In the absence of an intact corpse, families often gather for memorial services rather than funerals. The families of Salah Ahmed al-Salami, Mani Shaman al-Utaybi, and Yasser Talal al-Zahrani – three Guantánamo prisoners whose earlier purported suicides were declared "asymmetrical warfare" by the Bush Justice Department – received Salah’s, Mani’s, and Yasser’s broken and lifeless …
Continue reading “Remembering ‘Suicides’ in the Rotunda”
Is the administration of President Barack Obama concealing evidence suggesting that three suicides at Guantánamo Bay were not suicides at all? That is a question human rights groups, legal experts and national security specialists are pondering on the heels of an article in Harper’s Magazine by Scott Horton presenting whistleblower testimony suggesting that the three …
Continue reading “Whistleblower Challenges Guantánamo ‘Suicides’”
After months of denial, the British government has agreed to release secret documents that lawyers say could prove that MI5 agents were present during the U.S. Central Intelligence Agency’s torture of a British resident held by the U.S. government for eight years. Shaker Aamer, a prisoner at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba, claims he was tortured during …
Continue reading “British Govt. to Release Documents on Gitmo Case”
In the wake of the U.S. Supreme Court’s refusal Monday to review a lower court’s dismissal of a case brought by four British former Guantanamo prisoners against former defense secretary Donald Rumsfeld, the detainees’ lawyers charged Tuesday that the country’s highest court evidently believes that "torture and religious humiliation are permissible tools for a government …
Continue reading “US: Guantanamo Prisoners Not ‘Persons’”
The Independent posted a Nov. 15 story regarding allegations of sexual and physical abuse of Iraqi civilians by British soldiers. The Ministry of Defense is investigating 33 new torture cases. Human rights groups caution that the British army may face hundreds of claims of sexual and physical abuse. The Independent outlined details more sordid than …
Continue reading “Bad Apples”
At least four Iraqis were killed and seven more were wounded in light violence. Meanwhile, Turkey announced a number of reforms that will give Kurdish citizens more rights. The plan must be approved by parliament. Also, the United Kingdom is investigating whether British troops colluded with U.S. soldiers in torturing Iraqi citizens.
The long road to the proverbial day in court just got longer for five men who claim they were "disappeared" and tortured by the U.S. Central Intelligence Agency. The men, who say they were victims of the extraordinary rendition program conducted during the administration of president George W. Bush, have been trying since 2007 to …
Continue reading “Govt Lawyers Seek to Quash Rendition Lawsuit”
A federal appeals court on Monday dismissed a lawsuit brought against a former U.S. attorney general by a Canadian citizen who sought damages for being unlawfully detained by U.S. authorities in New York and then secretly shipped to Syria, where he was imprisoned for a year and claims he was tortured. The court concluded that …
Continue reading “Another Legal Setback for Arar Torture Case”
The state board responsible for licensing – and disciplining – psychologists in Louisiana is accused of turning a blind eye to serious allegations of abuse against one of its members, including complicity in beatings, religious and sexual humiliation, rape threats, and painful body positions during his service as a senior adviser on interrogations for the …
Continue reading “Lawsuit Probes Role of Psychologists in Terror War”
The fifteenth anniversary of the U.S. ratification of the United Nations Convention Against Torture passed last week with little fanfare and virtually no press attention from the mainstream media. But according to the American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU), "U.S. policy continues to fall short of ensuring full compliance with the treaty." For example, the organization …
Continue reading “Obama Urged to Fully Comply With Anti-Torture Treaty” 
