torture

America's Regression

Fri, 04 Dec 2009 10:09:24 -0500

by Glenn Greenwald

Ronald Reagan, May 20, 1988, transmitting the Convention Against Torture to the Senate for ratification:

The United States participated actively and effectively in the negotiation of the Convention. . . . Ratification of the Convention by the United States will clearly express United States opposition to torture, an abhorrent practice unfortunately still prevalent in the world today.
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Majority of Americans Think Torture 'Sometimes' Justified

Fri, 04 Dec 2009 08:32:48 -0500

by Heather Maher

A new poll shows that a growing number of Americans feel that the United States should "mind its own business internationally" when it comes to foreign affairs.

The title of the Pew Research Center poll, which asked 2,000 U.S. citizens about United States' role in the world, says it all: "Isolationist Sentiment Surges to Four-Decade High."

Afghan Teenagers Claim Abuse at US Military Prison

Sat, 28 Nov 2009 09:39:01 -0500

WASHINGTON - Two Afghan teenagers held in US detention north of Kabul this year said they were beaten by American guards, photographed naked, deprived of sleep and held in solitary confinement in concrete cells, The Washington Post reported late Friday.

The newspaper said the teenagers had been held in these cells for at least two weeks while undergoing daily interrogation about their alleged links to the Taliban.

Court Rejects David Miliband Bid to Suppress CIA Evidence

Fri, 20 Nov 2009 09:48:24 -0500

by Richard Norton-Taylor

The high court today flatly rejected claims by David Miliband, the foreign secretary, that releasing evidence of the CIA's inhuman and unlawful treatment of UK resident Binyam Mohamed would harm Britain's relations with the US by giving away intelligence secrets.

Evidence that the foreign secretary also wants to suppress is believed to reveal what British intelligence officers knew about Mohamed's treatment.

All Afghan Detainees Likely Tortured: Diplomat

Thu, 19 Nov 2009 09:58:58 -0500

All detainees transferred by Canadians to Afghan prisons were likely tortured by Afghan officials and many of the prisoners were innocent, says a former senior diplomat with Canada's mission in Afghanistan.

Appearing before a House of Commons committee Wednesday, Richard Colvin blasted the detainees policies of Canada and compared them with the policies of the British and the Netherlands.

The detainees were captured by Canadian soldiers then handed over to the Afghan intelligence service, called the NDS.

Iraqis Say British Army Used Guantánamo Interrogation Methods

Wed, 18 Nov 2009 08:20:57 -0500

by David Brown

Dozens of prisoners held at a secret British army interrogation centre in Iraq claim they suffered unlawful physical and mental abuse similar to that carried out by the US on detainees at Guantánamo Bay.

Inmates at the high-security compound within the Shaibah base say they were held in solitary confinement and forced to wear dark goggles and earmuffs when taken from their cells for questioning.

Secretary Gates Signs Order Barring Release of Torture Photos

Sun, 15 Nov 2009 08:27:19 -0500

by Stephen C. Webber

Pursuant to new powers delegated to him by Congress, Secretary of Defense Robert Gates has executed an order blocking the release of photos depicting the torture of detainees. In doing so, it becomes highly unlikely that the Supreme Court will further consider making the photos public, as a lower court had ordered.

Rendition Redux?

Thu, 12 Nov 2009 08:47:24 -0500

by William Fisher

NEW YORK - On the heels of a federal appeals court ruling that only the U.S. Congress and the executive branch of government - not the courts - can interfere with government-sponsored "extraordinary rendition", a U.S. citizen from New Jersey is asking another court to tell the government it wasn't okay to secretly imprison and abuse him in three different African countries over a period of four months.

Yoo's Lawyers Warn of Flood of Political Suits

Wed, 11 Nov 2009 08:31:55 -0500

by Bob Egelko

SAN FRANCISCO -- A ruling that allowed a prisoner to sue former Bush administration attorney John Yoo for devising the legal theories that justified his alleged torture threatens to "open the floodgates to politically motivated lawsuits" against government officials, Yoo's lawyers say.

In papers filed late Monday with the Ninth U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals in San Francisco, Yoo's new team of private lawyers argued that a judge's refusal to dismiss a suit by inmate Jose Padilla injected the courts into the political arena.

Guantanamo Conditions 'Deteriorate'

Tue, 10 Nov 2009 08:47:01 -0500

by Andrew Wander

On the night that Barack Obama won the 2008 presidential election, 21-year-old Mohammed el Gharani was sitting in a segregation cell in Guantanamo Bay's high security Echo Block.

He remembers the excitement among his fellow prisoners at the prospect of an Obama presidency. "Everyone was very hopeful; people were saying he was going to change things, that he would close the prison," Gharani, who was released in June, says.

"Even the guards were telling us that if he won, things would improve for us."