Apologists for the Bush administration blamed the pictures of torture at Abu Ghraib as the product a "few bad apples," while critics countered that it was the result of policies initiated by bad apples occupying top positions in the Pentagon and the White House. However, for Williams (an activist with Rose City Copwatch in Portland, OR), the problems manifested in those photographs are far more deeply rooted in larger systems of imperialism, racism, and male domination which have given rise to torture by the US military, intelligence agencies, police and prison authorities, and by allied regimes acting on behalf of American policy. Limiting himself to discussion of the past quarter-century, he considers the ethical, legal, and political aspects of torture as a characteristic of state power. Annotation ©2007 Book News, Inc., Portland, OR (booknews.com)