Book Describes Bush's " Policy of Deliberate Cruelty"

via CommonDreams:



Published on Wednesday, September 10, 2008 by Inter Press Service
Book: "A Policy of Deliberate Cruelty"
by Mark Weisenmiller


TAMPA, Florida - Perhaps the most thorough and informative book about the George W. Bush administration's approval of the use of torture and "extraordinary renditions" of alleged terrorists to third countries has continued to stay on bestseller lists.

First published in July, "The Dark Side: The Inside Story of How the War on Terror Turned into a War on American Ideals" (Doubleday) by Jane Mayer is still listed among the top 10 nonfiction best-selling books of 2008 by The New York Times.

In the book, Mayer, a reporter for The New Yorker magazine, shows in detail how high-level officials of the Bush administration, particularly in the office of Vice President Dick Cheney, took advantage of the fear and paranoia that gripped the country after the terrorist attacks of Sep. 11, 2001 to launch "an ideological trench war" and "a policy of deliberate cruelty that would've been unthinkable on Sept. 10".

While Bush supported the overall strategy, he was almost a minor player, Mayer reports. "President Bush is not typically interested in fine details. He left those to others in the formation of the military commissions, and other areas," she told IPS.

Arguably, the two administration officials whose post-9/11 policy decisions are most responsible for leaving the United States' "reputation as a lead defender of democracy and human rights...in tatters", in Mayer's words, were Cheney and his Chief of Staff David Addington, whom Mayer notes the vice president came to rely on heavily for legal advice in prosecuting the "war on terror". .............(more)

The complete piece is at: http://www.commondreams.org/headline/2008/09/10-3