1st Edition
Torture, Intelligence and Sousveillance in the War on Terror Agenda-Building Struggles
By Vian Bakir
Copyright 2013
328 Pages
by
Routledge
328 Pages
by
Routledge
328 Pages
by
Routledge
Also available as eBook on:
Torture, Intelligence and Sousveillance in the War on Terror examines the communication battles of the Bush and Blair political administrations (and those of their successors in America and Britain) over their use of torture, first-hand or second-hand, to gain intelligence for the War on Terror. Exploring key agenda-building drivers that exposed the torture-intelligence nexus and presenting... Read more
Contents: Studying torture, intelligence and media manipulation in the war on terror; Strategic political communication, intelligence and its discontents: manipulating and challenging intelligence; The rise of the torture-intelligence nexus; The sousveillance failure of John Walker Lindh; The surprise of sousveillance at Abu Ghraib and the struggle to contain it; The persistence of sousveillance: Baha Mousa and torture in the British military; The absence of sousveillance: Binyam Mohamed and the British intelligence agencies’ complicity in torture; Conclusion; References; Index.
Biography
Vian Bakir is Senior Lecturer in Journalism at Bangor University, Wales, UK. She is co-editor of Communication in the Age of Suspicion: Trust and the Media and is author of Sousveillance, Media and Strategic Political Communication: Iraq, USA, UK.
’The US-defined war on terror has shaped international and intercultural relations in the past decade. This essential and engaging book examines a hitherto ignored aspect of this global and open-ended war: namely the nexus between media and intelligence services and between terror and torture in democratic societies. Highly recommended.’ Daya Thussu, University of Westminster, UK 'In this innovative and insightful exploration of the crucial agenda-setting battles over torture during the "war on terror", Vian Bakir shows the different ways in which battles between "strategic political communication" and citizen "sousveillance" have played out in key American and British cases. A sophisticated contribution to the literature.' Martin Shaw, Institut Barcelona d'Estudis Internacionals, Spain, University of Roehampton, UK and Emeritus Professor University of Sussex, UK 'This well-written book ... is a significant contribution to the literature offering an innovative overview of the issues, theories and themes that constitute the study and practice of torture-intelligence by linking them coherently.' Political Studies Review
