Torture

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 […]

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

Could ISIL be Put on Trial? Challenge for International Law

contributors

DUBAI (IRIN) – The international outcry to the openly advertised atrocities committed in Iraq by the jihadist group calling itself Islamic State (IS, formerly ISIS or ISIL) has led to calls for investigations and punishment, with US President Barak Obama saying “justice will be done” after the killing of journalist James Foley. This has […]

censorship

Shock & Awe In Syria: It never Works

Juan Cole

By Juan Cole The London pan-Arab daily “Hayat” [Life] reports this morning on the air strikes conducted on ISIL positions in Raqqah, Syria, by the United States and several Arab allies. The Syrian government acknowledged that the US gave fair warning it would bomb Raqqah to the Syrian ambassador to the UN. That is, the […]

Bahrain

US, UK look other Way as Bahrain Imprisons Dissidents (Maryam al-Khwaja is Latest)

contributors

By Nicholas McGeehan via Human Rights Watch Follow @Ncgeehan Many Bahraini activists have borne the brunt of their government’s unjust laws, unfair convictions and unlawful tactics, but few have resisted with such steely resolve as the activists in the al-Khawaja family. Maryam al-Khawaja’s August 30 arrest on charges of assaulting a police officer at Manama […]

Apartheid

Top Things you need to know about the next Israeli-Palestinian crisis

contributors

By Hugh Lovatt “Destroying Hamas infrastructure and removing its leaders could also lead to de-centralisation” The abduction and killing of three young Israelis has brought to the fore painful memories for Israelis of the second Intifada. But in spite of their horrendous fate levels of violence on both sides have actually remained relatively low over […]

censorship

The Fate of Dissenters in Al-Sisi’s Egypt: The New “Disappeared”

contributors

By Jihad Abaza As Abdel Fattah el-Sissi assumes his new role as Egypt’s president, enforced disappearances are on the rise in the Middle East’s most populous country, according to a recent press release by Amnesty International. Dozens of civilians have been kidnapped by police in plainclothes and detained at military camps since the 2011 uprising, […]

Bashar al-Assad

Right Said Fred: Syria’s Assad a War Criminal (John Oliver Video)

contributors

Right Said Fred (really!) appears on Last Week Tonight with John Oliver to tell Syrian president Bashar al-Assad what a dick he is. It’s going to be especially disappointing to Assad, as they are one of his favorite bands. Lyrics: YOU’RE TOO AWFUL FOR THIS EARTH TOO AWFUL FOR THIS EARTH SO AWFUL IT HURTS […]

Central Intelligence Agency

America as Torture Central: From Prisons to “Black Sites”

contributors

(By Sarah Lazare) Amnesty International report on global torture exposes inhumane acts perpetrated by United States Thirty years after ratifying the UN Convention Against Torture, the U.S. government has dodged accountability for perpetrating torture in domestic prisons and CIA black sites and embroiling foreign states in inhumane acts. So finds a report on global torture […]