Rogue Justice: The Making of the Security State, Karen J. Greenberg, Crown Publishing, 2016
After September 11, President George W. Bush turned to the Justice Department for its official OK for activities previously thought inconceivable. They included torture, indefinite detention and NSA spying on Americans. When President Obama took office, it was expected that these policies would be reduced, or eliminated. If anything, some of these policies were actually expanded.
The things and people from the early days of the "war on terror" are in this book, including FISA, the PATRIOT Act, John Walker Lindh (the American Taliban), military commissions and John Yoo. He is the Justice Department who went through mental gymnastics trying to give George W. Bush the legal justification to run the "war on terror" any way he wanted.
This is a first-rate piece of writing. For anyone who wants to know how America went from "land of the free" to torture, warrantless surveillance of Americans and waterboarding, start right here. It is very highly recommended.
No comments:
Post a Comment