Ghost Plane: The True Story of the CIA Rendition and Torture Program

by Stephen Grey

On June 10th, 2002, Attorney General John Ashcroft announced that the US had captured a known terrorist who was exploring a plan to explode a "dirty bomb" on American soil. That alleged terrorist was José Padilla who was finally charged in 2005 with conspiracy to murder. What Ashcroft didn't talk about was how information against him was obtained – by the relentless torture of one man-- Binyam Mohamed, in the name of the United States. Arrested at Karachi Airport before Padilla's arrest on April 10, 2002, Mohamed was put on a luxury executive jet and flown to an interrogation center in Morocco. For over 18 months, he was subjected to one torture after Beating followed beating and, then, his guards produced razor blades and began to split the skin all over his body, including on his genitals. Since 1997, hundreds of people, many of whom have no ties to terrorist organizations, have been abducted from foreign airports or street corners on suspicions based at times on the flimsiest of evidence courtesy of the United States Central Intelligence Agency. In Ghost Plane, Stephen Grey tells the true story of the CIA's torture program known by the euphemism "extraordinary rendition" and the airplanes that make the program run. Begun during the Clinton administration, but taking a decidedly more voracious turn after 9/11, the rendition system has seen the transfer of more than 1000 prisoners into jails stretching from Guantanamo to Syria, from Kabul to Bangkok and beyond. Grey had access to the thousands of CIA flight records and has interviewed dozens of sources from the most senior levels of the National Security Council to the CIA. In Ghost Plane, he paints a disturbing picture of the War on Terror that reaches to the highest levels of power in Washington, D.C. and exposes the extreme ethical corruption at the heart of this US government program, a program finally acknowledged by President George Bush in September 2006, undertaken in the name of the citizens of the United States.
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Genres: Politics, History, Nonfiction, Terrorism, Espionage, Military Fiction, Cia

400 pages, Paperback

First published October 1, 2006

About the author

Stephen Grey is a British writer, broadcaster with over two decades of experience of reporting on intelligence and security issues. He is best know for his exclusive reporting on the CIA’s program of ‘extraordinary rendition’, as well as reports from the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan. A former foreign correspondent and investigations editor with the Sunday Times of London, he has reported for the New York Times, Guardian, BBC, and Channel 4, and is currently a special correspondent with Reuters news agency.
Apart from books, he likes running, everything outdoors, photography, computer programming... and being a Dad.

Reviews

[Debbie · Rating 4 out of 5]

I found this book very interesting,it blew my mind knowing that the CIA was torturing to get confessions out of people who were terrorists. More than hundreds of people who had no proven ties to terrorists organization have been removed from foreign airports. Those accused disappeared into a secret world of endless interrogations and torture. All transported courtesy of the U.S.Central Intelligence Agency. Stephen Grey journalist tells the true story what became a CIA torture program. When Clinton administration, the program took voracious turn after 9/11. There are now more than 1,000 individuals in a system that captures these ghost prisoners worldwide whisk them away to torture centers. Who could be next?

[Terri · Rating 5 out of 5]

I have to admit, when I see a military or war non fiction book is written by a journalist my trust in the account being unbiased and devoid of sensationalism slips.
Pair that with the promotional line on the back of this book that states "Hundreds more have been flown away on the Ghost plane to be tortured with the full knowledge of the US Government and in the name of the American people. Who will be next?"
My red flags automatically start going up. That there, is journalistic sensationalism at its finest.

The American Government and the Central Intelligence Agency make an easy target for journalists and humanitarian activists. That's not to say that neither of them commit crimes against humanity, because they do - although they do not do it alone, there are plenty of other covert agencies and countries that are equally to blame for humanitarian compromises in the pursuit of terrorists and their co-conspirators.

Stephen Grey, however, was not just another journalist looking to sully the name of the company. The story he tells in this book is what I would call mostly an unbiased account of CIA counter terrorism activities around the world. Counter terrorism activities that pivot around the CIA Rendition Program and most especially include attention on, extraordinary renditions. Kidnapping suspects and contracting torture out to third parties.
He devotes some sections of chapters to questioning the pros and cons of enhanced torture techniques and snatch missions.
We often question what part of a confession gleaned under enhanced torture methods is true and what is not. Torture sure can make a mess of intelligence gathering. The act of using pain and physical intimidation to harvest confessions from suspects can void the confession completely. Making it inadmissible as evidence. There definitely are more negatives to torture than positives and I think the sooner the CIA moves away from these enhanced methods the better.

