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The Least Worst Place: Guantanamo's First 100 Days 1st Edition

by Karen Greenberg (Author)
4.0 out of 5 stars 21 ratings
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Named one of the Washington Post Book World's Best Books of 2009, The Least Worst Place offers a gripping narrative account of the first one hundred days of Guantanamo. Greenberg, one of America's leading experts on the Bush Administration's policies on terrorism, tells the story through a group of career officers who tried--and ultimately failed--to stymie the Pentagon's desire to implement harsh new policies in Guantanamo and bypass the Geneva Conventions. Peopled with genuine heroes and villains, this narrative of the earliest days of the post-9/11 era centers on the conflicts between Gitmo-based Marine officers intent on upholding the Geneva Accords and an intelligence unit set up under the Pentagon's aegis. The latter ultimately won out, replacing transparency with secrecy, military protocol with violations of basic operation procedures, and humane and legal detainee treatment with harsh interrogation methods and torture. Greenberg's riveting account puts a human face on this little-known story, revealing how America first lost its moral bearings in the wake of 9/11.
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  1. ISBN-10
    019975411X
  2. ISBN-13
    978-0199754113
  3. Edition
    1st
  4. Publisher
    Oxford University Press
  5. Publication date
    September 27, 2010
  6. Language
    English
  7. Dimensions
    9.21 x 6.14 x 0.65 inches
  8. Print length
    288 pages
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Editorial Reviews

Review

"If you thought Guantanamo held no more surprises, this remarkable and timely book will change your mind. Karen Greenberg has unearthed a history we did not know we had, somehow persuading scores of military and intelligence officer--and their former captives--to break a seven-year silence. Packed with revelations, this vivid story shows exactly how nods and winks from Washington led to lawless abuse. Just at the moment we need it most, with a new president vowing to find a way out, Greenberg gives the best account yet of where and how and why the troubles began."--Barton Gellman, author of Angler: The Cheney Vice Presidency

"The consequences of Guantanamo on America's standing in the world have been well chronicled, but here, in heartbreaking detail, we learn the story of how it might have been different. Karen Greenberg's surprising and provocative history of the first hundred days of Guantanamo provides an invaluable comment on how the war on terror turned into a moral assault on our on values and institutions."--Lawrence Wright, author of The Looming Tower

"Greenberg has written an important and compelling work that others will turn to fruitfully in writing the full history of Guantanamo."--The Washington Post Book World

"Karen Greenberg's deeply researched account of the early days of Guantanamo shows the legal, political and moral questions that plagued the prison camp from the outset: its dubious legal authority, the uncertain status of the prisoners, and the doubts of key officials who tried to uphold American and international law. The Least Worst Place, which is so well written that it reads in places like a prose poem, is going to be essential reading for anyone who is trying to understand the legal morass surrounding Guantanamo and detainee policy in the 'war on terror.'"-Peter Bergen, author of Holy War, Inc. and The Osama bin Laden I Know

"Greenberg tells a gripping and vivid story of the first days of the Guantanamo detainee debacle. In a fast paced and well researched narrative, her characters come alive on this dusty island base as they struggle with the moral and professional dilemmas that are a microcosm of a bigger drama being played out in Washington. Policy was formulated by a small cabal of Pentagon and White House zealots who did not understand the fundamental nature of counterterrorism-and forced their ill-conceived policies on a reluctant but ultimately compliant military, judicial and diplomatic corps."-Michael Sheehan, author of Crush the Cell

"Superior Reporting."--Kirkus

"A remarkable book."--Harpers.com

"An excellent book."--Sacramento Book Review

"Indeed, we are unhappy to need her, but author Karen Greenberg is a hero of sorts, for having gained the trust of the people she interviewed, many of whom were no doubt skeptical of the press, and for her respectful treatment of the stories they entrusted to her." -- Human Rights Review

"The most important legal book I read this year was Karen Greenberg's The Least Worst Place... It's a detailed look at an unmined sliver of history...Greenberg provides a taxonomy of what went wrong and shows us that it could all have come out very differently." -- Dahlia Lithwick, senior editor, Slate

"An important and compelling work that others will turn to fruitfully in writing the full history of Guantanamo." -- Peter Finn, Washington Post Book World

Book Description

A powerful first-hand account of the early attempt to do the right thing at Guantanamo Bay--and how things went irrevocably and tragically wrong.

Product details

  • Publisher ‏ : ‎ Oxford University Press
  • Publication date ‏ : ‎ September 27, 2010
  • Edition ‏ : ‎ 1st
  • Language ‏ : ‎ English
  • Print length ‏ : ‎ 288 pages
  • ISBN-10 ‏ : ‎ 019975411X
  • ISBN-13 ‏ : ‎ 978-0199754113
  • Item Weight ‏ : ‎ 14.4 ounces
  • Dimensions ‏ : ‎ 9.21 x 6.14 x 0.65 inches
  • Customer Reviews:
    4.0 out of 5 stars 21 ratings

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Karen J. Greenberg

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Top reviews from the United States

  • G.I. Joe-Nupe
    5.0 out of 5 stars Nice narrative of the early days at Guantanamo
    Reviewed in the United States on December 30, 2015
    Format: PaperbackVerified Purchase
    For those interested in the history of Guantanamo, this book is a must-read. The author gets a variety of interesting insights from the first commander of Guantanamo and his key staff assistants.

