History: Fiction or Science? (Chronology, No. 1)

Book Description

Recorded history is a finely-woven magic fabric of intricate lies about events predating the sixteenth century. There is not a single piece of evidence that can be reliably and independently traced back earlier than the eleventh century. This book details events that are substantiated by hard facts and logic, and validated by new astronomical research and statistical analysis of ancient sources.

Customer Reviews:

Calculations are only as good as your numbers.......2007-08-03

Yes, we can all agree that mainstream history is nearly 100% BS due to politics, economics, ego, problems with dating techniques, and various conspiracies. Agreed. But, I've been researching the distinct possibility that human history (in terms of civilizations) are much more ancient than we've been told, so coming across this book was very interesting to me. I wondered how Fomenko could be wrong (if at all) because he is very persuasive in his presentations. Then it dawned on me. If at previous times in prehistory, due to the various catastrophies that are well documented (comets, asteroids, planetary disruptions, plasma discharge, pole reversals, etc) the Earth was in a different position in relation to the sun, different tilt on its axis, different orbit, different rotation (in terms of velocity and DIRECTION), and the continents were in different positions, then would this not cause the ancients to see the sky (constellations) differently? In other words, is Fomenko making erronious assumptions about the physics of the Earth in pre-history, which then corrupt his data with regards to dating the relevant astrology? The last event to seriously disrupt our planet occured roughly 3500 years ago, according to other good researchers, so is it possible Fomenko has been confused by this? The vastly different physics of our planet in the not so distant past may explain this confusion, which is not to say the "mainstream" version of history is correct; on the contrary. I am not an expert in these fields, but wanted to see if this idea could spark discussion.

Pants on fire?.......2007-07-19

Will people ever read before spamming? Yes, Jesuits could not rewrite world history alone, they had help. Anyway, Dr Prof Acad A.Fomenko does not point to jesuits as the driving force of world wide history manipulation in published volumes 1,2,3;, actually he barely mentions the poor devils. Check it with 'Search inside' feature, please. China is rarely mentioned either, in fact, Dr Fomenko is completely eurocentric. Right, his theory contradicts all mainstream schools of history, because in their actual state they are all built on blatantly erroneus chronology. You don't need a mysterious cabal (conspiracy) to falsify history, the falsification is its modus operandi. It is inherent to history(ians) to falsify (distort) events, as it is inherent to humans to boast as it is inherent to power (authority) to legimize itself by referrring to glorious past made to its own order. Dr Prof Fomenko and team have identified scores of instances of such manipulation in Russian, European, etc.. history, and delivered valid statistical proof thereof. His own 'reconstruction' is completely another story. Forget c14 as a valid method of dating. W.Libby has initially discovered a brilliant method of INDEPENDENT dating. Too bad, c14 method has become a joke after a forced marrige with dendrochronology with consensual chronological scale inbuilt. Radiocarbon method can't stand blind tests, but is so very productive as a rubberstamp.

Accepted History & Chronology Must Be Changed. .......2007-04-09

There is no doubt that history as most know it is a sham, & institution's version of History both University & Church is fradulent & inaccurate. Everything was established with an agenda, The real "Dark Ages" are now when we have access to incredible amounts of information past authorities & more important 'common folk' didn't have but our institutions & educators are slow to evolve because of what has ignorantly & arrogantly been taught for too long. This is on many subjects not just Chronology.

For anyone to question "Why would a Mathematician have anything credible to say of History?" The answer is from Dr. Fomenko's preface in the book: "It would be worthwhile to remind the reader that in the XVI-XVII century Chronology was considered to be a subdivision of Mathematics." These volumes could possibly be some of the most important works to date & should be read by everyone with an interest in History, especially professors & educators who have a duty to the public. I have read both books & must say that 'Chronology 1' has some very eye opening & revolutionary information. Even if these volumes are part true the implications are profound & opens the doors to further investigations & questions which must be done. I speak several different lanquages & must say the logic Dr. Fomenko uses with "inflection" of words & words being read from left to right in one region & right to left in another then written backwards, the removal of vowels & get down to basics of words, or different cities & locations having the same name etc. is correct. Vowel usage has always been optional & varied, actually complicating linquistics & study. The first thing one has to understand is that words never had a fixed spelling in history like we do now, the spelling of words was mutable & regional, as well as names & titles of people were vast, varied & changed, NOTHING WAS FIXED or understood linear. Matters of Life & Death as well as financial profiteering yesterday & today were & are made with ignorant, illogical & conspiratorial views of history & reality, it's time people get closer to the Truth & society collectively grow up.

Very Interesting.......2007-03-07

It is a good proposal and I believe it will mature into something even better in the future. I think it deserves to be read.

History as Science Fiction.......2007-01-10

Anatoly Fomenko has written a very intriguing book, full of pictures, charts, and computer 'proof' of his thesis: backwards of AD900 we don't really know what happened or when. Between AD900 and AD1600 there is more certainty, but there is still a lot of fuzzy ground, and things don't get reliable until we get past the 1600's where the printing press made it very difficult for the perpetrators of this timeline manipulation to change anything that had been committed to print. The Dark Ages did not happen. Books were burned for a reason. One organization has doubled the actual length of its existence by expanding the real chronology. Read why.

I had always wondered why Christ died about AD33 and yet men waited until the 11th century to form the Knights Templar, the Cathars, etc and go after the Holy Land by force. Why the 1000 year gap? Turns out there wasn't more than a 10-12 year gap and he proves it using astronomy. This also implies that the planet is not as old as we have been told, and current Christian and other creationist scientists are already championing that idea without being aware of Fomenko's book. The two groups, creationist scientists and the Russian mathematical analysts corroborate each other. Fascinating.

Of course, all this flies in the face of what we have been told traditionally is the 'proper' chronology of western civilization, and most readers will experience 'cognitive dissonance' in reading this book. It means that our history going backwards from AD1600 becomes progressively more incorrect and unreliable until it cannot be trusted at all... in the space of 700-800 years.

Naturally, the curious, open-minded reader will want to know WHO did this, WHY, and did any of the events we think of as really ancient ever happen?
Dr. Fomenko is a respected scientist/mathematician at Moscow State University who has already answered these questions to the satisfaction of his initially skeptical colleagues. Most of them are now believers, a few still refuse to believe (the usual diehards), and of course the western press has ignored Fomenko's work -- for obvious reasons when you read the book. The ones who perpetrated this chronology ruse have a lot to answer for. They are still with us. That's why this book is a well-kept secret.

I gave the book a 4-star rating because I was unable to check out some of his claims; those I checked were as he said. But if even 1/3 of his claims are true, this punches a big hole in what we think is our history, the meaning of western civilization, our educational process (for repeating the ruse as gospel), and the trustworthiness of the organization that perpetrated this ruse, well-intentioned or not.

This book relates to current research into a Young Earth paradigm, to John Keel's discoveries about our planet, and Fr Malachi Martin's insights (in his now out-of-print books). We are indeed sheep who are manipulated and kept ignorant -- for a reason. While knowing what these men have to say may be the "booby prize" (as in: 'what can you do with this knowledge?'), it will provide interesting reading. Didn't someone say: "...and the Truth will set you free."?? For you to judge if this book contains the truth.

Average customer rating:

A Quick General Overview
Extremely disappointing
A Long and Unending Journey toward Rights
A step towards understanding human rights as cultural history
How compassion works

Inventing Human Rights: A History
Lynn Hunt
Manufacturer: W. W. Norton
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Hardcover

18th Century | World | History | Subjects | Books

General | World | History | Subjects | Books

Social History | Historical Study | History | Subjects | Books

Human Rights | Constitutional Law | Law | Subjects | Books

Human Rights | Politics | Nonfiction | Subjects | Books
Similar Items:

ASIN: 0393060950

Book Description

How were human rights invented, and what is their turbulent history?

