Torture

My Testimony on 'Enhanced Interrogation Techniques'

Ali Faisal Al-Lami | Posted 11.29.2009 | World

Read More: Iraq War, Ahmad Chalabi, Bush Administration Torture, Saddam Hussein, David Petraeus, Paul Bremer, Enhanced Interrogations, Enhanced Interrogation Techniques, Iraq Contractors, Iraq Torture, Iraq, General Petraeus, Chalabi, Torture, World News
Ali Faisal Al-Lami

In 2008, I was kidnapped from Baghdad International Airport by American civilians with no known affiliation, and was blindfolded and taken to a facility where I was initially interrogated in a hostile way.

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Public Enemies and the Invention of Video

Paul Snyder | Posted 11.28.2009 | Entertainment

Read More: Public Enemies, Depression, Interrogation, Michael Mann, Violence, Pretty Boy Floyd, Recession, Gangsters, Guns, Christian Bale, John Dillinger, Marion Cotillard, Melvin Purvis, Spectacle, Digital-Film, Baby Face Nelson, Myrna Loy, Johnny Depp, Anachronism, Torture, Independent Films, Entertainment News
Paul Snyder

For all of director Michael Mann's aesthetic sophistication, the film's spontaneity runs roughshod over a lot of true history.

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Words Matter

Jim Wallis | Posted 11.28.2009 | Politics

Read More: Torture, Speech, Nuclear Non-Proliferation, Economic Crisis, United Nations, Guantanamo, Summit, Obama, Iraq, G-20, Pillars, New York, Middle East, g20, Hillary Clinton, General Assembly, Un, Test Ban Treaty, Politics News
Jim Wallis

I heard commentators say Obama's comments while chairing the Security Council were "just words." Fair enough, but we haven't heard any words like these from a U.S. president for a long time.

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Uighur Brothers: Detainee Declines Offer To Leave Guantanamo Out Of Loyalty To Ailing Brother (VIDEO)

The Huffington Post | Posted 11.27.2009 | World

Read More: Bahtiyar Mahnu, Detainees, Torture, Guantanamo Bay, Enemy Combatants, Gitmo, Uighur, Uighurs, Due Process, Afghanistan, Mental Illness, Elizabeth Gilson, Palau, China, Habeas Corpus, Video, Arkin, World News

After eight years of detention, at least one Guantanamo Bay detainee declined an offer to resettle to the Pacific Island of Palau, according to The Wa...

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This Week In Magazines: Obama The "Self-Entangling Giant"

James Warren | Posted 11.27.2009 | Media

Read More: Tribunals, Gary Willis, Detainees, Constitution, Executive Power, Nuclear Weapons, Guantanamo Bay, Torture, Leon Panetta, Congress, Obama, Entangled Giant, CIA New York Review of Books, Eric Holder, Bush, Media News
James Warren

No matter how much he might disdain the W. presidency, especially when it came to misuse of executive branch power, Barack Obama may be a "self-entangling giant" who is going down the same perilous path.

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Law & Order Tackles Accountability for Torture. Will We Have It in Real Life?

Anthony D. Romero | Posted 11.25.2009 | Politics

Read More: Aclu, Accountability, Jack McCoy, Office of Legal Cousel, Torture, Law & Order, Attorney General, Dick Cheney Torture, Eric Holder, Politics News
Anthony D. Romero

Jack McCoy isn't afraid to hold members of the Bush administration accountable for torture. Now the question is, in real life, will Attorney General Holder rise to the occasion?

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The Torture Report

Jameel Jaffer | Posted 11.24.2009 | Politics

Read More: Aclu, Glenn Greenwald, Freedom of Information Act, Department of Justice, President Bush, Maj. David Frakt, Marcy Wheeler, Torture, Abu Ghraib, Matthew Alexander, Politics News
Jameel Jaffer

Five years after Abu Ghraib, the Defense Department is still withholding photographs showing prisoners being abused at other facilities, as well as interrogation directives used by special forces.

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Balancing Your Life and Human Rights

Ellen Susman | Posted 11.23.2009 | World

Read More: Chile, Kosovo, United Nations General Assembly, Democratic Republic of Congo, Sri Lanka, Burma, United Nations, Michelle Bachelet, Mexico, Augusto Pinochet, Human Rights, Nuclear Weapons, Human Rights Watch, Sudan, Global Warming, Angola, Villa Grimaldi, Torture, World News
Ellen Susman

Gabriele said that over time some prisoners would find ways to illustrate their stay. They would draw stars, birds, and trees to remind them of freedom. She said they could often smell the roses outside.

