torture

Stories 221 - 240 | << Prev   Next >>

Cheney Blasts Obama for Torture Probe

(Newser) - Dick Cheney lambasted Barack Obama today for his decision to name a special prosecutor to look into Bush-era terror interrogations. The move raises “doubts about this administration’s ability to be responsible for our nation’s security,” he said in a statement. “The people involved deserve our...

CIA Docs Don't Vindicate Cheney

(Newser) - Dick Cheney has long insisted that two CIA documents from 2004 and 2005 would prove the value of torture. But after obtaining them yesterday, the Washington Independent says they do nothing of the kind. The documents actually suggest, albeit murkily, that non-abusive techniques were more effective. Khalid Sheikh Mohammed’s...

Just What Obama Didn't Need: a CIA Probe
 Just What Obama 
 Didn't Need: a CIA Probe 
ANALYSIS
Aug 25, 2009 4:51 AM CDT

Just What Obama Didn't Need: a CIA Probe

(Newser) - The White House was busily waging a do-or-die battle to pass health reform when it was suddenly handed exactly what it wanted to avoid: a polarizing battle about Bush-era tactics that President Obama has already condemned. Obama is attempting to remain above the fray as the administration insists that AG...

Holder Launches Probe Into CIA Torture Allegations

(Newser) - AG Eric Holder today named a special prosecutor to investigate allegations of torture against CIA operatives who interrogated terror suspects during the Bush administration, the Washington Post reports. John Durham, who is currently probing the destruction of interrogation tapes, will look into fewer than 12 cases detailed in a CIA...

Obama Replaces CIA With Special Interrogators

(Newser) - Barack Obama has ordered the creation of an elite squad that will take over terror interrogations from the CIA, senior officials tell the Washington Post. Dubbed the High-Value Detainee Interrogation Group, or HIG, the unit will be housed with the FBI, but overseen by the White House through the National...

Justice Report Recommends Prisoner Abuse Investigations

(Newser) - A report by the ethics office of the Justice Department recommends reopening a dozen cases of alleged prisoner abuse, a move that would expose CIA employees to prosecution if it's determined they tortured terrorism suspects, reports the New York Times. Legal experts predict Attorney General Eric Holder will launch a...

Mock Executions Among CIA Torture Tactics

(Newser) - A report long suppressed by Bush administration officials set to be released next week says the CIA used mock executions as part of post-9/11 interrogations, Newsweek reports—though federal law prohibits threatening prisoners with “imminent death,” and the practice wasn’t authorized by the Justice Department, unlike other...

Feds Battle to Keep Rendition Case Under Wraps

(Newser) - The Obama administration is fighting to keep details secret in the case of a former Guantanamo detainee who says he was tortured, the San Francisco Chronicle reports. A San Francisco court has ruled Binyam Mohamed and four others can sue the company they allege flew them to secret CIA prisons—...

Holder to Probe CIA Torture Cases: Officials

Special prosecutor will pursue agents who took things 'too far'

(Newser) - Attorney General Eric Holder is planning to name a special prosecutor to probe cases of alleged CIA torture of terror suspects, the Los Angeles Times reports. Insiders say the narrowly focused inquiry will aim to determine "whether people went beyond the techniques that were authorized" in the so-called torture...

Iran: Protesters Were Tortured
 Iran: Protesters Were Tortured 
Aug 9, 2009 11:00 AM CDT

Iran: Protesters Were Tortured

Prosecutor general blamed Basij, Revolutionary Guard for 'painful accidents'

(Newser) - The Iranian prosecutor general admitted today that protesters arrested in the wake of the disputed presidential election were tortured, the New York Times reports. The comments by Qorbanali Dori-Najafabadi were the first official acknowledgments of torture made by an Iranian government official. Dori-Najafabadi blamed what he called a few “...

Torture Photos Should Be Secret—for Detainees' Sake

(Newser) - Human rights groups may be upset that President Obama is classifying photos of detainee abuse, but former Army staff sergeant William Quinn thinks it’s a good thing—for the detainees’ sake. When Quinn was assigned as an interrogator at Abu Ghraib, he discovered that the detainees took a very...

Pranksters Crash Lecture by Torture Memo Writer

(Newser) - If ex-Justice Department hand John Yoo thought he could fade into obscurity after writing infamous memos justifying the government’s use of torture and warrantless wiretapping, he was wrong. An Australian comedian crashed his class at Chapman University School of Law in California last week, dressed up like a detainee...

Inside the CIA Torturers' Heads
Inside the CIA Torturers' Heads
Jul 19, 2009 11:40 AM CDT

Inside the CIA Torturers' Heads

Post: Higher-ups pushed interrogators for harsher methods than they wanted

(Newser) - The FBI was already getting information out of a suspected terrorist in a series of relatively friendly interrogations in 2002 when the CIA stepped in, a former US official tells the Washington Post. Agency contract psychologists escalated the techniques to sleep deprivation, extreme cold, and waterboarding, which the FBI interrogators...

Ex-Liberian Prez: War-Crimes Charges 'Lies'

Taylor calls himself 'lover of humanity'

(Newser) - Former Liberian president Charles Taylor took the stand today in the Hague, calling war-crimes allegations against him “lies,” the BBC reports. “It is very, very, very unfortunate that the prosecution, because of disinformation, misinformation, lies, rumors would associate me with such titles or descriptions,” he said...

12 Mangled Bodies Dumped on Mexican Highway

(Newser) - The bodies of 11 men and a woman were found by the side of a remote highway in Mexico's Michoacan state yesterday, Reuters reports. The victims had been tortured before being executed, police said. Officials believe the killings are linked to an ongoing feud for control of the state between...

Holder Mulls Political A-Bomb: Bush Torture Probe

(Newser) - Attorney General Eric Holder is "leaning toward" naming an independent prosecutor to probe Bush-era interrogation policies, even if it means war with the Obama administration, writes Daniel Klaidman in Newsweek. Such a probe would likely trigger partisan hostilities and threaten key Obama policies like health care and energy reform—...

Mourners Hail Two Victims Killed by Mexican Hitmen

(Newser) - More than 1,000 mourners yesterday honored two men who were tortured and murdered in retaliation for helping Mexican authorities nab drug gangsters, reports Reuters . Gunmen broke into Benjamin LeBaron's home in northern Mexico earlier this week, tortured him in front of his family and shot him dead along with...

Mexican Army Slammed for Drug War Torture

US holds up aid until Mexico can 'pass' human rights investigation

(Newser) - A growing body of evidence points to widespread human rights abuses by the Mexican military in its battle against drug cartels, the Washington Post reports. Human rights groups say the army has responded to the traffickers' brutal tactics with equal brutality, carrying out deadly campaigns of "disappearances," forced...

Former Gitmo Prisoner Fights to Save Torture Photo

Says Pentagon wants to kill 'abuse evidence'

(Newser) - A Guantanamo prisoner released to Britain after seven years in detention is fighting to keep the Pentagon from destroying a photograph he says proves he was abused, reports the Guardian. Binyam Mohamed does not have copies of the image, taken after he was brutally beaten, but he knows it exists...

Mousavi Backers Tortured, Told to Confess Foreign Plot

Regime seeks to force 'confessions' implicating reformist in conspiracy

(Newser) - Iran's opposition says prominent supporters have been tortured in an effort to extract "confessions" that foreign forces in league with Mir Hossein Mousavi are plotting against the Islamic republic, the Guardian reports. Amnesty International, citing "very credible sources," says screams have been heard from reformist politicians jailed...

Stories 221 - 240 | << Prev   Next >>