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83 of 95 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
Disturbing But Yet A Riveting Read!, October 20, 2006
This review is from: Ghost Plane: The True Story of the CIA Torture Program (Hardcover)
Any citizen concerned about the manifest threats to our constitutionally guaranteed liberties emanating from the Bush administration in its approach to the "War On Terror" will do well to read and appreciate the frightening story contained in these pages. Author Stephen Grey takes great pains to carefully document the astonishing ways in which the Executive Branch has unleashed the least principled elements within the Central Intelligence Agency and fully endorsed the crypto-fascistic policy of "extraordinary rendition", which is a clever euphemism for the unlawful abduction and illegal international transportation of certain designated "terrorist" suspects to avoid domestic legal complications. In other words, when the CIA and Executive branch determine that a specific suspected terrorist might have critical time-sensitive information, it employs this technique to deliver the suspected terrorist into the hands of foreign governments that sanction and practice torture. Thus, the fundamental purpose of this policy is to do an end run around the constitutional guarantees which everyone within the borders of the USA enjoys by situating the suspect in countries in which brutal torture is both tolerated and practiced.
In many cases there is an almost comical ironic twist to the politics involved in the sense that the Executive Branch and the CIA seem to blatently ignore and deliberately subvert existing foreign policy in acts that are most accurately described as being cynically pragmatic, which also employ outlaw states such as Syria to use extreme torture methods to ply sensitive information from known or suspected terrorist suspects. What Grey reveals is a well-established network of secret international prisons not only sanctioned by the United States Government, but which also rewards host countries who are aided and abetted in their own civil rights violations through immoral and unethical manipulation of Presidential influence on other countries to "take it easy" on human rights violator states like Morocco, Syria, and the Sudan. The picture that eventually comes into sharp focus is one in which both American and European leaders intentionally subvert both civil and criminal laws as well as well established international policies to keep such outlawed practices of illegal imprisonment and extreme torture secret as they attempt to mine the depths of human intelligence without worrying about either the morality or legality of such actions.
This story is not only shocking in terms of the craven practices it shows our elected and appointed leaders to be guilty of, but is also a stunning indictment of the whole notion of the "War On Terror" by illustrating that we as a country are apparently just as willing to inflict pain and suffering on potential innocents to achieve our political means as are the terrorists, meaning that in that regard we are no better than they. It should be an outrage for Americans to recognize that our elected and appointed representatives, that is, those who have initiated and are practicing extraordinary rendition appear all too ready, willing, and able to simply set aside thorny constitutional and ethical standards (which have such a rich tradition in western civilization) to achieve what they term to be a short term advantage in the struggle against the terrorists.
While I am no Pollyanna, and am willing to admit there are certain rare circumstances in which such situational ethics may seem to justify the use of extreme measures, it seems that what Mr. Grey has uncovered is anything but an exceptional situation, that in fact there has developed a wholesale policy which trashes these traditional cautions against the use of extreme torture and the related legal abuse of the suspect's legal rights, thus setting the stage for an increasingly noxious authoritarian practice in which the act of abducting a person quickly becomes a de facto justification for the act itself. Having such trust and confidence in the wisdom of the Executive Branch and the CIA to visit such summary justice to people simply suspected of terrorist ties seems quite contrary to the fundamental laws and liberties guaranteed by the founding fathers. Indeed, such rushes to judgement can have catastrophic consequences for innocent people mistakenly caught up in this practice, and there are several documented cases in which this has happened, most undeniably to a Canadian citizen who was simply passing through the USA en route from the Middle East back to Canada when he was detained and abducted at JFK airport, and was subsequently flown to Syria and then systematically tortured for months before being released after continuing complaints from Canadian authorities to the CIA and US State Department.
Indeed, it is difficult not to be outraged and disgusted when Grey traces the record of government representatives as Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice making public pronouncements denying the use of extraordinary rendition and torture by third party host nations on behalf of the USA. Under such circumstances, it is preposterous to suggest that we simply trust Mr. Bush and his cabinet members to do whatever they think best by allowing them the latitude to defend our liberties as they see fit, and without any meaningful oversight or review. We should all be ashamed of the way in which our leaders have done such things in the name of national security, and be prepared to compensate the many innocent victims who were virtually kidnapped and willingly surrendered by our agents to suffer in the hands of bestial captors. As I indicated above, some have had their lives ruined. Senator Barry Goldwater once commented that "extremism in the pursuit of liberty is no vice"; yet I am sure he would turn over in his grave to learn of the sordid details that are described in this book. In my opinion, our own clutch on personal liberty is seriously jeapordized by the anti-democratic and authoritarian policies and practices described herein. Enjoy!
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35 of 40 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
"Not For the Squeamish", November 6, 2006
This review is from: Ghost Plane: The True Story of the CIA Torture Program (Hardcover)
Grey's "Ghost Plane" provides credible documentation of America's involvement in secret renditions and torture - often on the flimsiest of "evidence" (eg. suspect was a friend of someone believed to be a terrorist). He begins by telling of our recently sending prisoners to Syria for interrogation and torture - despite Bush and the State Department condemning Syria for torture and supporting terrorism. ("The enemy of my enemy is my friend" - both Syria and Egypt are anti-Al Qaeda.)
Grey also asserts that the U.S. has outsourced "questioning" since at least 1965 (South American Communists); in addition similar activities took place in Central America and Vietnam. President Carter then ceased all such activities, and directed the CIA to promote human rights. However, 9/11 ended that - first came Guantanamo, then stories began to leak out of the CIA working with some of the most repressive secret police in the world (eg. Egypt and Uzbekistan) that also opposed Islamic extremism.
Renditions are described as typically utilizing about 8 men dressed in black and wearing masks; when going to Egypt they would also bring two Egyptian officers - thus, technically the prisoners were never in U.S. custody. The U.S. only provided "taxi service" via small unmarked civilian "ghost planes."
Grey documents 89 renditions, and suspects hundreds more took place. Substantiation is provided by public flight logs, released prisoners' site descriptions matching actual known foreign country secret police settings, scars (on some), and reports from a British ambassador. Techniques included beatings, cuts, drug injections, food and water adulteration, threats made regarding a suspect's relatives, incessant and loud music, 18-hour interrogations, near drownings (eg. confined in a small room while water rose to one's chin), "water-boarding," chaining one's hands over the head - becoming unable to stand any longer caused great pain, etc.
Grey's "Ghost Plane" is a service to America - we need to know what is going on; it also puts torture allegations about Abu Ghraib into a new light.
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17 of 18 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
Truth, not "Truthiness", January 15, 2007
This review is from: Ghost Plane: The True Story of the CIA Torture Program (Hardcover)
A fabulous job of integrating detail with narrative into a web of our secret and not too righteous world of torture, kidnapping and disregard for human rights.
Grey has made his case of detailing the flights, passengers, destinations, and outcomes of the "rendition" and extraordinary rendition by our own government. And how the details of delusion of the public were worked out by Gonzalez et al.
This book is well worth reading if you have an interest in how a government can go overboard in trashing human rights--and still get poor results (from torture).
What looks like a formidable read turns out to be riveting and is truly a worhtwhile addition to the support of a better, more open government that is above torture.
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