Amazon.com’s Shocking New Best Seller — You’ll Never Guess What The Torture-Filled Hit Is
No, there’s not a sexier-than-Fifty Shades of Grey Amazon.com bestseller rocketing to the top of the website’s chart; nor is there a more violent, child-endangering twist on The Hunger Games being purchased in hoards. Instead, Amazon.com’s newest bestseller is a work of non-fiction — even if its critics have said that there’s a healthy dose of bias and political agenda to it.
The Senate report on CIA torture methods is now Amazon.com’s number one seller in the “Intelligence and Espionage” section. The rank is usually populated by the likes of Tom Clancy, Ian Fleming or John Le Carré. Even more notable, the report is actually available free of charge from many other sources — making its $2.99 price tag seem exorbitant. Even more money could be made from the torture report when Melville House releases it in print at the end of this month, reported CNN Money.
Profiteering by the likes of Amazon.com is the least of the report’s sins according to some conservative public figures, many of whom have approached the torture findings with skepticism. Sen. Ted Cruz of Texas was one such critic of the report. Cruz suggested that, like Amazon.com, Democrats had something to gain by publishing it, reported Breitbart.
“It demonstrates an approach that has characterized this administration for 6 years, which is everything, everything, is George W. Bush’s fault… Enough already with blaming George W. Bush for every failure of this administration… It all comes down to whether foreign nations and foreign leaders can trust the president of the United States and I’m hopeful and optimistic that years from now, we will see a very different president whose word can be trusted by friend and foe alike.”
Despite having its defenders, the Senate’s report has been met with widespread revulsion by much of the public. An editorial in The Atlantic, which was heavily critical of the C.I.A.’s actions in the report, said that the worst atrocities may be yet to follow: Some of the report has not yet been approved for public release.
“One way to put its findings is: Whatever you thought was out of control and abusive about the all-fronts approach to the “global war on terror” it was worse than that. Another way is: Whatever damage you thought the United States was doing to its own values, its standing in the world, and its system of checks and accountability, it was doing more… Read it yourself. There is no other way to absorb the scale and relentlessness of the abuses it chronicles. And this is from the heavily “redacted” version, with working papers presumably to follow.”
On Amazon.com’s spy bestseller list, the torture report is followed by another book about the United States’ response to 9/11 — Jim Risen’s Pay Any Price. Currently, the torture report is number 2,640 overall on Amazon.com’s digital book sales rankings.
[Image via Tiki-Toki]
