I feel like I've been reading Jane Mayer's The Dark Side for at least a month—maybe two—but I'm happy to report that two nights ago at 11:45 I did finish it. It is what appears to be a well-researched, meticulously told report on what happened after 9/11 when President Bush and his cabal made the stab at creating an imperial presidency. There are many, many dog-eared pages, so apparently I was learning things dog-ear-worthy even while I was hating reading the book. Here's the stuff.
1) An eyewitness describes what happened in the Presidential Emergency Operations Center under the White House where Chaney and several advisors gathered after the planes crashed on 9/11. An eyewitness notes, "… there were no law books. Addington's worn, pocket-sized copy of the U.S. Constitution served as the only legal text on hand during the crisis." (page 49) No mention is made as to whether anyone read it or not. Personally, I'm willing to bet no one did.
2) The people leading our government at that time were not nice, or even compassionate. The practice of sending detainees to other countries where torture is performed is discussed frequently in The Dark Side. During Gonzales' confirmation hearings, he "chuckled and noted the administration 'can't fully control' what other nations do." (page 110) Chuckled? At least there's no record of him maniacally rubbing his hands together. All in all, a small blessing.
3) And exactly how did the Bush administration justify torture. First they decided terrorists were fighters from a "failed state." And that led to: "(Douglas) Feith … packaged his argument with Orwellian cleverness as a defense of the Geneva Convention, arguing in a memo, which Rumsfield shared with President Bush, that it would defile the Geneva Convention to extend their rights to such disreputable warriors. (page 122) Wow! I find that logic truly impressive.
4) At one point an unidentified officer is quoted as saying, "In the Bush administration, loyalty is new competence." (page 180) And, silly us, here we were still thinking competence meant … well …competence. Bad citizens! No dessert for you.
5) On the TV show 24: "But on Guantanamo, as everywhere else in America, its macho hero, Jack Bauer, who tortured his enemies until they talked, was followed with admiration. On 24, torture always worked. It saved America on a weekly basis. (page 196) Oh, good. Ethics and behavior derived from a television show. On Fox even. Be still my heart.
6) An FBI agent reported, "On a couple of occasions I entered interview rooms to find a detainee chained hand and foot in a fetal position on the floor, with no chair, food or water. Most times they had urinated or defecated on themselves." (page 203) I unwillingly accept that Bush and his cronies will never be tried for war crimes, but looking at those two sentences, I truly hope there's a hell and whatever god there is wants more from a man than having "been saved."
7) There were good guys, the most notable IMHO Tom Wilner, a DC lawyer whose family and firm never accepted his decision to defend a number of Guantanamo detainees. (pages 204-207) (I see wonderful material for a play here. I just wish I had enough legal knowledge to write it.)
8) At the end of a paragraph on how our systematic torture lessened our standing in the eyes of the world, Jane Mayer says, "Canada went so far as to place America on its official list of rogue countries that torture." (page 332) Sarcasm alert: Dear President-but-not-for-long Bush, words fail me in expressing my pleasure at how and where you have led this country.
All in all, I'm glad I read The Dark Side. But still, IMHO, nonfiction = homework. Always has, probably always will.
