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WEDNESDAY, NOVEMBER 25, 2009
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NEWS ABOUT: torture

torture stories: 304 news summaries

21 - 40 of 304 Stories | << Prev 1 2 3 4 5 6 ... 16 Next >>

(Newser) - The White House was busily waging a do-or-die battle to pass health reform when it was suddenly handed exactly what it wanted to avoid: a polarizing battle about Bush-era tactics that President Obama has already condemned. Obama is attempting to remain above the fray as the administration insists that AG... More »

(Newser) - AG Eric Holder today named a special prosecutor to investigate allegations of torture against CIA operatives who interrogated terror suspects during the Bush administration, the Washington Post reports. John Durham, who is currently probing the destruction of interrogation tapes, will look into fewer than 12 cases detailed in a... More »

(Newser) - Barack Obama has ordered the creation of an elite squad that will take over terror interrogations from the CIA, senior officials tell the Washington Post. Dubbed the High-Value Detainee Interrogation Group, or HIG, the unit will be housed with the FBI, but overseen by the White House through... More »

(Newser) - A report by the ethics office of the Justice Department recommends reopening a dozen cases of alleged prisoner abuse, a move that would expose CIA employees to prosecution if it's determined they tortured terrorism suspects, reports the New York Times. Legal experts predict Attorney General Eric Holder will launch a... More »

(Newser) - A report long suppressed by Bush administration officials set to be released next week says the CIA used mock executions as part of post-9/11 interrogations, Newsweek reports—though federal law prohibits threatening prisoners with “imminent death,” and the practice wasn’t authorized by the Justice Department, unlike other... More »

(Newser) - The Obama administration is fighting to keep details secret in the case of a former Guantanamo detainee who says he was tortured, the San Francisco Chronicle reports. A San Francisco court has ruled Binyam Mohamed and four others can sue the company they allege flew them to secret CIA prisons—... More »

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CIA rendition torture secret prisons Guantanamo Bay Guantanamo prisoners Binyam Mohamed

Holder to Probe CIA Torture Cases: Officials

Special prosecutor will pursue agents who
took things 'too far'

(Newser) - Attorney General Eric Holder is planning to name a special prosecutor to probe cases of alleged CIA torture of terror suspects, the Los Angeles Times reports. Insiders say the narrowly focused inquiry will aim to determine "whether people went beyond the techniques that were authorized" in the so-called torture... More »

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CIA torture abuse interrogation waterboarding inquiry criminal investigation Eric Holder torture memo

 Iran: Protesters Were Tortured 

Prosecutor general blamed Basij, Revolutionary Guard for 'painful accidents'

(Newser) - The Iranian prosecutor general admitted today that protesters arrested in the wake of the disputed presidential election were tortured, the New York Times reports. The comments by Qorbanali Dori-Najafabadi were the first official acknowledgments of torture made by an Iranian government official. Dori-Najafabadi blamed what he called a few “... More »

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Iran torture prosecutor protests political protest detention

(Newser) - Human rights groups may be upset that President Obama is classifying photos of detainee abuse, but former Army staff sergeant William Quinn thinks it’s a good thing—for the detainees’ sake. When Quinn was assigned as an interrogator at Abu Ghraib, he discovered that the detainees took a very... More »

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Iraq torture Abu Ghraib harsh interrogation detainees torture photos

(Newser) - If ex-Justice Department hand John Yoo thought he could fade into obscurity after writing infamous memos justifying the government’s use of torture and warrantless wiretapping, he was wrong. An Australian comedian crashed his class at Chapman University School of Law in California last week, dressed up like a detainee... More »

Inside the CIA Torturers' Heads

Post: Higher-ups pushed interrogators for harsher methods than they wanted

(Newser) - The FBI was already getting information out of a suspected terrorist in a series of relatively friendly interrogations in 2002 when the CIA stepped in, a former US official tells the Washington Post. Agency contract psychologists escalated the techniques to sleep deprivation, extreme cold, and waterboarding, which the FBI interrogators... More »

 Ex-Liberian Prez: 
 War-Crimes 
 Charges 'Lies' 

Taylor calls himself 'lover of humanity'

(Newser) - Former Liberian president Charles Taylor took the stand today in the Hague, calling war-crimes allegations against him “lies,” the BBC reports. “It is very, very, very unfortunate that the prosecution, because of disinformation, misinformation, lies, rumors would associate me with such titles or descriptions,” he said... More »

(Newser) - The bodies of 11 men and a woman were found by the side of a remote highway in Mexico's Michoacan state yesterday, Reuters reports. The victims had been tortured before being executed, police said. Officials believe the killings are linked to an ongoing feud for control of the state between... More »

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torture Mexico murder Mexican drug war drug cartel Michoacan

(Newser) - Attorney General Eric Holder is "leaning toward" naming an independent prosecutor to probe Bush-era interrogation policies, even if it means war with the Obama administration, writes Daniel Klaidman in Newsweek. Such a probe would likely trigger partisan hostilities and threaten key Obama policies like health care and energy reform—... More »

(Newser) - More than 1000 mourners yesterday honored two American Mormons who were tortured and murdered in retaliation for helping Mexican authorities nab drug gangsters, reports Reuters. Gunmen broke into Benjamin LeBaron's home in northern Mexico earlier this week, tortured him in front of his family and shot him dead along with... More »

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torture Mexico murder Mormon Mormonism drug cartels Benjamin LeBaron

 Mexican Army Slammed 
 for Drug War Torture 

US holds up aid until Mexico can 'pass' human rights investigation

(Newser) - A growing body of evidence points to widespread human rights abuses by the Mexican military in its battle against drug cartels, the Washington Post reports. Human rights groups say the army has responded to the traffickers' brutal tactics with equal brutality, carrying out deadly campaigns of "disappearances," forced... More »

Former Gitmo Prisoner Fights to Save Torture Photo

Says Pentagon wants to kill 'abuse evidence'

(Newser) - A Guantanamo prisoner released to Britain after seven years in detention is fighting to keep the Pentagon from destroying a photograph he says proves he was abused, reports the Guardian. Binyam Mohamed does not have copies of the image, taken after he was brutally beaten, but he knows it... More »

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torture appeal abuse Guantanamo prisoners harsh interrogation Binyam Mohamed

 Mousavi Backers Tortured, Told to Confess Foreign Plot

Regime seeks to force 'confessions' implicating reformist in conspiracy

(Newser) - Iran's opposition says prominent supporters have been tortured in an effort to extract "confessions" that foreign forces in league with Mir Hossein Mousavi are plotting against the Islamic republic, the Guardian reports. Amnesty International, citing "very credible sources," says screams have been heard from reformist politicians jailed... More »

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Iran torture political prisoner Iranian election Mir Hossein Mousavi

(Newser) - Iranian-American activists are circulating an email, written in Farsi, in which a 17-year-old boy describes his torture at the hands of the regime, complete with graphic photographs, Salon reports. The boy, who says he's not an activist of any stripe, says he was minding his own business in a parking... More »

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Iran torture Iranian Revolutionary Guard Iranian election Basij militia


Torture Shrinks
Rehired by CIA,
Fired by Panetta

Contracts renewed
after inauguration,
then killed in April

(Newser) - The CIA renewed contracts with several psychologists considered the architects of waterboarding and other brutal techniques tantamount to torture a month after Barack Obama's inauguration. The revelation comes in a piece by New Yorker reporter Jane Meyer on Leon Panetta, the new CIA director, who nixed their contracts after his... More »

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Barack Obama CIA torture waterboarding Leon Panetta truth commission

21 - 40 of 304 Stories | << Prev 1 2 3 4 5 6 ... 16 Next >>