    I recommend this book and "Terror Courts" by Jess Bravin to get a good understanding of how the detention center at Guantanamo came to be.
    2 people found this helpful
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  • A. Young
    3.0 out of 5 stars GTMO 100 days
    Reviewed in the United States on March 18, 2009
    Format: HardcoverVerified Purchase
    The book is a representation of how Guantanamo Bay became ground zero for the war on Terrorism.
    One person found this helpful
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  • Donald P. Brennan
    4.0 out of 5 stars LEAST/WORST PLACE
    Reviewed in the United States on May 11, 2009
    Format: HardcoverVerified Purchase
    VERY INTERESTING AND INSIGHTFUL AS IT "CAPTURES THE MOMENT" IMMEDIATELY FOLLOWING 9/11.....EVERYONE NEEDS TO BE REMINDED OF THE CONFUSION, CONCERENS AND UNCERTAINTY ABOUT HOW TO DEAL WITH A VITUALLY UNPRECEDENTED NATIONAL SECURITY CRISIS OF ENORMOUS PROPORTIONS...."LEAST-WORST PLACE"
    GOES A LONG WAY TOWARDS ACCOMPLISHING THAT.....EVERYONE EXPRESSING A VIEW TODAY ABOUT WHAT WAS DONE BACK THEN SHOULD INVEST A FEW HOURS IN FIRST READING THIS UNIQUE BOOK.....WELL DONE
    One person found this helpful
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  • Phillip Taylor MBE
    5.0 out of 5 stars An imprisoned ideology insulting a new generation
    Reviewed in the United States on February 28, 2009
    Format: Hardcover
    I come to this book from a very different standpoint to that of Karen Greenberg because I have served in the armed forces, and I am a practising lawyer.

    For anyone involved in law enforcement and custodial systems, certain rules must be followed in a civilised society- they weren't here.

    Greenberg, from her perspective, outlines (with edge) the initial phase of this 'custodial operation' beginning with the concept of confinement which gives the public a rest from these alleged terrorists' acivities, to outright torture...without trial.

    The 'T' word (torture, not trial) must be used sparingly but the evidence which Greenberg assembles from observers and participants between December 21, 2001 to March 31, 2002 is compelling...and damning.

    The book makes disturbing reading, especially for Obama supporters who now see some idea of the measure of responsibility and the task set for the new President to make amends.

    There is only one conclusion to this book- it mustn't happen again. And how many times have we heard that before?

    The title 'The Least Worst Place' is just the start of the twisting and the bending of policies which Allies and supporters had trustingly placed in Bush's administration.

    To say the US has lost its moral bearings with this camp is strong but just when Greenberg provides excellent footnotes to justify her assertions albeit it from her left wing perspective which I have no quarrel with here as this is not about 'left' or 'right' wing to me.

    This book should be read to remind people of how not to behave when we are the 'good guys' for fear of turning us into the 'bad guys'...which is exactly what has happened with Guantanamo.

    As a lawyer, my basic creed, like that of saving life with a doctor, is to try people fairly, telling them what they are accused of- not to lock people up without trial and throw away the key whilst the inmates suffer serious violence. The behaviour at this prison was not acceptable and I find no words in mitigation.

    I am glad Karen Greenberg has written this book- she ends it with 'what goes around comes around'- the conclusion of the man on the Clapham Omnibus is that the circle must be stopped in the 21st century, and there are no excuses in a civilised society.
    16 people found this helpful
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  • James R. Maclean
    4.0 out of 5 stars A Cutaway of Repression
    Reviewed in the United States on April 3, 2009
    Format: Hardcover
    The creation of Camp X-Ray, Guantanamo, was in haste. There was no administrative consensus as to the status of detainees, and hence no standard for how they were to be treated while in detention. Soldiers trained to guard the camp, and contractors employed to build it, were advised only that the detainees would be "the worst of the worst"--hardened Taleban/al-Qaida terrorists, with totally fanatical zeal to kill.

    After the logistical achievement of building a maximum security detention center in so little time (2 months) the first detainees arrived from Bagram AFB, Afghanistan: in most cases the staff at Camp X-Ray knew nothing about them: in most cases, even their language was a mystery (few spoke Arabic). The circumstances of their capture or their personal effects were unknown to anyone, and the Pentagon refused to support any policy measures that would pin down their legal status. The staff initially sought to create a detention facility that would comply with the Geneva Conventions and the Uniform Code of Military Justice.

    After the first few months, the priorities of the Guantanamo Base were changed. Initially left on its own, in legal and administrative limbo, the local staff had struggled to find the appropriate balance of control and humane treatment for prisoners. In March '02, however, Secretary of Defense Donald Rumsfeld took a direct interest in the center and its ability to validate his narrative of the Global War on Terror. At all times, officers in the chain of command were eager to prove their usefulness to the nation by jumping through whatever hoops Rumsfeld held out.
    4 people found this helpful
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