Human Rights

By Shahid Buttar | (Daily Kos) | From black sites to #BlackLivesMatter, it’s time to end impunity for criminals with badges. There’s no better way for Washington to commemorate Human Rights Day than by letting the public finally learn the truth about torture. And there’s no better way for concerned Americans to do so than […]

Central Intelligence Agency

UN Condemns USA for undermining Torture Convention, Calls for Prosecutions

contributors

By Thalif Deen | — UNITED NATIONS, Dec 11 2014 (IPS) – The timing was inadvertently impeccable as two stinging reports on harsh interrogation techniques – by the Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) in the United States and former military regimes in Brazil – were released on the eve of the 30th anniversary of the U.N. […]

Apartheid

Ferguson on the Jordan: Israeli Soldier Beats Palestinian Cabinet Minister to Death at Tree Planting Ceremony

contributors

RAMALLAH (Ma’an) — The head of the Palestinian Authority committee against the separation wall and settlements died Wednesday after Israeli soldiers assaulted him in a village near Ramallah, committee sources said. Ziad Abu Ein, 55, died after an Israeli soldier beat him on the chest with his helmet in the village of Turmsayya in the […]

Egypt

Israel, Egypt Implicated in Torture: Middle East Reactions to Senate Report lament own Involvement

Juan Cole

By Juan Cole | — That the release in Washington of a dense 450 page report on CIA torture conducted a decade ago would provoke massive demonstrations in the Middle East all along struck me as unlikely. It could perhaps provoke small terrorist groups affiliated with al-Qaeda, but those groups are already plotting out attacks […]

Displaced and Refugees

West Only has Money for Bombs? 60,000 Child Laborers in Jordan as Syrian Refugees struggle to Survive

contributors

AMMAN | (IRIN) | – Jordan is straining under the weight of its over 600,000 Syrian refugees, with government officials and aid agencies warning of dwindling resources and capacity to respond to the ever-growing needs. Yet Syrians fleeing the current conflict only make up one small portion of the country’s refugee population. For decades, the tiny […]

Bill of Rights

Psychologists, who Took $81 mn. to Advise, Practice Torture, betrayed the Profession

contributors

By Laurence Alison, University of Liverpool During the War on Terror, the CIA’s operations subjected hundreds of suspected terrorists to harsh interrogation techniques, which were often criticised as constituting torture. Now, the Senate Intelligence Committee’s report on the operation has made it clearer than ever that the CIA used many forms of “enhanced interrogation” to […]

National Security State

McCain on Torture: A Stain on our National Honor, Produces Misleading Info

contributors

Sen. John McCain (R-AZ) | — Candidate for the best American speech of this decade: “As the Senate Intelligence Committee’s CIA torture report roiled Capitol Hill Tuesday, Sen. John McCain framed the argument as one of moral clarity, all the while bumping up against his party leaders. “I rise in support of the release, the […]

Featured

Why the Founding Fathers thought banning Torture Foundational to the US Constitution

Juan Cole

By Juan Cole | — I have argued on many occasions that the language of patriotism and appeal to the Founding Fathers and the constitution must not be allowed to be appropriated by the political right wing in contemporary America, since for the most part right wing principles (privileging religion, exaltation of ‘whiteness’ over universal […]

Featured

GOP Squirms at Release of CIA Torture Report, warns of “Violence” (So why did they Torture?)

Juan Cole

By Juan Cole | — Outgoing House Intelligence Committee head Mike Rogers (R-MI) was on Candy Crowley’s “State of the Union” on Sunday, speaking against releasing any details concerning CIA use of torture in the period after the September 11 attacks. The Senate report is due out this week and is already the object of […]