Title:
Black site : the CIA in the post-9/11 world
Author:
Edition:
First edition.
Publication Date:
2019
Publication Information:
New York : Liveright Publishing Corporation, a division of W.W. Norton & Company, [2019]
©2019
Physical Description:
xix, 247 pages ; 25 cm
ISBN:
9781631491979
Abstract:
When the towers fell on September 11, 2001, nowhere were the reverberations more powerfully felt than at CIA headquarters in Langley, Virginia. Almost overnight, the intelligence organization evolved into a war-fighting intelligence service, constructing what was known internally as 'the Program': a web of top-secret detention facilities intended to help prevent future attacks on American soil and around the world. Former deputy director of the CIA Counterterrorist Center Philip Mudd presents a story of this now-controversial program, directly addressing how far America went to pursue al-Qa'ida and prevent another catastrophe. He argues that September 12, 2001, marked an operational revolution, as officials suddenly felt the weight of protecting a nation from a second wave of attacks inside the United States. Based on interviews from dozens of officials--many of whom have never spoken out before--this book illuminates how the Agency quickly stepped into the process of organizing a full-blown interrogation program. Mudd offers a deeper understanding of how the enhanced interrogation techniques were developed and how intelligence professionals prepared to talk to the world's most hardened terrorists. With careful detail, he takes us through the process of each legally approved technique, including waterboarding.
Contents:
The lean years -- Risk avoidance -- The prelude to the Program -- The CIA revolutionizes -- The problem with prisoners -- Salt pit -- The first Program prisoner -- The definition of pain -- The second wave -- The fateful decisions -- Expansion and training -- Maturation -- The Program goes public -- Endgame -- Ethics and reflections.
Subject Term:
Language:
English
