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A Question of Torture: CIA Interrogation, from the Cold War to the War on Terror
By
Alfred McCoy
Published by
Metropolitan Books
paperback
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320 pages
12/1/2006
| US$15.00
ISBN:
0805082484
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About the book:
"A flashlight beaming into the dark closets of government" (Associated Press) to uncover the CIA's development and use of torture, from the Cold War to Abu Ghraib and beyond
In this revelatory account of the CIA's fifty-year effort to develop new forms of torture, historian Alfred W. McCoy locates the deep roots of recent scandals at Abu Ghraib and Guantanamo in a long-standing, covert program of interrogation. A Question of Torture investigates the CIA's practice of "sensory deprivation" and "self-inflicted pain," in which techniques including isolation, hooding, hours of standing, and manipulation of time assault the victim's senses and destroy the basis of personal identity. McCoy traces the method's dissemination across the globe, from Vietnam to Iran to Central America, and argues that after 9/11, psychological torture became the weapon of choice in the CIA's global prisons, reinforced by "rendition" of detainees to "torture-friendly" countries. Finally, McCoy contends that information extracted by coercion is worthless, making a compelling case for the FBI's legal methods of interrogation.
Alfred W. McCoy is a professor of history at the University of Wisconsin-Madison. He is the author of numerous books and articles, including The Politics of Heroin in Southeast Asia and Closer Than Brothers. A Question of Torture is available at all fine bookstores. Here are some links to help you.
 
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