Customer Reviews

Monstering: Inside America's Policy of Secret Interrogations and Torture in the Terror War

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I think I can say this with some authority, as I sit here in Iraq on my third year-long tour, having worked at Guantanamo and having spent a year with detainee operations in Iraq as part of the team that went in to improve conditions at Abu Ghraib in spring of '04. Unfortunately, most people will probably read into her words reinforcement of their own pre-conceived notions, whatever those may be. But I see a fair amount of balance and caution in her words. Bad thing have happened with detainees. Those responsible have and must be held accountable. The system must continue to change for the better. Having said this, the vast majority of troops and leaders doing the job are trustworthy and accomplishing a task that is probably one of the most difficult presented to any of our military members. They have earned my respect. The one thing I would have pushed her to do in preparing for this book -- the thing not reflected -- is spending a month with our troops on the ground so she could present this with a more enlightened perspective of the realities of today's combat, complete with the hows and whys of detaining people. She only scratches the surface of the complexities of this business and only really presents it from one side, using mostly spokesmen (including myself) to fill in the gaps from the military side. This is a book worth reading, with a reflective and unbiased eye.

An amazing account of reprehensible and shameful behavior all in our name. I have voted a straight Republican ticket my whole life and for the first time I am doubting my convictions. McKelvey succeeded in making my cry to read such an utter lack of humanity. The Haditha incident seems to be even worse. I tried to share the book with several GOP colleagues at work, but they became almost hysterical. They said they would not believe the lies and that trusted Rush Limbaugh's account of the incidents more (ie that they were like frat pranks). I don't know what to think any more but I thank the author for such a powerful work.

Tara McKelvey's account of the abuses at Agu Ghraib, in particular the abuses visited upon women prisoners, fleshes out the accounts we've read in newspapers of this scandal, and gives us personal testimony by some of the women who've been raped, as well as the first interview with Lyndie England, the woman holding the leash in one of the photographs that became infamous. That so many women who were raped and tortured at Abu Ghraib were afraid to come forward because their own families might have killed them if they'd known they were raped is among the many horrors this book reveals. That we have now become a nation whose official policy is to torture is a shame we ought all to confront, and change, and this book is an important document that every American should read.

I had to analyze this book for a journalism class. I've copied and pasted from my original paper. It isn't the full paper. The first time reading over this book I went along McKelvey's view to sympathize with the Iraq's and immediately admonish the American's. Beware, this is the wrong view to take! After reading, "The Elements of Journalism" and studying journalism at the undergraduate level I came to the conclusion that Mckelvey's book is not an accurate account of events, but rather her own narrative voice spun closely to idealistic views of a utopia that can never exist.

If you don't analyze the book or are a journalist you won't be able to see the truth. I broke the book apart. I divided all the detainee's and Americans making a chart that was easy to interpret. I know this book inside and out. I am probably the most informed reviewer of this book.

From my paper:

The bulk of the book is a narrative account giving more attention and sympathy to the Iraqi detainees than the Americans. McKelvey makes the mistake of not asking pertinent questions such as, "Who was your alibi?" and recreates detainee's stories that sympathize with the Iraqi's. She leaves out key details and casts very little doubt on the detainee's stories about Abu Ghraib.

There isn't any doubt that torture happened at Abu Ghraib. We have the pictures to prove that physical and sexually perverse abuse happened. Her book does what many others tired to do when the Abu Ghraib scandal broke : Capitalize on the drama. The book was released at a time when American's started to question the war more vocally. [...]

She gives little narrative detail to most of the American's in the book, yet draws in almost fiction-like detail the detainee's stories. Her narrative voice leads us to sympathize with the Iraqis and not with the American's.

Two other detainees interviewed by McKelvey choose anonymity: Rahman and Mayah. Neither have any record of being held in U.S. custody and both have valid reasons why. Both are Baath party members and Mayah calls Saddam an idol and proclaims he is ready for martyrdom. Why include them in a book if their sources can not be verified and their stories may have ulterior motives? The bigger question is not why the detainees want to use fake names, but why did McKelvey allow this? Does she have a bias about the detainees? Did she want her book to be more sensational furthering sales?

