torture

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Obama Defends Bush 'Torture Memo' Author

Yoo case should be up to executive, Congress, Justice Dept argues

(Newser) - President Obama’s Justice Department is defending a Bush official being sued over his interrogation memos, ABC News reports. Lawyers for Jose Padilla, who was sentenced to 17 years in jail for conspiring to support Islamist extremists, are arguing in court that John Yoo’s memos were behind Padilla’s...

Leahy Calls For 'Truth Commission' on Bush Abuses

Republicans say it's a waste of time

(Newser) - Sen. Patrick Leahy called today for a "truth commission" to investigate alleged abuses by the Bush administration in the name of the war on terror, CNN reports. Detention and interrogation practices at Gitmo and Abu Ghraib “have seriously eroded fundamental American principles of the rule of law,"...

Just in Time for Spring Break: Cancun Torture Probe

Cancun, like Mexico, 'is at war,' says local editor

(Newser) - Those headed to Cancun for spring break might want to hold off just a tad before slathering on Mexican suntan oil—while authorities investigate torture and murder charges against the ousted local police chief. Mexico's out-of-control drug war is seeping into nearly every community in the nation—including one of...

Gitmo Prisoner in Rendition Dispute Arrives in UK

British AG may press charges in torture case

(Newser) - The Guantanamo Bay prisoner at the heart of a diplomatic dispute between Britain and the United States has been released and landed in the UK today. Binyam Mohamed alleges he was tortured when the CIA rendered him to Morocco, but a British court decided not to release relevant documents after...

Abu Ghraib Reopens With Hair Salon, Playground

Refurbished facility still inspiring controversy

(Newser) - It became synonymous with torture, first under Saddam Hussein and then under American rule, but now Abu Ghraib has a new name and world-class facilities, the Telegraph reports. Baghdad Central Prison opened yesterday with a gym, hair salon, modern medical and dental facilities, and a playground for inmates’ children. Currently...

30 Years Later, Khmer Rouge Goes on Trial

Prison warden accused of torture, murder of 20,000 in court

(Newser) - Thirty years after the end of its reign of terror, the Khmer Rouge went on trial in Cambodia for the first time today. In the dock in Phnom Penh is the commander of the notorious Tuol Sleng prison, which became a symbol of the brutality of Pol Pot's murderous regime....

Americans Want Torture Investigation: Poll

(Newser) - Two-thirds of Americans want an investigation into alleged Bush administration misdeeds, including torture and warrantless wiretapping, a USA Today/Gallup poll shows. Forty percent of respondents would like to see criminal probes; one-quarter would prefer investigations without the possibility of criminal charges. And even more—70% of those surveyed—said the...

FARC Tortures, Kills 17 Native Colombians

Paramilitary swooped into village, kidnapping pacifist tribesmen

(Newser) - The Colombian paramilitary that held Ingrid Betancourt hostage tortured and killed 17 indigenous people who they believed were aiding the government, human rights groups say. CNN reports that FARC members swept into a remote village in southwest Colombia and kidnapped the pacifist Awa Indians, including two minors. One young man...

Torture Lawyer Flees Berkeley Amid Protests

Law prof takes 1-year gig at OC's Chapman U.

(Newser) - It can be hard to be a professor: publish or perish, sit on committees…dodge protesters? Just ask John Yoo, author of the memos that laid out and justified the harsh interrogation tactics used by the Bush administration. Yoo, a Berkeley law professor, has taken leave from his left-leaning professional...

Obama Could Expose Secrets of the Bush Years

On torture, wiretapping, and more, Bush legacy rests with successor

(Newser) - Good government groups spent years suing and lobbying to expose the Bush administration’s secrets. Will President Obama spill the beans on his predecessor? Politico outlines major secrets Obama can choose to air or keep:
  • US attorney firings: Claiming executive privilege, Karl Rove refused to testify. But Rove has been
...

