It amounts to a damning portrait of the 17 county detention facilities that together house more than 10,000 adolescents a year.

Michiko Kakutani in the New York Times called it a "damning portrait of the country's intelligence agencies" and said "Bamford's conclusions are alarming, if not unfamiliar".

The story of Dominique became a damning portrait of a country where justice itself was in exile.

Ultimately, no charges were brought against Seaport or its operators, and leading state officials brushed aside Mr. Hynes's damning portrait of the adult home system.

He went on to write a number of books, including a damning portrait of Henry A. Kissinger, "The Price of Power," published in 1983.

Judge Gleeson's decision paints a damning portrait of the arcane convention system.

Still, on Thursday, if there was widespread satisfaction with the panel's work, there was not complete acceptance, despite a report that produced a damning portrait of a government ill-informed, uncoordinated and unprepared.

But through wide-ranging interviews (including phone conversations with Carlos himself) and some impressive sleuthing, "Terror's Advocate" paints a more complicated and ultimately far more damning portrait.

His new book, "A Pretext for War," draws a damning portrait of the country's intelligence agencies as woefully ill equipped to deal with the threats of terrorism and a post-cold-war world.

Skipper painted a damning portrait of Pixie, saying she was Willie's sexual partner.