torture

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Bauer's Torture Ethics Get Slapped on 24

For 24 hero, torture no longer cut and dry

(Newser) - After years of shooting, shocking, drugging, and maiming terror suspects, Jack Bauer will finally be tortured—by his own conscience, Peter Finn reveals in the Washington Post. 24 opens its seventh season with its post-9/11 action hero testifying before Congress about his interrogation tactics. Bauer remains defiant, but he’ll...

Panetta Pick Raises Intel Hackles

Obama defends CIA choice from critics who call him inexperienced

(Newser) - Barack Obama’s choice of former Clinton White House chief of staff Leon Panetta to run the CIA is catching some flak from intelligence professionals, the Washington Post reports. Panetta has no direct experience with intelligence-gathering; says an anonymous official who worked with Bill Clinton’s national-security team while Panetta...

USS Pueblo Crew Awarded $65M

Judge awards damages against North Korea for torture

(Newser) - In a distant echo of the Cold War, a federal judge has ordered north Korea to pay $65 million in damages to four crewmen from a US ship captured in 1968, reports AP. The USS Pueblo was seized by North Korea on an intelligence-gathering mission, and crew members were severely...

Iraq Prepares Grim Saddam Museum

Anniversary of leader's execution commemorated

(Newser) - Two years ago today Saddam Hussein breathed his last, but Iraq is taking steps to ensure the dictator isn't forgotten, reports Reuters. Soon, the country will open a dark museum full of artifacts from Saddam’s reign, including the torture devices he employed, the chair he was tried in, and...

Exit Interviews Reveal Bush-Cheney Differences

VP defiant, combative as president adopts gracious, reflective tone

(Newser) - George W. Bush and Dick Cheney are displaying strikingly different attitudes toward their time in power as its end looms, the New York Times reports. Bush is reflective, acknowledging regrets and speaking graciously of his successor. Cheney, meanwhile, is defiant to the end, defending policies like waterboarding and letting slip...

Shoe-Thrower Tortured Into Writing Apology

Zaidi 'would do it again,' will sue Iraqi police for abuse, brother says

(Newser) - Muntadar al-Zaidi, now famous for throwing his shoes at George W. Bush during a press conference in Iraq, was tortured into writing a letter of apology to the American president, his brother told the Guardian today. Zaidi has allegedly suffered cigarette burns to his ears, is missing a tooth, and...

Torture a Dead End: Intelligence Experts
Torture a Dead End:
Intelligence Experts
Glossies
Dec 21, 2008 6:20 AM CST

Torture a Dead End: Intelligence Experts

Intelligence often false and comes at great cost to US reputation

(Newser) - Governments have known for centuries that torture yields questionable intelligence, and none of the evidence accumulated during US grilling sessions contradicts that argument, David Rose writes in Vanity Fair. Rose carefully documents the inaccurate and even falsified information obtained from suspects Abu Zubaydah, Binyam Mohamed, Jose Padilla, and Khalid Sheikh...

Cheney: I OK'd Waterboarding
 Cheney: I OK'd Waterboarding 
Dec 16, 2008 4:00 AM CST

Cheney: I OK'd Waterboarding

VP gave go ahead for 'remarkably successful' tactic

(Newser) - Vice President Dick Cheney personally approved using waterboarding to interrogate 9/11 mastermind Khalid Sheikh Mohammed, he reveals in a wide-ranging interview on ABC News. "I was  involved in helping get the process cleared. The agency came in and wanted to know what they could and couldn't do," said...

Senate Report Pins Torture on Rumsfeld

Bipartisan panel, including McCain, concludes detainee abuse not just because of 'a few bad apples'

(Newser) - Former Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld and other top White House officials were responsible for detainee abuse at US military prisons, a bipartisan Senate report finds. After 2 years of hearing testimony and reviewing documents, the study—released by Sens. John McCain and Carl Levin—traces controversial interrogation practices like sleep...

Born in the USA Tops Gitmo Torture Charts

Boss' anthem among tunes favored by US interrogators for disorienting prisoners

(Newser) - The music played at high volume for hours on end by US interrogators to torture prisoners held at Guantanamo Bay spanned all genres. But the military overseers did have a few favorite songs, including:
  • Born in the USA, by Bruce Springsteen
  • American Pie, by Don McLean
  • Staying Alive, by the
...

