New Delhi: After writing critically acclaimed books such as ‘The Exile’, ‘Deception’, ‘The Stone of Heaven’, authors Cathy Scott-Clark and Adrian Levy brings out another book that focuses on the relationship between Abu Zubaydah, the first detainee subjected to enhanced interrogation, and Jim Mitchell, the CIA program’s architect and Zubaydah’s primary interrogator.
In this book, the authors explore Abu Zubaydah and Jim Mitchell’s relationship, taking readers into the interrogation cell with them, and making them witness the secret program up close. The protagonists’ personal memories are used in this novel to tell parallel stories. Additionally, they also looked for policemen, contractors, solicitors, and special agents, to enliven the narrative.
‘The Forever Prisoner’ is the main source for Alex Gibney’s recent HBO Max film — which won an Academy Award for best director — and reveals the full details of the most contentious CIA programme in modern memory.
Alex Gibney, acclaimed documentarian and winner of the Academy, Emmy, and Grammy awards said about the book: “The Forever Prisoner is a powerful investigation into the origins of the US official policy of torture. Focusing on the case of Abu Zubaydah, the ‘patient zero’ of the CIA’s ‘enhanced interrogation’ techniques, Scott-Clark and Levy manage to get to virtually everyone, which allows them to tell a riveting tale and the authoritative account.”
The British investigative journalist duo, Cathy and Levy, have written six books broadly covering terrorist attacks and terrorist organisations in South Asia. Both authors have worked as journalists in ‘The Guardian’ and ‘Sunday Times’. Their book, ‘The Siege: The Attack on the Taj’, gave accounts based on extensive research, and received highly positive reviews.
The writers started working on the latest book while finishing ‘The Exile’ — which was about how the Bush administration passed up opportunities to apprehend Osama bin Laden and other Al Qaeda leaders because it wanted continue fighting in the Persian Gulf.
Four years of intensive work, thousands of secret papers, first-ever frank interviews with major protagonists — ‘The Forever Prisoner’ is a potent account of a terrible event that has garnered media attention for twenty years since it happened.
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