This review of a book is good. In the last paragraph the author compares current Bush administration to John Adams, Abraham Lincoln, Woodrow Wilson and Franklin Rossevelt administration. I do not think this comparison is fair. It takes fifty years to fairly review a President's administration. I do not believe George Bush presidency will rank well when compared wih the Presidents mentioned in this story.

Excellent book review. After reading Brinkley's review and what the majority of the reviewers on this site wrote, I will be purchasing a copy of Mayer's book to add to my growing library of books on the egregious violations committed by the Bush administration.

This story probably needs to be read twice or more. In my view, the Bush administration's willingness to use torture, extraordinary renditions (aka kidnappings) etc. is but a piece of the larger picture of grotesque squandering of taxpayer funds on unnecessary "defense" spending, unnecessary wars, a militarized foreign policy, and so forth that easily could lead to dictatorship if left unchecked. The battle is stll being waged, and the proponents of dictatorial power in the executive, such as Dick Cheney and David Addington, are trying hard to have John McCain and his neocon national security adviser, Randy Scheunemann, keep up the same program for another four years.

National governments may be guilty of unconscionable authoritarianism but few officials are held to account in courts of law, or even in courts of public opinion. Usually, the first act of a totalitarian regime is to eliminate press freedom. The Bush administration may ultimately regret not doing that before it chose a criminal path. Dismissing international and American law, ignoring security agencies and snubbing courts and congress, GOP leadership trusted that fear and patriotism would silence dissent. The strategy almost worked but it is now unwinding. Jane Mayer, in her book “The Dark Side,” speaks loudly against actions of the Bush regime. In the New York Times Book Review, Alan Brinkley raises his voice too. He calls ... More »

Though I've read about this in the international press, it's had far too little coverage in the U.S. Kudos to the Times for exposing this sordid tale.

This is an excellent review of a book that most other reviewers also consider excellent. Mayer herself has apparently filled in chapter and verse to the sordid history of torture and the violation of civil liberties perpetrated by the Bush administration. Over time, it has become clear that Dick Cheney is the real "decider" when it comes to detainees and forcible interrogation, with David Addington as his chief henchman. It was Cheney who termed the Guantanamo detainees "the worst of the worst." Yet two thirds of those detainees have been released, the victims of a bounty system the U.S. deployed in Afghanistan that resulted in numerous innocent people being turned in for the money. As Colin Powell once noted, the oldest ... More »

The review seems to summarize the book. Without reading the book, it is hard to tell how good a review it is, but the summary is quite chilling. One interesting theory presented elsewhere, but not here, is that the adherents of torture fully knew that it gave bad intelligence, but that they wanted bad intelligence that they could claim was good intelligence in order to justify their illegal invasions of Iraq and potentially Iran and who knows where else. No mention is made of the need for criminal prosecution or impeachment, which would seem like normal lines of followup.

Read the review and then PLEASE read the book! The violation of who we are has reduced all of us in our souls and the eyes of the world. If the Constitution is irrelevant, then so is the United States.

An important, though flawed, review that effectively tells one side of the story. Unfortunately what Brinkley's review leaves out is critically important--that even author Jane Mayer condemns neither Bush nor Cheney for their commitment to keeping America safe from Islamofascist attack. On the contrary, she makes it clear that it was their commitment to this task, rather than sheer criminality, that led them astray. In particular she reveals that Bush and Cheney insisted on reading daily, unfiltered intelligence reports; such unvetted material tended greatly to exaggerate the dangers America was facing, resulting in commensurate harshness in the policies they set in motion. Not that this should forgive the national policy of ... More »

Very good and illuminating review of an important book. Mayer put things together and showed the connections. Beware American citizens. We are in grave peril.

advocacy disguised as a review.