Torture

The Republicans' Dirty Secret... Torture

Tue, 28 Oct 2008 11:36:04 -0400

by Johann Hari

So what will be left of the Republican Party after next week's US election? The answer lies in the sands of Florida, where the sunshine-state Republicans have nominated an unrepentant torturer as their candidate for Congress. They view his readiness to torture an innocent Iraqi not as a source of shame, but as his prime qualification for office. This is American conservatism in the dying days of Bush - and it points out the direction that Sarah Palin would like to take it in 2012.

Disturbing Complicity on Torture

Thu, 23 Oct 2008 11:49:02 -0400

by Haroon Siddiqui

The headlines didn't match the stories on the report of the Frank Iacobucci inquiry into the alleged torture of three Arab Canadians abroad.

The former judge of the Supreme Court of Canada concluded that Canadian officials and institutions were complicit in the detention of at least two of them and perhaps of the third as well.

They were certainly complicit in the torture of all three.

He said Canadian diplomats failed to provide proper consular services to two of them, failed to detect torture and failed to inform Ottawa of allegations of torture.

British Court Attacks US Refusal to Disclose Torture Evidence

Thu, 23 Oct 2008 11:01:43 -0400

by Richard Norton-Taylor

LONDON - The high court yesterday condemned as "deeply disturbing" a refusal by the US to disclose evidence that could prove a British resident held at Guantánamo Bay was tortured before confessing to terrorism offences.

The court said there was "no rational basis" for the American failure to reveal the contents of documents essential to the defence of Binyam Mohamed, who faces the death penalty.

F Is for Failure

Wed, 22 Oct 2008 10:07:28 -0400

by Tom Engelhardt

On the brief occasions when the President now appears in the Rose Garden to "comfort" or "reassure" a shock-and-awed nation, you can almost hear those legions of ducks quacking lamely in the background. Once upon a time, George W. Bush, along with his top officials and advisors, hoped to preside over a global Pax Americana and a domestic Pax Republicana -- a legacy for the generations. More recently, their highest hope seems to have been to slip out of town in January before the you-know-what hits the fan. No such luck.

Fear Has Profoundly Changed Us

Mon, 20 Oct 2008 12:55:17 -0400

by Leonard Pitts Jr.

Meanwhile, back at the War on Terror . . .

You remember the War on Terror, don't you? It was in all the papers. Back before presidential politics sucked the air from the room and your 401(k) shrank till it was worth maybe dinner and a movie, it was considered quite the important news story. Abu Ghraib? Extraordinary renditions? Fight 'em over there so we don't have to fight 'em over here? Surely you recall.

The Torture Time Bomb

Sat, 18 Oct 2008 10:31:28 -0400

by Philippe Sands

As the US presidential election reaches a climax against the background of the financial crisis, another silent, dark, time bomb of an issue hangs over the two candidates: torture. For now, there seems to be a shared desire not to delve too deeply into the circumstances in which the Bush administration allowed the US military and the CIA to embrace abusive techniques of interrogation - including waterboarding, in the case of the CIA - which violate the Geneva conventions and the 1984 UN torture convention.

10 Years of the Pinochet Principle

Thu, 16 Oct 2008 12:29:27 -0400

by Philippe Sands

On October 16 1998, a magistrate signed a warrant for the arrest of Senator Augusto Pinochet and changed the course of history. The former Chilean head of state was arrested a few hours later, at the request of a Spanish prosecutor who charged him with a raft of international crimes, some dating back to the early 1970s. Over the next 18 months, one dramatic development followed another.

Senator: White House Stonewalling Interrogation Probe

Thu, 16 Oct 2008 11:52:22 -0400

by Lara Jakes Jordan

WASHINGTON - The chairman of the Senate Intelligence Committee accused the White House on Wednesday of withholding documents showing it authorized the CIA to use waterboarding and other tough interrogation tactics on suspected terrorists.

The Trail of Torture

Thu, 16 Oct 2008 11:06:24 -0400

by Andy Worthington

The revelation, in yesterday's Washington Post, that 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-Qaida suspects" will increase calls for the administration to be held to account for its actions.

Memos Show White House Endorsed CIA Waterboarding

Wed, 15 Oct 2008 11:23:50 -0400

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
October 15, 2008

ACLU

The White House issued two secret memos endorsing the CIA's use of waterboarding and other forms of torture on detainees, according to a news report published today in the Washington Post. The memos, which show that senior Bush administration officials expressly endorsed the CIA's abusive practices, should have been turned over in response to an American Civil Liberties Union lawsuit seeking information on the abuse of prisoners held in U.S. custody overseas.

The following can be attributed to Jameel Jaffer, Director of the ACLU National Security Project: