Harbury, Jennifer. Truth, Torture and the American Way: The History and Consequences of U.S. Involvement in Torture. Boston, Massachusetts. Beacon Press: 2005.
I selected this book because it was appropriate to the war that my group is covering, the Iraq War. This book is considered as non-fiction for it gives information about how the U.S. was involved in different types of war torture. There is no specific time or place that this book took place in.
Plot: In this book, Harbury shows how the U.S. arrived at Abu Ghraib. According to Harbury, the history of experience of torturing captives is a long standing secret U.S. policy. Abu Ghraib is only the recent demonstration of that policy. It only became known to the public because of modern technology of digital photographs and can be easily shown over the Internet. Harbury also provides historical evidence of CIA's involvement in torture tactics since the 1970s. The book documents the connection between the torture in Vietnam and Latin America and Abu Ghraib and Guantanamo. Here she traces back the serious violations of both international and American laws demonstrated by the recognized torture in Abu Ghraib to earlier American involvement in Vietnam. Harbury also documents the similarity in the extraordinary torture techniques, like stress and duress, the water pit, the water boarding, the practice of rendition, the abduction of "suspects" by the American Administration and turning them over to countries where torture is officially accepted. A number of the torture techniques were developed in Vietnam, then brought to Central and Latin America and eventually to Iraq by U.S. intelligence forces. She also indicates a torture tradition evolved and has been institutionalized and reinforced unlawfully by a system of authorization that avoid the law and tolerated torture. She documents twenty cases and a variety of torture techniques and highly informative in its historical approach.
Evaluation: This book was very informative. I learned how torture techniques evolved through the years and how the U.S. has been involved in many tortures throughout history. I also got a better understanding of the Abu Ghraib and was able to make the connection with the war that I am focusing on. I would recommend this book to those who are interested in wars because it gives so much information about the torture that takes place during different wars.
Jennifer Harbury entered Harvard Law School and studied civil rights law. After growing up in Connecticut and graduating from Cornell University, she traveled in Asia and Africa where she witnessed first hand brutal injustice and repression in many cultures.
Labels: Book Report, Project