Interrogation vs. Torture in the War on Terror

After a proposed executive order, “Detention and Interrogation of Enemy Combatants”was "leaked" and President Trump affirmed his pro-waterboarding stance (though giving Defense Secretary Jim Mattis the ultimate choice to use it) a decision was made to remove sections on torture and black site prisons ("White House Backing Down on Renewed Use of Torture, Black Sites," New York Magazine, February 4, 2017). This document also planned to overturn a 2009 executive order (13491) that interrogators must adhere to tactics outlined in the current Human Intelligence Collector Operations (“Army Field Manual”).

Review selected hard copy/online library books related to military interrogation vs. torture at LSC-CyFair Branch Library. Click the title of a listed item, select the "Place Hold" button in the listing, and enter your library card number and PIN for each title you want to request for pick up at the library.

Use these subject words and phrases to find more information in the library catalog:

• detention of persons United States
• military interrogation United States
• torture
• waterboarding

Rogue Justice: The Making of the Security State by Karen J. Greenberg
Crown, 2016.
call number: 364.973 Gre

"Rogue Justice connects the dots for the first time--from the Patriot Act to today's military commissions, from terrorism prosecutions to intelligence priorities, from the ACLU's activism to Edward Snowden's revelations. And it poses a stark question: will the American justice system ever recover from the compromises it made for the war on terror? Riveting and deeply reported, Rogue Justice could only have been written by Karen Greenberg, one of this country's top experts on Guantanamo, torture, and terrorism, with a deep knowledge of both the Bush and Obama administrations. Now she brings to life the full story of law and policy after 9/11, introducing us to the key players and events, showing that time and again, when liberty and security have clashed, justice has been the victim." - publisher's summary excerpt

Consequence: A Memoir by Eric Fair
Henry Holt and Company, 2016
call number: 956.704 Fai

"Consequence is Fair's story, the story of a man who begins with a desire to serve and, through a winding series of choices, becomes an interrogator for a private contractor at Abu Ghraib during one of our nation's darkest moments. In 2004, after several months as an interrogator, Fair's now constant nightmares take new forms: first, there had been the shrinking dreams; now the liquid dreams begin. By the time he leaves Iraq after that first deployment (he will return), Fair will have participated in or witnessed a variety of aggressive interrogation techniques including sleep deprivation, stress positions, diet manipulation, exposure, and isolation." - publisher's summary excerpt


Why Torture Doesn't Work: The Neuroscience of Interrogation by Shane M. O'Mara
Harvard University Press, 2015
call number: 616.852 Oma

"Does torture accomplish what its defenders say it does? For ethical reasons, there are no scientific studies of torture. But neuroscientists know a lot about how the brain reacts to fear, extreme temperatures, starvation, thirst, sleep deprivation, and immersion in freezing water, all tools of the torturer's trade. These stressors create problems for memory, mood, and thinking, and sufferers predictably produce information that is deeply unreliable-and, for intelligence purposes, even counterproductive. As O'Mara guides us through the neuroscience of suffering, he reveals the brain to be much more complex than the brute calculations of torturers have allowed, and he points the way to a humane approach to interrogation, founded in the science of brain and behavior." - publisher's summary excerpt