The Dark Side by Jane Mayer

How timely that I finished this books days before the recent release of the (partially) declassified CIA report on torture practices under the Bush administration. The Dark Side is a narrative account, week by week following 9/11, of the Bush administration’s policy-making, legal maneuvering, and responses to growing public outcries against what was put into practice in Guantánamo, Abu Ghraib, and dozens of other “black” sites around the world. What emerges from this investigative reporting (the book won the Lukas Prize from Columbia University) is the story of how Cheney, Bush, and their lawyers basically ignored federal and international laws concerning torture through a series of highly classified “legal” documents expanding the Executive Branch’s wartime powers beyond anything ever seen in the United States. The accounts of what these policy changes allowed to happen to detainees at the hands of the CIA, FBI, outside contractors, and US military are harrowing and infuriating, including explicit descriptions of specific acts of torture, indefinite detention of innocent US and world citizens, “rendition” of detainees to other countries know to engage in torture, and murder.

The other main theme of Mayer’s book is that contrary to the Bush administration’s line that acts of abuse and torture were committed by a few rogue agents, the base for and explicit approval of the illegal practices originated from within the administration. Mayer uses documents in the public record (many declassified through the Freedom of Information Act), and first-hand witness accounts (some on record, others anonymous) to demonstrate that not only did Cheney, Bush, Cheney’s Chief of Staff David Addington, John Yoo from the corrupted Office of Legal Council, and countless others originate and knowingly work to promote use of torture, but that they explicitly approved its use on a regular basis, and later sought to protect themselves against future prosecution. This shaky legal framework is still in place to some extent – while Obama has said he will revoke many of the Executive Orders and legal documents, there is no way of knowing what remains, as many of the documents are still classified as top secret . Furthermore, the practice of rendition continues to be used by US government agencies, and hundreds of uncharged men and women remain in custody. To say this book was a disturbing read is an understatement, but Mayer’s use of a narrative structure ties together the thousands of disparate facts, legal arguments, and quotes in a highly engaging and logical manner, making it a read that is difficult to put down. Frequent descriptions of extreme acts of cruelty and torture, explicit language in quotes, discussions of methods of sexual humiliation and abuse, and a disturbing photograph from Abu Ghraib.