A startling spotlight on the darkest corners of America's 'War on Terror,' where nothing is quite what it seems.



The Convenient Terrorist is the definitive inside account of the capture, torture, and detention of Abu Zubaydah, the first 'high-value target' captured by the CIA after 9/11. But was Abu Zubaydah, who is still being indefinitely held by the United States under shadowy circumstances, the blue-ribbon capture that the Bush White House claimed he was? Authors John Kiriakou, who led the capture of Zubaydah, and Joseph Hickman, who took custody of him at Guantanamo, draw a far more complex and intriguing portrait of the al-Qaeda 'œmastermind' who became a symbol of torture and the 'œdark side' of US security. From a one-time American collaborator to a poster boy for waterboarding, Abu Zubaydah became a 'convenient terrorist' a way for US authorities to sell their 'War on Terror' to the American people.