If Stephen Grey sullies the name of the CIA or the American Government of the time, then they are only doing it to themselves. Grey will give you the evidence. Then you go make up your own mind.
Sometimes the CIA screws up so much that a good journalist does not even have to sensationalise anything.
At times in this book, you will be stunned at how easy the CIA was to be tracked and monitored by a civilian. Which prompts me to ask. If a journalist can track and trace the CIA so easily on his own, how simple must it be for our enemies to do the same?

I highly recommend this book to people who are not out to watch the CIA burn at the stake. If you want a witch hunt then there are other books that beat that drum.
While I am not saying this book is pro-CIA (because it is far from being that), what I am saying is that the author is not going to pump your head so full of anti Government/anti covert agency crap that you cannot see the forest for the trees.

The book is an awesome piece of humanitarian journalism and the author is an incredible investigative journalist who went after proof of the CIA's scandalous activities in the name of the Rendition Program and brought them out into the light.

[Chris Morrow · Rating 5 out of 5]

Some of the story here has been told in other places, or hinted at over time. I'd not seen as detailed an account (with sources listed) for any of this before. It's frightening how poorly the gov't is covering it's tracks here. It's also frightening that this thinly veiled process is being used at all!

I'm shocked, as an american citizen at the activities. I'm also distressed that the public policy stand on what's happening is 180 degrees off from the reality on the ground. Folks are being spirited away across the world and dumped in their 'home country' for 'offenses' which most often are trumped up out of previous victims and their loose associations. Joe knows sally knows jim, jim must therefore be involved in the treachery...

Then the fact that everyone involved in the process knows, with a definite certainty, that the victims are going to be tortured... and they are still remanded to the foreign gov'ts. This is shameful activity for this government to be partaking in, the output is not useful there is no justification for this, at all.

There have been more than a few past governments which have ended up with folks on war crimes trials for activities far less dubious than are outlined in the book.

[Books Ring Mah Bell · Rating 2 out of 5]

Kinda slow and boring. Seriously, how can one write about torture and have it be boring?!!? It was. (unless you are the person being tortured. Then, I'm guessing it's not boring at all.)

[Denise · Rating 5 out of 5]

In extraordinary detail and based on immense amounts of research, journalist Stephen Grey examines some of the most appalling aspects of America's so-called war on terror. While I was familiar in broad strokes with a number of the specific cases discussed here, this book provided a lot more detailed information than I had previously come across. Thorough and very informative.

[Jerome Otte · Rating 4 out of 5]

Very interesting. I enjoy reading about the CIA's covert operations and anything about the CIA's paramilitary Special Activities Division-Special Operations Group. The level of detail he collected about this program of capturing terrorists and flying them to overseas interrogation sites was astounding. I figured there were black sites in Egypt, since they are allies (or they were at the time of publication), but I had no idea we had them in Syria. Grey also provides a brief, interesting history of Air America, a CIA front company/dummy corporation that acts as the Agency's proprietary airline, as well as the CIA's Predator UAV program. The author also provides a useless list of flightlogs for the CIA's various planes. The stories of all the different terrorists that got "rendered" on all these different flights to all these different black sites got a little repetitive after a while.

Grey argues that the program may be necessary in the long run. We have no way of knowing that. Obviously, when fighting elusive terrorists globally, moralizing and rationalizing can become somewhat fuzzy. Personally, I doubt torture is as effective as other interrogation methods. Still, I'm not sure if getting rid of this capability will raise our "moral standing" much, since this all supposed to be covert, anyway. And I doubt al-Qaeda can claim moral superiority over us over this program, given what they did in al-Anbar and elsewhere.

Also check out Torture Taxi and Torture Taxi: On the Trail of the CIA's Rendition Flights.(Are those two the same books?)

[Rayne · Rating 5 out of 5]

Incredibly thorough research, a real resource, and compelling writing.

[Trenchologist · Rating 3 out of 5]

I'll say I read this one too late for it to be fully appreciated. It's certainly not Grey's fault that much of the revelations in the book are old news; the book is a decade+ published and others have used it as a springboard or biblo entry for their own work. Much of which I have read, and that waters down the impact of the findings Grey details.

But that's how it goes when you're not overly picky about the nonfic you find on the shelves or book sales and thrift shops and pay less attention to details like pub dates and such.

What's detailed is still important and incendiary. And deserves to stay under the microscope, particularly as the major players were never be brought to answer for--much less justice--the actions they took or okayed. That's the expectation of and for power, of course, so the recourse is *knowing* and as many people as possible.

The prose is dry. The book is dry. It reads like case studies and field notes in preparation for a long article or well, a book. Some of that is probably as it's journalistic rather than writerly; there is a difference in style. Some of it maybe was to rush this to publication while Grey's work on the same subject in newspapers was still fresh. Regardless, it informs but without a strong core or cadence; I appreciated it but didn't really enjoy the read.

