Erik Larson Quotes
It troubled me that we had these reports of torture of detainees, we had people jailed at Guantanamo Bay who couldn't even talk to their lawyers and couldn't see the evidence against them - sort of fundamental bedrock civil liberties things.
Larson, Erik. Interview by Dave Davies. Fresh Air, NPR, 10 May 2011.
Named after penal reformer Johne Howard, 1726-1790. Howard Associations have since been organized in many countries.
When TR came to office, the U. S. was in the midst of war with Philippine insurgents who were fighting an asymmetric , guerrilla war against the U. S. Army. The war had become very brutal with the insurgents using terror and atrocities and some Army units executing prisoners and torturing captives. Roosevelt, actually fired the General who was in charge of the field troops rather than just discipline lower level officers as usually has happened.
After the assassination of Egyptian President Anwar Sadat hundreds of Egyptian religious fundamentalists were rounded up, jailed and tortured. al-Zawahiri broke under torture and revealed the names of some of his anti-government associates. Although he was not personally involved in the murder of Sadat, he served three additional years in jail. Motivated by has thirst for revenge at his torturers and his guilt at having been forced to betray his friend, he learned all he could about terrorism from the older Jihadists also in the same jail, and when he was released he elevated Islamic terrorism to another level by developing a strategy for the use of suicide bombers.
Chelsea Elizabeth Manning
This was his reaction when he was criticized for encouraging over 1000 extrajudicial murders of accused drug addicts and drug dealers with no trial at all and no due process.
Erik Larson is an American journalist and author of nonfiction books. He has written a number of bestsellers, including The Devil in the White City (2003), about the 1893 World's Columbian Exposition in Chicago and a series of murders by H. H. Holmes that were committed in the city around the time of the Fair. The Devil in the White City won the 2004 Edgar Award in the Best Fact Crime category, among other awards.
