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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
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Avg. Customer Rating:  19 reviews
Sales Rank: 36740
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! Older inventory showing minor shelf wear
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| Customer Reviews:
 The Truth... If Anyone Cares June 24, 2008
2 out of 2 found this review helpful
As it turns out, what Philippe Sands has exposed in Torture Team: Rumsfeld's Memo and the Betrayal of American Values is the well-documented truth, reinforced by the power of Internet access, of how the Bush Administration's political agenda poisoned the fundamentals of this Nation's long-held leadership in human rights. A Professor of Law at University College in London and Academic Member of the prestigious Matrix Chambers where he specializes in international law, this Queen's Counsel is an unlikely but welcomed chronicler of what has happened to the rule of law in this country during the past seven years.
Building upon a few fundamental documents that first came to light in response to the scandal at Abu Ghraib, he pulled together an impressive list of first-person interviews of those legally involved and turned the most commonly thought perceptions of the cause of the abuses in Guantanamo and Abu Ghraib on their head! Sands narrative takes us through an entangled chronology of events more in the manner of a storyteller rather than a legal scholar with refreshing results. His analysis is quite clear. While some may insist that these actions were merely part of a process that first stretched the boundaries of our laws and then later corrected itself, others believe that binding international laws and treaties were either ignored or deliberately overlooked by those involved.
Although the author offers great praise for America's legal professionals both within the military and the Government, the fact that we as a Nation have collectively acted in this manner should be very sobering for all of us. Be you zealot, patriot or cynic, America's abhorrence of inhumane treatment dates back to the days of Lincoln. Cruelty, humiliation and the use of torture were prohibited by international law with the Geneva Convention and reinforced by the Convention Against Torture in 1984, which criminalized such acts. Additionally, Sands discussion of the actual trials of lawyers at Nuremberg, watching Stanley Kramer's classic Judgment at Nuremberg again, pondering the underlying principles and the parallels raised and the popularizing of the myth 'that torture works' by Jack Bauer and the Emmy-winning '24 - Season One' television series that began in 2002 adds a contemporary twist to this book.
While its revelations and his conclusions may never be echoed in any global forums or international halls of justice, Sands words will hopefully resonate within each of us and inspire some old-fashioned American soul searching for all of us.
Bob Magnant is the author of The Last Transition... - a fact-based novel about Iran, Iraq and the Middle East.
A reminder of the banality of evil August 3, 2008
2 out of 2 found this review helpful
In Torture Team, Philippe Sands, professor at University College London and a respected international lawyer, carefully examines how Dick Cheney, Donald Rumsfeld, George W. Bush, and a team of compliant lawyers consciously set aside international rules constraining interrogations and thereby both destroyed the historic American commitment to the rule of law and opened themselves up for possible war crimes trials. "That decision," writes Sands, "was motivated by a combination of factors, including fear and ideology and an almost visceral disdain for international obligations." The book is carefully researched, meticulously documented, and always respectful. It should be required reading for anyone interested in the rule of law, and perhaps more ominously, for anyone concerned with what Hannah Arendt labeled, "the banality of evil."
Most of the book is bracketed by actions taken in 2002 and 2006. It was in February of that first year when George Bush declared that the Geneva Conventions did not protect detainees in Guantanamo. And it was on December 2 of the same year that Secretary of Defense Donald Rumsfeld signed a document, drafted by his General Counsel, Jim Haynes, which authorized eighteen aggressive interrogation techniques that might be used in questioning terror suspects.
Then, in June of 2006 the Supreme Court ruled, in Hamdan v. Rumsfeld, that Common Article 3 of the 1949 Geneva Conventions applied to the treatment of those captured in the "War on Terror." In his concurring opinion Justice Kennedy wrote that, "By Act of Congress... violations of Common Article 3 are considered `war crimes,' punishable as federal offenses, when committed by or against United States nationals and military personnel."
