This review covers the audio version of The Dark Side. I had no intention of listening to all 13 CDs, but the story was so compelling, so clearly and carefully told, that I was riveted until the end. I have loaned my set out, so I can't complement the reader (whose name is on the boxed set), who is wonderful. In terms of the book's content, I have nothing to add to prior reviews. My point is that for those of you who, like me, like "to read" while driving, this one is a winner.

The Dark Side: The Inside Story of How The War on Terror Turned into a War on American Ideals

Jane Mayer's well-written and infuriating narrative of the current administration's abuses of the U. S. Constitution, laws and treaties is required reading for anyone who believes that one of the most monumental tasks of the Obama administration will be to restore the Constitution and the rule of law to the American people. Among the book's many attributes, Mayer puts the question to rest whether waterboarding constitutes torture. She also argues convincingly in several places that torture as practiced by the Bush administration involved the application of multiple forms of abuse on one person's body, either simultaneously or sequentially. Combined techniques could produce any kind of confession the CIA wanted, truthful or not. America will not be a civilized nation until these practices are abolished. Incidentally, I came away from Mayer's book with a better understanding of the military's strenuous objections to the tactics pushed relentlessly by the vice-president's office, and of the FBI's doubts about the administration's practices.

This book is absolutely scary. The audacity of this government to impose their neo-conservative value system on the reputation of our great country makes me shiver with the thoughts of a neo-nazi police state.

One of the most important books I have ever read. I lost count of the number of times I said "Dear God help us all" while reading about American's descent into Facism.

mayer's book is for anyone who hated the bush administration since dec. 2000 and knew all along that this republican administration was up to no good, as well as for bush supporters (those of us who voted for it not once but twice) who didn't want to believe they could do this.

the dark side would be the third book i have read in as many years that
tells me we were wrong on our votes. sure mayer is a liberal reporter who writes for a liberal newspaper, but they were right.

It's shocking to read this book -- The overreaction of power by the Executive Branch and the dirty sad things they did will leave a dark mark on the legacy of Cheney and Bush --- All the things that Bush and his cadre of lawyers kept hidden from you is now revealed -- The truth will make you sick. This book is very well written and I'm not much of a book reader myself.

Someone wise once said: to those who understand no explanation is necessary; to those who do not, none is possible. Citing "human rights," Meyer and her minions agonize over such practices as waterboarding, sleep deprivation and such. This reveals that she knows nothing about torture as it has been practised our enemies over millenia. The irony of this is that the very people who denounce these interrogative techinques are the same ones who turn a blind eye to the inhuman, agonizingly painful destruction on helpless infants in the cause of "privacy" and "the right to choose." How can any sensible person take the likes of the irrational Bush haters such as Mayer seriously? The book reveals nothing that has not been in the news. Did Mayer complain about Clinton administration policy that Muslim attacks were to be treated as criminal matters and prosecuted accordingly? Do she understand that under the Rules of Criminal Procedure, matters of national security would have to be disclosed to defendants during a criminal prosecution? Is that really wise and would it keep us safe? One is tempted to think that Jane Mayer either wants to make money or she wants our country to go down the drain. Tell me, Ms. Mayer, what liberties would the culture that produced the inhabitants of Gitmo accord to you?

A beautifully written, powerful, well-documented book written by an honest, courageous, patriotic American. I found her book impossible to put down.

Mayer's The Dark Side is a synthetic examination of the Bush presidency, and provides a most comprehensive overview of the history of the use of torture in support of the "war on terrorism." Mayer introduces us to the people who advocated for and developed the illegitimate legal arguments used to suspend basic human rights in opposition to the U.S. Constitution and a corpus of international law. She shows how an incompetent, mendacious, and cowardly triumvirate of Cheney/Addington/ Yoo developed, justified, and implemented policies that directly contradict the rights and freedoms that had previously defined America.

Mayer is a master at her craft, and deserves our thanks for producing a book that allows us to peer into a world that its creators tried so hard to conceal from us. The Dark Side is essential reading.

One question, not addressed by Ms. Mayer, remains unanswered: why were Bush and Cheney not impeached?

The Dark Side: The Inside Story of How the War on Terror Turned into a
War on American Ideals
Reviewed by Harold Reynolds

