These articles interrogate diverse issues in Philippine cultural history: the place of Nick Joaquin in the nation's historiography; the debate on the class position of Andres Bonifacio and the revolutionary outbreak of 1896; the state of regional literary studies and the case of Filipino crime fiction; and Philippine electoral politics as seen in the cracked mirror of Pascual Racuyal's career. The book ends with the author's reflections on the past four decades of Philippine cultural studies.

A startling exposé of the CIA's development and spread of psychological torture, from the Cold War to Abu Ghraib and beyond In this revelatory account of the CIA's secret, fifty-year effort to develop new forms of torture, historian Alfred W. McCoy uncovers the deep, disturbing roots of recent scandals at Abu Ghraib and Guantánamo. Far from aberrations, as the White House has claimed, A Question of Torture shows that these abuses are the product of a long-standing covert program of interrogation. Developed at the cost of billions of dollars, the CIA's method combined "sensory deprivation" and "self-inflicted pain" to create a revolutionary psychological approach—the first innovation in torture in centuries. The simple techniques—involving isolation, hooding, hours of standing, extremes of hot and cold, and manipulation of time—constitute an all-out assault on the victim's senses, destroying the basis of personal identity. McCoy follows the years of research—which, he reveals, compromised universities and the U.S. Army—and the method's dissemination, from Vietnam through Iran to Central America. He traces how after 9/11 torture became Washington's weapon of choice in both the CIA's global prisons and in "torture-friendly" countries to which detainees are dispatched. Finally McCoy argues that information extracted by coercion is worthless, making a case for the legal approach favored by the FBI. Scrupulously documented and grippingly told, A Question of Torture is a devastating indictment of inhumane practices that have spread throughout the intelligence system, damaging American's laws, military, and international standing.

This is a richly textured portrait of the generation that created the self-consciousness of the Filipino nation.

In 2007, an unlikely troupe of 1500 Filipino prisoners became Internet celebrities after their YouTube video of Michael Jackson's ground-breaking hit 'Thriller' went viral. Taking this spectacular dance as a point of departure, Dangerous Mediations explores the disquieting development of prisoners performing punishment to a global, online audience. Combining analysis of this YouTube video with first-hand experiences from fieldwork in the Philippine prison, Áine Mangaoang investigates a wide range of interlocking contexts surrounding this user-generated text to reveal how places of punishment can be transformed into spaces of spectacular entertainment, leisure, and penal tourism. In the post-YouTube era, Dangerous Mediations sounds the call for close readings of music videos produced outside of the corporate culture industries. By connecting historical discussions on postcolonialism, surveillance and prison philosophy with contemporary scholarship on popular music, participatory culture and new media, Dangerous Mediations is the first book to ask critical questions about the politics of pop music and audiovisual mediation in early 21st-century detention centres.

Contents: (1) Interrogation of Japanese POWs in WW2: U.S. Response to a Formidable Challenge. Military leaders, often working with civilian counterparts, created and implemented successful strategies, building on cultural and linguistic skills that substantially aided the war effort for the U.S. and its Allies. (2) Unveiling Charlie: U.S. Interrogators¿ Creative Successes Against Insurgents. Highlights the importance of a deep understanding of the language, psychol., and culture of adversaries and potential allies in other countries. (3) The Accidental Interrogator: A Case Study and Review of U.S. Army Special Forces Interrogations in Iraq. Offers recommendations that are likely to increase the effectiveness of U.S. interrogation practices in the field. Illus.

Manila is not for the faint of heart. Population: over ten million and growing by the minute. Climate: hot, humid and prone to torrential monsoon rains of biblical proportions. The ultimate femme fatale, she's complicated and mysterious, with a tainted, painful past. The perfect, torrid setting for noir. Edited by Dogeaters (Penguin, 1991) author and National Book Award Nominee Jessica Hagedorn, and featuring original stories from a stunning group of multi-award-winning authors.

This is a print on demand edition of a hard to find publication. Examines terrorists¿ involvement in a variety of crimes ranging from motor vehicle violations, immigration fraud, and mfg. illegal firearms to counterfeiting, armed bank robbery, and smuggling weapons of mass destruction. There are 3 parts: (1) Compares the criminality of internat. jihad groups with domestic right-wing groups. (2) Six case studies of crimes includes trial transcripts, official reports, previous scholarship, and interviews with law enforce. officials and former terrorists are used to explore skills that made crimes possible; or events and lack of skill that the prevented crimes. Includes brief bio. of the terrorists along with descriptions of their org., strategies, and plots. (3) Analysis of the themes in closing arguments of the transcripts in Part 2. Illus.

Balik-Tanaw: The Road Taken is the memoir of the distinguished Filipino critic, Soledad S. Reyes. This book is a record of Reyess journey of more than seven decades where personal narrative intertwines with people and events, with social and political movements with which the country sought to negotiate the treacherous shoals in the postwar years. The account carries a fair amount of biographical data (as lodged in the critics memory in the absence of diaries), from her childhood into her college years. But as the context becomes wider and more complex, the narrative takes on a more analytical frame as she tries to make sense of disparate experiences whirling about her in the tumult of the 1970s and beyond, and in the startling changes in the political landscape, local and global, that now grip the Filipino nation. This account, according to the author, is a story of an individual constructing a narrative that seeks to impose order upon chaos by retrieving aspects of the past and weaving a series of recalcitrant experiences into a coherent whole. Published in association with De La Salle University Publishing House