vrijdag 9 februari 2007

Martelen 65


Wat de hoofdredacteur van het NOS-Journaal Hans Laroes in een directief aan zijn ondergeschikten 'mishandeling' en later 'wangedrag' werd genoemd, wordt door de angelsaksische media gewoon marteling genoemd, wat het ook is.

'American Torture: The Book
Exposes the secret history of US torture at home and abroad...

"Michael Otterman's powerful book... should be compulsory reading for everyone with concerns over human rights." Rod Barton, Former Director of Intelligence (Australia), Weapons Inspector and Advisor to the CIA (Iraq).
George W. Bush calls them an 'alternative set of procedures': forcing victims to stand for forty hours, depriving them of sleep for weeks on end, dousing naked prisoners with ice water in rooms chilled to 50 degrees Fahrenheit, and strapping them to inclined boards then flooding their mouths with water. These techniques are torture, and they are used by the United States of America.
Michael Otterman reveals the long history of US torture. He shows how these procedures became standard practice in today's war on terror. Initially, the US military and CIA based their techniques on the work of their enemies: the Nazis, Soviets and Chinese. Billions of dollars were spent studying, refining, then teaching these techniques to instructors at military survival schools and interrogators charged with keeping communism at bay. Along the way, the US government produced torture-training manuals that were used in Vietnam, Latin America and elsewhere. As the Cold War ended, these tortures -- engineered to leave deep psychological wounds but few physical scars -- were legalized using the very laws designed to eradicate their use. After 9/11, they were revived again for use on enemy combatants detained in America's vast gulag of prisons across the globe -- from secret CIA black sites in Thailand to the Pentagon's detention center at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba.
Michael Otterman shows that these interrogation methods violate more than international law and fundamental human rights. They radicalize enemies, undermine credibility and yield unreliable intelligence. They do not make us more safe -- they make us less safe.

Press:This Year's Best Books, Sydney Morning Herald (Jan 6, 2007)Read More
Next Edition, The Australian (Dec 30, 2006)Read More
A Feast in Store, The Age (Dec 30, 2006)Read More

Publisher Information:American Torture © 2007 Melbourne University Publishing Pluto Press Distributed in North America by University of Michigan Press

http://americantorture.com/the_book.html

American Torture
From the Cold War to Abu Ghraib and Beyond
Michael Otterman
Torture violates more than international law and fundamental human rights-it radicalises enemies, undermines credibility and yields unreliable intelligence.
Opinion
Michael Otterman's powerful book, "American Torture", traces the history of American torture from Nazi Germany to Guantanamo Bay. It an immensely disturbing story made all the more chilling by his disclosures that today these interrogation techniques are officially sanctioned under the guise of national security and that sets of rules have been developed to govern its practice. This book should be compulsory reading for everyone with concerns over human rights.--Rod Barton, former Director of Intelligence, weapons inspector and Advisor to the CIA (Iraq)

About this Title
Electric shocks.Sleep deprivation.Forced standing.Water boarding.
George W. Bush calls them an 'alternative set of procedures', vital tools needed 'to protect the American people and our allies'. By any definition, these techniques are torture.
In American Torture Michael Otterman reveals how torture became standard practice in today's War on Terror and how it was refined, spread and kept legal. Long before Abu Ghraib became a household name, the US military and CIA used torture with impunity at home and abroad. Billions of dollars were spent during the Cold War studying, refining, then teaching these techniques to American interrogators and to foreign officers charged with keeping Communism at bay.
As the Cold War ended, these tortures were legalised using the very laws designed to eradicate their use. After 9/11, they were revived again for use on 'enemy combatants' detained in America's vast gulag of prisons across the globe, from secret CIA black sites in Thailand to the detention centre at Guantánamo Bay, Cuba.
American Torture shows how the road to Abu Ghraib leads back through US military survival schools, Latin American military assistance programs, Vietnamese counter-terror operations and, finally, to the USSR and Communist China.
Torture violates more than international law and fundamental human rights-it radicalises enemies, undermines credibility and yields unreliable intelligence.
Above all, the practice does not make the world a safer place.

About the Author
Michael Otterman is an award-winning freelance journalist and documentary filmmaker. He was a recent visiting scholar at the Centre for Peace and Conflict Studies (CPACS) at the University of Sydney. He has covered crime and culture for an array of publications, including Melbourne's Is Not magazine, the Sydney City Hub newspaper, and Boston's Weekly Dig. He lives in New York City. American Torture is his first book.'

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