Foreigners one day may visit this country to teach our children
how our democracy decayed, drop by drop. The text for the course will be Jane Mayer's The Dark Side. A classically great work of investigative journalism, it is an appalling, profoundly disturbing revelation of the Bush Administration's war on terrorism. It is a grim warning of the threat to us that exists in a President who sets himself against the Constitution in a parallel world that he secretly constructs in the name of security. When reading it, you may have the fleeting sense that you are in Berlin and the year is 1938.
The questions posed to our children will be whether President George W. Bush, Vice-President Richard Cheney, Secretary of Defense Donald Rumsfeld, together with other high office holders and military commanders,should have been indicted for war crimes, crimes against humanity, and the violation of federal criminal statutes described in The Dark Side, and whether, failing in that, we endangered ourselves to greater subversions of liberty.
In September, 2001, when the dust of the Twin Towers had not yet settled, Cheney, mentor to Bush and long fixated on his felt need to increase the power of a presidency weakened by Vietnam and Watergate, took charge of national security issues. President Bush authorized CIA Director Tenet to use secret paramilitary death squads anywhere on earth to detain and interrogate suspected terrorists. When Congress, however, would not give him unlimited war powers, he secretly obtained from a cadre of lawyers in the Department of Justice's Office of Legal Counsel bizarre, some said insane, legal memoranda that in sum held that Congress could not limit Bush's conduct of warfare. This cadre informally called themselves the "War Council". They advised Bush that he could defend the nation as he saw fit and ride over laws specifically designed to curb him. They assured him that he could set aside statutes prohibiting torture and secret detentions. Terrorists, they said, were outside the body of law, beyond the protection of the Geneva Conventions. They could be tortured. They knew what Cheney, Bush and Rumsfeld wanted and accordingly advised Bush that he had inherent authority to use military commissions empowered to sentence illegal combatants to death, all without review by Congress or the courts. These legal memos, hidden from all but a select White House circle, were five-and-dime store stunts manufactured to create a paper world of authority where none existed and upon which the principal actors, such was their contempt for the public, were ready to rely in justification of their abhorrent conduct. Indeed, these masters of self-deceit honed a memo stating that proof of torture required not only proof of the specific intent to inflict suffering but proof that the suffering was of "significant" duration. In short, the world might condemn an act out of hand as painful torture, but the torturer could raise in defense the claim that he intended an objective that involved a result other than that pain.
And so it was that the natural passion to defend this country and punish those who had slaughtered our people was tragically placed in the hands of Bush, Cheney and Rumsfeld whose joint cunning and stupidity has caused one of the greatest horrors in our national history.
The nightmare CIA secret "extraordinary rendition" program sent detainees to Egypt, Morocco, Syria, Jordan, Uzbekistan, and Afghanistan for torture. Bush and CIA Director Tenet knew that those renditions were forbidden by the Convention against Torture. Suspects in our custody were held in CIA top-secret "black site" prisons. Thus, Bush, Cheney, and Rumsfeld, Mayer contends, are prosecutable for war crimes and crimes against humanity, to say nothing of their violations of our federal criminal law.
Bush, Cheney, and Rumsfeld approved of "enhanced" interrogation techniques in violation of the Convention Against Torture. After all, an Office of Legal Counsel memo declared that Convention unconstitutional because Bush, they said, had the power to order any interrogation technique. Indeed, the Office of Legal Counsel declared waterboarding lawful. Sexual humiliation, hoodings, shackled 8-hour standing with arms extended overhead, slamming prisoners headfirst against walls, sleep deprivation, bright light bombardment , 24-hour a day ear-drum shattering noise for weeks, caging squatting men in dog crates, was the order of the day. One of the Office of Legal Counsel scholars hypothetically suggested as lawful the gouging out of a prisoner's eyes, "slitting an ear, nose, or lip, or disabling a tongue or limb". Among the barbaric cruelties was "Palestinian hanging" in which a man's hands are secured behind his back and he is suspended from behind like a carcass in a slaughter house. Examining such a corpse, Dr. Michael Baden, the noted forensic pathologist for the New York State Police, found that "asphyxia is what he died from - as in a crucifixion". Surely, to see a crucifixion where beatings, broken bones, and murder were commonplace might give pause even to a predatory animal passing through at night.
The International Committee for the Red Cross described the treatment of Abu Zubayda, an Al Qaeda logistics chief, as torture that constituted war crimes. The Los Angeles Times demanded a criminal investigation of Bush Administration for war crimes. So dismissive was
Bush of lawful restraints that he himself ordered the waterboarding of Zubayda. So in-your-face arrogant was the CIA that hundreds of hours of video tapes of the interrogation of Zubayda , including his extensive waterboarding, were withheld from the 9/11 Commission and, in defiance of a federal court, were actually destroyed by the CIA.
In 2002, one-third of Guantanamo's 600 prisoners had no connection with terrorism, thus implicating Bush, Cheney and Rumsfeld in committing war crimes. Bush had thoughtfully determined that they were all "enemy combatants". Rumsfeld was directly involved in the straight out of hell, unutterably inhumane savaging of Mohammed al-Qahtani, the suspected "20th hijacker" who had set out but failed to join the 9/11 hijackers. His torture produced nothing of substance except the Pentagon's dismissal of the charges against him because his torture tainted his confession. Military interrogators opened themselves to prosecution for the brutal abuse of detainees. Frightened by the criminality of military torturers, the FBI denounced them for fear of being implicated. Alberto Mora, General Counsel of the Navy, warned that criminal charges from assault to war crimes were chargeable against Bush Administration officials. Incredibly, a March 2003 memo declared that federal laws prohibiting assault, maiming, and other crimes did not apply to military interrogators in Guantanamo.
The scenario left by the Bush Administration is beyond ordinary imagining. When the next president is elected, a "transition team" will be designated by him to assist him in taking power. That team will be confronted with determining the location, inhabitants, and history of that parallel world of perhaps thousands of uncharged men and women cut off from access to their families, tortured, humiliated, beaten, kept off stage to this day by those fearful of prosecution.

Meyer's thesis is that Islamic terrorism is a joke. As a person who has never had the duty to act in situations involving important interests, she uses 20/20 hindsight to smirk at and criticize those who performed that duty in good faith for us. Her cheap shots cause an ecstatic response at The New Yorker, but do not explain the decisions of the Bush administration. Meyer is almost totally ignorant of the constitution, and how the system of checks and balances operates. She attributes legislative power to Bush when almost every elementary student knows that Congress, not the president, makes the laws, and the president's duty is to "take care that the laws be faithfully executed". If Bush's acts were as unconstitutional as she claims, Congress could have, but did not, refuse to pay for them. If you are a Bush hater, you will love her book. If you are interested in unbiased history of terrorism, read Bernard Lewis' books instead.

We have committed war crimes as a nation, and we should be held accountable. It's a desaster that needs an immediate recovery effort led by our new president-elect. Jane Mayer deserves the National Book Award.

This is just a tired rehash of press releases and corporate media drivel. Ms. Mayer is incapable or unwilling to speak truth to power.

Title The Dark Side: The Inside Story of How The War on Terror Turned into a War on American Ideals
Author: Jane Mayer
Rating *****
Tags terrorism, torture, bush administration
I resisted reading this book for a while, but felt it was one of those books I HAD to read, as an American citizen, to know the worst about my government in order help to elect better ones. The book was hard to read, both for the occasional and in this case NOT gratuitous depictions of torture, and to see what fear did to this nation that has not ever before, as a policy, used coercive interrogations. Mayer makes that clear by giving a brief history. George Washington insisted on humane treatment of British prisoners of war, and that tradition continued with the U.S. in the forefront in creating treaties such as the Geneva Conventions.

All that was turned on its head after 9/11. After that, captured terrorists were subject to extraordinary rendition, in which some were taken to foreign countries to be tortured for information, while others were tortured in prisons in Afghanistan, Iraq, and Guantanamo Bay in Cuba.

The story of how it happened is complex, and sickening... a combination of fear and incompetence. Policy on this, as on so many things, was mostly set by VP Dick Cheney and his legal adviser, David Addington. Both are authoritarian personality figures who do what they believe is right and don't listen to anyone advocating something different. Addington's response is usually to shout down the opposing opinion.

One interesting thing that Mayer points out is that it was a quite small circle of people setting torture policy and that only Addington was a lawyer. Of course John Yoo, who wrote the infamous torture memo while on staff in the Office of Legal Council (OLC), was a lawyer as well, but other lawyers have said that his work was badly done. Jack Goldsmith, who was head of OLC later, thought it was so deeply flawed that he withdrew it, and that was something that had not been done before (I also recommend Goldsmith's book, The Terror Presidency, on this subject). What OLC says is so important because they are the standard bearer for any administration on legal matters, and what they say goes.

