Reviews of The Torture Memos
• Writer and human rights advocate David A. Love, writing about “The Lawyers Who Would Torture" in the Huffington Post, says, “An important point [David] Cole makes is that while the actual CIA torturers should be held accountable for their brutal and illegal acts, the authors of these memos are culpable for their contortions of the law to sanction human rights abuses." Read the complete article here.
• Reviewer William Fisher, writing in the Huffington Post, calls David Cole's commentary on “this distortion of the law and its implications for our society” a “must read.” For full review, click here.
• Reviewer David Swanson writes of The Torture Memos, “If we were a literate society a book like this would put a number of important people behind bars." Read his full review here.
Media coverage of The Torture Memos
• Writing in The Nation, David Cole analyzes Attorney General Eric Holder’s decision to try Khalid Shaikh Mohammed and four alleged co-conspirators for the terrorist attacks of 9/11 in a civilian criminal court. Read “American Justice on Trial” in its entirety here.
• Read David Cole's commentary on “Torture and Accountability” on the American Constitution Society's blog by clicking here.
• Book TV on CSPAN2: David Cole and a panel of experts talk about the latest (April 2009) release of Justice Department memos relating to the CIA's use of interrogation techniques in the war on terror. The panel discusses whether Justice Department lawyers, in providing support for the techniques, should be held accountable for advocating torture. Stuart Taylor from Newsweek, George Washington University law professor Alan Morrison and Georgetown University law professors David Luban and Laura Donohue participate in the discussion. To view the program, click here.
• David Cole writes for the New York Review of Books blog about an event at New York's Cooper Union at which such prominent writers as Art Spiegelman, Don DeLillo, Susanna Moore, Eve Ensler, A.M. Holmes, George Saunders, and Paul Auster read the words of CIA bureaucrats, FBI agents, torture victims, and others:
“THE READINGS painted a chilling picture of a meticulously planned system of deliberate cruelty—devised by psychologists, sanctioned by lawyers, admin-istered by contractors and CIA agents, overseen by doctors, and specifically authorized by mem-bers of Bush’s Cabinet. Indeed, it is in part because the system was administered by professionals that it is so well documented—but that of course makes it only more disturbing.” |
His entry, “Reading American Torture,” can be read in its entirety here.
• Read David Cole's commentary in the New York Review of Books and listen to a podcast of a conversation between David Cole and Hugh Eakin about the Bush Administration lawyers who approved illegal CIA interrogations.
• Commentary • Podcast
• Q&A with Boston Globe reporter Bella English (9/19/09)
• Commentary by David Cole, “The Torture Memos: The Case Against the Lawyers," New York Review of Books. (10/8/09)
• Commentary by David Cole, "Hold Ashcroft Accountable," The Nation. (9/16/09):
“SHORTLY AFTER the September 11 terrorist attacks, then-Attorney General John Ashcroft announced a “paradigm of prevention,” by which the Justice Department would aggressively use federal law to take “suspected terrorists” off the streets. As he later admitted in his book Never Again, however, Ashcroft and those he oversaw had no idea where the next terrorist threat might lie. So the government locked up more than 5,000 foreign nationals in anti- terrorism preventive detention in the first two years after 9/11—not one of whom stands convicted of a terrorist offense today.” [Read more]
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• Interview on Democracy Now (syndicated nationally on Pacifica network and Free Speech TV) (9/15/09)
• Interview with Laura Flanders on GritTV (9/14/09)
• Interview on True Talk on WMNF, Tampa, FL (9/11/09)
• Scott Horton of Harper’s Magazine asked editor David Cole six questions about the Justice Department memoranda collected in The Torture Memos, which Cole calls the “smoking gun” in the entire torture controversy. You can read the entire interview by clicking here.
• David Cole comments in the New York Times’ “Room for Debate,” blog, August 24, 2009
• Interview on Diane Rehm (syndicated nationally on NPR) (8/25/09)
• Interview on The Jeff Farias Show, KXXT, Phoenix, AZ (8/25/09)
• Interview on "NewsTalk" on NewsChannel 8, ABC, in DC area (8/25/09)
• Live debate on WBZ, CBS radio affiliate in Boston (8/25/09)
• Interview on The World on WGBH (8/26/09)
• Mention in the Washington Post (8/26/09)
• Featured guest on Firedoglake.com Book Salon (10/11/09)
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