Torture, Intelligence and Sousveillance in the War on Terror

Torture, Intelligence and Sousveillance in the War on Terror PDF

Author: Vian Bakir

Publisher: Routledge

Published: 2016-02-24

Total Pages: 328

ISBN-13: 1317009797

DOWNLOAD EBOOK →

Torture, Intelligence and Sousveillance in the War on Terror examines the communication battles of the Bush and Blair political administrations (and those of their successors in America and Britain) over their use of torture, first-hand or second-hand, to gain intelligence for the War on Terror. Exploring key agenda-building drivers that exposed the torture-intelligence nexus and presenting detailed case studies of key media events from the UK and USA, this insightful volume exposes dominant political discourses on the torture-for-intelligence policy. Whether in the form of unauthorized leaks, official investigations, investigative journalism, real-time reporting, or Non-Governmental Organisation activity, this timely study evaluates various modes of resistance to governments’ attempts at strategic political communication, with particular attention to ’sousveillance’: community-based recording from first-person perspectives. A rigorous exposition of the power-knowledge relationships constituting the torture-intelligence nexus, which re-evaluates agenda-building models in the digital age and assesses the strength of the public sphere across the Third, Fourth and Fifth Estates, Torture, Intelligence and Sousveillance in the War on Terror will appeal to scholars across the social sciences with interests in media and communication, sociology and social theory, politics and political communication, international relations, and journalism.

The U.S.’s use of torture in the War on Terror

The U.S.’s use of torture in the War on Terror PDF

Author: Jeremy Raguain

Publisher: GRIN Verlag

Published: 2017-05-15

Total Pages: 26

ISBN-13: 3668446369

DOWNLOAD EBOOK →

Research Paper (undergraduate) from the year 2016 in the subject Politics - Region: USA, grade: 77.00%, University of Cape Town, course: Conflict in World Politics, language: English, abstract: The U.S.’s War on Terror has generated and continues to engender a great deal of international and domestic condemnation. This essay consequently analyses one of the most controversial and insidious repercussions of the ‘War on Terror’: the U.S.’s use of torture on terrorist suspects. Ultimately, this paper argues that torture as a counter-terrorism tactic was an ill-conceived act of desperation that violated human rights, damaged the U.S. government’s integrity and potentially increased terrorism. For this reason, the U.S.’s choice of torture is argued to be the basest of its mistakes in its War on Terror. Thus, this discussion focuses on the emergence of Enhanced Interrogation Techniques, cases of torture at Guantanamo Bay, the indefensibility of torture and the irreconcilable consequences of state sponsored torture. To substantiate its main arguments, this analysis draws on the International Committee of the Red Cross Report On The Treatment Of Fourteen High Value Detainees In CIA Custody and reports from the Select Senate Committee on Intelligence.

Torture - Does it Work ? Interrogation Issues and Effectiveness in the Global War on Terror

Torture - Does it Work ? Interrogation Issues and Effectiveness in the Global War on Terror PDF

Author: Yvonne Ridley

Publisher:

Published: 2016-09-13

Total Pages: 190

ISBN-13: 9781782668305

DOWNLOAD EBOOK →

Does torture actually work ? Does it provide crucial, lifesaving intelligence? Blending documentary analysis, case studies, the statements of those who authorized and in some cases carried out acts of torture, and interviews with its victims, this compelling book lays out the pros and cons dispassionately but without the loss of a moral compass.

