A Question of Torture by Alfred W Mccoy
An indispensable and riveting account of the CIA's development and use of torture, from the cold war to Abu Ghraib and beyond (Naomi Klein, The Nation)
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 Guant namo 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 spread of these practices 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 shows that information extracted by coercion is worthless, making a strong case for the FBI's legal methods of interrogation. Scrupulously documented and grippingly told, A Question of Torture is a devastating indictment of inhumane practices that have damaged America's laws, military, and international standing.At the University of Wisconsin-Madison, Alfred McCoy holds the Harrington Chair in History. The Society for Asian Studies awarded him the Kahin Award for his book Policing America's Empire in 2009. He received the Wilbur Cross Award from Yale University in 2012 for his work as one of the world's premier Southeast Asian historians and an expert on...international political surveillance.
| SKU | Unavailable |
| ISBN 13 | 9780805080414 |
| ISBN 10 | 0805080414 |
| Title | A Question of Torture |
| Author | Alfred W Mccoy |
| Series | American Empire Project Ser |
| Condition | Unavailable |
| Binding Type | Hardback |
| Publisher | Henry Holt & Company Inc |
| Year published | 2006-01-10 |
| Number of pages | 290 |
| Cover note | Book picture is for illustrative purposes only, actual binding, cover or edition may vary. |
| Note | Unavailable |