The Dark Side is also frightening it its depiction of sheer incompetence. At the time of 9/11, the CIA had not done interrogations for years, and had few experts in it. At first, they used some of the FBI's interrogaters, who were experienced and did not use torture because they knew that information from torture was unreliable -it might be accurate, it might be lies, and you don't know which is which. They had interrogaters who were experts in Muslim culture and who were used at the beginning, but the powers that be thought that information wasn't coming fast enough and handed the interrogations over to the CIA who was told to use any means necessary to get information and get it quickly. The CIA retro-engineered the SERE program, which was used to teach soldiers and agents to withstand torture and began using those techniques to torture.

All of this was done with doubtful legal and moral justifications. Mayer uses that marvelous quote from Nietzsche "He who does battle with monsters needs to watch out lest he in the process becomes a monster himself. And if you stare too long into the abyss, the abyss will stare right back at you." There seems to be some indications that many of those who tortured developed psychological problems themselves. There were also heroes in this battle, as Mayers is quick to acknowledge. See her summary in the afterward:

"In looking back,. one of the most remarkable features of this struggle is that almost from the start, and at almost every turn along the way, the Bush administration was warned that the short-term benefits of its extralegal approach to fighting terrorism would have tragically destructive long-term consequences both for the rule of law and America's interests in the world. Those warnings came not from just political opponents, but also from experienced allies, including the British Intelligence Service, the experts in the traditionally conservative military and the FBI, and, perhaps most surprisingly, from a series of loyal Republican lawyers inside the administration itself. The number of patriotic critics inside the administration and out who threw themselves into trying to head off what they saw as a terrible departure from America's ideals, often at an enormous price to their own careers, is both humbling and reassuring." (p. 327).

This book, along with others such as Barton Gellman's Angler, will be very important to historians trying to understand an administration that went so wrong in so many ways, and to those who, as citizens, want to understand so as to elect better governments. Besides, it is a story to stand up with any epic, a story of heroes and villains, as well as people simply trying to do their best for their country in a dangerous and uncertain world. Excellent and highly recommended read.


Publication Doubleday (2008), Hardcover, 400 pages
Publication date 2008
ISBN 0385526393 / 9780385526395

There is a good reason why this book is a finalist for the National Book Award. Without in any way becoming polemic or apostasy, Ms. Mayer cogently and elegantly depicts how Cheney, Addington (Cheney's Cheney), Bush, John Yoo et al deliberately and successfully set about to sabotage and undermine our Constitution.

I got chills up and down my spine reading this masterful account.

Everything I learned in law school and 30 years of litigation practice seemed for naught--elected officials set their own legal agenda and destroyed others' careers and sometimes consciences in reckless, illegal and immoral pursuit of the "war on terrorism."

The sourcing is incredible. Rarely is journalism much more than the "first draft" of history; this book is a noble exception to that maxim.

btw, my daughter listened to this as a book on tape while driving cross-country and was mesmerized also.

Get it...in any form!

The book was delivered promptly and in mint condition. I will deal with this seller on any future books that he offers. I recommend him both to Amazon.com and to any purchaser of their discounted books. I also forgot to mention that I could not beat the price and quality of the book on any online store except Amazon.com. Thank-you both.

Last book that woke me in near-panic at 4 AM was Economics of the Final Jihad -- about the creeping Islamist ideological tyranny that (as referenced in The Dark Side) has been used as the justification for our own domestic creeping ideological tyranny.

In the same way 'EotFJ' gave a terrifyingly clear picture of implacable, single-minded zealots patiently undermining the economic heart of our Democracy and Western culture, Jane Mayer's book describes how the radical neo-con element of the GOP has laid the groundwork for an imperialist coup over the past thirty years. This cabal is personified and championed by Dick Cheney, who was perfectly positioned after September 11, 2001 to spring the steel-jawed trap that has hamstrung and brought down the rule of law.

Under the guise of protecting America -- and some of them believe that, no doubt -- these utterly partisan politicians, lawyers, and bureaucrats have treated the Constitution as a nuisance to be ignored, the balance of powers as a trivial impediment to be dismantled, fundamental human rights as roadside litter -- and American citizens as potential enemies, all.

The torture 'debate' on which the book focuses was never a debate -- it was a stacked deck with a crooked dealer, and it is a quite brutal demonstration of how these ideologues work. On the surface, this book is chilling enough, describing graphically what Americans have done to kidnap, brutalize, and destroy other people with no regard for guilt or innocence.

The subtext, though is what woke me in a nightmare -- fear is the justification and the goad, but for these men and women, power is the goal, has always been the goal: having gotten this close, don't imagine for one minute they will let it go.

An exceptionally well-written account of the Bush administration's response to the September 11th attacks. An important read for anyone who feels that the United States should be (or is) a force for good in the world.

Those of you who are considering a truly scary read for Halloween "The Dark Side" by Jane Mayer is just the book for you. The horror of the Bush Administrations' CIA Terror Project has been given the Disney treatment in main stream media but Mayer sets the record straight with Grimm precision.

I must begin by acknowledging that few reviews of this book will come from non-partisan reviewers. As the Bush administration frames it, to have any opinion outside of GOP talking points is considered unpatriotic. I am a devotee of CSPAN and was familiar with most of the players and basic plot of this tragic play but was amazed at Mayer's ability to nail down with certitude the basic truth, even with the majority of evidence still classified as State Secrets. This is an exceptional work of investigative journalism, and at 335 pages this tightly packed expose is not for the faint of heart or fair weather patriot as it surely will test the mettle of any patriotic American.

This accurate account of the evil that was done in the name of justice will forever haunt me (and depressed me enough to abandon my desire to practice law). To see the obvious revealed and writ large and know that despite all, neither the current administration, legislature nor public opinion has wavered from the blank check given Bush/Cheney to fight their misguided war on terror. One can only hope that this book is only a first step in a national detoxification program to remove the poisons fed to us by the current administration before their cancerous effects create permanent dysfunction.

Jane Mayer's look deep inside the Bush/Cheney White House at how and why torture was and still is used to interrogate prisoners around the globe is simpy essential reading for all right thinking Americans interested in how we as a nation have lost our moral authority.