23 Years in a North Korean Prison Camp

Escapee, born in prison, tells of routine, stunning torture

(Newser) - There are 14,431 North Korean defectors living in South Korea, but only one, Shin Dong-hyuk, who escaped from a Northern prison camp. In an interview with the Washington Post, Shin describes the daily horrors of life inside Kim Jong-Il's gulags, from fire torture to mutilation. He committed no crime—...

Five Best Jobs Left in Obama Administration
Five Best Jobs Left in Obama Administration
ANALYSIS
Dec 5, 2008 1:12 PM CST

Five Best Jobs Left in Obama Administration

Highest-profile unfilled slots are energy, intelligence positions

(Newser) - State and Defense are taken, but Barack Obama has yet to fill several high-level administration positions. Politico looks at the top five open jobs:
  • Energy Secretary: Sustainable energy will remain a priority, despite the attention the economy will draw away. Key candidates: Michigan Gov. Jennifer Granholm; Dan Reicher and
...

Suspect: I'm Glad Shackled Teen Escaped

Woman says aunt chained boy to table and beat him daily

(Newser) - A woman charged with the kidnapping and torture of a teenage boy says she's glad he managed to escape her California home, News10 reports. Kelly Lau  said she invited the boy and his aunt, Caren Ramirez, to stay with her temporarily, but they never left. Ramirez kept the boy chained...

Aunt Arrested in Case of Tortured Calif. Teen

Woman had lived on and off with couple previously charged

(Newser) - California police have arrested the aunt of the teen who escaped from a house where he was apparently being held prisoner, the San Francisco Chronicle reports. Caren Ramirez was found in Berkeley and handed over to police in Tracy, where the boy was found shackled and beaten. Ramirez faces charges...

Brits Tortured Obama Patriarch in Kenya Revolt

Granddad was jailed, beaten for 2 years in '50s Mau Mau uprising

(Newser) - British jailers tortured Barack Obama's grandfather during the struggle for Kenyan independence, his family tells the Times of London. Hussein Onyango Obama, who worked as a cook for a British army officer, was arrested in 1949, aged 56, and imprisoned for two years. There he was subjected to daily whippings...

Cops Seek Missing Aunt of Chained Boy

Suspect lost custody of Calif. teen after felony child abuse charges

(Newser) - Police are hunting for the aunt of a boy who burst into a California health club shackled, bloodied, and pleading for help, the Sacramento Bee reports. Caren Ramirez is already wanted for a probation violation on felony child abuse charges, and neighbors say she’s recently visited the home of...

Couple Held After Tortured Boy Flees

Missing teen runs into Calif. gym chained, bruised

(Newser) - A California couple was arrested yesterday, the San Jose Mercury News reports, after a teen they’re accused of kidnapping stumbled into a gym, bloodied and burned, and asked employees to hide him. The 16-year-old also said he’d been tortured; police say he went missing from a Sacramento foster...

Docs: Jews Were Tortured in Mumbai

Hospital staff horrified by condition of bodies recovered from Jewish center

(Newser) - Jews taken hostage in the Mumbai attacks were tortured by their captors before being bound together and executed, the Daily Telegraph reports. Doctors in the hospital where victims' bodies were taken say the level of brutality evident was among the most disturbing sight of their careers. Six Jewish victims have...

Obama's Top CIA Pick Drops Out

Obama's Top CIA Pick
Drops Out
Nov 26, 2008 4:46 AM CST

Obama's Top CIA Pick Drops Out

Brennan withdraws under pressure but denies backing torture

(Newser) - Barack Obama's top intelligence adviser and his first choice for CIA director has withdrawn his name from consideration, the Los Angeles Times reports. John Brennan, former director of the National Counterterrorism Center, was branded by some liberal groups as a proponent of the harsh interrogation techniques used against terrorist suspects...

Obama Likely to Keep Bush Intel Policies

Positions likely to be filled with pragmatists

(Newser) - Barack Obama isn’t likely to deliver the radical intelligence policy overhaul many civil liberty groups are craving, advisers tell the Wall Street Journal. Those advisers include former Republican supporters and centrist Clinton officials. “He’s going to take a very centrist approach,” said an ex-Bush and Clinton...

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