torture

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CIA Pushed Brutal Tactics on Interrogators

Captors felt al-Qaeda suspect had already told all he knew

(Newser) - Higher-ups in the CIA pressed for harsh interrogation methods to be used on a captured al-Qaeda member despite his interrogators' assurances that he had nothing more to tell, the New York Times reports. Abu Zubaydah had already yielded important information, including tips that led to 9/11 mastermind Khalid Shiekh Mohammed,...

CIA Objections Slowed Torture Memos' Release

(Newser) - Four former CIA directors opposed releasing classified Bush-era interrogation memos, officials say, describing objections that went all the way to the White House and slowed release of the records. Former CIA chiefs Michael Hayden, Porter Goss, George Tenet, and John Deutch all called the White House last month warning that...

Bush AG, CIA Chief Slam Obama on Torture Memos
Bush AG, CIA Chief Slam Obama on Torture Memos
OPINION
Apr 17, 2009 7:48 AM CDT

Bush AG, CIA Chief Slam Obama on Torture Memos

(Newser) - Barack Obama made a dangerous mistake in yesterday releasing Justice Department memos about interrogation techniques from 2005, say former Attorney General Michael Mukasey and former CIA Director Michael Hayden. By releasing the details of these methods, Obama is eliminating a crucial intelligence tool—not just for his own administration but...

'Weighty' Torture Memo Decision Took Weeks

President's belief in rule of law won out in choice to release Bush-era memos

(Newser) - President Obama spent weeks thinking "very long and hard" about his "weighty decision" to release memos on harsh CIA interrogation techniques green-lighted by the Bush administration, senior adviser David Axelrod tells Politico. In the end, Axelrod says, the president's belief in transparency and the rule of law won...

We Need a Torture Commission
 We Need a Torture Commission 
opinion
Apr 16, 2009 9:31 PM CDT

We Need a Torture Commission

(Newser) - President Obama appears ready to put the whole issue of CIA torture behind him. He owes it to the nation to do otherwise, writes Mark Benjamin in Salon. In particular, he should appoint a torture commission—a bipartisan group to evaluate what, if anything, the US gained from these interrogation...

Bush Interrogation Memo Approved Use of Insects

(Newser) - Among the weirder revelations emerging from the newly released CIA memos on harsh interrogations: Bush administration lawyers approved the use of insects. Apparently, one detainee in particular had a phobia about them, so interrogators wanted to slip one into his "cramped confinement box," Time reports. The technique never...

Obama Releases Bush Memos Detailing Torture

Justice docs released detail OK'd techniques

(Newser) - A Bush-era memo on interrogation techniques acknowledged that waterboarding represented a “threat of imminent death,” but that the simulated-drowning procedure was not torture because it caused no lasting psychological harm, Reuters reports. The Justice Department memo and three others on interrogations were released to the public today—and...

CIA Waterboarders Won't Be Prosecuted
 CIA Waterboarders 
 Won't Be Prosecuted 
updated
Apr 16, 2009 1:56 PM CDT

CIA Waterboarders Won't Be Prosecuted

(Newser) - Seeking to move beyond what he calls a "a dark and painful chapter in our history," President Barack Obama said today that CIA officials who used harsh interrogation tactics during the Bush administration will not be prosecuted. Obama officials also released four secret memos detailing tactics against 28...

No Torture Trial for 'Bush Six': Spain's Top Cop

Case would turn courts into political 'plaything,' he says

(Newser) - Spanish prosecutors will recommend against opening an investigation into whether six Bush administration officials sanctioned torture against terror suspects at Guantanamo Bay, the country’s attorney general said today. The case against former high-ranking figures like Alberto Gonzales was without merit, he said, because the men weren’t present when...

Obama May Keep CIA Torture Memos Classified

Bush-era docs give OK for waterboarding

(Newser) - The Obama administration faces a tough call on whether to declassify Bush-era Justice Department memos that outline harsh CIA interrogation techniques, including waterboarding, the Wall Street Journal reports. The president is still reviewing internal arguments but is leaning toward keeping the most sensitive documents classified, insiders say.