The book is certainly not going to be considered a "page-turner" by anyone, but the shocking depth or depravity within the Bush administration, and the ease with which hundreds of CIA and military personnel adopted torture techniques, is mind blowing. Apparently there are a lot of very bad men and women who were just waiting for the opportunity given them by the terrorist attacks to become, quite simply, outlaws. Shocking and despicable.

I cannot stress enough how important it is to read this book. Hopefully, Senator Obama will, once he wins the White House, put a stop to the insanity of torturing our prisoners and regain a moral foothold, both at home and in the world.

The first Sunday after the September 11 terrorist attacks, Dick Cheney appeared on Meet the Press and described how the Bush administration would respond: "We'll have to work sort of the dark side, if you will. We've got to spend time in the shadows in the intelligence world. A lot of what needs to be done here will have to be done quietly, without any discussion, using sources and methods that are available to our intelligence agencies." He wasn't kidding. In the panic and paranoia that engulfed the Bush administration after the September 11 attacks, Cheney decided that the end of national security justified any and all means.

Jane Mayer reconstructs in meticulous detail how Cheney and his closest aides legalized torture as American public policy. There were noble administration people who demurred and dissented, but virtually all of them were marginalized. A small "War Council" acted in secrecy to actively exclude all naysayers and normal processes of checks and balances -- David Addington, John Yoo, Tim Flanigan, Alberto Gonzales ("an empty suit"), and Jim Haynes. These highly partisan ideologues, a weak president, and interagency rivalry and dysfunction created the "perfect storm." According to Human Rights Watch, "more than 600 U.S. military and civilian personnel were involved in abusing more than 460 detainees." What the public has seen and heard about Guantanamo and Abu Ghraib are only the tip of the iceberg.

The Bush administration boasts that its torture program has been worth the intelligence it gathered, but that's far from clear. Furthermore, "seven years after the attacks of September 11, not a single terror suspect held outside of the U.S. criminal court system has been tried." This is a tragedy in itself because, let's be clear, many of these detainees deserved to be punished. But such prosecutions become impossible when evidence was gathered by torture. And so now America holds hundreds of detainees that it can't prosecute, can't very well release, and can't reasonably hold forever without charges.

In spurning "the last nearly universal moral taboo" of torture, America's reputation among its allies has been badly sullied. Canada, for example, placed the United States on its list of rogue nations that torture (332-333). Our enemies have been enraged and emboldened. Our own military personnel can expect similar treatment. Cheney was careful to pass legislation that granted himself and his colleagues retroactive legal immunity, which is an explicit acknowledgement of what nations around the world have already concluded-- that our highest government officials are liable for "prosecutable war crimes" (244). Such prosecution will not happen at home, but as Phillipe Sands has argued in his own book, Torture Team (2008), those responsible for legalizing torture ought to be very careful about traveling overseas. As I write, Mayer's book has been named as a finalist for a National Book Award.

Every American should read this book to find out what is being done in his and her name--supposedly for our benefit.

The evidence is shocking. The only heartening thing is the effort of some Bush appointees, some FBI, Navy, etc., to fight the Administration's illegal, self-defeating, foolish and disgusting practices. But they didn't have a chance against Bush and Cheney.

That Bush and Cheney, etc., know that what they are doing is unconstitutional and prosecutable is evident: they wrote pardons for themselves into the law.

This book gives an excellant account of gross control of power from within the White House by Bush, Cheney, and his croonies. How this power and control fed the terror we face as a nation and the future of terrorism within our boundries. The arrogance of the administration doing what they wanted regardless of the current laws. They were "ABOVE THE LAW".
The writer has done a very good job portraying this. I would highly recommend it. Action should be taken against the power monguls who had to control.....

I checked this title from the library. I had difficulty reading much of the material, even though I already believed Cheney, Addisson, Gongalez, et. al. are more than capable of "thinking" of such atrocities. The reporting is brilliant and extreemly disturbing. As an educator, I would advise this book to be REQUIRED reading for every American, at least all appropriately aged (?) students.

Of many books I have read on the misdeeds and mistakes of the Bush Administration in Iraq, Afghanistan, and the War on Terror generally, this is the best. Its impact sinks in page after page, horrific detail after horrific detail.

Jane Mayer has written a well-documented analysis of how the White House succumbed to the sociology of groupthink and pretty much froze out those who disagreed with or questioned the wisdom of allowing torture under any name.

There are a lot of books about the machinations of the White House available, but I think this one is the best.

While this book does not mince words, about the horrific tactics that our government has done, I found it informative but tedious. The public must be informed but the main objective I think is to "vote the rascals out!"

(From a conversation with the author on a local radio call-in program)
Somehow, i endured to the end of this frightening book. It frightened me in ways i didn't know i could be frightened. I found your vignettes well-supported and the story they tell, coherent and overwhelming. They are even more overwhelming when read as a whole than as a series of episodes.

By the time I got to the bottom of page 274, and read that Ramzi Kassem, whom you describe as having taught at Yale Law School, had reported that his Yemeni client "told him that during his incarceration in the Dark Prison [which you report as being near Kabul Airport] he had attempted suicide three tines by ramming his head into the walls..." By that point, knowing that I still had 60 nightmarish pages to finish, i found myself considering beating my own head with the book, so i wouldn't have to read them.

I have three questions. First, how have you defended "The Dark Side" against people who continue to support what i'd term Cheney/Bush's "security über allez" irrespective of constitutionality approach? Second, have you faced charges that you are merely "swiftboating" Cheney/Bush; if so, how would you defend yourself? I ask these questions so that i might better help you defended your book when people around me question your work. [The author answered that not a single claim had been challenged by anyone involved, or by any agent of the government,]

Finally, in view of Dan Levin's 'magic footnote' (my term) which stated that "nothing that the [US} government had previously authorized would be considered criminal under [Levin's] new interpretation of the law" (page 306, bottom), do you, Ms. Mayer foresee any possibility of criminal charges being brought against either Cheney or Bush under US laws? ... or War Crime charges being brought at the World Court? Is it possible that any of the Principles Group cold be arrested under international law, as General Pinochet was in England? [The author responded that this was unlikely to happen in the US,, but more likely to happen in another country---so, I say, let's start up a Bush/Cheney/Rumsfeld international travel fund!]

Thank you for writing this truly troubling book.

