At least some L.A. cops were abusing their trust long before the Rodney King case—as demonstrated in this riveting narrative of police-sponsored insurance fraud, armed robbery, automatic-weapons dealing, and murder for hire. Detective Richard Ford and Officer Robert Von Villas of the LAPD's Devonshire Division (nicknamed ``Club Dev'' to emphasize its contrast with rougher areas of the city) seemed pillars of rectitude: decorated Vietnam heroes; charming and caring husbands and fathers, beloved for their service to the community. Many were astonished, then, when, in 1983, the two were indicted for conspiring to murder and for performing a contract killing. Their chief accuser, Bruce Adams, appeared a lowlife by contrast: an auto mechanic having business difficulties with the two cops, who were his silent partners; a Vietnam vet with post-traumatic stress disorder and a troubled work history. Even with a wealth of circumstantial evidence and a wired Adams catching Ford in an explicit conversation about a planned sex-torture-mutilation murder, convicting L.A.'s ``killer cops'' wasn't easy: The cases cost city taxpayers $8-10 million, with the trials concluded only six years after the arrests. As the first L.A. cops convicted of first-degree murder, Ford and Von Villas received life without possibility of parole. Golab (a contributing editor to Los Angeles magazine) tells the tale primarily from the viewpoint of Adams, an ambivalent hero terrified of informing on Ford (and no wonder: unlike the Federal Witness Protection Program, with its deep pockets, the LAPD could spare only $7,000 to help Adams relocate, and he and his family continue to live in hiding). It's a truly scary cautionary tale, though Golab's attempts to see it as a harbinger of the Rodney King beating seem forced, except for his noting of the rogue cops' belief that their badges were shields of immunity. Narrated with little grace, but the bone-chilling horror comes through in this story begging for film or TV adaptation.
Pub Date: Aug. 25, 1993
ISBN: 0-87113-499-3
Page Count: 400
Publisher: Atlantic Monthly
Review Posted Online: May 19, 2010
Kirkus Reviews Issue: June 1, 1993
A tenacious attempt to answer the question, “How do ordinary little human cogs make up a torture machine?”
Through the grim travails of one of Saddam Hussein’s top generals, journalist Steavenson (Stories I Stole, 2003) examines the dictator’s edifice of totalitarianism and moral corruption.
Taking her title from a verse of the Koran promising to mete out justice even to the “weight of a mustard seed,” the author weaves a fascinating account of how good men went terribly wrong. Steavenson worked as a journalist in Baghdad in 2003–04 and continued her interviews of exiled Iraqis in London and elsewhere, probing deeply into the stories of former Baath Party officials. Through a high-level Iraqi doctor who had served in the medical corps during the course of four Iraqi wars, the author was put in touch with the surviving family of Kamel Sachet, a commander of the special forces and general in charge of the army in Kuwait City during the Gulf War. The general was shot as a traitor by order of the Iraqi president in 1998. Born to an illiterate family in 1947, Sachet became a policeman and then joined the special forces, rising through the ranks to major. He distinguished himself during the Iran-Iraq war, gaining Hussein’s trust but also his occasional ire, which led to prison and torture. Sachet led the assault into Kuwait, but with the retreat and subsequent scourge by the United States, he became disillusioned with the violence and bloodshed and retired as a devout Muslim. Steavenson ably explores his and others’ obedience in fulfilling the dictator’s grisly demands, echoing works by Hannah Arendt, Primo Levi and Stanley Milgram.
A tenacious attempt to answer the question, “How do ordinary little human cogs make up a torture machine?”Pub Date: March 17, 2009
ISBN: 978-0-06-172178-6
Page Count: 304
Publisher: Collins
Review Posted Online: May 19, 2010
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Jan. 15, 2009
Alexander, a former UN deputy special representative in Afghanistan, offers his view of the pathway to a resolution in that nation.
The author proposes a regional solution to the ongoing conflict, one in which both Afghanistan and Pakistan both become “subject to international supervision” as part of a settlement—a “Central Asian version of the 1648 Treaty of Westphalia.” Alexander devotes significant attention to the source of the present conflict, Britain's 19th-century strategic “great game” against Russia, and Pakistan's adaption of the tradition to its own purposes through backing Afghanistan's Taliban and other surrogate terrorists. The components of a possible regional agreement are identified in Afghanistan's 2005-6 bilateral treaties with the U.S., UK, EU, China and Pakistan, and in the March 2009 opium interdiction program adopted by the Shanghai Cooperation Organization on the very same day Obama announced his strategic review of Afghanistan policy. Whether such an agreement can be achieved, by way of the destruction of what Alexander calls the “shadow government” of Afghanistan inside Pakistan border provinces, without resulting in the outbreak of another full-scale war in the area or further aggravating relations between Pakistan and India, is questionable. In the meantime, the author is an enthusiastic advocate of the adoption of long-term visions along with benchmarks for their achievement in such areas as the management of the Afghan government's finances and the development of food exports through private enterprise. He is also a supporter of World Bank counterinsurgency investment through the “National Solidarity Programme” estimated to produce 20 percent per annum returns. A controversial account that provides much historical background, along with special insight into current developments.
Pub Date: Nov. 8, 2011
ISBN: 978-0-06-202037-6
Page Count: 288
Publisher: Harper/HarperCollins
Review Posted Online: Sept. 17, 2011
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Oct. 1, 2011
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