Both of the actions taken in 2002, Sand observes, went against international law and long-standing U.S. military practice. Then, in the chapters that follow, he carefully builds his argument showing how both actions were rationalized and "legalized" by lawyers willing to forgo their obligations to please their clients. Through extensive interviews with most of those responsible for the legal advice, and many of those responsible for its implementation, Sands leaves the reader convinced that some legal action must be taken against those responsible if the United States is to undo the damage done to its reputation as a supporter of human rights and to the integrity of international law. Difficult as it might be to imagine, that would mean, in a just world, that Cheney, Bush, Rumsfeld, David Addington, Alberto Gonzales, John Yoo and Jim Haynes would face an international tribunal.
Much of the book is woven around the released interrogation log of detainee 063 (Mohammed al-Qahtani). In a fitting postscript, after years in Guantanamo, after being accused of being the "20th highjacker," after months of being subjected to what must be called torturous interrogation, all charges against detainee 063 were dismissed "without prejudice."
 Offer the terrorists a flower!!! August 11, 2008
2 out of 19 found this review helpful
I guess since there has been no terrorist attacks in the USA since George Bush made his decisions thats a good thing. For one thing these people are TERRORISTS and NOT covered by the Geneva Convention Articles. If it takes action to get information thats better than more of our buildings and people killed.... Come on people wake up!!!!
the terror of torture September 24, 2008
2 out of 2 found this review helpful
In November 2001, al-Qahtani Mohammed was captured in Afghanistan and sent to the American detention facility at Guantanamo, Cuba. About a year later, it was discovered that he had likely been an additional hijacker for the 9-11 terrorist attacks and a member of al-Qaeda, and so he was placed in isolation for 160 days. During that time he was subjected to aggressive interrogation techniques twenty hours a day for fifty-four straight days. His interrogation logs, in fact, were published by Time magazine on March 3, 2006, and Sands sprinkles excerpts of them throughout his book. al-Qahtani was not charged with any crimes for six years, not until February 11, 2008, and those charges were dropped by the Pentagon on May 12, 2008.
Philippe Sands teaches at the University College London, and is a leading expert in international law. He participated in the torture cases of Pinochet and Charles Taylor. His book is meticulous in detail, exhaustive in its research, fairminded in letting all the protagonists explain their versions of the story, cautious in his language, suprisingly suspenseful given the arcane and complex nature of the subject matter, and, more than anything else, devastating in its conclusions. Sands believes that al-Qahtani's treatment amounted to torture, and that those who were responsible for his treatment are guilty of war crimes in light of the Geneva Conventions (Article 3) and the 1984 Torture Convention. Of course, in the world of realpolitik they will not be prosecuted here in America, but Sands is deadly serious in his sober advice to the Bush lawyers (William Haynes, Doug Feith, David Addington, Alberto Gonzales, John Yoo, and Jay Bybee) who provided legal rationalizations for the torture -- be very careful about traveling overseas.
Sands draws other conclusions. The decision to torture al-Qahtani did not bubble up from the bottom at Guantanamo, as the Bush administration claimed, but was explicitly directed by Rumsfeld's office and his now infamous "torture memo" that included eighteen interrogation techniques. Abuses at Guantanamo clearly "migrated" to Abu Ghraib. Torture is always immoral in principle (cf. the Universal Declaration of Human Rights). Experts suggest that it produces unreliable results, and that proved to be the case with al-Qahtani, as no meaningful intelligence was gathered from him. His treatment was a betrayal of American values and longstanding military practice. It put American soldiers at risk and undermined America's reputation abroad. But the Bush administration argued that the extraordinary times required extraordinary measures, that there were palpable fears of further attacks, and so they sought the legal fig leaf to cover what they intended to do no matter what. As with the run-up to the Iraq war, normal processes were subverted.
In his acknowledgements Sands pays special tribute to the career military lawyers he encountered. A list of principal characters and a chronology of events supplement his narrative. This book has earned high reviews, and is often mentioned in conjunction with The Dark Side: The Inside Story of How The War on Terror Turned into a War on American Ideals (2008) by Jane Mayer.
 The Torture Team June 11, 2008
1 out of 2 found this review helpful
Well written documentation of the facts, particularly as it relates to the Lawyers in the DOD, Vice Presidents office, and John Yoo in the Attorney Generals office, who all played a factor in determining that torture was permissable at Quantanamo, and established a policy of torture in the Defence Department. Shows opposition by the top persons in the military.
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