War by Other Means

War by Other Means PDF

Author: John Yoo

Publisher: Open Road + Grove/Atlantic

Published: 2007-12-01

Total Pages: 304

ISBN-13: 1555847633

DOWNLOAD EBOOK →

The key legal architect of the Bush administration’s response to 9/11 delivers a fascinating insider account of the war on terror. While America reeled from the cataclysmic events of September 11, 2001, John Yoo and a skeletal staff of the Office of Legal Counsel found themselves on the phone with the White House. In a series of memos, Yoo offered his legal opinions on the president’s authority to respond, and in the process had an almost unmatched impact on America’s fight against terrorism. His analysis led to many of the Bush administration’s most controversial policies, including detention at Guantanamo Bay, coercive interrogation, and military trials for terrorists, preemptive attacks, and the National Security Agency’s wiretapping program. In fascinating detail, Yoo takes us inside the corridors of power and examines specific cases, from John Walker Lindh and Jose Padilla to an American al-Qaeda leader assassinated by a CIA pilotless drone in the deserts of Yemen. “At its core, War by Other Means offers spirited, detailed and often enlightening accounts of the decision-making process behind the key 2001-03 legal decisions.” —The Washington Post “Unambiguous and combative, Yoo’s philosophy is sure to spark further debate.” —Publishers Weekly

Spies, Lies and the War on Terror

Spies, Lies and the War on Terror PDF

Author: Paul Todd

Publisher: Zed Books

Published: 2009-02-05

Total Pages: 312

ISBN-13:

DOWNLOAD EBOOK →

Traces the transformation of intelligence from a tool for law enforcement to a means of avoiding the law - both national and international. This book argues that the bureaucracy and narrow political goals surrounding intelligence actually have the potential to increase the terrorist threat.

A Question of Torture

A Question of Torture PDF

Author: Alfred McCoy

Publisher: Macmillan

Published: 2006-01-10

Total Pages: 304

ISBN-13: 0805080414

DOWNLOAD EBOOK →

Contents: 1. Two thousand years of torture, 2. Mind control, 3. Propagating torture, 4. War on terror, 5. Impunity in America, 6. The question of torture. Afterword: Legalizing torture. Includes bibliography and index.

Torture Report

Torture Report PDF

Author: Senate Select Committee on Intelligence

Publisher: eStar Books

Published: 2014-12-22

Total Pages: 525

ISBN-13:

DOWNLOAD EBOOK →

The full unabridged controversial summary put out by the Senate Select Committee on Intelligence! This explosive report is over 500 pages long, including a Foreward by Diane Feinstein, Executive Summary , Findings and Conclusions. This report includes many shocking details including deaths of people who were in custody, “enhanced interrogation techniques” that were torture and the fact that some of the people were innocent! This edition is a full and unabridged (excluding the officially redacted parts), and contains content that is not suitable for minors! Please note: this edition is not designed for use on smaller devices, Kindle Fire or larger screen sizes are recommended! We have done our best to not alter this report in any way which has resulted in a large file size and need for bigger devices.

The Black Banners (Declassified): How Torture Derailed the War on Terror after 9/11 (Declassified Edition)

The Black Banners (Declassified): How Torture Derailed the War on Terror after 9/11 (Declassified Edition) PDF

Author: Ali Soufan

Publisher: W. W. Norton & Company

Published: 2020-09-08

Total Pages: 640

ISBN-13: 0393540731

DOWNLOAD EBOOK →

The definitive account of an FBI special agent’s al-Qaeda story, unredacted for the first time. Widely heralded on publication as a "must-read" (Military Review) and "important window on America’s battle with al-Qaeda" (Washington Post), Ali Soufan’s revelatory account of the war on terror as seen from its front lines changed the way we understand al-Qaeda and how the United States prosecuted the war—and led to hard questions being asked of our leaders. When The Black Banners was published in 2011, significant portions of the text were redacted. After subsequent review by the Central Intelligence Agency, those redactions have been lifted. Their removal corrects the record on how vital intelligence was obtained from al-Qaeda suspects and brings forth important new details on the controversial use of enhanced interrogation techniques (torture) to extract information from terror suspects. For many years, proponents of the use of these techniques have argued that they produced actionable intelligence in the war on terror. This edition of The Black Banners explodes this myth; it shows Soufan at work using guile and intelligent questioning—not force or violence—to extract some of the most important confessions in the war, and it vividly recounts the failures of the government’s torture program. Drawing on Soufan’s experiences as a lead operative for the FBI and declassified government records, The Black Banners (Declassified) documents the intelligence failures that lead to the tragic attacks on New York and Washington, DC, and subsequently how torture derailed the fight against al-Qaeda. With this edition, eighteen years on from the first sanctioned enhanced interrogation technique, the public can finally read the complete story of what happened in their name after the events of 9/11. The Black Banners (Declassified) includes a new foreword from Ali Soufan that addresses the significance of the CIA’s decision to lift the redactions.

