed. Phillipe Sands has executed an extraordinary work of investigation and reporting. I was constantly amazed by the statements of individuals so intimately involved in the process. There is dark criminality here, and it is truly depressing to know that our post 9/11 trauma and fear has been so successfully exploited that the perpetrators acted with impunity. History will show that these fools, who thought they were the Jack Bauer answer to terrorism, were in fact deeply if not fatally compromising the war on terrorism.
THE DEFINITIVE TEXT June 30, 2008
4 out of 4 found this review helpful
Philippe Sands, a respected barrister and Queen's Counsel in the Matrix Chambers in England, as well as a Professor of International Law at University College London, writes a comprehensive and well-researched book that permits the reader to understand the process whereby torture became an accepted part of the fabric of the Global War on Terror. By interviewing many of the major players, and having access to many of the principal documents and memoranda, Philippe Sands takes us on a ride through the labyrinth of the Department of Defense that led to the harsh and brutal treatment of prisoners in Guantanamo. The research is factual and surprisingly forceful, and the ability to get many of the architects to open up and give their views makes the book both informative and eminently readable. And yet, despite a walk down a difficult road that leaves the reader with no doubts as to the current Administration's views of the benefits of torture, the author manages to keep the book dispassionate and focused..and the author finds heroes in the Armed Forces who stand out for their courage and commitment to legality. One senses that this book will become required reading for those lawyers who will specialize in human rights whether in the United States of America or in the Europe. Research such as this will form the fabric on which future historians will judge current events and make legal judgments. It should be required reading for all those interested in the study of human rights and its application today.
torture team June 18, 2008
3 out of 5 found this review helpful
A great read. Gives you the inside story and the truth regarding the top level involvement of government officials like Don Rumsfeld, Willion Haynes, Dick Cheney in the formulation of our current torture policy in violaation of international law.
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