The Daily Doubter (Free subscription) | 01/12/2008
From The Dark Side by Jane Mayer One year of the Afghan prison operation alone cost an estimated 100 million, which Congress hid in a classified annex of the first supplemental Afghan appropriation bill in 2002. Among the services that U.S. taxpayers unwittingly paid for were medieval-like dungeons, including a reviled former brick factory outside of Kabul known as "The Salt Pit." In...
CQ (Free subscription) | 30/11/2008
MAYER: It’s certainly -- to the rest of the world, it sends a tremendous signal. I agree, especially at a point where we’re being accused in this country of not living up to our ideals because of things like Guantanamo and black site prisons. And so to have an election where it shows that democracy really works and there’s a meritocracy in the country and racism isn’t going to stop somebody from getting...
izbrano (Free subscription) | yesterday
via NY Times NY Times - THE DARK SIDE - The Inside Story of How the War on Terror Turned Into a War on American Ideals, By Jane Mayer; THE FOREVER WAR, By Dexter Filkins; NOTHING TO BE FRIGHTENED OF, By Julian Barnes;
Political Wire (Free subscription) | yesterday
The New York Times puts Jane Mayer's The Dark Side: The Inside Story of How The War on Terror Turned into a War on American Ideals on its list of the ten best books of 2008. "Mayer's meticulously reported descent into the depths of President Bush's antiterrorist policies peels away the layers of legal and bureaucratic maneuvering that gave us Guantánamo Bay, 'extraordinary rendition,'...
The Daily Doubter (Free subscription) | yesterday
From The Dark Side by Jane Mayer The effects of sleep deprivation ... were well known to be serious. Menachem Begin, the Israeli Prime Minister from 1977 to 1982, who was tortured by the KGB as a young man, described it as so difficult to withstand that it led quickly to false confessions. In his book White Nights: The Story of a Prisoner in Russia, he wrote, "In the head of the interrogated...
Open Culture (Free subscription) | 4 hours ago
... The Dark Side: The Inside Story of How the War on Terror Turned Into a War on American Ideals by Jane Mayer The Forever War by Dexter Filkins ( First Chapter ) Nothing to be Frightened Of by Julian Barnes ( First Chapter ) This Republic of Suffering by Drew Gilpin Faust ( First Chapter ) The World Is What It Is: The Authorized Biography of V. S. Naipaul ( First Chapter ) Subscribe...
Kiko's House (Free subscription) | 03/12/2008
The year 2008 marked a turning point in the annals of the Bush torture regime. What had been a trickle of revelations became a tidal wave with the publication of blockbuster books by Philippe Sands and Jane Mayer , some but not nearly enough mainstream media coverage, and concerted anti-torture campaigns in the blogosphere , notably that of Andrew Sullivan . But when all was said and...
Resource Shelf (Free subscription) | yesterday
... 1. The Dark Side: The Inside Story of How the War on Terror Turned Into a War on American Ideals (Jane Mayer) 2. The Forever War (Dexter Filkins) 3. Nothing to be Frightened of (Julian Barnes) 4. The Republic of Suffering: Death and the American Civil War (Drew Gilpin Faust) 5. The World Is What It Is: The Authorized Biography of V. S. Naipaul (Patrick French) Source: The New York...
Palin Campaign 2008 (Free subscription) | 02/12/2008
... 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...
Firedoglake (Free subscription) | 01/12/2008
Photo via NathanF. Obama is slated to announce more cabinet nominees today at 10:40 am ET. Including a much-rumored nod to Hillary Clinton as SoS. While the chattering classes turn cartwheels to play up rifts and rumors , sniffing every shred of moldering dirty laundry, I don't find the rumored selections surprising. I'm not alone . On Face the Nation , Jane Mayer said Obama's selections...
The Washington Note (Free subscription) | 01/12/2008
... The Dark Side: The Inside Story of How the War on Terror Turned Into a War on American Ideals by Jane Mayer 9. The New Paradigm for Financial Markets: The Credit Crisis of 2008 and What It Means by George Soros 10. They Knew They Were Right: The Rise of the Neocons by Jacob Heilbrunn 11. Dreams and Shadows: The Future of the Middle East by Robin Wright 12. The Post-American World...
Firedoglake (Free subscription) | 30/11/2008
Laura Bush together with Afghanistan's Ambassador Said Jawad - NBC. The terror attacks in Mumbai - ABC, CNN. Saxby Chambliss - Fox. Jane Hamsher hosts Erica Payne for FDL Book Salon. Tomorrow is World AIDS Day, noted on Religion & Ethics.
Books, Inq. (Free subscription) | 28/11/2008
"The legacy of George W. Bush’s two terms as U.S. president is widely known, but not deeply," writes Brian Lynch in his examination of recents volumes from Philippe Sands, Jane Mayer, and Barton Gellman.
Ten Percent (Free subscription) | 30/11/2008
... – had long been a matter of speculation. It was explored in detail in an important article by Jane Mayer published in the New Yorker magazine in February 2007. Mayer described a conversation with Joel Surnow, the co-creator and executive producer of 24. “There are not a lot of measures short of extreme measures that will get it done,” he told her, adding: “America wants the...
Firedoglake (Free subscription) | 28/11/2008
... And here I don't know how reasonable that assumption is. Glenn bases what he says, in part, on Jane Mayer's portrayal of Brennan in a 2007 New Yorker piece that cites him as a supporter of the dark side: Without more transparency, the value of the C.I.A.’s interrogation and detention program is impossible to evaluate. Setting aside the moral, ethical, and legal issues, even supporters,...