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CIA Interrogations Likely Damaged Detainees' Brains, Making Them Less Reliable: Report

AP | PAMELA HESS | Posted 11.21.2009 | World

Read More: CIA Torture, CIA Interrogations, Cia, Torture, Interrogation Tactics, World News

WASHINGTON — Prolonged stress from the CIA's harsh interrogations could have impaired the memories of terrorist suspects, diminishing their abil...

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Supreme Law of the Land and Conscience Again Forced to the Back of the Bus

Coleen Rowley | Posted 11.21.2009 | Politics

Read More: War Crimes, 2008 Republican National Convention, Conscience, Rnc, International Law, Other RNC 8, Trespass, Supreme Law of the Land, Torture, Politics News
Coleen Rowley

Despite the efforts of eight peace and anti-torture activists charged with trespass a year ago, at the 2008 Republican National Convention, a court could not bring itself to admit evidence of the Constitution.

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Judge Orders Release From Guantanamo of Kuwaiti Who Met Bin Laden

Andy Worthington | Posted 11.18.2009 | World

Read More: Supreme Court, War on Terror, Afghanistan, Terrorism, President Obama, Guantanamo Detainees, Guantanamo Task Force, Guantanamo, Susan Crawford, David Addington, Justice Department, Military Commissions, Dick Cheney, Afghanistan War, Osama Bin Laden, Al Qaeda, John Bellinger, Jane Mayer, Cia, Judge Colleen Kollar-Kotelly, Fouad Al-Rabia, Habeas Corpus Guantanamo, Guantanamo Bay, Sleep Deprivation, Torture, Gitmo, World News
Andy Worthington

Following Judge Kollar-Kotelly's ruling, the DOJ did not indicate whether it will appeal the decision, but I sincerely hope that the government follows the judge's advice and repatriates al-Rabia.

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Impending Closure of Denver's Survivors' Center

Pius Kamau | Posted 11.15.2009 | Denver

Read More: Social Services, Immigration, Rape, Mental Health, Asylum, Torture, Denver, Rocky Mountain Survivors' Center, Denver News
Pius Kamau

How can a center that has been valiantly fighting to mend broken souls from the four corners of the earth end up closing its doors?

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Whistleblowers: An Interview with Daniel Ellsberg and John Dean

Ann Beeson | Posted 11.14.2009 | New York

Read More: Pentagon Papers, Church Committee, Watergate, Holder, Richard Nixon, John Dean, Film-Forum, Daniel Ellsburg, Vietnam, Torture Prosecutions, Torture, New York News
Ann Beeson

Daniel Ellsberg and John Dean discuss the Pentagon Papers 30 years later, Eric Holder, torture prosecutions, and whether public opinion matters.

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9/11 Eight Years After

Christine Pelosi | Posted 11.11.2009 | Politics

Read More: President, First Responders, Swiftboating, Liberty, Impeachment, War, 9/11, 9/11 Commission, Security, Torture, September 11, Politics News
Christine Pelosi

It was not and is not inevitable that we demonize each other when, quite frankly -- we are not the problem -- the terrorists are.

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9/11 + 8: Where We've Been, Where We're Going

William Bradley | Posted 11.11.2009 | World

Read More: Russia, Abdullah Abdullah, Britain, Turkey, France, Afghanistan, Pakistan, Mossad, Iran, Hamid Karzai, Osama Bin Laden, Ahmad Shah Massoud, Cairo, Barack Obama, Germany, Egypt, Al Qaeda, George W. Bush, Dick Cheney, Northern Alliance, Tehran, Iraq, Israel, Donald Rumsfeld, 9/11, Torture, Video, World News
William Bradley

Eight years since 9/11. It feels like 18 years, if not 80. So much has changed since then, yet so much is still the same.

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It Works!