Intelligence Elites and Public Accountability

Intelligence Elites and Public Accountability PDF

Author: Vian Bakir

Publisher: Routledge

Published: 2018-04-17

Total Pages: 288

ISBN-13: 1351388959

DOWNLOAD EBOOK →

This book provides a definitive overview of the relationships of influence between civil society and intelligence elites. The secrecy surrounding intelligence means that publication of intelligence is highly restricted, barring occasional whistle-blowing and sanitised official leaks. These characteristics mean that intelligence, if publicised, can be highly manipulated by intelligence elites, while civil society’s ability to assess and verify claims is compromised by absence of independent evidence. There are few studies on the relationship between civil society and intelligence elites, which makes it hard to form robust assessments or practical recommendations regarding public oversight of intelligence elites. Addressing that lacuna, this book analyses two case studies of global political significance. The intelligence practices they focus on (contemporary mass surveillance and Bush-era torture-intelligence policies) have been presented as vital in fighting the ‘Global War on Terror’, enmeshing governments of scores of nation-states, while challenging internationally established human rights to privacy and to freedom from torture and enforced disappearance. The book aims to synthesise what is known on relationships of influence between civil society and intelligence elites. It moves away from disciplinary silos, to make original recommendations for how a variety of academic disciplines most likely to study the relationship between civil society and intelligence elites (international relations, history, journalism and media) could productively cross-fertilise. Finally, it aims to create a practical benchmark to enable civil society to better hold intelligence elites publicly accountable. This book will be of great interest to students of intelligence studies, surveillance, media, journalism, civil society, democracy and IR in general.

Torture and Truth

Torture and Truth PDF

Author: Mark Danner

Publisher: New York Review of Books

Published: 2004-10-31

Total Pages: 612

ISBN-13:

DOWNLOAD EBOOK →

Includes the torture photographs in color and the full texts of the secret administration memos on torture and the investigative reports on the abuses at Abu Ghraib. In the spring of 2004, graphic photographs of Iraqi prisoners being tortured by American soldiers in Baghdad's Abu Ghraib prison flashed around the world, provoking outraged debate. Did they depict the rogue behavior of "a few bad apples"? Or did they in fact reveal that the US government had decided to use brutal tactics in the "war on terror"? The images are shocking, but they do not tell the whole story. The abuses at Abu Ghraib were not isolated incidents but the result of a chain of deliberate decisions and failures of command. To understand how "Hooded Man" and "Leashed Man" could have happened, Mark Danner turns to the documents that are collected for the first time in this book. These documents include secret government memos, some never before published, that portray a fierce argument within the Bush administration over whether al-Qaeda and Taliban prisoners were protected by the Geneva Conventions and how far the US could go in interrogating them. There are also official reports on abuses at Abu Ghraib by the International Committee of the Red Cross, by US Army investigators, and by an independent panel chaired by former defense secretary James R. Schlesinger. In sifting this evidence, Danner traces the path by which harsh methods of interrogation approved for suspected terrorists in Afghanistan and Guant‡namo "migrated" to Iraq as resistance to the US occupation grew and US casualties mounted. Yet as Mark Danner writes, the real scandal here is political: it "is not about revelation or disclosure but about the failure, once wrongdoing is disclosed, of politicians, officials, the press, and, ultimately, citizens to act." For once we know the story the photos and documents tell, we are left with the questions they pose for our democratic society: Does fighting a "new kind of war" on terror justify torture? Who will we hold responsible for deciding to pursue such a policy, and what will be the moral and political costs to the country?