Human rights is a concept that only came to the forefront during the eighteenth century. When the American Declaration of Independence declared "all men are created equal" and the French proclaimed the Declaration of the Rights of Man during their revolution, they were bringing a new guarantee into the world. But why then? How did such a revelation come to pass? In this extraordinary work of cultural and intellectual history, Professor Lynn Hunt grounds the creation of human rights in the changes that authors brought to literature, the rejection of torture as a means of finding out truth, and the spread of empathy. Hunt traces the amazing rise of rights, their momentous eclipse in the nineteenth century, and their culmination as a principle with the United Nations's proclamation in 1948. She finishes this work for our time with a diagnosis of the state of human rights today.

Customer Reviews:

A Quick General Overview.......2007-09-11

I found this book very easy to read and engaging but at the end of the day did not find it very substantive. I think it's fine as a general overview of the history of modern human rights, and especially as to the French Revolution, which I believe is the author's specialty. If you are interested in something substantive or heavy duty, this is not the title you're looking for.

Extremely disappointing.......2007-08-29

I have to admit that I find virtually incomprehensible the strong reviews that this book has received in the press (and among some other amazon reviewers). Did they really read the same book? I made it to page 127 (half way) before putting the book down in despair. It's poorly written, badly organized, and as far as I could tell offers little insight into the development of human rights. Some of the arguments presented by the author are downright bizarre. For example, early on, the author declares that widespread reading of torture and epistolarly novels "had physical effects that translated into brain changes," which then led to new ideas about human rights. Weird. The author is a widely respected academic. What happened?

A Long and Unending Journey toward Rights.......2007-06-08

Three hundred years ago, the idea that people in the world should regard themselves as equals or that all had important rights just because they were humans would have largely been regarded as laughable. Now human rights are taken for granted, and even are regarded as more important than that old standard, property rights. How did such a change happen? Lynn Hunt, a professor of modern European history, has some ideas, and has related them in _Inventing Human Rights: A History_ (Norton). There was a Bill of Rights in England in 1689, but it merely referred to "ancient rights and liberties" that derived from the tradition of English law. It did not have what Hunt describes as three interlocking qualities that are essential to human rights: "... rights must be natural (inherent in human beings), equal (the same for everyone) and universal (applicable everywhere)." The acceptance of such rights was a revolution in human thought and in the understanding of how governments were to prioritize their functions. It is a great story, one we can be proud of, and though progress toward acknowledgement of human rights has stumbled and halted at times, it has proved unstoppable.

The boom in concepts of human rights during the eighteenth century can never be fully explained, but Hunt thinks she has a clue. People began to read novels, especially epistolary ones in which characters themselves wrote out their feelings onto the page. Reading such a novel made people view the characters on the pages with empathy because the "narrative form facilitated the development of a 'character,' that is, a person with an inner self." The more lurid of the novels included scenes of torture, producing a revulsion in readers that would eventually help end the long tradition of judicial torture. It is perhaps not coincidental that Thomas Jefferson was a committed novel reader, and it was he who wrote (and the American Congress who approved) the first great proclamation of human rights in 1776. Jefferson's declaration led to the even more influential French Declaration of Rights of Man and Citizen in 1789. There seemed an unstoppable cascade of inclusion in France: Protestants and Jews got political rights by 1791, as did men without property in 1792. Slaves were emancipated in 1794. There was, however, a long gap between the American and French declarations and the next comparable document, the Universal Declaration of Human Rights of 1948 which drew upon its two predecessors. Hunt explains that there were forces in the nineteenth century that held human rights back. Pseudo-scientific claims about race and gender cast erroneous doubt on any fundamental human equalities. There was an increase in nationalism, an emphasis on collective efforts rather than on individual liberties. Only after two calamitous world wars was there a reconsideration for declaring the universalism originally engendered in the Enlightenment.

The battle to ensure and extend human rights continues, because governments are eager to impinge upon such rights in order to continue power. Hunt's sharpest examples are about torture. There are some grisly examples given here, and torturing criminals to get confessions or to make them declare their accomplices was simply the way governments used to work. Civil and church lawyers for centuries sorted out just what torture could be applied for just what situation. After the French Declaration, however, it took deputies in France only six weeks to completely abolish judicial torture. Here is the shock, however: Louis XVI had already outlawed torture as a means of getting confessions. But he had allowed it to continue for what was called "the preliminary question," that is to torture the accused into giving out the names of any accomplices. It is disheartening that the current administration finds that it is worthwhile to consider the use of "harsh interrogation" procedures for exactly the same sorts of reasons. Human rights were invented and acknowledged eloquently a couple of centuries ago, but they haven't fully come into force.

A step towards understanding human rights as cultural history.......2007-05-17

"Inventing Human Rights" is a short, jargon-free book that would be appropriate for an undergraduate class or general readership. The introduction and first chapter is an examination of the cultural origins of the human rights ideology. The second chapter is a history of torture. Chapters 3-5 are a "conventional" history of human rights as traced through laws, constitutions, political philosophy, etc. from roughly 1750 to the present. There is a refreshing emphasis on the French Enlightenment (which is too often neglected in works in English).

Regarding research methods, Professor Hunt is good at tracing the circulation of ideas via the circulation of books. Careful attention is paid to when certain phrases (e.g. "rights of man", "human rights") were first used, how many times important books were reprinted, what percentage of 18th century homes and libraries they could be found in, and literacy rates.

The introduction poses the question "How is it that rights came to seem self-evident in the late 18th century?" Prof. Hunt proposes an explanation in terms of the diffusion of the cultural practices of "autonomy" and "empathy", where autonomy supplies the substance of the new ethic and empathy, the motive (pp. 29-30).

When Hunt writes of autonomy as a "cultural practice" she is referring primarily to the increasing sense of delicacy regarding the human body described in the work of Norbert Elias. She thinks, for instance, that here one can find the origin of the new repugnance at judicial torture (pp 82-83).

Following Benedict Anderson's work on nationalism, Hunt maintains that just as the rise of printing made it possible for people who were widely dispersed to conceptualize themselves as part of a single national polity, the late 18th century craze for epistolary novels helped readers to conceptualize a common humanity (p.32). Novels helped readers empathize more habitually and with a greater variety of people (pp. 38-42). They also provided a model of "interiority" and autonomy for readers to emulate (pp. 45, 48).

What makes cultural history exciting (and controversial) is the way that cultural historians derive changes in moral sensibilities from changes social structure, thereby offering a social-scientific explanation of why, when and how our values change over time. For example, in the work of Norbert Elias, the increasing sense of shame over bodily functions was caused by the transformation of the aristocracy from a warrior caste to a class dependent on royal favor whose political survival required charm. And in Michel Foucault's (classic) account of the abolition of torture the adoption of "the gentle way in punishment" was due to the diffusion of new strategies of social control oriented towards efficiency and productivity which were necessary to the rise of capitalism.

But Hunt has little to say about the relationship between the new ideals and structural demands of the emerging economic order. Rather, she depicts the human rights ideology as a kind of emergent property, caused by (but not beholden to) the increasing prosperity of the late 18th century, which, once invented, proceeds with an "inner logic" of its own. (p. 34, 150ff).

How compassion works.......2007-05-09

Hunt's thesis, as I read this fine book, is that although compassion was not a new idea in the eighteenth century, injunctions to compassion (from Christianity, for example) were not working to affect public life. Torture, public executions, etc. were habituating Western European populations to high levels of violence in daily life. Associating the rise of the novel to new sensibilities that began to alter society, Hunt argues that novels enabled large numbers of people (especially the designers and administrators of society) to understand the subjectivity of people unlike them, and thus to empathize with the sufferings of others. She suggests that these new sensibilities had real social effects in the development of human rights. Hunt traces these real effects in the language by which human rights came to be seen as universal and "inalienable." Historical theses based on simultaneity can never be proved, but Hunt makes a strong case for novels' ability to make compassion work in eighteenth century Western Europe.

