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The forever prisoner : the full and searing account of the CIA's most controversial covert program / Cathy Scott-Clark and Adrian Levy.

By: Contributor(s): Material type: TextTextPublisher: New York : Atlantic Monthly Press, [2022]Copyright date: ©2022Edition: First editionDescription: viii, 452 pages, 16 unnumbered pages of plates : color illustrations, map ; 24 cmContent type:
  • text
Media type:
  • unmediated
Carrier type:
  • volume
ISBN:
  • 9780802158925
  • 0802158927
Subject(s):
Contents:
Mai pen rai -- I am the head motherfucker-in-charge -- Hani 1 -- Disgrace in their face -- The hell with Chris de Burgh -- Oh my god, I can be horrible -- A full-size American refrigerator, only taller -- Controlled death -- Boo boo -- Full-blown, full-tilt, bozo wild person -- Lost in space -- On-the-job training -- Allah will look into their hearts and know -- Zapping the dog for pooping on the rug -- Meow -- Strawberry Fields forever -- A torture ponzi scheme -- A great big terrarium -- Ego and hypocrisy. Nothing else matters -- They are liars, liars, liars! -- Bad guys become good guys and vice versa.
Summary: "Six months after 9/11, CIA and FBI agents captured Abu Zubaydah, mistakenly believed to be number three in the Al Qaeda hierarchy. Frantic to thwart a much-feared second attack, the U.S. rendered him to a black site in Thailand. There he collided with Air Force psychologist James Mitchell. Believing that Abu Zubaydah had been trained to resist interrogation, Mitchell and others were authorized to use brutal interrogation techniques that would have violated the Geneva Conventions, international rules and treaties, and U.S. law had not government lawyers rewritten the human rights rulebook. The program metastasized over seven years, encompassing dozens of prisoners and multiple black sites. Ultimately, the U.S. Senate judged it was torture. As a result, numerous prisoners, including Abu Zubaydah, remain in Guantánamo, never charged with any crimes because their trial would reveal the extreme brutality they endured. Based on four years of intensive reporting around the world, on multiple interviews with key protagonists on all sides who speak candidly for the first time, and on thousands of previously classified documents recently released by FOIA requests, The Forever Prisoner is a powerful chronicle of a shocking government initiative that in the end produced zero high-value intelligence, continues to influence U.S. policy to this day, and remains in the headlines twenty years after its inception. It is also a primary source for a feature-length documentary of the same title by Academy Award winner Alex Gibney to debut on HBO on December 6, 2021. Held incommunicado for twenty years, Abu Zubaydah speaks for the first time in the pages of The Forever Prisoner"-- Provided by publisher.
Holdings
Item type Home library Collection Call number Materials specified Status Date due Barcode Item holds
Adult Book Adult Book Dr. James Carlson Library NonFiction 364.675 S425 Available 33111010649677
Adult Book Adult Book Northport Library NonFiction 364.675 S425 Available 33111009431798
Total holds: 0

Enhanced descriptions from Syndetics:

Some argued it would save the U.S. after 9/11. Instead, the CIA's enhanced interrogation program came to be defined as American torture. The Forever Prisoner , a primary source for the recent HBO Max film directed by Academy Award winner Alex Gibney, exposes the full story behind the most divisive CIA operation in living memory.

Six months after 9/11, the CIA captured Abu Zubaydah and announced he was number three in Al Qaeda. Frantic to thwart a much-feared second wave of attacks, the U.S. rendered him to a secret black site in Thailand, where he collided with retired Air Force psychologist James Mitchell. Arguing that Abu Zubaydah had been trained to resist interrogation and was withholding vital clues, the CIA authorized Mitchell and others to use brutal "enhanced interrogation techniques" that would have violated U.S. and international laws had not government lawyers rewritten the rulebook.

In The Forever Prisoner , Cathy Scott-Clark and Adrian Levy recount dramatic scenes inside multiple black sites around the world through the eyes of those who were there, trace the twisted legal justifications, and chart how enhanced interrogation, a key "weapon" in the global "War on Terror," metastasized over seven years, encompassing dozens of detainees in multiple locations, some of whom died. Ultimately that war has cost 8 trillion dollars, 900,000 lives, and displaced 38 million people--while the U.S. Senate judged enhanced interrogation was torture and had produced zero high-value intelligence. Yet numerous men, including Abu Zubaydah, remain imprisoned in Guantanamo, never charged with any crimes, in contravention of America's ideals of justice and due process, because their trials would reveal the extreme brutality they experienced.

Based on four years of intensive reporting, on interviews with key protagonists who speak candidly for the first time, and on thousands of previously classified documents, The Forever Prisoner is a powerful chronicle of a shocking experiment that remains in the headlines twenty years after its inception, even as US government officials continue to thwart efforts to expose war crimes.

Silenced by a CIA pledge to keep him imprisoned and incommunicado forever, Abu Zubaydah speaks loudly through these pages, prompting the question as to whether he and others remain detained not because of what they did to us but because of what we did to them.

Includes bibliographical references (pages 379-441) and index.

Mai pen rai -- I am the head motherfucker-in-charge -- Hani 1 -- Disgrace in their face -- The hell with Chris de Burgh -- Oh my god, I can be horrible -- A full-size American refrigerator, only taller -- Controlled death -- Boo boo -- Full-blown, full-tilt, bozo wild person -- Lost in space -- On-the-job training -- Allah will look into their hearts and know -- Zapping the dog for pooping on the rug -- Meow -- Strawberry Fields forever -- A torture ponzi scheme -- A great big terrarium -- Ego and hypocrisy. Nothing else matters -- They are liars, liars, liars! -- Bad guys become good guys and vice versa.

"Six months after 9/11, CIA and FBI agents captured Abu Zubaydah, mistakenly believed to be number three in the Al Qaeda hierarchy. Frantic to thwart a much-feared second attack, the U.S. rendered him to a black site in Thailand. There he collided with Air Force psychologist James Mitchell. Believing that Abu Zubaydah had been trained to resist interrogation, Mitchell and others were authorized to use brutal interrogation techniques that would have violated the Geneva Conventions, international rules and treaties, and U.S. law had not government lawyers rewritten the human rights rulebook. The program metastasized over seven years, encompassing dozens of prisoners and multiple black sites. Ultimately, the U.S. Senate judged it was torture. As a result, numerous prisoners, including Abu Zubaydah, remain in Guantánamo, never charged with any crimes because their trial would reveal the extreme brutality they endured. Based on four years of intensive reporting around the world, on multiple interviews with key protagonists on all sides who speak candidly for the first time, and on thousands of previously classified documents recently released by FOIA requests, The Forever Prisoner is a powerful chronicle of a shocking government initiative that in the end produced zero high-value intelligence, continues to influence U.S. policy to this day, and remains in the headlines twenty years after its inception. It is also a primary source for a feature-length documentary of the same title by Academy Award winner Alex Gibney to debut on HBO on December 6, 2021. Held incommunicado for twenty years, Abu Zubaydah speaks for the first time in the pages of The Forever Prisoner"-- Provided by publisher.

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