If you truly love your country, you must read this book. I have to be honest, because I love my country, because the ideals of this nation are so important, because due process and the rule of law are what separate us from our enemies, I felt incredible sadness, even shame as an American, reading this book. Still, it must be read, and it should be read by everyone planning to vote in November. Quite simply, Bush, Cheney, Addington, Yoo and others betrayed this nation and, I believe, should be brought up on war crime charges. And, if you think I'm just another liberal, you're wrong. I supported the first President Bush and John McCain in 2000, and I honor of memory and legacy of Ronald Reagan.

The truth is never easy to accept, but it must come out. We should always remember John 8:32.

1)I purchased the book with great expectations after watching in "youtube" an interview to the author.
2) I can tel you aint cheap to buy a USA printed book from Argentina
3)Read anxoiusly and carrefully expecting to understad at least partially what was going on in the "war on terror"
4)Atonished enough I found a boy''s scout history.
5) Above because being a 60 year old argentinian citizen, all the what is written in the book we saw it on a much more larger scale, torture wise and number of people killed or "desaparecida" in our country
6)Pls don 't get me wrong , I'm, not a leftiest, I was presumably on the "right side" i.e I didn't expect militaries to pick me on the middle of the night, as it happened so often.
7)Above being said please let me say tha at a minumin the author of the book didn't studied what happened with the "war on terror" indoctrinated to the argentinan miltaries, by their US advisor on the 70's & the 80's., which I can assure you, where much but much worst/horrible of what had happened in the Irak.
8)Maybe we, in the southern corn of the hemisphre we are not, these days, strategically important, but nevertheless it's quite depressing reading a description of horrors, that bein what they are HORRORS, are nor different of what we saw in this part of the world for do many years, without the wordl taking notice a that time

Jane Mayer has written a brilliant and well documented book about the abuses and immoral behavior of the Vice President Richard Cheney and his staff of lawyers. At no time in American history have we seen an abuse of power so blatant and so shocking as to leave the reader shaking with disbelief, shame and anger. Ms. Mayer documents the slide of American laws and constitution into the gutter by those who not only misinterpreted the law, but perverted the law, which ultimately resulted in the torture and death of the alleged and the innocent. The reader will quickly realized while reading the book that those responsible for this travesty of justice will ultimately go free, or will never face a day in court for their criminal behavior.

Ms. Mayer's exhaustive documentation implicates VP Cheney and his lawyers Addington and Yoo for spearheading the most immoral information gathering program in American history. There are others, such as the office of the Sec. Def who pressed subordinates to ratchet up torture, then denied any and all involvement when the media discovered the abuses at Abu Ghraib. The CIA Director also turned a blind eye to his agents as they tortured and murdered those suspected of terrorism, whether justified or not.

This book is a must read. It should be part of law classes throughout the US as an example of what not to do, and should be a warning to law administrators everywhere that ethics is more than a one semester class.

This book makes very clear how the current administration has violently mistreated prisoners under the banner of the "war on terror" and then had to prevent cases from going to trial because of the legal exposure. People have been "disappeared" with little or no evidence of any wrongdoing. Torture forces people to say something/anything to make the pain stop and has been proven to not provide reliable information.If you aren't already angry and disgusted at the abuse of power by the current administration, then you need to educate yourself by reading Jane Mayer's book.

The stuff mentioned in this book is pretty scary. It is about the overzealous and extreme measures the Bush administration is going to in the name of fighting terrorism. I highly recommend reading this book.

The primary purpose of journalism is always the same -- to use the truth to hold the powerful (those who most impact society) accountable to the truth. This book is journalism at it's best. It does something that most so called journalists avoid. It uses the truth to hold the powerful, in this case the George W. Bush Administration, accountable to the truth. The result is a mass of factual documention exposing the adminsistration's mass of misconduct. That misconduct includes torture, the erosion and destruction of constitutionally created freedoms, and most importantly, an outright assualt on the truth. Significantly, the author's sources are generally not members of the liberal " Quiche Crowd," but are instead card carrying members of the military, law enforcement and national security establishments. There are many lessons to be learned here, but perhaps the most important is that when we allow the powerful (in this case the President) to be and to remain unregulated, the result will probably be an ugly, costly and unnecessary mess.

Jane Mayer provides a detailed, bold description of the main characters inside Cheney's office as they create a system of laws to govern the "enemy combatants" outside the Geneva Conventions. She names names. Beware, Jane! Your frank, well-documented critique has no doubt made you a target.

This book could have been written by Michael Moore (perhaps he collaborated, without credit). Ms. Mayer clearly represents that large group of liberals who prefer to be dead rather than even twist the pinky toe of a terrorist. Bush-haters will love this book, which puts into print all they so wish to believe. However, for critical thinkers who realize there are two sides to every story (and this is a story indeed!) or those who are not too profoundly upset remaining alive by allowing our President to use his discretion (after all, he is an ELECTED official, right?) to locate and question terrorists, it's just another joke of a work the New York Times will undoubtedly refer to as a "masterful piece of literature."

The Dark Side, by Jane Mayer, grew out of a well-researched series of articles in the New Yorker Magazine. Since September 11, 2001, Ms. Mayer has carefully documented the erosion of civil liberties and the encouragement of torture that has characterized the 2nd Bush presidency.

Using sources from deep within the government and the military, Ms. Mayer explains how a swaggering president with little attention to detail can allow Vice-President Cheney to push through his policies of aggressive augmentation of power of the executive branch.

In this atmosphere of executive privilege, policies such as use of torture and holding prisoners without charges or access to legal help can become rampant. Ms. Mayer lets the facts speak for themselves as she documents the evolution of these decisions and shows how opposition to these policies has cost many brave public servants their jobs.

It was especially interesting to read about the shoddy legal reasoning that underpins many of the Bush-Cheney policies. The Bush administration has tried to use secrecy to hide these decisions, but good research and responsible government workers have brought some light onto many of these sad assaults to our democracy.

In summary, this is an important book for American to read and understand.

Jane Mayer explains in clear language how the Bush/Cheney administration, un-nerved by the attacks on the World Trade Center and the Pentagon, followed a course of action that led to invasion of Iraq and to torturing of suspects and prisoners. What I found encouraging in this analysis, was that there were some unsung heroes in the administration who tried, in vain, to stop this descent into thoroughly bad actions.