Average customer rating:

Fantastic book...
YUCK!
Desperately Grand... Until the End
Chuck's entertaining and exploratory adventure into horror
you must have not actually read the book

Haunted : A Novel of Stories
Chuck Palahniuk
Manufacturer: Doubleday
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Hardcover

Contemporary | General | Literature & Fiction | Subjects | Books

General | Short Stories | Literature & Fiction | Subjects | Books

ASIN: 0385509480
Release Date: 2005-05-03

Book Description

Haunted by Chuck Palahniuk is a novel made up of stories: Twenty-three of them, to be precise. Twenty-three of the most horrifying, hilarious, mind-blowing, stomach-churning tales you’ll ever encounter—sometimes all at once. They are told by people who have answered an ad headlined “Writers’ Retreat: Abandon Your Life for Three Months,” and who are led to believe that here they will leave behind all the distractions of “real life” that are keeping them from creating the masterpiece that is in them. But “here” turns out to be a cavernous and ornate old theater where they are utterly isolated from the outside world—and where heat and power and, most important, food are in increasingly short supply. And the more desperate the circumstances become, the more extreme the stories they tell—and the more devious their machinations become to make themselves the hero of the inevitable play/movie/nonfiction blockbuster that will surely be made from their plight.

Haunted is on one level a satire of reality television—The Real World meets Alive. It draws from a great literary tradition—The Canterbury Tales, The Decameron, the English storytellers in the Villa Diodati who produced, among other works, Frankenstein—to tell an utterly contemporary tale of people desperate that their story be told at any cost. Appallingly entertaining, Haunted is Chuck Palahniuk at his finest—which means his most extreme and his most provocative.

Customer Reviews:

Fantastic book..........2007-10-09

Haunted is an amazing book. It hooked me from the start, I just had to know how the book was going to end. This book is disturbing, shocking and appalling. But the fact that this book is so deranged is exactly what makes it enjoyable. Chuck Palahniuk has some serious talent for writing, I love reading his work to find out what is going on in his mind. Haunted is not for everyone, light headed/weak stomach people need to keep away from Haunted. If you enjoy reading novels outside of the 'norm,' then this is the book for you. Overall, Haunted gets an A+ grade from me.

YUCK!.......2007-08-17

I am typically prepared to be somewhat horrified and grossed out by the grotesques in his world, but this was way too much. No one in the story had any redeeming qualities, I hated them all to the bitter end. I finished it because I kept thinking that something would happen at the end to make reading all the horrible things worth it, but no...bad book, bad ending.

Desperately Grand... Until the End.......2007-07-25

This book is undoubtedly a tough read for anyone who thinks that a writer is validated solely by the fact that a feature film was made of his work. I know, I know, Fight Club was great, but let's move on for a bit.

The overlying story of this book isn't the best. However, the main function of the book is to be a compendium of short stories, and it delivers those in spades. The short stories are engrossing, compelling, disturbing, shocking, desperately clever, and they will absolutely not leave your head. Nightmare Box, Guts, and the story (the name eludes me) of the "invisible" killer of random victims are all absolutely fantastic.

The problems with the book lie within the main story, which is wholly unbelievable. The characters were wonderfully created, but their actions seem incredibly rash and unrealistic. In addition, the ending was entirely too predictable. You can see it coming from a quarter into the book. It comes on rushed and poorly executed. To have a character who thought of absolutely everything on the planet being foiled by a knife in the lock seemed absurd. Walking ahead of his captive seemed absurd. Leaving anything to chance at all seemed absurd. And what that final short story was all about, I have no clue. Stay away from the sci fi, Chuck.

Still, with the short stories as brilliant as they are, you forgive the other transgressions and enjoy them for all that they are. A thoroughly enjoyable read.

Chuck's entertaining and exploratory adventure into horror.......2007-05-24

Overall, Palahniuk did a marvelous job of cobbling disparate stories into the framework of a writer's retreat.

The story 'Guts' is nearly the most awful thing you'll read, personally I thought the worse thing i read was the story of the police rape doll story. It changed my life: yet I cannot say for the better. I cannot eat southern biscuits and that white gravy anymore, for example.

Some have compared Haunted to Stephen King, and I disagree. SK is-in my view- not so clever, he's like mass production horror. I read it, i get it. Haunted is more Kurt Vonnegut, and less twilight zone, more shock-value. Gross-out in bite-size chunks. IF you like this, the book is for you. Otherwise, leave it alone.

Some say the book's cannabalism theme is a metaphor in that 'all artists are thieves'. Powerful! So from a metawriting perspective, who is Chuck intimating he stole these stories from? Could be from all the fascinating weirdies in Portland. Since after all, Portland is quite weird. After reading stranger than fiction, the lines between the two are pretty well blurred by his colorful and envious experience touched up here and there.

you must have not actually read the book.......2007-04-11

i was actually quite upset to read some reviews on this book. It seemed like people either didn't understand it or skipped through pages. First of all, of course the story may seem unbelievable.. ITS FICTION!!!! it doesn't have to take place in a reality scenario. Second, if you actually paid attention to the story, people weren't chopping off their fingers because they were hungry; they wanted to look tortured. Sure, the idea may have been far fetched but thats what made it so interesting. and whose to complain about this story if you've read "lullaby". in my opinion, "lullaby" was more 'unbelievable'.

Overall, i believe this was one of Chucks best novels. I couldn't put the book down because all of the characters storys were so incredibly interesting. I even found the overall story (the writers being in the old movie theater) mind grabbing.

I would also recommend "Choke"

Body in Pain: The Making and Unmaking of the World

Average customer rating:

Fascinating and Flawed
Helpful in Working With Torture Victims
Densely written but rewarding treatise
Good but limited insights
Profoundly intriguing!

Body in Pain: The Making and Unmaking of the World
Elaine Scarry
Manufacturer: Oxford University Press
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Paperback

Consciousness & Thought | Philosophy | Nonfiction | Subjects | Books

General | Philosophy | Nonfiction | Subjects | Books

Metaphysics | Philosophy | Nonfiction | Subjects | Books

General | Politics | Nonfiction | Subjects | Books

All Titles | Qualifying Textbooks - Fall 2007 | Stores | Books

Literature & Fiction | Qualifying Textbooks - Fall 2007 | Stores | Books

Nonfiction | Qualifying Textbooks - Fall 2007 | Stores | Books
Similar Items:

ASIN: 0195049969

Book Description

Part philosophical meditation, part cultural critique, The Body in Pain is a profoundly original study that has already stirred excitement in a wide range of intellectual circles. The book is an analysis of physical suffering and its relation to the numerous vocabularies and cultural forces--literary, political, philosophical, medical, religious--that confront it. Elaine Scarry bases her study on a wide range of sources: literature and art, medical case histories, documents on torture compiled by Amnesty International, legal transcripts of personal injury trials, and military and strategic writings by such figures as Clausewitz, Churchill, Liddell Hart, and Kissinger, She weaves these into her discussion with an eloquence, humanity, and insight that recall the writings of Hannah Arendt and Jean-Paul Sartre. Scarry begins with the fact of pain's inexpressibility. Not only is physical pain enormously difficult to describe in words--confronted with it, Virginia Woolf once noted, "language runs dry"--it also actively destroys language, reducing sufferers in the most extreme instances to an inarticulate state of cries and moans. Scarry analyzes the political ramifications of deliberately inflicted pain, specifically in the cases of torture and warfare, and shows how to be fictive. From these actions of "unmaking" Scarry turns finally to the actions of "making"--the examples of artistic and cultural creation that work against pain and the debased uses that are made of it. Challenging and inventive, The Body in Pain is landmark work that promises to spark widespread debate.

