Torture

CIA Tactics Endorsed In Secret Memos

Demonstrators hold a mock waterboarding torture of a prisioner in Times Square in January 2008 to mark the sixth year anniversary of when the United States opened the camps at Guantanamo. The administration of US President George W. Bush authorized the CIA to waterboard Al-Qaeda suspects according to two secret memos issued in 2003 and 2004, The Washington Post reported Wednesday. (AFP/File/Timothy A. Clary)

The Bush administration issued a pair of secret memos to the CIA in 2003 and 2004 that explicitly endorsed the agency's use of interrogation techniques such as waterboarding against al-Qaeda suspects -- documents prompted by worries among intelligence officials about a possible backlash if details of the program became public.

Posted in Torture

Is John McCain Still Trapped in Vietnam?

Senator John McCain has become notorious for playing the POW card in his campaign for the presidency, as if that somehow qualifies him for the job. But, in McCain's case, I think his status as a former POW would actually detract from his ability to lead this nation effectively.

You see, he doesn't seem to have recovered from his POW experience, or the Vietnam war in general. He seems to be lacking closure. And this appears to be affecting his foreign policy.

Documents say Detainee Near Insanity

Documents obtained by the ACLU, provided to the AP, say a U.S. military officer warned the Pentagon that months of isolation and deprivation were driving an American detainee to the brink. (Getty Images)

WASHINGTON - A U.S. military officer warned Pentagon officials that an American detainee was being driven nearly insane by months of punishing isolation and sensory deprivation in a U.S. military brig, according to documents obtained by The Associated Press.

While the treatment of prisoners at detention facilities at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba, and in Afghanistan and Iraq have long been the subject of human rights complaints and court scrutiny, the documents shed new light on how two American citizens and a legal U.S. resident were treated in military jails inside the United States.

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
October 8, 2008
10:01 AM

CONTACT: ACLU

James Freedland, ACLU, (212) 519-1894 or 549-2666; media@aclu.org

New Documents Reveal Unlawful Guantánamo Procedures Were Also Applied On American Soil

NEW YORK - October 8 - According to newly released military documents, the Navy applied lawless Guantánamo protocols in detention facilities on American soil. The documents, which include regular emails between brig officers and others in the chain of command, uncover new details of the detention and interrogation of two U.S. citizens and a legal resident - Yaser Hamdi, Jose Padilla and Ali al-Marri - at naval brigs in Virginia and South Carolina.

###
Posted in Guantanamo, Torture

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
October 8, 2008
1:00 AM

CONTACT: Human Rights Watch (HRW)

Jordan: Torture in Prisons Routine and Widespread

Reforms Fail to Tackle Abuse, Impunity Persists

AMMAN, Jordan - October 8 - Jordan should end routine and widespread torture in its prisons, Human Rights Watch said in a new report released today. Human Rights Watch called on the government to overhaul mechanisms for investigating, disciplining and prosecuting abusers, and in particular to transfer prosecutor's investigations into prison abuse from police to civilian prosecutors. 

###
Posted in Human Rights, Torture

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
October 7, 2008
3:51 PM

CONTACT: Witness Against Torture

Witness Against Torture Applauds Decision on Guantánamo Detainees

WASHINGTON - October 7 - In a courtroom packed with anti-torture activists and members of the Uigher community, U.S. District Judge Ricardo M. Urbina struck a landmark blow against the Bush administration and its policy of indefinite detention at Guantánamo in Washington, DC today.

###

Treatment of Cuban Five: 'It's A Form of Torture'

Olga Salanueva Arango (L) and Adriana Perez O'Connor, wives of two Cuban nationals arrested and jailed on charges of intent to commit espionage and threatening US national security. (Photograph: Frank Baron)

It is nearly 10 years since Olga Salanueva and Adriana Perez last saw their husbands. René González and Gerardo Hernández are in jail in Marianna, Florida, and Victorville, California, members of the so-called Miami Five, all serving sentences stretching to double life for "conspiracy to act as a non-registered foreign agent".

Rendition Victims "Missing" in Ethiopia

UNITED NATIONS - A new report by Human Rights Watch (HRW) accuses the Ethiopian government of detaining at least 10 victims of unlawful rendition incommunicado and without charge since early 2007.

According to the New York-based watchdog group, the detainees were interrogated by U.S. officials last year.

Posted in Africa, Torture

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
October 2, 2008
3:25 PM

CONTACT: Physicians for Human Rights (PHR)
Jonathan Hutson
jhutson [at] phrusa [dot] org
Tel: (617) 301-4210 Cell: (857) 919-5130

PHR Salutes APA's Ban on Psychologists at Illegal US Interrogations

CAMBRIDGE, Mass. - October 2 - "APA's announcement today is a historic victory for medical ethics and human rights," said Physicians for Human Rights CEO Frank Donaghue. "PHR salutes the APA for telling President Bush that psychologists can no longer serve at illegal US facilities that violate the Constitution and international human rights standards. This dramatic policy reversal represents a massive transformation by an organization that has until now encouraged members to assist interrogations of detainees at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba, and CIA black sites overseas."  

###
Physicians for Human Rights (PHR) mobilizes the health professions to advance the health and dignity of all people by protecting human rights. As a founding member of the International Campaign to Ban Landmines, PHR shared the 1997 Nobel Peace Prize.

More Blowback From the War on Terror

Salon Editor's note: This article is adapted from a report published Wednesday by Human Rights Watch on renditions conducted in the Horn of Africa in 2007. Read the full report here.

Syndicate content