Jane Mayer has done a masterful job in chronicling a dark chapter in American history - one in which we lost the moral high ground, saw our ideals badly compromised and, indeed, violations of the important right of habeas corpus. Abu Ghaib and Guantanamo will be remembered, unfortunately, long after the American prisons are gone and it will take considerable effort to repair our reputation. Jane Mayer quotes from the final report of the 1976 Church Committee which studied intelligence operations: "The United States must not adopt the tactics of the enemy. Means are as important as ends." Would that those words had been heeded. This is an important book for all Americans. The Dark Side: The Inside Story of How The War on Terror Turned into a War on American Ideals

The book is incredibly well researched and sheds light on many of the questionable actions of the Bush administration. It is especially informative concerning the activities of one of the most clandestine and powerful vice presidents this country has ever had. Ms. Mayer goes through the gradual process of circumventing the agreements of the Geneva Convention as well as how the Constitution was re-interpreted to the benefit of executive power. However, most of the important facts and names have circulated in the popular press as of lately and to a well informed reader the book may fill-in items of interest but may not be of absolute essence. Overall, anyone who follows politics and is fascinated by the addictiveness of power should take the time to read "The Dark Side".

Jane Mayer, a writer for "The New Yorker" has, in "The Dark Side" cataloged the entire gamut of depravity, self-serving expediency, deranged paralogic, intransigence, overarching ideological preoccupations, benighted, delusional thinking and shoddy "scholarship" that has underpinned and guided the G.W. Bush Administration's efforts to wage a "war on terror". This is genuinely "must reading" for anyone claiming to be an informed citizen.

First, there are really no new revelations in "Dark Side": virtually all the material cataloged by Mayer has been previously published. However, I know of no other synthesis of the affair into a single book directed at the general reading public.

Second, this is muckraking in the classic tradition. The genuinely illegal actions (at least according to the U.S. Supreme Court and, possibly more importantly, the court of world opinion) of the Bush Administration demands redress. Unfortunately, aside from the token punishment of a few hapless underlings, this will never happen due to the furtive and scurrilous legal efforts of the Bush Administration Office of the Legal Council. The culpability of major US government officials, entrusted with the safeguarding of the US Constitution is brutally exposed. Bush is pictured as setting the stage for the enterprise; Cheney appears as the motive force behind the program; David Addington (Cheney's Chief of Staff) crafts the policies and serves as the enforcer; John Yoo (Office of the Legal Council) devised legally vacuous and convoluted opinions to allow, justify and provide legal cover for the use of "enhanced interrogation", a euphemism for torture; other highly placed lawyers (for example,Flanigan, Haynes, Gonzales and lesser-known but influential legal advisers such as Beaver) are exposed; the list is too extensive to summarize here, but guilt is widely shared in the upper echelons of the Administration. While concerted efforts were made by the OTC "War Council" to bypass the usual system of "checks and balances", prominent Administration figures were also involved to various degrees (CIA Director Hayden, Rumsfeld, Chertoff are but three examples). Additionally, there are principled opponents: Goldsmith, Mora, Bellinger, Dan Levin, Comey (and, surprisingly, Attorney General John Ashcroft along with FBI Director Mueller) and others. Some of these individuals were forced from public office by the blunt instrument of Cheney; David Addington. Important acquiescent participants included Secretary of State Rice and Colin Powell, who were aware of details, but refrained from forcefully intervening despite noting "reservations". The most surprising of the "sell-outs", however, was John McCain, who had undergone years of brutal torture while serving as a POW in Vietnam: he callously and cynically supported the subsequent Bush Administration subversion of the Supreme Court ruling on torture and Guantanamo by voting for the Military Commissions Act (Obama, whatever his other potential limitations, voted against it and eloquently defended his perspective in a Congressional speech).

Third, the lack of substantive benefit from the torture and renditions programs was highlighted. Other than the obviously self-interested perspectives of the CIA and various military torturers themselves, there was no "objective" data to confirm the utility of this approach and plenty of reason to find it counterproductive from a purely intelligence perspective.

Fourth, the program has had devastating effects on world opinion for the US. Our stature has sunk to a previously unparalleled nadir. The "black sites" (quartered in former Eastern European satellites of the USSR) undermined our credibility as critics of KGB and other secret police torture networks that previously operated in these countries.

Fifth and most disconcertingly, the assertion of unrestrained "executive prerogative" made by Addington, et al creates a genuine sense of fear amongst informed US citizens. In fact, even sober dissenting members of the Administration feared they might be made to "disappear". A Los Angeles "Times" editorial noted, "It's hard to see what is left of American freedom if the government has the authority to make anyone on its soil-citizen or non-citizen-disappear and then rule that no one can do anything about it." This statement is only partially accurate: the US Government asserts it can make citizens of foreign countries living overseas "disappear" too.

While it would be nice if there was a "happy ending" to the story, there is not. The program continues and will likely continue in the same way that the futile and destructive "war on drugs" limps on: politicians are afraid of appearing "soft", so they persist in supporting failed policies. Worse, these policies have undermined public respect for the law and damaged, possibly destroyed, the credibility of the US internationally, even allowing for the indulgences of "realpolitik" with their tendency towards the long-view.

In summary, an outstanding book: genuinely important and required reading for anyone wishing to understand the issues facing the Republic in the early 21st Century.

Bush and Rice had the information they needed to "perhaps" prevent 9/11. However, they failed to listen. In addition, the CIA and FBI didn't share critical information. The government, the bureaucracy blundered. This book tells it all. It tells how people failed. How agencies failed. And, above all, how a dumbed-down president could not comprehend the dangers that were already in this country and could have been stopped before they killed some 3000 people and brought a great country to its knees. This is, as other reviewers said, a frightening book. It's a book you should read.

- Susanna K. Hutcheson

this is a very important book about what happens when the rule and role of law are ignored. when Shakespeare said "first, kill all the lawyers", he was not dissing lawyers, he was commenting on how power hungry rulers can wreak havoc when the lawyers and their lawyerly advice has been extinguished. exactly what happened here. yes, there were several lawyers, of hack quality, involved, but they were hand selected because they would say what cheney, et al. wanted to hear, and if anyone doubts the role that cheney plays in this administration and its disastrous policies, your doubts will be allayed by this book. should be number one on the best seller list, should win every non-fiction award out there, should be required reading for members of congress and should be read by everyone interested in politics and modern history.

The Dark Side: The Inside Story of How The War on Terror Turned into a War on American Ideals

An eye-opening, well documented look into the Bush administration. The facts outlined will keep you awake at night, or at least it did me.

