The Dark Side

There is a cliche in horror films or literature when a character awakes from a nightmare, and then breathes a sigh of relief when he realizes it was just a dream. But then he looks down and sees blood on his hands (or something like that). Reading Jane Mayer's book The Dark Side after the election of Barack Obama is something like that. You can keep telling yourself the Bush administration, and it's criminally casual attitude about torture, is history, but the effects linger.

This book, subtitled "The Inside Story of How the War on Terror Turned Into a War on American Ideals," is the second book I've read of the New York Times top ten books of 2008. Mayer is a reporter for The New Yorker, and at times this book has the snap, crackle and pop of fiction. There are villains and heroes, and as the narrative builds toward the end of the Bush administration (the tale ends in May, 2008--I would imagine the paperback will have an update) there is a page-turning excitement.

As Mayer puts it, "what began on September 11, 2001, as a battle for America's security became, and continues to be, a battle for the country's soul." And the dark overlord over all of this was Vice-President Dick Cheney. When, during his debate with Sarah Palin, current VP Joe Biden said Cheney was the most dangerous VP ever, he must have had this book in mind. The repudiation of America's values, which go back to George Washington (Washington said that British troops should be treated "with humanity, and them have no reason to complain of us copying the brutal manner of the British Army. While we are contending for our own liberty we should be very cautious of violating the rights of conscience in others, even considering that God alone is the judge of the hearts of men, and to Him only in this case, are they answerable"). It was Cheney's counsel, David Addington, and a deputy chief at the Justice Department's Office of Legal Counsel, John Yoo, who went about dismantling Washington's legacy. They argued that the President did not have to follow the rules of the Geneva Convention, and fought tooth and nail to make sure that captured suspects were exempt from due process of law.

It's all pretty blood-chilling stuff, and does the disservice of making what may be some very evil men, Al Qaeda terrorists, look sympathetic. There is a long laundry lists of outrageous treatment, well known to many of us now, like waterboarding, sleep deprivation, threats of death and live burial, dogs, and making suspects stand for extended periods of time. Secretary of Defense Donald Rumsfeld, another villain in this piece, but a more comic one, notably said of the standing torture that it was no big deal, since he stood for eight to ten hours a day. Of course, Rumsfeld was doing so in a posh office, had the opportunity to sit whenever he wanted, and presumably wasn't suspended by his arms, so that only his toes were touching the ground. Several men died, whether it was freezing to death while chained naked to a cell floor, or having one's legs "pulpified" by persistent beatings.

In the shadows, like the Emperor in Star Wars, is the President, who Mayer can't often directly connect to any of the atrocities. One wonders whether much of went on was without his knowledge (or perhaps his understanding). Occasionally right-thinking administration personnel were able to get to him and make him understand how illegal all of this was, and persuaded him not to ignore a Supreme Court decision. So, it could have been worse.

There are heroes in this story, several men and women in the administration who may have been conservative Republicans, but believed in the rule of law. Alberto Mora, General Counsel of the Navy, put up huge resistance to what he believed to be illegal acts, but ultimately was beaten back. Other heroic names were Jack Goldsmith, David Brent, and believe it or not, John McCain, who as a man who was tortured the North Vietnamese was especially sensitive to the issue. Of course, as his presidential run advanced, he eased up, and ended up voting for the reprehensible Military Commissions Act.

If you have any kind of conscience, or sense of right and wrong, this book will make you mad. It may also make you laugh in disgust, as to how interrogators got tips on torture techniques from the television show 24. Or read in horror how a completely innocent German citizen was snatched by the CIA in Macedonia, spirited away to a black site and tortured. Although almost immediately everyone realized they had the wrong guy (his name was similar to a wanted terrorist) a senior anti-terrorist official (a woman is unnamed for security purposes) had a hunch he was a bad guy, and wouldn't release him until international pressure mounted. This same woman was rebuked for attending a waterboarding session, seemingly just to watch for her own entertainment.

Well, it's all over now. We have a President now who won't put up with such outrageous behavior, and hopefully our security forces will come to understand what experts have long said--you can get more information from prisoners who you treat nicely (much information received from tortured suspects can be faulty--people will say anything to make them stop). We'll also have Guantanamo Bay closed, so that men held without charges indefinitely will either be tried or released. But for seven years, there were horrible things done in the name of U.S. security. No one has yet been prosecuted for anything, and they probably won't be, but it is true that sunshine can be the best disinfectant.