Torture, Intelligence and Sousveillance in the War on Terror examines the communication battles of the Bush and Blair political administrations (and those of their successors in America and Britain) over their use of torture, first-hand or second-hand, to gain intelligence for the War on Terror. Exploring key agenda-building drivers that exposed the torture-intelligence nexus and presenting detailed case studies of key media events from the UK and USA, this insightful volume exposes dominant political discourses on the torture-for-intelligence policy. Whether in the form of unauthorized leaks, official investigations, investigative journalism, real-time reporting, or Non-Governmental Organisation activity, this timely study evaluates various modes of resistance to governments’ attempts at strategic political communication, with particular attention to ’sousveillance’: community-based recording from first-person perspectives. A rigorous exposition of the power-knowledge relationships constituting the torture-intelligence nexus, which re-evaluates agenda-building models in the digital age and assesses the strength of the public sphere across the Third, Fourth and Fifth Estates, Torture, Intelligence and Sousveillance in the War on Terror will appeal to scholars across the social sciences with interests in media and communication, sociology and social theory, politics and political communication, international relations, and journalism.

Research Paper (undergraduate) from the year 2016 in the subject Politics - Region: USA, grade: 77.00%, University of Cape Town, course: Conflict in World Politics, language: English, abstract: The U.S.’s War on Terror has generated and continues to engender a great deal of international and domestic condemnation. This essay consequently analyses one of the most controversial and insidious repercussions of the ‘War on Terror’: the U.S.’s use of torture on terrorist suspects. Ultimately, this paper argues that torture as a counter-terrorism tactic was an ill-conceived act of desperation that violated human rights, damaged the U.S. government’s integrity and potentially increased terrorism. For this reason, the U.S.’s choice of torture is argued to be the basest of its mistakes in its War on Terror. Thus, this discussion focuses on the emergence of Enhanced Interrogation Techniques, cases of torture at Guantanamo Bay, the indefensibility of torture and the irreconcilable consequences of state sponsored torture. To substantiate its main arguments, this analysis draws on the International Committee of the Red Cross Report On The Treatment Of Fourteen High Value Detainees In CIA Custody and reports from the Select Senate Committee on Intelligence.

The advent of the War on Terror has seen intelligence agencies emerge out of the shadows to become major political players. 'Rendition', untrammelled surveillance, torture and detention without trial are now fast becoming the norm. Spies, Lies and the War on Terror traces the transformation of intelligence from a tool for law enforcement to a means of avoiding the law - both national and international. The new culture of victimhood in the US and among partners in the 'coalition of the willing' has crushed domestic liberties and formed a global network of extra-legal licence. State and corporate interests are increasingly fused in the new business of privatising fear. Todd & Bloch argue that the bureaucracy and narrow political goals surrounding intelligence actually have the potential to increase the terrorist threat. This lively and shocking account is a must-read for anyone who wants to understand the new power of intelligence.

A startling exposé of the CIA's development and spread of psychological torture, from the Cold War to Abu Ghraib and beyond In this revelatory account of the CIA's secret, fifty-year effort to develop new forms of torture, historian Alfred W. McCoy uncovers the deep, disturbing roots of recent scandals at Abu Ghraib and Guantánamo. Far from aberrations, as the White House has claimed, A Question of Torture shows that these abuses are the product of a long-standing covert program of interrogation. Developed at the cost of billions of dollars, the CIA's method combined "sensory deprivation" and "self-inflicted pain" to create a revolutionary psychological approach—the first innovation in torture in centuries. The simple techniques—involving isolation, hooding, hours of standing, extremes of hot and cold, and manipulation of time—constitute an all-out assault on the victim's senses, destroying the basis of personal identity. McCoy follows the years of research—which, he reveals, compromised universities and the U.S. Army—and the method's dissemination, from Vietnam through Iran to Central America. He traces how after 9/11 torture became Washington's weapon of choice in both the CIA's global prisons and in "torture-friendly" countries to which detainees are dispatched. Finally McCoy argues that information extracted by coercion is worthless, making a case for the legal approach favored by the FBI. Scrupulously documented and grippingly told, A Question of Torture is a devastating indictment of inhumane practices that have spread throughout the intelligence system, damaging American's laws, military, and international standing.