Gitmo Detainee Calls al-Jazeera, Alleges Abuse

Prisoner, captured at 14, says he was beaten, tear-gassed

(Newser) - Prisoner abuse at Guantanamo Bay hasn’t gotten any better since Barack Obama took office, one detainee told al-Jazeera yesterday after using newly granted phone privileges to call the Middle Eastern news network. Mohammed al Gharani says he’s been abused “almost every day” since Obama’s term began,...

Spain to Indict Gonzales, 'Bush Six' Over Gitmo Torture

Prosecutors seek charges in US officials' Gitmo role

(Newser) - Spanish prosecutors will seek charges against Alberto Gonzales and five other Bush-administration officials over their role in torture at Guantanamo, the Daily Beast reports. The prosecutors plan to announce the probe into the so-called Bush Six today at Spain’s central criminal court. “The evidence provided was more than...

Red Cross: Med Workers Complicit in Gitmo Torture

Professionals told CIA interrogators to stop, go

(Newser) - The Red Cross is accusing medical personnel of deep involvement in CIA torture at Guantanamo, calling it “a gross breach of medical ethics,” the New York Times reports. Medical professionals monitored procedures such as waterboarding, telling interrogators to “continue, to adjust, or stop particular methods,” finds...

4 Indicted in Year-Long Teen Torture

Shackled teen attacked with knife, bat, belt and acid

(Newser) - Three adults pleaded not guilty yesterday to charges they tortured a captive teen for a year with belts, a baseball bat, knife and acid, reports the San Francisco Chronicle. A neighbor has yet to enter a plea. The 16-year-old boy was shackled to a fireplace in the California home of...

Khmer Rouge's Duch Apologizes for 'Brutal' Deaths

Owns up to 'torture and execution' in trial

(Newser) - On trial for his role in Cambodia’s murderous Khmer Rouge regime, the man known as Duch made his first public apology today for overseeing the deaths of thousands at the prison he ran, the Financial Times reports. “I am responsible for the crimes committed at S-21, especially the...

Khmer Rouge Hearings Begin
Khmer Rouge Hearings Begin
Mar 30, 2009 10:33 AM CDT

Khmer Rouge Hearings Begin

Head of Cambodian prison charged with war crimes, torture, premeditated murder

(Newser) - One of the most feared figures of Pol Pot's fanatical regime in Cambodia has begun to tell his story on the witness stand as hearings begin in his trial, reports the Los Angeles Times. The former head of a Khmer Rough prison, Kaing Khev Iev—known as Duch—is charged...

Spain May Indict Gonzales, 5 Others for Torture

(Newser) - A top Spanish court is close to investigating six former Bush administration officials for circumventing international law to justify torture at Guantanamo Bay, the New York Times reports. Judge Baltasar Garzon, a human rights crusader who has gone after former Chilean ruler Augusto Pinochet, is reviewing the case, which could...

Solitary Confinement: Looks a Lot Like Torture

(Newser) - Rhesus monkeys raised in isolation are anti-social, catatonic, and profoundly disturbed even after they are introduced to their peers. The same is true of humans kept in solitary confinement for prolonged periods of time, whether as hostages or prisoners, writes Atul Gawande in the New Yorker. As months roll on,...

CIA Tortured Prisoners: Red Cross

2007 report is first to use 'torture' in legal context

(Newser) - The Red Cross concluded in 2007 that the Bush administration's treatment of al-Qaeda detainees "constituted torture," the Washington Post reports. Fourteen prisoners transferred from multiple CIA "black site" prisons overseas to Guantanamo all described similar patterns of beatings, sleep deprivation, exposure to extreme heat and cold, and...

Brits Condoned Torture, Aided Extraordinary Renditions: UN

UK a full partner in US terror effort, report says

(Newser) - Binyam Mohamed, a recently released Gitmo detainee, alleges that he was tortured in Morocco while asked questions on behalf of Britian’s MI5. His story so far has amounted to his word against MI5’s, but a new report supports the former detainee’s claim, the Economist reports. A UN...

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