6-27-06, 9:37am

Here is another of our occasional book previews or 'meta-reviews', reviews of reviews of books of interest to the progressive community. PA needs book reviewers so if any of our readers would like to review any of the works previewed here please contact me. You will find the previous 17 Book Round Ups archived on our website.

THE ONE PERCENT DOCTRINE: DEEP INSIDE AMERICA'S PURSUIT OF ITS ENEMIES SINCE 9/11 by RON SUSKIND , Simon & Schuster, 367 pages, reviewed by Michiko Kakutani in The New York Times, 6-20-2006.

Kakutani's review of this book shows how deep is the trouble we are in due to the irresponsible behavior of the Bush administration. The book gets its title, the reviewer says, from Dick Cheney's view, after 9/11 that 'in Mr. Suskind's words, 'if there was even a 1 percent chance of terrorists getting a weapon of mass destruction-- and there has been a small probability of such an occurrence for some time-- the United States must now act as if it were a certainty'.' This is a rather incoherent way of expressing it. Is Cheney, or Suskind confused? The quote literally says there is a 'small probability' that terrorists might have a '1 percent chance' (it self a probability) to get a WMD. So we have a small probability of another small probability and so we must act as if we have a 'certainty,' This is the kind of idiocy that has been fueling the 'war on terror'

Suskind appears to be basing the info in his book, according to Kakutani, on 'wide access' to sources within the FBI and the departments of Defense (War), State and Treasury, especially to sources within the CIA including its former head George Tenet. So this is an insider's book. We should take it as a warning to get the Republicans out of office as soon as possible!

Here are a few choice tidbits. The real reason for invading Iraq, the review quotes the author 'was 'to make an example ' of Saddam Hussein. to 'create a demonstration model to guide the behavior of anyone with the temerity to acquire destructive weapons [are there any other kind?--tr] or, in any way, flout the authority of the United States.'' So much for wanting to 'spread democracy' in the Middle East. The war was just a power trip by White House goons!

Experts were called in by the Bush gang, the reviewer reports, 'not to help formulate policy, but simply to sell predetermined initiatives to the American public.' These initiatives were cooked up in the Bushite's brains (and consequently half baked at best). Suskind writes: 'The public, and Congress, acquiesced with little real resistance, to a 'need to know' status-- told only what they needed to know, with that determination made exclusively, and narrowly, by the White House.' In other words, Congress completely failed in its duties to the American people.

Bush appears to be both 'incurious' and 'uninformed' and the CIA people seem to have considered him to be a dummy as they nicknamed Cheney 'Edgar (as in Edgar Bergan.' thus implying that Bush was Charlie McCarthy, Kakutani reports. Not only did Bush not even read his briefings, some times they went directly to Cheney and the President never even saw them. This is great leadership indeed. There is a lot more in this book, including how 'intelligence' was manipulated to provide 'evidence' for what Bush and his handlers wanted the American people to think in complete disregard of the truth. The voters need to know all this so they can vote the ultra-right out in November.

GUANTANAMO AND THE ABUSE OF PRESIDENTIAL POWER by Joseph Marguiles, Simon & Schuster, 2006, reviewed by Steve Weinberg in In These Times, July 2006.

Weinberg likes this book, finding it a 'convincing indictment' of the Bushite abuse of power written by a lawyer who represents some of the detainees at the US concentration camp at Guantanamo. He also finds the book 'difficult to complete' because it is technical (legal theories and terms, etc.,) and depressing. Nevertheless it 'repays' the effort it takes. Marguiles is quoted summing up Bush's assertions of what he can do to anyone he feels like in his bogus war on 'terror:' people 'maybe taken-- kidnapped if necessary-- from any location in the world, even thousands of miles from any battlefield, without the knowledge or participation of the host government and without any judicial process. ... They may be held for the rest of their lives, based solely on the president's self-asserted authority. At the prison, they can be subjected to any conditions or treatment the military devises. And throughout their imprisonment, they may be held incommunicado and in solitary confinement, without access to courts or counsel, without charges of any kind, unknown to the world, and without the benefit of the Geneva Conventions, an international treaty signed and ratified by the United States and designed to protect people seized during armed conflict.'

That the president thinks he has a right to do this is nuts. It shows what he really thinks of human rights and democracy and what kind of 'freedom' he wants to impose upon the people's of the Middle East. No wonder they are fighting back! It is to the credit of the US Supreme Court that it struck down Bush's grab for absolute power in Rasul v. Bush in 2004, a case in which Marguiles participated.

The decision means that anyone put into Guantanamo must have his or her rights to be judged by a 'neutral tribunal' respected. But, Marguilies, writes, 'Enforcing this decision in another matter.' The only justification Bush came up with for his extraordinary claims was that the prisoners being sent to Guantanamo were the 'worst of the worst'-- really, really ultra dangerous 'terrorists.' However, the review reveals that most are probably just innocent people. Already 250 have been released with no charges, and 75% of the people still in custody are not even being interrogated anymore. They are just sitting around. 'Even the camp commander,' Margulies writes, 'says many of the 500 who remain could be released tomorrow at no risk to the United States.' Mr. President, tear down that prison!

Thomas Riggins is the book review editor of Political Affairs and can be reached at pabooks@politicalaffairs.net.