This report was originally published on Truthout. The Pentagon won’t release any details of an investigation initiated by the commander of the Guantanamo Bay detention facility revolving around the discovery of “contraband” at the prison, which included a magazine produced by an offshoot of al-Qaeda based in Yemen. Late last year, Pentagon spokesman Lt. Col. [...]
February 4, 2012 | Filed under
World |
Read More »
Human Rights Watch is charging that, despite U.S. government assurances that it helped create a stable democracy, the reality is that it left behind a “budding police state” — cracking down harshly during 2011 on freedom of expression and assembly by intimidating, beating, and detaining activists, demonstrators, and journalists. The organization’s Middle East and North [...]
January 30, 2012 | Filed under
World |
Read More »
The Spanish Judge whose work triggered the investigation that nabbed Chilean dictator Augusto Pinochet back in 1998 believes that Spain could bring charges against six Bush Jr. administration officials for clearing the way for the use of torture during the Iraq war – but he is being blocked by charges making him the culprit. On [...]
January 25, 2012 | Filed under
World |
Read More »
Predicting that the current Middle East unrest would continue through 2012, Amnesty International is slamming Western governments for their tepid responses to peaceful protests, for their “double standard,” and for being more concerned with preserving their political and economic interests than with the historic changes sweeping the region. The charges are being made in a [...]
January 12, 2012 | Filed under
World |
Read More »
The Arab Spring has been greeted in Saudi Arabia by “a new wave of repression” that saw authorities arresting and imprisoning peaceful protesters demanding political reforms. Now, the Saudi crackdown may be reinforced by a draft anti-terror law that would effectively criminalize dissent as a “terrorist crime.” In a new 61-page report, “Saudi Arabia: Repression [...]
January 5, 2012 | Filed under
World |
Read More »
Seeming to borrow a page from the Hosni Mubarak playbook, Egyptian security forces yesterday raided the offices of two Egyptian, two American and one German non-governmental organization and held their staffs inside these offices while police and prosecutors search their papers and computers. The reason for the raids is still unclear, but it is known [...]
December 29, 2011 | Filed under
World |
Read More »
The United Nations’ top human rights official is calling on tiny, oil-rich Bahrain to release prisoners detained for joining peaceful demonstrations earlier this year, and to restore the jobs of thousands of people who were dismissed for joining the protest. Navi Pillay said in a statement that this action should be taken as a confidence-building [...]
December 27, 2011 | Filed under
World |
Read More »
Two of Europe’s most respected human rights organizations are accusing a little-known European Union agency of paying “lip service to transparency” while “covering up crucial evidence on the CIA rendition program.” Crofton Black, an investigator for the charity, Reprieve, said the agency, called “EUROCONTROL, has the necessary information and it is able to disclose it.” [...]
December 27, 2011 | Filed under
World |
Read More »
Some mainstream media are suggesting that the Bahraini version of The Arab Spring is over. Crushed was the word used by one of the mainstream US newspapers. But the Sunni King of the tiny oil-rich country, Hamad-Bin-Isa-Al-Khalifa, says the independent report he commissioned is being implemented. The report concluded that peaceful demonstrators were being attacked [...]
December 19, 2011 | Filed under
World |
Read More »
This report was written by Jason Leopold and originally published on Truthout President Barack Obama would like the world to know that the US can do whatever it damn well pleases, thank you very much. Obama also wants the whole, wide world to get this through its thick skull: only rogue governments that implement a [...]
December 16, 2011 | Filed under
World |
Read More »