CIA Hopeful Panetta Retracts Torture Remarks

Backs off accusations that US deliberately sent suspects abroad

(Newser) - Leon Panetta today backed off on comments he made accusing the Bush administration of deliberately sending terror suspects abroad to be tortured, CQ Politics reports. "It's news to me," Sen Christopher Bond told the nominee to run the CIA. Panetta responded that he was referring to widely publicized...

UK Judges Keep Gitmo Secret After US 'Threat'

Government tells courts to withhold evidence in torture case

(Newser) - Binyam Mohamed, a British detainee at Guantanamo Bay, alleges that he has been tortured, and his lawyers petitioned a high court in London to release a document detailing his treatment. But yesterday two judges declined—after the British government informed them that the US might stop sharing intelligence with the...

Top Mexican Drug Fighter Murdered on First Day

Official tortured, shot 11 times within 24 hours

(Newser) - A retired army general appointed as Mexico's new top drug-fighting official spent his first day on the job being tortured and murdered, CNN reports. The corpses of the general, his aide and his driver were found in a pickup truck on a road near Cancun. The general's body showed signs...

Cheney: Soft Obama Makes Terror Attack More Likely

Says fighting extremists 'a tough, mean, dirty, nasty business'

(Newser) - Dick Cheney thinks there’s a “high probability” terrorists will attack the US with a biological or nuclear weapon, and that Barack Obama’s policies will likely only increase those odds. Fighting terrorism is “a tough mean, dirty, nasty business,” the former vice president told Politico. “...

Obama OK With CIA Rendition
Obama OK With CIA Rendition
Feb 1, 2009 6:50 PM CST

Obama OK With CIA Rendition

Prez allows abductions, transfers to continue, promises suspects won't be tortured

(Newser) - Torture techniques are out and Guantanamo Bay is facing closure, but Barack Obama is keeping one anti-terror tool: rendition, the Los Angeles Times reports. He signed an executive order allowing the CIA to continue the practice of secret abductions and transfers of prisoners to US-friendly nations. "You still...

Obama's Gitmo Order Isn't What It Seems
Obama's Gitmo Order Isn't
What It Seems
ANALYSIS
Jan 23, 2009 11:36 AM CST

Obama's Gitmo Order Isn't What It Seems

Experts see potential loopholes, gray areas in revised policies

(Newser) - With a stroke of the pen, President Obama rewrote American detention and interrogation policy yesterday. Or not, writes Josh Gerstein for Politico. He offers reasons not to overstate Obama’s policy changes:
  • "Everyone has to follow the Army Field Manual—for now…": Obama is convening a group to
...

First White House Briefing Addresses Gitmo, Oath

Lots of questions, little actual news as Gibbs meets the press anew

(Newser) - White House Press Secretary Robert Gibbs met his audience for the first time, covering everything from President Obama’s oaths to the economy to torture, the Chicago Tribune reports. Gibbs faced questions about the administration’s hiring of a lobbyist, against previously stated rules—“Any standard is not perfect”...

Obama Will Ban Torture— But Considers a Loophole

(Newser) - Barack Obama is set to prohibit waterboarding and other enhanced interrogation techniques by mandating the CIA follow the US Army Field Manual when questioning suspects, the AP reports. But as the president-elect debates whether to make the changes through legislation or presidential fiat, the incoming administration is also considering a...

Opponents of Mugabe Allege Torture in Court

Zimbabwe political prisoners suffered beatings, abuse

(Newser) - More than a dozen human rights activists and allies of Zimbabwe's opposition leader Morgan Tsvangirai were tortured by agents of Robert Mugabe, a court heard yesterday. The New York Times reports that the activists were abducted, detained in secret prisons, and brutalized until they confessed to crimes they had not...

Bush Official: US Tortured Gitmo Inmate

9/11 suspect nearly died from interrogation, says Pentagon honcho

(Newser) - The US military tortured a Saudi national suspected of attempted participation in the 9/11 attacks, according to a top Bush administration official. In an interview with Bob Woodward of the Washington Post, Susan J. Crawford says the suspect endured sustained isolation, nudity, humiliation, and exposure to extreme temperatures that left...

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