Customer Reviews:

Fascinating and Flawed.......2001-05-07

The Body in Pain includes many interesting ideas and theories that could be made into engrossing analyses, yet Elaine Scarry manages to even make torture boring. Her frankly very intelligent observations would be much better suited to a 20 page scholarly essay than a 300 plus page repetitive rant that seems to care more about displaying her verbal acuity than proving a point, let alone attracting readers. I have counted the number of times she uses the word "sentient" and "sentience": some pages include these terms more than 8 times. One would think that an author so obviously bent on proving her intelligence would deign to consult a thesaurus. Perhaps "feeling" is too plebeian a term for her....

Helpful in Working With Torture Victims.......2001-03-05

I have worked with several individuals who suffered extreme physical torture sometime during their lives. Scarry's work helped me to understand the internal world of the sufferer in ways I would never have even begun to approach. Each one of these individuals lacked the language to discuss their experiences. What they were left with was inarticulatable images, physical sensations, emotions, profound helplessness and alienation. Scarry's book helped me find language to give to my patients -- language that helped to normalize their reaction to, and experience of inexplicable events. Her exploration of the abyss of human destruction is accomplished such original, humane, and thoughtful detail. Her book is an ingenius work of art.

Densely written but rewarding treatise.......2000-07-11

Elaine Scarry's "The Body in Pain", an influential study on the relationship between pain, torture, warfare and creativity is a stunning achievement, from the standpoint of Marxism. I confess that I have not read the sections on the structure of warfare, but I was extremely impressed with the passages on torture. Scarry's central premise is that pain, a radically subjective, hence inexpressible and incommunicable experience, results, during the process of torture, in destroying, or deconstructing the victim's voice (his or her power of articulation) and by extension, the victim's world. It is the prisoner's pain, incommunicable because unsharable, which is denied by the torturer as pain but translated as the wholly illusory phenomenon of power, that of the torturer and the regime he represents. These parts of the book are expounded with considerable insight and sophistication, in dense and convoluted prose. The second part, dealing with how pain is converted to creativity, explains how the radical subjectivity and inexpressibility of the sufferer's pain is mitigated into the objective (hence sharable and communicable) activity of work, which is a self-imposed, milder and socially more profitable form of pain. This treatise is absolutely vital reading for any one who aspires to seriously dabble in literature, psychology or philosophy. A tour de force.

Good but limited insights.......1999-12-20

What an odd and wonderful book! It attempts to address three topics -- pain/torture, warfare, and creativity. On the subject of pain/torture it is remarkably acute. The description of what pain is and what it does to consciousness and life's enjoyment is terrific and, in my experience, unprecedented. Similarly, its description of torture and what torture means is stunning in its immediacy. However, when it goes from torture to warfare, the book goes off the rails. It is clear that Ms Scarry has a limited knowledge of warfare and a very limited understanding of what it means and how it is carried out. Warfare is usually a last resort and often involves activity by those who are free against those who are trying to create and perpetuate some form of slavery. (see the work of Victor Davis Hanson, e.g., The Soul of Battle.) This applies whether the war is conventional or nuclear. Her idea that taking the process of war to the civilian population is somehow a function of nuclear war is simply wrong. This approach to war is thousands of years old and, as Hanson points out, important and -- in some contexts -- virtuous. War is a horror, but it is better than slavery, torture, or conquest plus annihilation. Scarry doesn't address this. This book makes the experience of pain clear, but offers a wooly and uncertain explanation of war. Its Marxist approach to creativity is shallow and forgettable.

Profoundly intriguing!.......1999-11-10

This book will change the way you see the world. A must for all art professionals and material culture theorists!

Murder in Samarkand: A British Ambassador's Controversial Defiance of Tyranny in the War on Terror

Average customer rating:

Buyer Beware
The enemy of my enemy is my friend
A Diplomat Tells the Truth for His Country

Murder in Samarkand: A British Ambassador's Controversial Defiance of Tyranny in the War on Terror
Craig Murray
Manufacturer: Mainstream Publishing
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Paperback

General | Biographies & Memoirs | Subjects | Books

General | Politics | Nonfiction | Subjects | Books

Human Rights | Politics | Nonfiction | Subjects | Books

ASIN: 1845962214
Release Date: 2007-03-06

Book Description

Craig Murray was the United Kingdom’s Ambassador to Uzbekistan until he was removed from his post in October 2004 after exposing appalling human rights abuses by the US-funded regime of President Islam Karimov. In this candid and at times shocking memoir, he lays bare the dark and dirty underside of the War on Terror.

In Uzbekistan, the land of Alexander the Great and Tamburlaine, lurks one of the most hideous tyrannies on earth – one founded on cotton slavery and brutal torture. As neighbouring 'liberated’ Afghanistan produces record levels of heroin, the Uzbek rulers cash in on massive trafficking. They are even involved in trafficking their own women to prostitution in the West. But this did not prevent Karimov being viewed as a key US ally in the War on Terror.

When Craig Murray arrived in Uzbekistan, he was a young Ambassador with a brilliant career and a taste for whisky and women. But after hearing accounts of dissident prisoners being boiled to death and innocent people being raped and murdered by agents of the state, he started to question both his role and that of his country in so-called 'democratising’ states.

When Murray decided to go public with his shocking findings, Washington and 10 Downing Street reached the conclusion that he had to go. But Uzbekistan had changed the high-living diplomat and there was no way he was going to go quietly.

Customer Reviews:

Buyer Beware.......2006-12-31

I note that the favorable reviews of this book, both on Amazon and on the book cover, seem to come from people already convinced that Murray is a victim and a hero and that Uzbekistan (and the United States) are evil.

I don't know whether what Murray alleges can be taken fully or partially at face value or should be rejected outright. I do think he has a point of view that should be heard. A few points for the debate, however:

1. This is a poorly, probably hastily written and edited book which is sloppy and contains internal inconsistencies.
In spite of the bad writing it is highly entertaining (and disturbing) to read.
2. This is clearly written to justify and promote the author--nothing wrong with that, especially if he his telling the truth. But it's worth keeping in mind that there are multiple points of view here
3. He is clearly very disingenuous about his motivation and the evolution of his thinking, even if the rest of his allegations are true: a close reading reveals a bias against both the Karimov regime and the US before he ever reached the country.
4. He has a deep-seated anti-Americanism that goes far beyond a normal European hatred of President Bush or doubt about the Iraq war--in fact, he criticizes the British government for standing firm with the USA after 9/11--on the grounds that the US did not enter WWII until it was attacked itself. This doesn't mean what he says is untrue--but it does suggest he had at least a strong point of view before the events in the book unfold.
5. At various times in the book he accuses the same US officials of a) being totally complicit with the Uzbek regime and b) being totally naive in believing that the regime was reforming. One of these allegations might be true. Both are highly unlikely.
6. While the allegations of the horrors of the Karimov regime ring true, his explanation of the campaign against him starts to wander into the real of highly implausible conspiracy theory: a phone call from the White House to London asking his removal sounds possible. A campaign by (who?) to set him up for the variety of allegations...a poisoning? If we were really all that bad, wouldn't it have just been easier to have him shot?
7. For a diplomat, Murray shows a surprisingly simplistic view of diplomatic policy and priorities. The air base the U.S. was using in Uzbekistan--which he argued was so vital that we were "backing" the regime--was subsequently abandoned, after Murray's time, with little or no consequence on the war on terror.
8. While his descriptions of his highly immoral personal behavior might serve to lend a further air of truth...the fact remains that he is a self-confessed serial adulterer and very heavy drinker. A man with a family who had a time consuming job but chose to spend his free time in strip clubs...none of this means he's lying...but it does, at least in my mind, make it plausible that he may not have totally come clean. He deceived his wife for decades, but he wouldn't deceive us?