[Constance · Rating 4 out of 5]

"Ignoring human rights helps recruit terrorist, justifies terrorism, and defeats the best thing we have going for us---the fact we stand for something better: for freedom, tolerance, and the laws that protect all." Stephan Grey.

I'm trying not to make this political, however our current president has declared that ISIS has been defeated. This book was written in 2006, some 13 years ago. Terrorists, whatever you want to call them are alive and well today.

This is an excellent read of what happened, what still maybe happening, and what our future holds.

[T.M. Tarantino · Rating 5 out of 5]

As a member of the human race, I find that this book shows that it’s very embarrassing to be human. In some cases. I would rather have read something else, but this is a book that needed to be read and maybe read again I would give this book 5 stars, because this was a good book, although it was still aggravating to read about how they treated the prisoners! Also I wish people would just get along not fighting over simple things like DNA or religion and stuff like that. This is a prime example of why we shouldn’t be at each other’s throats!

[Hank · Rating 4 out of 5]

The most comprehensive breakdown of the CIAs "Extraordinary Rendition!" Very easy read, and very thoroughly sourced. The author could have written another book on his adventures in bringing this story to light. I will say when reading this book you have to keep in mind the time period these actions were taken (post 9/11, published in 2006) to get a clear understanding of why these actions were taken. Enjoyable read!

[Mansour · Rating 4 out of 5]

Very interesting.
The book deals with the moral and legal dilemma of justifying injustice in order to serve justice.
It describes how many innocent people lost their freedom, were tortured and sometimes lost their lives in the process.
I believe the only day these victims will have justice is the Day of Justice.

[Sarah · Rating 3 out of 5]

Good. Published in 2006 so some of the information is dated/common knowledge.

[Kate H · Rating 3 out of 5]

Interesting but outdated now

[Cwn_annwn_13 · Rating 3 out of 5]

Most of this is a chapter by chapter case by case analysis of various individuals alleged to have ties to terrorist groups who were snatched up by the CIA, taken to countries where there are no laws against torturing people and basicly tortured by outsourcing. As if this wasn't bad enough the ties any of these people had to terrorism were very dubious at best. I have to commend Greys investigative journalism in putting this book together. The book itself wasn't overly exciting or interesting to read for me but thats probably because I was already familiar with most of the subject matter covered in this book. Still its a worthwhile read.

[Douglas White · Rating 3 out of 5]

This book is a really detailed look at the CIA rendition program started under Clinton and massively expanded under Bush.

It's not the most exciting book, but it well written and well sourced.

I think it also does a good job of explaining how and why the rendition program changed after 9/11.

The real shame is we still are not addressing many of the issues that lead to rendition in the first place. It seems that we have stopped rendition, but that is because we are using drones to kill rather than capture suspected terrorist. I am not sure that policy is necessarily better than the rendition policy.

[Paul · Rating 4 out of 5]

What I found most interesting was how the author and his colleagues from around the world put together the pieces to expose the CIA's rendition program. This book is detailed not only in the telling of the story but also in how the program evolved. For the haters of George W. Bush, they're not going to like knowing that this program was going on long before he took office. That said, he and those in his administration did expand upon it on an exponential level.

Ghose Plan is worth the time and energy if you want a detailed and unbiased study of the issue.

[Frances Bell · Rating 2 out of 5]

I read it because I'm always happy to catch the US out. But - it was written by a journalist so the shock that should have been there during the course of reading it just wasn't there. Subject matter that deserved better treatment. Ho hum.

[William · Rating 3 out of 5]

The author doesn't like extraordinary rendition. I finished this book as I purchased it. It was well documented in terms of flight records but I disagree with many of his political beliefs that are very obvious.

[Rio · Rating 3 out of 5]

I forgot to add this to my list! Still reading Atlas Shrugged, and I love it.

[Robert · Rating 3 out of 5]

Well documented/researched book on the CIA's rendition program. This guy is who helped uncover the whole thing.

[Colleen Clark · Rating 5 out of 5]

Along with "Torture Taxi" a book to read on our government's involvement in capturing suspects abroad and rendering them to 3rd countries for "interrogation" ie torture.

[Tim · Rating 3 out of 5]

The information is interesting but it is kind of a run on sentence of names, places and activities.

[George Rabanal]

Pretty eye opening book into rendition flights. It was a little rough in some parts, but I never felt like it was an anti-government feel. It's pretty neutral.

[Jason · Rating 4 out of 5]

A real eye opener! A must read for anyone interested in current events!