History is supposed to teach us lessons from the past. From the Alien and Sedition Act, the "Red Scare" of 1919, the detention of thousands of Americans during World War II because of their Japanese ancestry, we were supposed to learn that even through the most dire threat to our safety, the rule of law ennobles us and protects us from tyranny. In "The Dark Side," Jane Mayer explains how easy it is for history to repeat itself in the name of security.

By September 11, 2001, the President of the United States had already spent fifty days of his first eight months in office on vacation. Despite several warnings of an impending attack from foreign intelligence sources as well as our own, the administration never quite understands the threat.

The attack on a clear summer morning changes that, and it changes things for worse. The subsequent invasion of Afghanistan allows the military and the C.I.A. to round up hundreds of Taliban prisoners. An offer of a $5,000 bounty for the capture of al-Qaeda and Taliban nets them hundreds more. The administration screams for actionable intelligence from these detainees, but sorting them out and interrogating them is another matter. The assumption is that "enhanced interrogation techniques" will bring more accurate results in a shorter period of time. It also has to be justified.

That comes from John Yoo, the legal counsel for the Justice Department who provides just the argument Dick Cheney and his attorney, Dick Addington are looking for. It says the president can do essentially anything he wants, and ignore Congress, if it for the security of the country. Yoo also states that such interrogation methods are not torture unless it results in organ failure or death. Alberto Gonzalez joins in describing Afghanistan as a failed state, and their detainees as unlawful combatants. The state department is not consulted.

America's shame is just beginning.

With John Yoo's memo providing the green light, American military and C.I.A. begin to torture detainees in Guantanamo Bay, Saddam Hussein's Abu-Ghraib prison, and one in Afghanistan. The techniques they employ are standing for prolonged periods, the absence of light and irregular meal periods to enhance disorientation, water boarding, extreme cold and heat, constant loud music, humiliation, no toilet breaks, confined spaces, prolonged restraints, especially Palestinian hangings, irregular and insufficient periods of sleep, and threats. Other detainees are sent to countries for rendition, countries known for human rights abuses. Prisoners will die of exposure, heart attack, asyphixiation, or from simply being beaten to death.

While the administration claims that the techniques work, there are too many instances where the tormented harden their resolve during harsh treatment, and cooperate when treated well. Many who are tortured provide false information that sends our intelligence assets on fools' errands. The most damaging disinformation comes from Sheikh Ibn als-Libi who gives evidence against Saddam Hussein while he is being tortured. This is the justification for going to war with Iraq. He only wanted his torturers to stop.

In 2003-4, the policy begins to unravel. Charges are reduced, dropped, or changed against John Walker Lindh, Yasser Hamdi, and Jose Padilla. Since they were tortured, their charges won't stand up in court. Justice Department lawyers begin to question John Yoo's legal precedents. The CIA Inspector General begins to investigate abuses. JAG officers begin refuse to prosecute or serve on military tribunals. In 2005, the Abu-Ghraib scandal will break. It is later estimated that most of the detainees at "Gitmo" are people who were rounded up when they were in the wrong place at the wrong time, or were turned in for the generous bounty offered. They include an eighty-year old deaf man, and a wealthy Kuwaiti businessman who will indignantly refuse to buy another Cadillac after his mistreatment. A German and a Canadian citizen will be kidnapped and tortured before they are set free. Three hundred forty of 749 detainees held in Gitmo will remain there with only a handful being charged.

In spite of a growing rebellion inside the Departments of Defense and Justice, the President refuses to remove people he promised he would hold accountable for abuses. Human Rights Watch estimates that more than 600 U.S. military and civilian personnel were involved in torture.

The true leader of this policy holds a tight rein and his resistance to change is fierce. It is Dick Cheney and his loyal lawyer, Dave Addington. Even the new attorney general, Alberto Gonzalez refuses to go toe to toe with Dave, a tall, snarling bully. Cheney takes the unprecedented step of summoning the C.I.A.'s Inspector General to his office while he is conducting his investigation. The military holds a number of investigations that limit them to looking at the lower ranks. It is also clear by 2005, that Bush is fully aware that some of his senior officials believe that Gitmo should be closed and his detention policy changed. The dissenters and naysayers are excluded from any more discussion. To this day, Bush refuses to budge.

This is a powerful story. The author is holding a mirror to people who have long believed they were just and righteous. This is not just a bucket of cold water, it is being thrown into a river of ice. She tells us that we must look at ourselves if we ever hope to recapture our moral greatness. Even this she concedes will take years. Her book is a good place for our national introspection to begin.

She concludes this powerful report with the following: "Seven years after Al Qaeda's attacks on America, as the Bush Administration slips into history, it is clear that what began on September 11, 2001, as a battle for America's security became, and continues to be a battle for the country's soul."





"This country does not believe in torture." George W. Bush, March 16, 2005.

I did not expect this book to impact me the way it did. I came away infuriated at the Bush administration and the voters and blind partisans who allowed this to happen. Now there is no longer any doubt; Bush and his appointees knowingly and willfully subverted the U.S. Constitution and violated national and international laws, some of which have been on the books for more than 100 years. In response, I notified two law school faculty members at Stanford, who have expertise in both Constitutional and International Law. One week later, I received an email informing me of the following. "There is enough evidence presented for Impeachment of President Bush, as well as enough evidence for the World Court to prosecute the following members of the Bush administration: John Yoo, Donald Rumsfeld, George Tenet, Dick Cheney, Lewis Libby, Albert Gonzales, Douglas Feith, John Ashcroft, Richard Armitage, David Addington and others. Even more disturbing, the World Court could also prosecute scores of others within the CIA, Pentagon (Armed Services), and private contractors such as Blackwater. Accordingly, we have sent a copy of the book to the World Court." The message is twofold: first, if you have not read the book buy it today; second, guilty members of the Bush administration and federal agencies should hire attornies immediately. Justice is on the way, and not the type dispensed by the U.S. Justice Department during this administration. America may turn a blind eye (and dwell on issues such as abortion, patriotism and homosexuality), but the world will not allow anyone to break international laws with impunity. There are more important matters at stake other than regulating sex and birth.

Without Liberty and Justice For All

History is supposed to teach us lessons from the past. The Alien and Sedition Act, the "Red Scare" of 1919, the detention of thousands of Americans during World War II because of their Japanese ancestry were supposed to teach us that in the most dire threat to our safety, the rule of law ennobles us and protects us from tyranny. In `The Dark Side," Jane Mayer explains how easy it is for history to repeat itself in the name of security.

