The Forever Prisoner: The Full and Searing Account of the CIA's Most Controversial Covert Program

The Forever Prisoner exposes the CIA's enhanced interrogation program, which was defined as American torture after 9/11. It reveals the twisted legal justifications and the metastasization of enhanced interrogation over seven years, encompassing dozens of detainees in multiple locations. Despite the U.S. Senate's judgment that enhanced interrogation was torture and produced zero high-value intelligence, numerous men, including Abu Zubaydah, remain imprisoned in Guantanamo without being charged with any crimes. The book is a powerful chronicle of a shocking experiment that remains in the headlines twenty years after its inception.

Format: Paperback / softback
Length: 464 pages
Publication date: 22 June 2023
Publisher: Grove Press / Atlantic Monthly Press

Some argued that the use of enhanced interrogation techniques by the CIA after the 9/11 attacks would save the United States. However, the program came to be defined as American torture and was widely condemned. The Forever Prisoner, a documentary film directed by Academy Award winner Alex Gibney, exposes the full story behind the most divisive CIA operation in recent memory. Six months after 9/11, the CIA captured Abu Zubaydah and claimed that he was the third-ranking member of Al Qaeda. In an effort to prevent a feared second wave of attacks, the U.S. rendered Zubaydah to a secret black site in Thailand, where he was interrogated by retired Air Force psychologist James Mitchell. The CIA authorized Mitchell and others to use brutal "enhanced interrogation techniques" that violated U.S. and international laws. The Forever Prisoner recounts the dramatic scenes inside multiple black sites around the world through the eyes of those who were there. It traces the twisted legal justifications for enhanced interrogation and charts how it metastasized over seven years, encompassing dozens of detainees in multiple locations, some of whom died. Ultimately, the war on terror has cost 8 trillion dollars, 900,000 lives, and displaced 38 million people, while the U.S. Senate judged enhanced interrogation to be torture and produced zero high-value intelligence. Yet numerous men, including Zubaydah, remain imprisoned in Guantanamo without being charged with any crimes, in contravention of America's ideals of justice and due process, because their trials would reveal the extreme brutality they experienced. Based on four years of intensive reporting, The Forever Prisoner provides a comprehensive and disturbing account of the CIA's use of enhanced interrogation techniques and its impact on individuals and society. It is a must-watch for anyone interested in understanding the history and consequences of the war on terror.

Dimension: 228 x 152 (mm)
ISBN-13: 9780802158932