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In-Depth Interview: NYU’s Jordan H. Carver Talks About His Remarkable New Book About Rendition, Detention and Torture

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Jordan H. Carver’s new book offers an unusual perspective–informed by architecture–on America’s descent into rendition, torture, and brutal detention.Carver holds degrees in architecture and architecture theory and is working on a doctorate in American Studies at New York University.  His remarkable new book looks at George W. Bush’s sprawling gulag, from Guantanamo to the CIA “black sites” from spacial and architectural perspectives. Space of Disappearance: The Architecture of Extraordinary Rendition accurately reflects the history and record of the Bush-era rendition, torture and imprisonment of captives in the “global war on terror”.

The book is richly designed, and offers detailed drawings of the black sites, their modular cells, and the settings for what Dick Cheney acknowledged were “the dark side”. Carver explains his worldview, offering a unique analysis of this bleak chapter in American history.  Get more information on the book here, and visit Carver’s website here.

In this interview, we touch on many aspects of the not-so-secret actions that were authorized at the highest levels.  Carver is fair in his criticism of Barack Obama for failing to close the prison, refusing to investigate and prosecute war crimes, and joining the CIA’s defenders to bury Sen. Feinstein’s review of these programs.

Our Skype connection for this interview was not great, and we apologize for the uneven audio in this recording.

Opening music from Michael Franti and Spearhead, Yell Fire and this mashup of the Beach Boys’ Kokomo by an unknown artist.