Books : The Dark Side: The Inside Story of How The War on Terror Turned into a War on American Ideals
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Binding: Hardcover
Dewey Decimal Number: 973.931
EAN: 9780385526395
ISBN: 0385526393
Label: Doubleday
Manufacturer: Doubleday
Number Of Items: 1
Number Of Pages: 400
Publication Date: July 15, 2008
Publisher: Doubleday
Release Date: July 15, 2008
Sales Rank: 883
Studio: Doubleday
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Editorial Review:
Product Description:
A dramatic and damning narrative account of how America has fought the
"War on Terror"
In the days immediately following September 11th, the most powerful people in the country were panic-stricken. The radical decisions about how to combat terrorists and strengthen national security were made in a state of utter chaos and fear, but the key players, Vice President Dick Cheney and his powerful, secretive adviser David Addington, used the crisis to further a long held agenda to enhance Presidential powers to a degree never known in U.S. history, and obliterate Constitutional protections that define the very essence of the American experiment.
THE DARK SIDE is a dramatic, riveting, and definitive narrative account of how the United States made terrible decisions in the pursuit of terrorists around the world-- decisions that not only violated the Constitution to which White House officials took an oath to uphold, but also hampered 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 the larger tableau of what was happening in Washington, looking at the intelligence gained—or not—and the price paid. In some instances, torture worked. In many more, it led to false information, sometimes with devastating results. For instance, there is the stunning admission of one of the detainees, Sheikh Ibn al-Libi, that the confession he gave under duress—which provided a key piece of evidence buttressing congressional support of going to war against Iraq--was in fact fabricated, to make the torture stop.
In all cases, whatever the short term gains, there were incalculable losses in terms of moral standing, and our country's place in the world, and its sense of itself. THE DARK SIDE chronicles one of the most disturbing chapters in American history, one that will serve as the lasting legacy of the George W. Bush presidency.
Average Rating: 
Rating:  -
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.
Rating:  -
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?
Rating: -
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?
Rating: -
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 ... Read More
Rating: -
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.
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