Torture Team : Rumsfeld's Memo and the Betrayal of American Values

On December 2, 2002 the U.S. Secretary of Defense, Donald Rumsfeld, signed his name at the bottom of a document that listed#xA0;eighteen techniques of interrogation--techniques that defied international definitions of torture.#xA0;The Rumsfeld Memo authorized#xA0;the controversial interrogation practices#xA0;that later migrated to Guantanamo, Afghanistan, Abu Ghraib and elsewhere, as part of the policy of extraordinary rendition.#xA0;From a behind-the-scenes vantage point, Phillipe Sands investigates how the Rumsfeld Memo set the stage for a divergence from the#xA0;Geneva Convention and the Torture Convention#xA0;and#xA0;holds the#xA0;individual gatekeepers in the Bush administration accountable for their failure to safeguard international law. The Torture Team#xA0;delves deep into the Bush administration to reveal : #xA0;#xA0;#xA0;#xA0;#xA0;#xA0;#xA0;#xA0; How the policy of abuse originated with Donald Rumsfeld, Dick Cheney and George W. Bush, and was promoted by their most senior lawyers #xA0;#xA0;#xA0;#xA0;#xA0;#xA0;#xA0; Personal accounts, through interview, of those most closely involved in the decisions #xA0;#xA0;#xA0;#xA0;#xA0;#xA0;#xA0;#xA0;#xA0; How the Joint Chiefs and normal military decision-making processes were circumvented #xA0;#xA0;#xA0;#xA0;#xA0;#xA0;#xA0; How Fox TV's 24 contributed to torture planning #xA0;#xA0;#xA0;#xA0;#xA0;#xA0;#xA0; How interrogation techniques were approved for use #xA0;#xA0;#xA0;#xA0;#xA0;#xA0;#xA0; How the new techniques were used on Mohammed Al Qahtani, alleged to be "the 20th highjacker" #xA0;#xA0;#xA0;#xA0;#xA0;#xA0;#xA0;#xA0; How the senior lawyers who crafted the policy of abuse exposed themselves to the risk of war crimes charges