The Tortured History of State Terror. Review of Alfred W. McCoy's <em>A Question of Torture: CIA Interrogation From the Cold War to the War on Terror</em> (NY: Metropolitan Books, 2006)
Keywords
Latin American History, Latin American Politics, Imperialism, torture
Keywords
Latin American History, Latin American Politics, Imperialism, torture
Abstract
A Question of Torture penetrates the historical amnesia and offers a corrective to the government record of denials and misrepresentations about the participation of the U.S. military in torture. The book demonstrates that U.S. security forces used torture long before Abu Ghraib, and that it formed an integral part of how U.S. power was projected abroad. McCoy traces the development of CIA torture techniques in the 1950s and examines their application in places such as Vietnam, Latin America, Iraq and Afghanistan, and he makes a persuasive case that torture does not work because most of the information coerced from prisoners is worthless.
Published
2007-02-01
Section
Reviews / Reseñas