Look, this is a fascinating story--I would just counsel that it be read with a healthy amount of skepticism given the source. And that the author not be awarded hero status just because of the enemies he picked...

The enemy of my enemy is my friend.......2006-07-13

Allegations of visas in exchange for sex against a British ambassador to some ex-Soviet republic; subsequently cleared on all counts but forced out nonetheless. Like many in Britain that was all that really remained in my memory of the lurid headlines and media reports of a year or so ago - and life carried on.

Anyone for whom that rings bells owes it to themselves to read this book, as does anyone wondering about the true nature of the West's so called 'War on Terror'. It is deeply disturbing on two levels:

1. It documents the appalling nature of the 20 year Uzbek Regime of Islam Karimov. A regime which spans the pre and post-to-date Soviet era. Not in some dry academic fashion either but through the exploits of the Ambassador who, at considerable risk to his own safety, intervened in numerous cases of offical brutality. The reader is left in no doubt that the Karimov regime of Uzbekistan is on a par with the very worst of the worlds self-serving and brutal dictatorships. It was during this period that controversy about US/UK willingness to 'make use of evidence obtained under torture' and US so called 'rendition flights' became public. The ambassador reported that any such 'evidence' from Uzbekistan was useless since the regime was simply in the business of forcing 'dissidents to confirm what the regime wanted the West to hear. His reports were unwelcome.

2. To have the true nature of one the then principal strategic allies in the West's 'War on Terror' exposed to scrutiny was judged by the Foreign Office top brass to be (euphemistically) 'counterproductive'. In spite of him having overwhelming support from human rights organisations and the Ex-Pat British business community, not to mention achieving more genuine influence with the Karimov regime than any of his predecessors, he had to be stopped. The methods employed to stop him were the inspiration of those headlines which hid a myriad of other kafkaesque stratagems . They bring shame on both the British government and the upper echelons of a politicised civil service which even now is doing all it can to prevent both the sale of this book and publication of documents which prove its authenticity.

A Diplomat Tells the Truth for His Country.......2006-07-11

Few of us have done battle with a murderous dictator. "Murder in Samarkand" tells how a British Ambassador did so and survived, only to be stabbed in the back by his own Prime Minister. Tony Blair ignored diplomatic advice if it complicated his relations with George W. Bush. How the British Foreign Office tried but failed to dismiss Ambassador Murray for invented disciplinary offences is an individual tale of injustice. However, the gripping core of this story is of a young and studious Ambassador driven to take absurd risks in remote parts of Uzbekistan as he builds up a dossier of incontrovertible brutalities by his host government. Those who try to obstruct him find this experienced and slightly overweight scholar is no patsy. He disputes the lies of petty bureaucrats. He storms into a corrupt procurator's office and dismisses him as a criminal - a risky way to use an Ambassador's "full and plenipotentiary" powers. But it works. The bully is exposed as a coward in front of those he has bullied. There is even a snow-shrouded chase with President Karimov's goons in pursuit - no wonder film rights are under discussion.

The shocking part of this story - narrated with skill and honesty - is that, at heart, much of the British Foreign Office valued Ambassador Murray's reporting from his Embassy in Tashkent. Dealing with human rights abuses is never easy. Murray knew his way around the policy heavyweights at home well enough to make sure that a controversial speech critical of Uzbekistan had support from the human rights desks. But when the White House complained to Tony Blair and he passed this down the line, spines crumpled - from Foreign Secretary Jack Straw down. This book shows how diplomats can bring shame or honor to their country. There is a simple lesson for Tony Blair (and George Bush) to learn. If you ask diplomats who are trained to report truthfully, to tell lies, the lasting problems will come from the ones who obey you, not the ones who stick to their professional calling.

Ghost Plane: The True Story of the CIA Torture Program

Average customer rating:

The best account of a counter-productive and immoral policy
Extraordinary Prose on "Extraordinary Rendition"
The real torture is reading this book
Truth, not "Truthiness"
Very detailed history of the CIA's air assets.

Ghost Plane: The True Story of the CIA Torture Program
Stephen Grey
Manufacturer: St. Martin's Press
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Hardcover

Conspiracy Theories | Current Events | Nonfiction | Subjects | Books

General | Politics | Nonfiction | Subjects | Books

ASIN: 0312360231
Release Date: 2006-10-17

Book Description

For the first time, Stephen Grey tells the inside story of international prisons sanctioned by the U.S. Government and used by the CIA to hold and torture people suspected of terrorism.

Using contacts deep inside the U.S. Government, Grey reveals how deeply the Bush administration is involved in the program and questions the truth of statements made by Secretary of State Condoleeza Rice. He also shines a spotlight on the heads of European nations who turned a blind eye to the program when it showed up in their back yards. Grey takes an unflinching look at a horrendous practice that scorns Geneva Convention rules and is powered by corruption at the highest levels of governments worldwide.

Through his unprecedented access to CIA flight records and dozens of sources at the senior levels of the current administration, Grey has produced a story of flight plans, extreme torture, and the clash of religions and governmental posturing that goes on today. Ghost Plane tells the stories of individuals abducted at airports around the world and transported for interrogation and torture on a fleet of leased planes manned by CIA operatives.

Grey paints a disburing ethical picture of the war on terror and lays the responsibility for abduction and torutre at the doorstep of Washington, D.C.

Customer Reviews:

The best account of a counter-productive and immoral policy.......2007-04-26

Stephen Grey, a former editor of the Sunday Times Insight investigation team, broke many of the news stories about the CIAs programme of secret renditions. In this extremely useful book, he gives us the fullest account yet of this programme. He exposes the CIAs covert aircraft fleet, Aero Contractors, and also describes how CIA planes operated illegally in Venezuela to support the attempted coup against President Chavez in 2002.

The CIA runs a system of clandestine prisons holding thousands of kidnapped prisoners, taken from Iraq, Afghanistan, Bosnia, Croatia, Macedonia, Albania, Germany, Italy, Sudan, Somalia, Kenya, Zambia, Gambia, Pakistan, Indonesia and Malaysia to be tortured in Afghanistan, Jordan, Uzbekistan, Thailand, Syria, Egypt and Morocco. Grey writes, the foreign torture cells of Cairo and Damascus and the US jails at Guantanamo and Bagram were part of one interconnected gulag in which prisoners were swapped both between countries but also between the CIA and the US military.

Grey asked Edward Walker, US Ambassador to Egypt, When Condoleezza Rice and the president now stand in front of people and say we dont send people to countries where they torture, are they telling the truth? Walker replied, No, theyre not telling the truth. A CIA official said, nothing was done without approval from the White House from Condoleezza Rice herself.

The Bush and Blair governments talk democracy but support dictatorship. For example, in 2002, the State Department said Uzbekistan routinely tortured prisoners, then gave it an extra $180 million aid. Grey points out that the Blair government connived in the renditions and in the use of torture, by using the information gained from torturing prisoners. Nor has the Blair government defended British citizens from CIA rendition.

Grey also notes that the illegal war on Iraq is a counter-productive diversion from the struggle against Al-Qaeda. As Britains Joint Intelligence Committee said in April 2005, We judge that the conflict in Iraq has exacerbated the threat from international terrorism and will continue to have an impact in the long term. It has reinforced the determination of terrorists who were already committed to attacking the West and motivated others who were not. The JIC said that the war provided an additional motivation for attacks on Britain and was increasing Al Qaedas potential.

