Review: Dispatches from the Dark Side by Gareth Pierce

Gareth Peirce is not a person who courts publicity, in fact she better described as a person who avoids it. Her book, ‘Dispatches from the Dark Side’, is far from self promoting, other than her name is on the front and she wrote it. The book is a collection of essays written over the last two years, published as a call to action to anyone with a shred of decency and belief in the rule of law, and justice.

This is not the Dark Side of Star Wars; this is the Dark Side of the poorly named, ‘War on Terror’. Nevertheless, Gareth steps into the virtual shoes of Obi Wan Kenobi and proceeds to take on the injustices of  the Empire.

The simple truth is that the fictional Darth Vader was practically a gentleman in the treatment of subjects of the Empire, compared to the appalling way suspects of terrorism have been treated by our real world masters. It is a slim tome, preface: four chapters and a conclusion. It is more than enough to make ones blood boil, look to the heavens and demand to know what on earth has gone wrong with the world.

The first essay, “Make sure you say you were treated properly” is a powerful indictment of the deployment of the concept of national security, to not only further justify curbing criticism and shutting down debate, but also to set up courts in which secret evidence is heard in secret so that accused never knows the case against them.

What does that mean in practical terms, other than sound rather too much like a real life Franz Kafka novel? Well, for one Muslim from Essex, he found himself under a control order, criminally prosecuted for breaching it, and subsequently acquitted by a jury in open court, as he had good reason to breach the order. Subsequently a judge quashed the control order after “an intelligence agent giving evidence from behind a screen admitted that the tip-off which lead to the decision that he (Bullivant) was a risk to national security and ‘associated with links to terrorists’, had come from a friend of his mother who, after drinking heavily, had phoned Scotland Yard, which failed ever to contact the caller to ask for further explanation.”  This kind of flimsy secret evidence has no doubt condemned some people to secret rendition, indescribable torture, and quite likely death.

Indescribable as some torture may be, Gareth Peirce paints a graphic picture of situations that no one would care to face. All of them highly illegal and contrary to all known human rights conventions.  She tracks the collusion of the British Government with the US in a whole range of extrajudicial activities, as well as the extraordinary measures taken to conceal its actions. With bracing lucidity, she chronicles disturbing events, the details of which are not readily available in news media and puts them into the context of international human rights law. Comparing what is apparently acceptable now, to the medieval practises of the Star Chamber. If this were a work of fiction, any reader would assume that things as described don’t happen in real life. Sadly they do and unless we do something about it, it will continue to happen.

When you read this book, be prepared to discover compelling evidence that Adbelbaset Ali al Megrahi, the man convicted of the responsibility of the Lockerbie bombing, was in fact framed. Even Libya would appear to have had its name cleared as far as Peirce is concerned. How is it possible that expert witnesses with no credentials whatsoever are able to offer damning evidence that destroys innocent people’s lives? All is explained in startling detail.

In her last essay, Pierce describes the extreme inhumane conditions prisoners are kept in at SuperMax prisons in the USA. It reads like a chapter from a dystopian Sci-fi novel, barbarism in the US justice system is now designed by experts. Real people spend decades in solitary confinement, with nothing to do, no human contact at all, not even with their captors, with one hour a day in a dingy pit to exercise, no natural light. Surely this is one step away from a dungeon with straw on the floor and people hanging by the hands in manacles.

After reading this book, the idea of a holiday in the States becomes decidedly lacklustre. What if you are in the wrong place at the wrong time? It could be you protesting your innocence from absolute solitary confinement, before finding yourself on death row. Well never mind going on holiday, the British justice system will cheerfully send you there anyway if the Americans ask them nicely. Peirce offers compelling evidence of the violation of detainees’ right to a fair trial, presenting a cogent case against extradition to America. I, for one, never wanted to go there anyway!

This book is a must read. You could not make it up.

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About the author
Lawyer Gareth Peirce represents individuals who are or have been the subject of rendition, torture, and internment in secret prisons or on the basis of secret evidence. Since the 1970s she has represented many men and women in their appeals against wrongful convictions made on the basis of disputed evidence, misidentification and police malpractice. Her many clients have included the Guilford Four, the Birmingham Six, Judith Ward, Stephen Miller (Cardiff Three), Michael O'Brien (Newsagent's Three), the family of Jean Charles de Menezes, and Moazzam Begg. She lives in London.

The Book
Dispatches from the Dark Side  – Gareth Pierce
Hardback – published by Verso
160 pages
6.99GBP
ISBN: 978 1 84467 619 4
Available now