Nearly a year ago, I asked If Obama Withdrew the Yoo, Bradbury Torture Memos, What Government Opinion Now Covers The AFM and Appendix M? The question has direct relevance today, because the Army Field Manual on interrogation (FM 2-22.3) and its Appendix M governs current interrogation policy at Guantanamo, where a major hunger strike of over 100 detainees [...]
Once upon a time, Daily Kos had numerous diaries on the ongoing use of torture by the United States, or on the false evidence, much of it wrung from tortured prisoners held by the US or by foreign countries via rendition, that was used to start the Iraq War. But today, such diaries are the [...]
Journalist Michael Otterman, author of the excellent book, American Torture: From the Cold War to Abu Ghraib and Beyond, was kind enough to forward to me some months ago a document he obtained via the Freedom of Information Act. The document consists of the after-action reports made by Colonel Steven Kleinman and Terrence Russell, two of [...]
This report was originally published on Truthout. The Department of Defense (DoD) won’t release under the Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) six volumes of diaries written by Zayn al-Abidin Muhammad Husayn, better known as accused terrorist Abu Zubaydah, nor will DoD release six pages of the Guantanamo prisoner’s sketches that depict the torture he was [...]
In 2005, I wrote an essay, published in the journal Logos, entitled “Torture in our Time.” In it I laid out the historical evidence for the conclusion that torture rarely works. This position goes back at least to the Enlightenment when Cesare Beccaria wrote a famous pamphlet, “ On Crimes and Punishments” (1764) in which he [...]
This report was originally published on Truthout. A lawyer for the most high-profile resident of Gitmo sheds light on what a voluminous secret report on the CIA’s torture program approved by a Senate panel Thursday may contain. On a cold day in February 2009, Brent Mickum arrived at the Sensitive Compartmented Information Facility in Washington, DC and went [...]
This report was written by Jason Leopold and Jeffrey Kaye and originally published at Truthout. Explosive claims in a letter to his lawyers reveal a Gitmo detainee’s fears about his captors’ intentions, well in advance of his mysterious death. Meanwhile, the investigation into his apparent suicide centers on the protocols meant to prevent it. More [...]
The detention center that has continually raised eyebrows may shut down and have its 166 suspects transfered to American facilities. What future is in store for them?
The manner of death has been ruled a suicide, the cause of death has not yet been disclosed. The list of unanswered questions grows. Truthout has obtained the results of the autopsy on Adnan Farhan Abdul Latif, but the long-awaited report on the mysterious September death of the Guantanamo Bay detainee raises more questions than [...]
Last Friday, November 9, Elisa Massimino, President and CEO of Human Rights First (HRF), hosted a press call with retired Rear Admiral Don Guter. HRF, along with a number of other human rights and legal groups, are calling upon President Barack Obama to fulfill his January 2009 pledge to close Guantanamo’s detention facility. Admiral Guter [...]