By September 11, 2001, the President of the United States had already spent fifty days of his first eight months in office, on vacation. In spite of several warnings of an impending attack from several foreign intelligence sources, as well as our own, the administration never quite understands the threat.

The attack on a clear summer morning changes that, and it changes things for the worse. The subsequent invasion of Afghanistan allows the military and the C.I.A. to round up hundreds of Taliban prisoners. An offer of a $5,000 bounty for the capture of al-Qaeda and Taliban nets them hundreds more. The administration screams for actionable intelligence from these detainees, but sorting them out and interrogating them is another matter. The assumption is that "enhanced interrogation techniques" will bring more accurate results in less amount of time. It also has to be justified.

The justification comes from John Yoo, the legal counsel for the Justice Department who provides just the argument Dick Cheney and his attorney, Dick Addington are looking for. It says the president can do essentially anything he wants, and ignore Congress, if it for the security of the country. Yoo also states that enhanced interrogation techniques are not torture unless it results in organ failure or death. Alberto Gonzalez joins in describing Afghanistan as a failed state, and their detainees as unlawful combatants. The state department is not consulted.

America's shame is just beginning.

With John Yoo's memo providing the green light, American military and C.I.A. begin to torture detainees in Guantanamo Bay, Saddam Hussein's Abu-Ghraib prison, and one in Afghanistan. The techniques they employ are sleep deprivation, standing for prolonged periods, the absence of light and irregular meal periods to enhance disorientation, water boarding, extreme cold and heat, constant loud music, humiliation, no toilet breaks, confined spaces, prolonged restraints, especially Palestinaina hangings, irregular and insufficient periods of sleep, and threats. Other detainees are sent to countries for rendition, countries known for human rights abuses. People will die of exposure, heart attack, or from simply being beaten to death.

While the administration claims that the techniques work, there are too many instances where the tormented harden their resolve during harsh treatment, and cooperate when treated well. Many who are tortured provide false information that sends our intelligence assets on fools' errands. The most damaging disinformation comes from Sheikh Ibn al-sLibi who gives evidence against Saddam Hussein while he is being tortured. This is the justification for going to war with Iraq. He only wanted his torturers to stop.

In 2003-4, the policy begins to unravel. Charges are reduced, dropped, or changed against John Walker Lindh, Yasser Hamdi, and Jose Padilla. Since they were tortured, their charges won't stand up in court. Justice Department lawyers begin to question John Yoo's legal precedents. The CIA Inspector General begins to investigate abuses. JAG officers begin refuse to prosecute or serve on military tribunals. In 2005, the Abu-Ghraib scandal will break. It is later estimated that most of the detainees at "Gitmo" are people who were rounded up when they were in the wrong place at the wrong time, or were turned in for the generous bounty offered. They include an eighty-year old deaf man, and a wealthy Kuwaiti businessman who will indignantly refuse to buy another Cadillac after his mistreatment." A German and a Canadian citizen will be kidnapped and tortured before they are set free. Three hundred forty of 749 detainees held in Gitmo will remain there with only a handful being charged.

In spite of a growing rebellion inside the Departments of Defense and Justice, the President refuses to remove people he promised he would hold accountable for abuses. Human Rights Watch estimates that more than 600 U.S. military and civilian personnel were involved in torture.

The true leader of this policy holds a tight rein and his resistance to change is fierce. It is Dick Cheney and his loyal lawyer, Dave Addington. Even the new attorney general, Alberto Gonzalez refuses to go toe to toe with Dave, a tall, snarling bully. Cheney takes the unprecedented step of summoning the C.I.A.'s Inspector General to his office while he is conducting his investigation. The military holds a number of investigations that limit them to looking at the lower ranks. It is also clear by 2005, that Bush is fully aware that some of his senior officials believe that Gitmo should be closed and his detention policy changed. The dissenters and naysayers are excluded from any more discussion. To this day, Bush refuses to budge.

This is a powerful story. The author is holding a mirror to people who have long believed they were just and righteous. This is not just a bucket of cold water, it is being thrown into a river of ice.She tells us that we must look at ourselves if we ever hope to recapture our moral greatness. Even this she concedes will take years. Her book is a good place for our national introspection to begin.

She concludes this powerful report with the following: "Seven years after Al Qaeda's attacks on America, as the Bush Administration slips into history, it is clear that what began on September 11, 2001, as a battle for America's security became, and continues to be a battle for the country's soul."



"This country does not believe in torture." George W. Bush, March 16, 2005.



Also recommended:

Goldsmith, Jack L. "The Terror Presidency: Law and Judgment Inside the Bush Administration,

Miles, Steve, M.D. "Oath Betrayed: Torture, Medical Complicity, and the War on Terror, Random House, 2006.

Wolf, Naomi, "The End of America," Chelsea Green Publishing, 2007.

Wright, Anne, "Dissent: Voices of Conscience," Koa Books, 2008.

Greenwald, Glenn, "A Tragic: How a Good Vs. Evil Mentality Destroyed the Bush Presidency, Crown, 2007.

Greenwald, Glenn, "How Would a Patriot Act: Defending American Values From a President Run Amuck, Working Assets, 2006.

"Sunlight is the best disinfectant", U.S. Supreme Court Justice Louis Brandeis once wrote, so Jane Mayer's stunning new look at the Bush administration's secret torture program inverts that quote into the perfect title of her book..."The Dark Side". In fact, she might have subtitled it, "Total Eclipse". It's bad enough that the president (so easily led as some in the White House have surmised) surrounded himself with one of the poorest teams in presidential history, but then he let the lawyers run it...David Addington and John Yoo, to name the two most influential ones. All of this under the secretive guise of the biggest "vice" of all...Dick Cheney...and you end up with an administration that thinks itself not only above the law, but that it IS the law.

Mayer probes the set up as to how Guantanamo Bay came into being in its current state and how Abu Ghraib was the beginning of the end of secrecy in the Bush White House. She follows the case of Mohammed al-Qahtani, (detainee number 063 at Guantanamo), the so-called "twentieth hijacker", as well as Manadel al-Jamadi, whose quick arrest and subsequent beatings in American hands left him dead within hours. But perhaps the saddest of all cases was that of Khaled el-Masri, a German citizen who was detained and tortured for months because his name bore a resemblance to a similar name on a terrorist list. Completely innocent, Masri has never fully recovered after his release.

The side show to all of this is the brutal infighting that took place in Washington. The Pentagon, CIA and FBI provided a trifecta of outsized egos and non-cooperation. With the White House added, it was