Vet says chess, ping-pong were
old grilling tricks
Washington Post Oct 6, 07 4:05 PM CDT
(Newser)
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Silent for 60 years, a handful of WWII vets are admitting their old interrogation tricks — and slamming alleged torture techniques used by the US today. Almost two dozen ex-fighters met for a ceremony by the Potomac yesterday, the Washington Post reports, but one refused the award, protesting the Iraq war and the grilling methods used at Guantanamo Bay.
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President denies breaking law in wake of document revelations
Washington Post Oct 5, 07 3:30 PM CDT
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Faced with newly disclosed Justice Department memos, President Bush once again denied the US tortures detainees, saying today that interrogation techniques save American lives, comply with “international obligations” and are fully disclosed to “appropriate members” of Congress. He said of detainees, “you bet we are going to question them.”
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Officials gave green light for array of painful interrogation techniques
New York Times Oct 4, 07 9:56 AM CDT
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The Justice Department under Alberto Gonzales secretly endorsed the use of torture techniques during interrogation by the CIA, the New York Times reports. A classified 2005 legal memorandum authorized the harshest techniques ever used by the CIA, the Times says, including a combination of head-slapping, waterboarding, sleep deprivation, freezing, loud noises and other forms of physical pain.
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'Enhanced interrogation' support drives Rizzo
out of the running
Reuters Sep 26, 07 5:11 AM CDT
(Newser)
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The White House has dropped its nomination of John Rizzo as the CIA's top counsel after Democrats and human rights groups slammed him for supporting "enhanced interrogation" techniques. The career CIA lawyer sent a letter to President Bush withdrawing his nomination yesterday, Reuters reports. Rizzo retreated because he had little chance of getting the job anyway, said one official.
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'Torture bible' details studies
Boing Boing Sep 6, 07 11:52 AM CDT
(Newser)
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A "torture bible" recently unearthed online indicates that the US government sanctioned and funded the torture of test subjects in psychological experiments in the '50s, apparently to perfect interrogation techniques, Boing Boing reports. The studies were commissioned by the government and involve methods "likely to be regarded as highly unethical," says a post by Xeni Jardin.
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Lawsuit accuses net giant of complicity in torture, human rights abuses
San Francisco Chronicle Aug 28, 07 1:05 PM CDT
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Yahoo asked a US federal court yesterday to dismiss a human rights lawsuit accusing the company of abetting the Chinese government. Two imprisoned Chinese journalists accuse the Web giant of passing along information about users that led to the arrest, imprisonment, and sometimes torture of writers and dissidents, the San Francisco Chronicle reports.
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Group votes to list interrogation techniques it won't help with
San Francisco Chronicle Aug 20, 07 8:38 AM CDT
(Newser)
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The American Psychological Association has voted not to ban members from assisting with interrogations at Guantanamo and other military prisons, the San Francisco Chronicle reports. Instead, the group approved a measure listing specific procedures members won't help with, including sleep deprivation and water-boarding. "If we remove psychologists from these facilities, people are going to die," said an Army psychologist.
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Professional group to condemn interrogation techniques
Salon Aug 15, 07 9:50 AM CDT
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The American Psychological Association, long chummy with the CIA, is set to condemn tactics the spy agency has been using to interrogate terror detainees, writes Salon . Members have in the past worked with the CIA to design techniques: now the group wants to distance itself by formally opposing a long list of tactics they consider torture at the organization's yearly convention this weekend.
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Associated Press Aug 10, 07 5:07 AM CDT
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Moammar Gadhafi's son burnished his pro-Western image yesterday by admitting that Libya had tortured 5 nurses and a doctor once accused of spreading HIV among children, the AP reports. Seif al-Islam Gadhafi conceded that the "Benghazi six" were electrocuted and threatened after their 1999 imprisonment, but he did not apologize, and even accused one of exaggerating the torture he endured.
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Iraqi interpreters left for dead may win refugee status
Times (UK) Aug 8, 07 6:55 AM CDT
(Newser)
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A row over the fate of 91 Iraqi interpreters working for the British military took a new turn today, with the government promising to reexamine its refusal to grant them asylum. The Times of London, which broke the story on Tuesday, now reports that Gordon Brown has ordered a review of its asylum policy towards Iraqi translators, some of whom have faced torture and kidnapping for their alleged collaboration.
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“My wounds are still bleeding,” says Palestinian
New York Times Aug 2, 07 8:40 PM CDT
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In the wake of last week's jubilant homecoming of the Bulgarian nurses released from a Libyan prison, it's their Palestinian cellmate who’s first to go public with his story. Dr. Ashraf al-Hazouz’s joy at release after 8 years is “turning into a hunger for justice,” he says in an interview with the New York Times and a graphically detailed first-person account in der Spiegel.
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UN-backed tribunal opens amid doubts senior leaders will be brought to justice
BBC Jul 31, 07 3:31 PM CDT
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A UN tribunal has charged an ex-Khmer Rouge prison chief with crimes against humanity in the torturing and killing of as many as 17,000 people during the Cambodian genocide of the 1970s. Kang Kek Ieu, known as Duch, ordered inmates executed at the "killing fields" near Phnom Penh, the BBC reports. He is one of five suspects the tribunal plans to investigate.
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Algerian prefers detention to torture as terrorist—or by terrorists—at home
Times (UK) Jul 31, 07 6:21 AM CDT
(Newser)
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A detainee at Guantanamo Bay is doing everything he can in court—to stay in prison. Algerian Ahmed Belbacha, 38, is contesting his imminent release from the notorious detention camp because he fears he'll be tortured by Algerian security agents as a suspected terrorist—or killed by Islamic terrorists for being a former state worker, reports the Times .
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