Similarly, the US governments appalling treatment of prisoners has worsened the threat from Al-Qaeda. Grey concludes, Americas programme of extraordinary rendition and its harsh treatment of prisoners have not, when considered strategically, been successful weapons against terrorism.

Extraordinary Prose on "Extraordinary Rendition".......2007-04-19

Grey's book is thoroughly researched and he documents very well the careless "trail" that the CIA left behind.

The first half of the book can be a bit difficult to follow at times, as they are "case-studies" on individual prisoners. I found it a bit challenging to keep all the key players in context.

However, with that said, Grey includes all the detail to set the stage for proving that these renditions had taken place, and that the Executive Branch had knowingly "out-sourced" enemy combatants to organizations that carried-out the tortures, on behalf of the US.

Three of the key points that I took away from this book were: a sense of disappointment and disgust with the US approach. Sen. John McCain, who himself was tortured as a POW (Read his book "Faith of Our Fathers"), vehemently opposes torture. He continues to state that the biggest thing that kept him and his fellow POWs steadfast, was that they stalwartly believed that their government was "above" this type of treatment, and humanity and justice by the US makes them different than their captors.

The second point is that torture is counter-productive to achieving peace and diplomacy. Grey does a nice job of laying-out how these actions only serve to fuel and further incite the animosity that hostile organizations feel for the US.

The final point, that defense cuts and disregard for the value of human intelligence, by past presidential administrations, really fostered the environment for the Bush aministration to play "catch-up"...although it doesn't exonerate the Administration from the actions.

I'll leave the rest to you to uncover how Bush, Condi Rice, the CIA, looked the other way as this all went down...

The real torture is reading this book.......2007-03-08

If the US wants to torture prisoners they should force them to read this poorly written book. Very unimpressive writing that makes the book hard to follow.

Truth, not "Truthiness".......2007-01-15

A fabulous job of integrating detail with narrative into a web of our secret and not too righteous world of torture, kidnapping and disregard for human rights.
Grey has made his case of detailing the flights, passengers, destinations, and outcomes of the "rendition" and extraordinary rendition by our own government. And how the details of delusion of the public were worked out by Gonzalez et al.
This book is well worth reading if you have an interest in how a government can go overboard in trashing human rights--and still get poor results (from torture).
What looks like a formidable read turns out to be riveting and is truly a worhtwhile addition to the support of a better, more open government that is above torture.

Very detailed history of the CIA's air assets........2007-01-10

Very detaile information on the CIA's rendition flights.Also covers the History of the CIA's "Private" Air assets going back to the Vietnam War.

Average customer rating:

Secret Medical Tortures
GORDON THOMAS SHOULD BE GIVEN THE NOBLE PEACE PRIZE
Discovering what the gov't can do shocks.
Has far-reaching implications that are just as important now
A riveting, intensely researchered, and chilling masterpiece

Journey into Madness
Gordon Thomas
Manufacturer: Bantam
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Mass Market Paperback

Terrorism | Current Events | Nonfiction | Subjects | Books
Similar Items:

ASIN: 0553284134
Release Date: 1990-05-01

Customer Reviews:

Secret Medical Tortures.......2005-04-15

This 1989 book was written to tell the world about the use of physicians in medical torture of political prisoners. It didn't start in Nazi Germany, and didn't end in Abu Ghraib (drugs, electroshock, gags, garrotes, blindfolds, branding irons, sexual abuse, mock executions). Physicians provide fake medical certificates for persons tortured to death ('Perspectives'). The author had access to written testimony, and off-the-record interviews (which were confirmed from other independent sources).

'Book One' deals with Beirut, the Near East, and the kidnapping of William Buckley, American Political Officer, in 1984. It mentions the survival technique of looking at every approaching face to determine if it is an enemy by the tension displayed on the face (p.59). The Hizballah justified terror as needed to create a new and ideal society (p.61). Brain-washing rarely involved physical cruelty bet depended on the use of repetition, harassment, and humiliation (p.69). [Just like your schooling?] Changing opinions was older that recorded history. America developed the most powerful advertising industry in the world and adapted it to psychological warfare and opinion making. They studied the techniques used by modern American evangelists in conversion, and the Catholic rite of confession (p.73). Pharmaceutical laboratories discovered how drugs can be used in mind control (p.74). How amoral and ignorant was Gov. Reagan (p.81)?

'Book Two' gives the history of the abuse of medical knowledge since WW II. Chapter 5 tells of Allen Dulles and his ruthless and unscrupulous character hidden beneath his cheerful and witty personality. The Korean War provided a new shock from former POWs (pp.94-95). The "twilight zone" is described (p.97). They could not understand the changed views of POWs! Chapter 7 notes how conscientious objectors were put into mental hospitals and used as test animals (pp.140-141)! Chapter 8 tells about electroshock treatments at the Allan Memorial Institute which went beyond the norm (p.149). Were there studies reminiscent of Dr. Josef Mengele at Auschwitz (p.150)? Allen Dulles continued with his drug experiments and poisonous mushrooms (pp.156-157). It tells of the poisoning death of Dr. Frank Olson (pp.160-162). [To shut him up?] Chapter 10 has a 'Top Secret' recording of Korean War POWs (pp.184-186); did you understand it? Was it caused by learning a new view of society? Chapter 11 tellis of the use of sensory deprivation experiments to cause irreversible damage to a patient's mind. Chapter 12 gives an example of post-event predictions (p.216). Chapter 13 tells how Dr. Mary Morrow was able to escape from the tortures of Dr. Ewen Cameron (pp.230-231). Chapter 14 gives the results of hypnotism to create a sleeper killer (p.253). Chapter 15 explains why the Vietcong succeeded (p.257). Truthful reports had bad consequences (p.258).Who controlled Oswald (p.260)? Could the CIA handle the truth (p.261)? NO (p.263)! Could psychics read minds from a distance (p.273)? Or devil worship (p.275)?

'Book Three' covers the events after Watergate. Chapter 17 tells about briefing President-elect Reagan. Claire Sterling's "The Terror Network" is evaluated (p.321). Could Agca have been brainwashed to make him an assassin (p.326)? Chapter 19 tells how the CIA created the cruelest police in the Arab world (p.328). All the bugs planted in Sadat's presidential palace did not warn of the assassination. Examples of medical torture are on pages 334-335. Torture by physicians goes back to the Roman Empire (p.346), to the English in Kenya (p.348); it wasn't just the Nazis. Science is always at the service of the rulers. "Hooding prisoners" was used in 1865 for the Lincoln assassination conspirators (p.356). The 'Notes' provides background information on this book.

GORDON THOMAS SHOULD BE GIVEN THE NOBLE PEACE PRIZE.......2002-11-05

Journey into Madness is one of THE ABSOLUTE BEST books I have ever read in my entire life. If I was the principal of a High School, Journey Into Madness would be a required reading for all of the students. The young people need to learn that they have the right to living a pain-free life. And they need to understand that they will NOT get into trouble for reporting distressful or torturous experiences to authorities like they're librarians, nurses, and teachers. Thank you, Gordon Thomas, for being so kind as to offer the peace and mercy needed in the hearts of so many children and adults around the world. The American children are forever in debt to you for your merciful kindness.

Love,
Joematters.com

Discovering what the gov't can do shocks........1999-07-14

Mr. Gordon's research and objectivity is laudable, his book an eye-opener. It lends credance to movies such as Blind Sight. Mr. Gordon's description of Dr. al-Abub, his training and mission and that his current endeavors continue makes one wonder what humans can be about that they could do to others what they do. Can there still be Dr. Camerons/al Abubs working the torture circuit in the name of nationalism and belief?

