ITEM OVERVIEW
The "extraordinary rendition" program has become the largest single U.S. clandestine operation since the end of the Cold War.
Investigative journalist A.C. Thompson—winner of a 2005 Polk Award for investigative reporting—and "military geographer" Trevor Paglen have systematically investigated the CIA program for more than two years, learning much about the specifics of the CIA's operations; the more than 100 people kidnapped, detained, tortured and often 'disappeared.' In a series of journeys investigating the agency, they have uncovered all of the major elements of the CIA's rendition and detention operations. In Torture Taxi, they travel to suburban Massachusetts to profile a CIA front company that supplies the agency with airplanes; to Smithfield, North Carolina, to meet pilots who fly CIA aircraft; study with a "planespotter" who tracks CIA planes in the Nevada desert; and go to Afghanistan to visit the notorious "Salt Pit" prison and interview released Afghan detainees.
Contradicting the President's depiction of the CIA program as a legal and useful tool for bringing terrorists to justice, Torture Taxi proves that the CIA's operations since 9/11 have been tainted by torture and a long series of intelligence failures.
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