Book Review: The Dark Side

By Jane Mayer

Reviewed by Dan O’Gorman

The Dark Side outlines violation of the United States Constitution that occurred in the pursuit of terrorists following the attacks of 11 September 2001, including the descent into the torture of terrorist suspects, both of which are likely to haunt the US for a very long time.  It also outlines the battle for the US’s soul.

The Dark Side chronicles key post-September 11 decision-makers taking decisions that were intended to combat terrorism and strengthen national security. Such decisions were taken in an atmosphere of chaos and fear which was exploited by zealots. Decisions allegedly taken to combat terrorism around the world not only violated the Constitution but also hampered the pursuit of Al Qaeda and subjected many prisoners to treatment that in earlier years would have been condemned as unacceptable by most people

The list of abuses by the United States in the name of eliminating terrorism is unbelievable. Terrorism suspects held at Guantánamo Bay and elsewhere were subjected to waterboarding, sleep deprivation, sensory deprivation, head and belly slapping, temperature extremes, hooding, stress positions and psychological ploys designed to humiliate and create fear, and 10 or 15 such techniques were permitted at any one time.  Terrorist suspects were rounded up and treated as illegal enemy combatants who were not entitled to the protections of traditionally accepted laws of war and were secretly held outside the reach of any law. The CIA had a global network of secret black prison sites in the form of an “extraordinary rendition” program that saw the extradition of terrorist suspects from one foreign country to another outside the recognised legal process. This program resulted in terrorism suspects in Europe, Africa, Asia and the Middle East being abducted by unaccountable and unidentified hooded or masked American agents and forced onto planes that flew them to foreign countries where they would vanish without their families or anyone else hearing of their whereabouts.  President Bush eventually admitted, in September 2006, that American had been holding secret prisoners for years without charges and outside the reach of authorities and had subjected them to an “alternative set of procedures”.  The call by the “9/11 Commission” for the humane treatment of terrorism suspects was explicitly rejected by the Bush Administration.

Despite the United States being a signatory to the Geneva Conventions and the 1984 Convention Against Torture and Other Cruel, Inhuman or Degrading Treatment or Punishment, The Dark Side cites examples of both the “successful” torture of prisoners and examples of such torture merely leading to the provision of false information.  

The Dark Side argues that most of these activities were authorised by people who had a vested interested in convictions and who believed that the use of the traditional criminal courts were too big a risk, hence the creation of the specially created military courts.  It also argues that the  violations of people’s civil liberties in places such as Afghanistan and Iraq has radicalised entire populations and that whatever the short-term gains, the torture of terrorist suspects has resulted in incalculable losses to the moral standing of the United States, its place in the world, and its sense of itself. These illegal practices weakened the United States’ legal and moral authority and provided Al Qaeda and other terrorist groups a recruiting and motivational tool.

Both lawyers and medical practitioners became tainted by being compliant in this legalised cruelty that was part of the Bush Administration’s deliberate policy.  However, those who spoke out against such activities as being short-sighted and self-defeating were shunned and excluded and suffered an enormous price.

Seven years after September 11, not a single terror suspect held outside the United States criminal court system has been tried, and of the 759 detainees acknowledged to have been held in Guantánamo , approximately 340 remain there and only a handful have been charged. Fortunately, the Supreme Court eventually became involved and it, inter-alia, ruled that (a) Guantánamo Bay was not beyond the reach of US law (Rasul v Bush), (b) the Executive could not indefinitely hold suspects without charges, and due process entitled them to a lawyer and the right to challenge their detention before a “neutral decision-maker” (Hamdi v Rumsfeld, in which Justice Scalia, the Supreme Court’s most conservative Justice, not only ruled against the Bush Administration’s arguments but also stated that indefinite imprisonment at the will of the Executive strikes at “the very core of liberty”), and (c) the Bush Administration was required to abide by the Geneva Conventions in its war on terror (Hamden v Rumsfeld).

The Dark Side explores a very dark chapter in American history which saw its President boast in his State of the Union address in January 2003:

“More than 3,000 suspected terrorists have been arrested in many countries. Many others have met a different fate. Let’s put it this way: They are no longer a problem to the United States and our friends and allies” (my emphasis).

This is a very well researched and argued publication, and is a “must read” for anyone with an interest in human rights and the threat to human rights that occurs when politicians legislate in an atmosphere of fear and with little regard for basic human rights and the rule of law.

Dan O’Gorman