After analyzing each detainee the same results come up: verification is not found, stories are not directly told by the detainees, but retold by McKelvey, and key words are used to indirectly create sympathy for the Iraqis.

Torture is wrong. Just as murder is wrong and blowing up a building full of innocent people with an airplane is wrong. But when trying to report war a careful journalist needs to force accountability by providing real names, asking detailed questions, and create a platform for investigative journalism rather than a narrative retelling of a story without direct quotes. Covering a war can be one of the hardest areas for a journalist to report. Trying to stay unbiased and objective, while remaining true to your country has it's difficulties. The truth may seem harder and harder to uncover and as the average reader delves further into Monstering McKelvey clearly draws the lines.

End

Mckelvey uses tools journalists are never suppose to use: internal dialogue, which is paraphrasing the interviews, narrative voices, and undocumented incidents, i.e., no alibi's, record of detainment and transparency. She is obviously biased and comes off as such. This is a good book for those you want to incorrectly further their own political agenda. Not good at all for truthful, unbiased reporting. It only furthers the American people into being against American military efforts, which we are invariably tied to financially.

McKelvey is currently being investigated by the CIA. Another little bit of the puzzle piece into the lying machine that is the political parties.

Private Lynndie England reached the covers of many American newspapers and was vilified as a monster and some kind of evil bitch.

She was in a sense taking the blame for mistakes of Bush and the Neoconservatives.

England according to this book before she joined the Army she worked in a chicken processing plant where there were to many chickens to kill so they would have to throw them under the belt or something Yes she worked a night job in a chicken-processing factory Pilgrims Pride.

This women suffered from some form of mental illness she grew up in a trailer park tried to do something better so she joins the Army.

This book had a good premise I felt it did little in the way of being critical of the power structure. And I felt it was a bit condecenting todars the lower class working poor.

Some good fact like 50% of the Iraqi interpreters that were hired would have flunked a proficiency test.

Well England has a book anyway TORTURED: Lynndie England, Abu Ghraib and the Photographs that Shocked the World

. . .when we elect wanna-be dictators like George Bush and Dick Cheney.

This expose simply proves Republicans hate American ideals of compassion, fairness and humanity. They claim to be the party of "Jesus", but then they turn around and torture people in order to gain "intelligence". They claim to be the party of "freedom" but have no problem stepping over our rights. Neo-Cons have no respect for balance of power; rather, they desire a dictatorial, patriarchal daddy-president.

"WWJD?": not elect another radical right-wing Republican.

Just a complete work of rubbish and Republican bashing. It kills me how the American public cries over the treatment and conditions of our war prisoners. In Gitmo most live better then they ever did as free men. Let me also tell you the torture that people are up in arms about is nothing (we do not pull finger nails out) and most procedures were standard methods (Like sleep deprivation, food control, climate control all of which are monitored and controlled. But now the enemy knows or methods of interrogation and can learn to wait out the discomfort.... Thanks for all the help concerned public!). Well I can only pray if I am captured by these savages that this is the extent of my "torture" at least I will be alive with all my body parts and do not have to worry about my family viewing my death over and over again via the internet. All this attention given to this matter has additional blowback effects. It weakens are resolve to keep and hold prisoners that are proven bad guys. From personal experience in Afghanistan we captured a bad guy (terrorist) in a raid with a weapon engaging U.S. troops. The Individual was captured alive and turned into the system for detainment. Six months later my element was ambushed again, we killed the insurgents and identified within the ambush party one of the insurgents as the same man we captured 6 months earlier but was released. Why did this happen? Because of the strain the American public put on the political system on how the military does business. I know all you liberals with your vast military background and military service know much better how business needs to conducted. So as a current soldier thanks for the help! Secondly the more the public makes of this nonsense the more these radicals believe it is o.k. to cut off American heads, because... yes I am going to say it... humiliated and scared our prisoners. So now it makes it just fine for them to continue their savagery. So thanks again! I have to stop this rant because it is killing me. Let me end this with, if you really want to support the troops (and your country) don't put the yellow ribbon magnet on your car.......... ENLIST!