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Author Podcast with Michael Keller

Torture Central

June 24, 2009

Do as you’re told and don’t ask questions. This culture of intimidation is one that Michael Keller says he became all too familiar with while serving in the army. And once he found himself in Iraq at the Abu Ghraib prison in 2005, what he saw and heard began to put him at odds with everything he believed in, everything he felt the United States stood for. After speaking up against what he saw and nearly being punished for it, Keller decided that all he could do was detail first-hand what he saw in the e-mails he sent back home. Those e-mails are compiled in his self published book, Torture Central.

A successful software engineer and executive, Keller enlisted in the army national guard shortly after the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks.  When he got the call that he would be stationed at the Abu Ghraib prison in Iraq, the prison had already been in the international spotlight due to the infamous prison abuse scandal that occurred in 2004. In this exclusive Author Talk interview, Keller discusses how many of the torture techniques continued to be sanctioned to use on detainees from all walks of life long after the scandal was exposed. Find out where Keller believes everything went wrong. Why he is sure the issues are still there.  And what he believes should be done going forward.

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