Has far-reaching implications that are just as important now.......1999-02-04

The second review merely seeks to lessen the impact of the book "Journey into Madness" by Gordon Thomas by pointing out that other governments do similar things. No. Not on the scale and with the hypocrisy that the CIA does.

For those interested, who would like to know more about such practices and how the CIA and the medical community continue their terror and human rights abuses here and in other countries, there is some mention of this in "The Serpent and the Rainbow" by Wade Davis. He writes of the work of the American psychiatrist Nathan Kline (sp?) with the CIA in Haiti. This details their search for a drug they (doctors & the CIA) could use to control people - turn them into zombies. It mentions, coincidentially, the secret and not-so-secret primate and human experiments occurring at the New York State Psychiatric Institute by a Dr. Leo Rozen (sp). These practices still occur. The NIMH, in fact, are admittedly are giving people with mental illness Angel Dust (aka ketamine) to induce psychosis. This causes more irreversible damage than LSD.

Recently there were series of articles in the Harford Courant (1998) and the Boston Globe on drug abuses and torture used in private and publicly funded psychiatric hospitals.

A riveting, intensely researchered, and chilling masterpiece.......1998-03-29

I was truly captivated, by the facts, Mr. Gordon was able to unearth, during his research into the CIA's, dark, and mysterious research and developement of mind control techniques. We the people, know so little about any branch, of the intelligence community. The closest most citizens, ever get to the intelligence community, would be the news reports, or movies, of which is difficult at best to grasp the un-thinkable acts that was obviously standard operating proc- edures, for the men and women of the central intelligence agency.

Mr. Gordons no holds barred, and tenacity in following his leads, unearthed some the most outrageous, and cold blooded acts, possibly ever committed by intelligent human beings, at which Mr. Gordon documented . From the moment I opened the cover of the book, I was spell bound. As I recall I read the book long after the Colonel Oliver North scandel, and prior to the hearings, I couldn't recall ever hearing of Col. Oliver North, but as I read the book I learned that he was a prominent figure in the intelligence community.

To this day I am still amazed, at Mr. Gordens ability to spend what had to seem like an eternity, uncovering and then to actually corraborate the the wild and unbelievable stories. It's a miracle Mr. Gordon, didn't fall prey to bouts of paranoia, considering the agency he was researching.

Book Description

The Torture Papers document the so-called â€~torture memosâ€™ and reports which US government officials wrote to prepare the way for, and to document, coercive interrogation and torture in Afghanistan, Guantanamo, and Abu Ghraib. These documents present for the first time a compilation of materials that prior to publication have existed only piecemeal in the public domain. The Bush Administration, concerned about the legality of harsh interrogation techniques, understood the need to establish a legally viable argument to justify such procedures. The memos and reports document the systematic attempt of the US Government to prepare the way for torture techniques and coercive interrogation practices, forbidden under international law, with the express intent of evading legal punishment in the aftermath of any discovery of these practices and policies.

Download Description

The Torture Papers document the so-called 'torture memos' and reports which US government officials wrote to prepare the way for, and to document, coercive interrogation and torture in Afghanistan, Guantanamo, and Abu Ghraib. These documents present for the first time a compilation of materials that prior to publication have existed only piecemeal in the public domain. The Bush Administration, concerned about the legality of harsh interrogation techniques, understood the need to establish a legally viable argument to justify such procedures. The memos and reports document the systematic attempt of the US Government to prepare the way for torture techniques and coercive interrogation practices, forbidden under international law, with the express intent of evading legal punishment in the aftermath of any discovery of these practices and policies.

Customer Reviews:

THE REAL DEAL.......2007-08-02

Despite the extensive documentary (literally!) evidence collected in this book, the Bush administration still maintains that "we don't torture." A huge part of why they can get away with such monstrous, blatant lies is because journalists don't know how to ask questions. Here's an example: Just yesterday I watched Larry King interviewing Dick Cheney. Larry King brought up the subject of torture. Cheney claimed that they don't use torture. Larry pressed Cheney a little and Cheney admitted that they use certain techniques, but never said what those interrogation techniques were. And that was that.

But philosophers such as Edmund Husserl and Martin Heidegger have emphasized how different people can use the same words but mean very different things by them. To sort out controversies, it's imperative that we first clearly define key terms. To clarify the issue of whether we torture or not, journalists first need to establish what torture is. When Bush or Cheney claim that they don't use torture, the journalist must ask them what their working DEFINITION is: How do they define torture? It may very well be that there is a vast difference between what they mean by torture and what we consider torture to be. The next step a journalist or interviewer must take if they wish to clarify the matter: ask whether specific acts constitute torture. They might refuse to answer, saying that they don't comment about specific techniques, but it is in itself significant when they refuse to say or acknowledge that a specific technique, such as waterboarding or beatings, constitute torture.

The President, with the aid of his henchmen and henchwomen, has effectively REDEFINED torture. If I remember correctly, for something to be considered torture now it has to be an action that can result in organ failure or death. IF this is how you define torture, then the pulling out of fingernails is not torture. This is one of the truly evil and insidious things about the Bush administration: by redefining terms, they can basically give the appearance that they don't torture; they can technically be "right," they can deny that they employ torture, and all the while they can be putting heads underwater and pulling out fingernails. We should realize that people are deceived by the redefinition of key terms, so that it becomes imperative for journalists (in so far as they truly wish to bring clarity) to establish what the administration's working definitions of those terms are. If the Press simply did that, so much more light, so much less confusion, obfuscation, and ambiguity, would result, and we would be able to take our national dialogue up to a whole different level.

The Torture Papers.......2007-01-10

Mostly a collection of memos. This book is only a record to let us know what some of the hub bub is all about. Let us not sweep this under the rug. This is a first step in our examination of what we are and what we may become if each citizen doesn't accept responsibility and act on what is rapidly becoming a standard operating proceedure. Does torture acheive better information, Or blind us to truth? The same amount of time spent in a search for evidence would give results. Evidence gained by torturing is an illusion that has caused the torturer to become a goon. Calling torture by some other name does not change its effect. Torture destroys its victims and demoralizes its perpetrators. For those who are pleased to dominate it gives dominance. Torture does not give facts because it is not physical evidence. The veracity of uncovered facts can not be observed, but must be further tested. Torture can destroy any resistance in the one tortured and give the dominator feelings of the power of god. The torturer is loosing the battle without physical evidence. Torturing only gives the feelings of power.
This book is the begining of the examination of official torture and might allow some of us to reconfirm that torture by any name is only the act of a despot and only dispoils free citizens.

The Torture Papers:Road to Abu Ghraib.......2005-10-31

This is an excellent resource for any serious scholar or researcher dealing with the laws of war, the Iraq War or torture issues. It is a broad compilation of original source material, mostly post 9/11; with its depth (over 1200 pages), it may be too much for the casual reader (if so, try Torture and Truth, by Mark Danner), but for serious research, it is essential.

Michael J. Brady, PhD (international law)
Tucson, Arizona

Making Men Scream in Our Name.......2005-09-17

This comprehensive and current compilation makes clear that our government has sanctioned practices not only outlawed by international conventions against torture, to which we are signatories, but which discracefully echo the techniques of tyrants through the ages. The documentation will make it impossible for Americans to claim that they didn't know what is being done in our name. This work should be required reading for every citizen as our nation confronts an official policy that claims our only defense against terrorism is our own use of teror and torture.