Jonathan Richards | Posted 11.08.2009 | Comedy

Read More: Cartoon, Political Cartoons, CIA Torture, Torture, Comedy News
Jonathan Richards

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Spanish Judge Resumes Torture Case Against Six Senior Bush Lawyers

Andy Worthington | Posted 11.08.2009 | Politics

Read More: Douglas Feith, Philippe Sands, World, War on Terror, Terrorism, Guantanamo Detainees, Guantanamo, CIA Torture, Spain, Bush Prosecutions, David Addington, John Yoo, Justice Department, Eric Holder, World News, Office of Legal Counsel, Politics News, Spanish Judge Baltasar Garzon, Bush Administration Torture, Jay Bybee, Sami El-Leithi, Jamil El-Banna, Omar Deghayes, Guantanamo Bay, Breaking Politics News, William J. Haynes II, Alberto Gonzales, Torture Memos, Torture, Politics News
Andy Worthington

Judge Baltasar Garzón is pressing ahead with a case against six senior Bush administration lawyers for implementing torture at Guantánamo.

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Bush White House Sought To Soften Treaty On 'Enforced Disappearances'

Washington Post | R. Jeffrey Smith | Posted 11.08.2009 | Politics

Read More: Bush Administration, Human Rights, Bush, Foreign Prisons, Cia, CIA Secret Prisons, George Bush, Bush White House, Secret Prisons, Torture, Rendition, Politics News

From 2003 to 2006, the Bush administration quietly tried to relax the draft language of a treaty meant to bar and punish "enforced disappearances" so ...

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The Tangled Roots of the Terror Psychology: J. Robert Lennon's Novel "Castle"

Anis Shivani | Posted 10.22.2009 | Politics

Read More: Fascism, Bush Administration Torture, Terrorism, Guantanamo, Guantanamo Torture, Castle, J. Robert Lennon, War on Terror, Torture, Abu Ghraib, Politics News
Anis Shivani

Lennon's unusual, very ambitious novel brings us closer to the terror protagonist than any post-9/11 novel yet.

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Old CIA problems Dog New Interrogation Group

Frank Naif | Posted 10.19.2009 | Politics

Read More: John Brennan, High-Value Detainee Interrogation Group, CIA Torture, Cia, John Brennan Cia, Leon Panetta, Torture, Politics News
Frank Naif

For all of the attention paid to CIA's morale, carving off a chunk of clandestine counterterrorism operations will become part of the hallway lore of a CIA doomed to be put upon by politicians.

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Ryan Grim

Alberto Gonzales Flip Flops On Torture Investigation

HuffingtonPost.com | Ryan Grim | Posted 10.19.2009 | Politics

Read More: Bush Administration, Alberto Gonzales, Torture Investigation, Eric Holder, Torture, Politics News

Former attorney general Alberto Gonzales became the second Bush-era official in a week to walk back a controversial remark on Thursday, reversing his ...

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Why David Broder Is Wrong

Rep. John Conyers | Posted 10.19.2009 | Politics

Read More: John Conyers, David Broder, Cia, Accountability, Torture, Politics, CIA Interrogations, Dick Cheney, Eric Holder, George Bush, Politics News
Rep. John Conyers

The decision whether to investigate possible crimes connected to our interrogation programs is simply not a political one.

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Jason Linkins

David Broder Spends Entire Column Contradicting Himself On Torture

HuffingtonPost.com | Jason Linkins | Posted 10.19.2009 | Media

Read More: Eugene Robinson, Media Criticism, Dick Cheney, Eric Holder, David Broder, Torture, Media News

Is David Broder having some sort of internal argument with his own brain, on the pages of the Washington Post? Because I'm totally casting Andy Serkis in the movie version of this column!

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Rethinking Taxi to the Dark Side: On Torture and the Mystery of Cheney Not Being in Jail

Jonathan Kim | Posted 10.19.2009 | Entertainment

Read More: Movie Reviews, Jonathan Kim Movie Reviews, Bagram, Dilawar, Bagram Detainees, Alex Gibney, Enhanced Interrogations, Rethink Reviews, Documentary, John Yoo, Jonathan Kim, Taxi to the Dark Side, Dick Cheney, Extraordinary Rendition, Torture, Bagram Air Base, Entertainment News
Jonathan Kim

I can't for the life of me figure out why Dick Cheney is still walking around free and -- even worse -- continues to get airtime so he can spew lies about the utter awesomeness of American torture.

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Jason Linkins

Glenn Greenwald Has Said Kind Things About The Armed Forces, As It Turns Out

HuffingtonPost.com | Jason Linkins | Posted 10.18.2009 | Media

Read More: Idiots, Torture, Glenn Greenwald, Bloggers, Joe Klein, Blogging, Media News

Time's Joe Klein levelled a significant and ugly charge: that he had "never seen [Greenwald] write a positive sentence about the US military." But Greenwald has.

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