"In September 2004, the Intelligence Science Board, an advisory board appointed by the Director of National Intelligence, initiated the Study on Educing Information (EI). This study is an ongoing effort to review what is known scientifically about interrogation and other forms of human intelligence collection and to chart a path to the future. As part of our efforts, we have worked closely with faculty and students of the National Defense Intelligence College. The NDIC Press published "Educing Information: Interrogation: Science and Art, Foundations for the Future," a book based on Phase I of the Study on EI. Three students, Special Agent James Stone, U.S. Air Force; Special Agent David Shoemaker, U.S. Air Force; and Major Nicholas Dotti, U.S. Army, completed master's thesis studies during Academic Year 2006-07 on topics related to interrogation. Special Agent Stone researched U.S. efforts during World War II to develop language and interrogation capacities to deal with our Japanese enemy. He found that military leaders, often working with civilian counterparts, created and implemented successful strategies, building on cultural and linguistic skills that substantially aided the war effort for the U.S. and its Allies. Special Agent Shoemaker studied the experiences of three successful interrogators during the Vietnam War. Like Stone, Shoemaker highlights the importance of a deep understanding of the language, psychology, and culture of adversaries and potential allies in other countries. Major Dotti examined recent policy and practice with regard to tactical and field interrogations, especially with regard to the efforts of Special Forces soldiers in Iraq. He concludes that the "letter" of current doctrine contradicts its "intent." Major Dotti offers recommendations that he believes are both consistent with the intent of military doctrine and likely to increase the effectiveness of U.S. interrogation practices in the field"--P. v.

The United States' use of torture and harsh interrogation techniques during the "War on Terror" has sparked fervent debate among citizens and scholars surrounding the human rights of war criminals. Does all force qualify as "necessary and appropriate" in this period of political unrest? Examining Torture brings together some of the best recent scholarship on the incidence of torture in a comparative and international context. The contributors to this volume use both quantitative and qualitative studies to examine the causes and consequences of torture policies and the resulting public opinion. Policy makers as well as scholars and those concerned with human rights will find this collection invaluable.

Includes the torture photographs in color and the full texts of the secret administration memos on torture and the investigative reports on the abuses at Abu Ghraib. In the spring of 2004, graphic photographs of Iraqi prisoners being tortured by American soldiers in Baghdad's Abu Ghraib prison flashed around the world, provoking outraged debate. Did they depict the rogue behavior of "a few bad apples"? Or did they in fact reveal that the US government had decided to use brutal tactics in the "war on terror"? The images are shocking, but they do not tell the whole story. The abuses at Abu Ghraib were not isolated incidents but the result of a chain of deliberate decisions and failures of command. To understand how "Hooded Man" and "Leashed Man" could have happened, Mark Danner turns to the documents that are collected for the first time in this book. These documents include secret government memos, some never before published, that portray a fierce argument within the Bush administration over whether al-Qaeda and Taliban prisoners were protected by the Geneva Conventions and how far the US could go in interrogating them. There are also official reports on abuses at Abu Ghraib by the International Committee of the Red Cross, by US Army investigators, and by an independent panel chaired by former defense secretary James R. Schlesinger. In sifting this evidence, Danner traces the path by which harsh methods of interrogation approved for suspected terrorists in Afghanistan and Guant‡namo "migrated" to Iraq as resistance to the US occupation grew and US casualties mounted. Yet as Mark Danner writes, the real scandal here is political: it "is not about revelation or disclosure but about the failure, once wrongdoing is disclosed, of politicians, officials, the press, and, ultimately, citizens to act." For once we know the story the photos and documents tell, we are left with the questions they pose for our democratic society: Does fighting a "new kind of war" on terror justify torture? Who will we hold responsible for deciding to pursue such a policy, and what will be the moral and political costs to the country?