I was the first to say that the policy of torture and abuse was directly linked to U.S. deaths in Iraq. It's a hard pill to swallow, but true.
Andy Ostroy | Posted 10.16.2009 | Comedy
For his Chris Wallace interview, Cheney looks frustrated, irritated and impatient, yet still possesses the aura of the uber-confident terror-fighting SuperHero so few people truly understand and appreciate..
Michael Wolff | Posted 09.28.2009 | Politics
So what is our policy on torture? What's allowed?
The Plum Line | Greg Sargent | Posted 09.26.2009 | Politics
Okay, this should settle it, but of course it won't: We now have a former homeland security official under George W. Bush who has contradicted the cla...
Andy Ostroy | Posted 09.26.2009 | Politics
Democrats not only own the White House, but also have an overwhelming majority in the House and a filibuster-proof majority in the Senate. Yet oddly they're still acting as if they're on the outside looking in.
John H. Tucker | Posted 09.25.2009 | Politics
Given that at least a dozen prisoners -- and likely more -- have died by homicide in military prisons this decade, one wonders how often doctors monitored torturous interrogations without intervening.
Andy Ostroy | Posted 09.25.2009 | Politics
We know more about abuses by the CIA in interrogating terror suspects. Republicans are claiming witch hunt -- this from a party that impeached a U.S president on charges over an adulterous affair.
Clarence B. Jones | Posted 09.25.2009 | Politics
Obama's handling of the CIA's report on torture may be the last chance he has to find his way back to Grant Park.
Carol Smaldino | Posted 09.18.2009 | Politics
When persuasion is used without regard for the other person, when it becomes sadistic and reckless endangerment, it is what we have come to know as torture.
Frank Naif | Posted 09.15.2009 | Politics
From the prosecution and investigatory perspective, torture prosecutions appear fraught from the beginning.
Nan Aron | Posted 09.13.2009 | Politics
Attorney General Eric Holder is a man on a seat that is hot and getting ever hotter. But we still don't know if the lawyers who wrote the torture memos will be brought to justice.
Frank Naif | Posted 09.10.2009 | Politics
John Brennan's role as a top national security honcho in the Obama administration shows the limitations of Obama's "look to the future, not to the past" mantra.
Frank Naif | Posted 09.10.2009 | Politics
Panetta's -- and Obama's -- instincts are correct when they promise to protect the CIA's rank and file from prosecution. But protecting the troops from prosecution is not the same as resisting accountability.
The Washington Independent | Posted 09.10.2009 | Politics
This case has dropped a off the radar screen lately, but Bob Egelko at the San Francisco Chronicle today reminds us that the Obama administration is s...
Frank Naif | Posted 08.31.2009 | World
Secretary of State Hilary Clinton is pressing the UK to protect US detention and torture secrets, but British courts may have the last word as two major torture cases move ahead.
Daniel Menaker | Posted 08.22.2009 | Politics
With regard to the probably heinous acts committed in terrorist interrogations by the Bush administration, there is no moving forward possible without looking backward first. So do your job, Mr. Holder.
Andy Worthington | Posted 08.18.2009 | Politics
With no visible progress this was another dismal outing for the Commissions, and another warning for the Obama administration that any kind of revival of the wretched trial system will remain fraught with insoluble problems.
Michael Isikoff | Posted 08.16.2009 | Politics
Holder's announcement that he's "leaning" toward appointing a prosecutor to investigate brutal interrogations during the Bush administration raises as many questions as it answers.
Aram Roston | Posted 08.16.2009 | Politics
A recently released legal memo describing interrogation techniques showed that Bush Administration lawyers had approved the use of "insects" in interrogations.
The Daily Beast | Posted 08.14.2009 | Politics
The New Yorker's Seymour Hersh was mocked in March when he referred to Dick Cheney's secret squad of CIA assassins. Now, he talks to the Daily Beast a...
Frank Naif | Posted 08.14.2009 | Politics
The outsourcing of intelligence has impacted nearly every aspect of intelligence operations, and Congress wants to know how and why.
Jayne Lyn Stahl | Posted 08.13.2009 | Politics
We must also work to ensure that the name on the door to the Oval Office isn't the only thing that has changed, and that Mr. Cheney's enablers have, once and for all, left town.
Carol Smaldino | Posted 08.13.2009 | World
With a kind of paranoia, we deny and project parts of ourselves: in the meantime over the course of history we have felt justified in blaming, hating, fearing, conquering and even torturing.
Frank Naif | Posted 08.13.2009 | Politics
Repeating past glories and thinking inside the bureaucratic box explain how CIA chiefs chose to keep the focus on drones and detentions.
Frank Naif | Posted 08.13.2009 | Politics
If CIA captures and tortures a terrorist, it must be reported immediately to Congress. But if Navy SEALs capture and torture a terrorist, Congress may not learn about it for a year -- if at all.
Matthew Alexander | Posted 10.16.2009 | Politics