A recorded history of sadism, incompetence, and cowardice.......2005-03-13

The editors of this book have done a fine job, and the publisher should be commended for bringing this sizable collection to print. Due to the size of the book, long periods of time would be required to read all of the memorandums in it. A great deal of information can be gained however from the perusal of even a small number of these memorandums. They give an inside view of the workings of a collection of individuals who are far from the combat sands of Iraq and Afghanistan, and whose goal is to make sure that they will be insulated from any legal consequences of their actions and recommendations. Joshua L. Dratel, one of the editors of the book, states this clearly when he asserts that the implicit message in the memoranda is that the policy makers who wrote them actually detest the American system of justice and find it impractical as a tool for fighting terrorism. This reviewer is in full agreement with Dratel's commentary. Indeed, the memoranda definitely support the notion that its authors consider it axiomatic that the Constitution, the Geneva Convention, and other bodies of law are impotent in the face of international terrorism. They have let the events of 9/11 lower considerably their confidence in rational, legal procedures for the resolution of conflicts. Dratel states it concisely and correctly when he states that the events of 9/11 `cannot serve as a license - for our government in its policies, or for ourselves in our personal approach to grave problems - to suspend our constitutional heritage, our core values as a nation, or the behavioral standards that mark a civilized and humane society.'

Some insight, however limited, can be gained from Memo 11, which is one of the memorandums that Bush put forward regarding the treatment of detainees and the prisoner-of-war status of the Taliban and Al Qaeda. After reading Memo 11, the question immediately arises: Why did the memorandums and discussion continue even after Memo 11 (the Bush memorandum to the Vice President, et al)? After all, in this memo, Bush explicitly states that the Geneva provisions do not legally cover Al Qaeda and the Taliban. But Bush emphasizes that even though he accepts the legal conclusions of the Attorney General and the Department of Justice regarding the inapplicability of the Geneva convention to Al Qaeda and the Taliban, and that he therefore has the "authority under the Constitution" to suspend Geneva, he nevertheless decides to "decline to exercise that authority." However, Bush is careful to note that he "reserves the right" to exercise this authority in future conflicts. In addition, he orders that detainees be treated humanely, according to the principles of Geneva, "including those who are not legally entitled to such treatment." Thus it appears that any further legal argumentation by anyone in the administration regarding the use of torture should be viewed as purely academic. But as this book clearly shows, there was still much discussion on these matters after Memo 11 was sent (February 7, 2002). The need for further discussion is not clear even after reading the memorandums that were sent between various individuals after Memo 11.

Torture has been practiced by many different individuals, political and religious groups, and regimes throughout history. Whether it is the Catholic Church in the Inquisition, the Chinese government under Mao ZeDong, or American military personnel in Iraq, the practice of torture is not exclusive to "leftist" or "rightist" political groups. The use of torture though to gain information is an implicit admission of the inability to collect real intelligence, either because of laziness or incompetence. Those individuals who practice torture for this reason no doubt understand this. They fully understand that torture is useless in gaining helpful information from prisoners. Therefore their decision to engage in the torture of prisoners is no doubt a result of their sadistic nature, which can be brought out not only in the theatre of war but also under the protection of religious and governmental institutions. These institutions, despicable and contemptible as they are, deserve every legal penalty available against them. Of course, legal penalties presuppose the existence of institutions that have the legal authority to carry them out. Considering the status and jurisdiction of international law in the last few years, the number of these institutions is in rapid decline, leaving the practical application of torture open to any country that desires to carry it out.

Dark Justice: The History of Punishment and Torture

Average customer rating:

Lurid
An excellent cross-selection of crime and punishment
About DARK JUSTICE

Dark Justice: The History of Punishment and Torture
Karen Farrington
Manufacturer: Smithmark Publishers
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Hardcover

General | Law | Subjects | Books

Penology | Crime & Criminals | Nonfiction | Subjects | Books
Similar Items:

The History of Torture

ASIN: 0765199106

Customer Reviews:

Lurid.......2007-04-26

The content is excellent, unfortunately, it is minimal in detail. This is a survey rather than an indepth study.

An excellent cross-selection of crime and punishment.......2000-01-19

This is a wonderful starting-point for research into the history of crime and punishment. It's a coffee-table sized book, and is chock-full of illustrations. Frankly, it's the illustrations you want to see when reading about a subject like this. There are photos and descriptions of torture implements, woodcuttings of torture chambers, and observers' accounts.

This is not the stuff of pleasant dreams, but it is what thousands of people have experienced.

About DARK JUSTICE.......1999-02-07

DARK JUSTICE is a book for an older person. This book is about what they did to people in the Middle Ages and earlier. It tells what a person would suffer if he was a warlock or she was a which. Any crime that you could think of is in this book. It tells also what would happen to the person if he or she was to commit a crime. Usually it was a painful and slow death. This bood is definitaly for older people.

The Indiana Torture Slaying: Sylvia Likens' Ordeal and Death

Average customer rating:

scarey but true
why is the paperback $23?
5 stars for the story, 1 star for the book.
GREAT BOOK, HIDEOUS CRIME
Burn, Judy, Burn

The Indiana Torture Slaying: Sylvia Likens' Ordeal and Death
John Dean
Manufacturer: Borf Books
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Paperback

Criminology | Crime & Criminals | Nonfiction | Subjects | Books

Murder & Mayhem | True Accounts | Nonfiction | Subjects | Books
Similar Items:

ASIN: 0960489479

Customer Reviews:

scarey but true .......2007-08-09

I am from Indiana and this book is more than folk lore. Have heard about as a child and young adult but the facts in this book are scarey considering this happened 40 years ago when we thought the world was more normal...

why is the paperback $23?.......2007-07-17

I went to order this book as it seems from the reviews it may be pretty good. I was shocked to see a price of $23 for a paperback. what's up with that?

5 stars for the story, 1 star for the book........2007-03-22

The Indiana Torture Slaying: Sylvia Likens' Ordeal and Death, was a very good story. The only problem I have is that I paid so much money for a book that looked like it could have been made out of constuction paper, and stapled together by a third grader. I expected to get at least an excellent condition copy of a soft cover book, or a good condition copy of a hard cover book, for the kind of money that I spent. Next time I receive a book that looks like it was made by someone in elementary school, unless I've paid under $10.00, shipping included, I will send it back. Unfortunately the book I bought was almost $30.00.

GREAT BOOK, HIDEOUS CRIME.......2007-03-09

Mr. Bumppo's (nee John Dean) unassuming-looking book is one of the masterpieces of the True Crime genre, ranking right up there with HELTER SKELTER, IN COLD BLOOD, and Robert Graysmith's ZODIAC. The crime, which took place in Indianapolis in 1965, was the murder by slow torture of a sweet-looking 16-year-old girl named Sylvia Likens, carried out in unspeakable fashion by a group of Goldingian adolescents under the direction of a depraved thing called Gertrude Braniszewski (a Poster Creature for the Death Penalty if there ever was one). Bumppo/Dean's stark, riveting narrative, and that angelic photo of Sylvia Likens gazing out from the front cover, are guaranteed to haunt all but the most sociopathic among us for a very long time.

Oh, and a note to fellow reviewer Ms. Grubb: there has been a film made of the tragedy, called an AMERICAN CRIME and starring Catherine Keener as the Beast and Ellen Page as its Victim. It premiered at Sundance this year and is due to go into release this August.

Burn, Judy, Burn.......2005-07-24

I wanted to respond to the people discussing the Burn Judy Burn book. My aunt (my mom's sister) is Terry Chasteen who was murdered by him. My grandparents (Terry's parents) were approached about making a movie out of the story, however to this day my grandmother has trouble discussing anything about what happened, so as you can understand, they did not feel it would be appropriate for a movie to be made about our situation. I think dealing with the events was hard enough without having additional, constant reminders about it. Also, I think the book is so hard to find b/c I read somewhere that Bette Nunn (author) did not have anymore copies; therefore one would have to find a copy that someone was willing to sell of their own. We have a couple of copies, and due to their age the pages are falling out.

Books:

Books Index

Books Home

Recommended Books