No Good Deed and Enemy Combatant Research

No Good Deed has been out for over a year now and in that time, it has received almost 100 reviews on Amazon, and in addition, I've received quite a few emails from readers. What I've noticed is that the interrogation scenes seem to really stick with the readers. Many admit that the scenes were uncomfortable to read, but that only made them root for Mark even more. (paraphrasing from various reviews). Others felt that the scenes went on far too long and consumed most of the book or that they were over the top and that I had a political agenda. A couple of reviewers even wondered if this was a real story, just with the names changed and the paranormal element added.

I will admit here that the scenes in the prison were my favorite to write. I loved getting into the characters head and seeing it through his eyes.  Did I take it too far? I don't know. See, the thing is, there have been only three American enemy combatants. (The detainees at Guantanamo are not Americans.) The three were held either at Naval Consildated Brig, in Charleston, SC or at United States Navy Brig in Norfolk, Va  In my research, I found that the two U.S. based brigs were supposed to use the same rules for the enemy combatants as Guantanamo (info). Here is an excerpt from the linked article:

As was recently revealed through the disclosure of military documents following a Freedom of Information request (PDF), al-Marri, along with two American citizens also held as “enemy combatants” — Yaser Hamdi and Jose Padilla — was subjected to the same “Standard Operating Procedure” that was applied to prisoners at Guantánamo during its most brutal phase, from mid-2002 to mid-2004. This involved the use of “enhanced interrogation techniques,” including prolonged isolation, painful stress positions, exposure to extreme temperature, sleep deprivation, extreme sensory deprivation, and threats of violence and death.

Here's a bit more:

Although the treatment of prisoners at Guantánamo was disturbingly harsh, it can be argued — with some confidence, I believe — that the treatment of al-Marri, Hamdi and Padilla was worse than that endured by the majority of the Guantánamo prisoners, as all three suffered in total isolation.

Those three enemy combatants became my template for Mark's experiences. Obviously, it's not like I could interview the subjects so I had to go by what I suspected and use artistic license. One reason I added the paranormal element of the camera is so that readers would understand that my book is complete fiction. Another reason was because I wanted readers to have no doubt that Mark was innocent. In the real world, nobody comes with a guarantee of innocence. Wouldn't it be great if we all did? However, that assurance I gave readers might have made the government look even more sinister. In the book, they don't have the same luxury of knowing that Mark is innocent.

Some reviewers accused me of being a left-leaning liberal with an agenda. That accusation couldn't be further from the truth. Sorry liberals, but I'm a registered Republican. ;-P (or I was before I moved. I still need to register to vote in my new town--I've been here a year, so you can see how political I am by my rush to register.) When I began my research, I was in the camp that enemy combatants--especially American ones--got what they deserved. They were traitors in my book. Honestly, they are still traitors. My conclusion after researching was that I wasn't comfortable with their lack of a formal charges and a trial. Even mass murderers receive that. I mean, how can a combatant defend themselves if there are no charges? No trial? It didn't make sense, and I would have thought the government would want to have a trial and prove the charges true so they could hold these guys up as examples. Instead, the men were hidden away for years with no charges and extremely limited access to counsel.

When I created the character of Jim Sheridan, he started out as the villain, but I think most people felt he wasn't a bad guy by the end of the book. He also came about because in the research, I didn't find any evil interrogators or prison security. In fact, what stood out to me was the concern by some prison officials. I don't know who they were as the memos have names redacted, but there was definite concern for the prisoners well-being and mental states. Jim Sheridan became the character who represented the govenment side. He wasn't all good, but he certainly wasn't all bad either. Being just one man, he couldn't be part of every agency who had contact with Mark, so even though I made him a CIA officer, in my mind, his character encompassed all the alphabet agencies. I was especially excited to find out that the CIA  and FBI actually have had members of the opposite agency head offices for the other. It was part of some strategy to get them to work better together. So the fact that Jim starts as CIA, but ends up working for the FBI office in Chicago is not a mistake. I did that intentionally.
Interrogation Log of a Gitmo detainee
http://www.cato.org/pub_display.php?pub_id=3208      
http://en.wikisource.org/wiki/Counter_Resistance_Strategy_Meeting_Minutes,_2002_Oct_2 This one is scary for it's casual discussion of what constitutes torture.
92 pages of memos about a specific prisoner Yes, I read all 92 pages--twice.