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Tag: Torture


Paramount

The Good-Natured Dictator

No movie dedicated to Kim Jong Il can be all bad. On the other hand, “The Dictator,” the product of Sacha Baron Cohen, cannot be all good either.

Posted on May 20, 2012 READ MORE  |  16 COMMENTS


The Supreme Court Has Us Guessing

This week on Truthdig Radio in association with KPFK: Just like a doctor, the Supreme Court keeps the nation waiting; Trayvon Martin and the law; remembering Adrienne Rich; Hawaiian sovereignty; and a tortured journalist speaks out.

Posted on Mar 30, 2012 READ MORE  |  5 COMMENTS



Photo illustration from an image by Colin Grey (CC-BY)

The Supreme Court Has Us Guessing

This week on Truthdig Radio in association with KPFK: Just like a doctor, the Supreme Court keeps the nation waiting; Trayvon Martin and the law; remembering Adrienne Rich; Hawaiian sovereignty, and a tortured journalist speaks out.

Posted on Mar 30, 2012 READ MORE



AP / Pablo Martinez Monsivais

Five Hypocrites and One Bad Plan

The Supreme Court is so full of it, but the sad truth is that President Obama and the Democrats brought this potential judicial disaster upon themselves.

Posted on Mar 29, 2012 READ MORE  |  478 COMMENTS


Don’t Exert Yourself

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Posted on Mar 29, 2012 READ MORE



AP / Stuart Price

A Letter From Uganda on #Kony2012

There is an evil man somewhere in Africa waging a brutal war for absolutely no reason. The biggest problem is that no one knows about him. But if “we” spread the word and pressure the U.S. for military assistance, then by the end of this year “we” can capture Kony and end this horror. Where do I even begin?

Posted on Mar 14, 2012 READ MORE  |  26 COMMENTS



AP / Patrick Semansky

Supreme Court Likely to Endorse Obama’s War on Whistle-Blowers

The Supreme Court is expected to uphold the use of the Espionage Act of 1917 to punish those who expose war crimes and state lies.

Posted on Mar 12, 2012 READ MORE  |  157 COMMENTS


Kucinich: ‘Defeat Doesn’t Have Power Over Me’

This week on Truthdig Radio in association with KPFK: Dennis Kucinich on life after Congress; Eric Boehlert of Media Matters on Rush Limbaugh; Frances Causey, director of the new documentary “Heist,” and former CIA interrogator Glenn Carle, who tells us about his struggle with institutionalized torture.

Posted on Mar 9, 2012 READ MORE  |  18 COMMENTS



Photo illustration from an image by Colin Grey (CC-BY)

Kucinich: ‘Defeat Doesn’t Have Power Over Me’

This week on Truthdig Radio in association with KPFK: Dennis Kucinich on life after Congress; Eric Boehlert of Media Matters on Rush Limbaugh; Frances Causey, director of the new documentary “Heist,” and former CIA interrogator Glenn Carle, who tells us about his struggle with institutionalized torture.

Posted on Mar 8, 2012 READ MORE



Illustration by Mr. Fish

AIPAC Works for the 1 Percent

AIPAC does not speak for Jews or for Israel. It is a mouthpiece for right-wing ideologues and defense contractors.

Posted on Mar 4, 2012 READ MORE  |  239 COMMENTS


Syrians ‘Radicalized by Terror’

Syrian forces are shelling Homs while across the country, reports ITN’s Jonathan Rugman, “state brutality has failed to crush” the popular uprising.

Posted on Feb 21, 2012 READ MORE  |  33 COMMENTS



125o4 (CC-BY)

Silent State: Washington’s Campaign Against Whistle-Blowers

There can be little doubt that government retaliation against whistle-blowers is not an isolated event, nor even an agency-by-agency practice. The number of cases in play suggests an organized strategy to deprive Americans of knowledge of the more disreputable things their government does.

Posted on Feb 9, 2012 READ MORE  |  11 COMMENTS


Guantanamo at 10: The Prisoner and the Prosecutor

Ten years ago, Omar Deghayes and Morris Davis would have struck anyone as an odd pair. While they have never met, they now share a profound connection, cemented through their time at the notorious U.S. military prison at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba.

Posted on Jan 12, 2012 READ MORE  |  8 COMMENTS


Freed Egyptian Activist Speaks Out

“Democracy Now!” hears from Alaa Abd El Fattah, a prominent Egyptian activist and blogger just released after 56 days in one of the country’s worst prisons on charges of inciting violence against the military. Fattah, who denies the charges, is optimistic about the revolution “completely renegotiating the order of power in Egypt and across the Arab world.”

Posted on Dec 28, 2011 READ MORE  |  1 COMMENT



Illustration from an AP photo by Chad Rachman

Christopher Hitchens: Reason in Revolt

What zeal this man had to eviscerate the conceits of the powerful, whether their authority derived from wealth, the state or a claim to the ear of the divine.

Posted on Dec 16, 2011 READ MORE  |  155 COMMENTS



Paul D / Some Rights Reserved

Rest in Peace, Comrade

Christopher Hitchens died Thursday of esophageal cancer. He was, in the words of The Washington Post, “master of the contrarian essay” and, as his home publication Vanity Fair describes him, “a wit, a charmer and a troublemaker.” (more)

Posted on Dec 15, 2011 READ MORE  |  13 COMMENTS



AP / Pablo Martinez Monsivais

There Goes the Republic

What’s alarming is the ease with which an otherwise deadlocked Congress that can’t manage minimal funding for job creation passes a bill that threatens the foundations of our republican form of government.

Posted on Dec 15, 2011 READ MORE  |  206 COMMENTS



AP / Nick Ut

Weapon of Choice

Pepper spray is a chemical weapon and its use by police fits the definition of torture.

Posted on Dec 1, 2011 READ MORE  |  22 COMMENTS



Joseph Voves (CC-BY)

Thought Crime in Washington

Morris Davis was fired by the Library of Congress not because of his work performance, but because he wrote a Wall Street Journal Op-Ed on his own time, using his own computer, as a private citizen. The government just did not like what he wrote.

Posted on Nov 28, 2011 READ MORE  |  92 COMMENTS



Wikimedia Commons / Carlos Latuff (CC-BY)

John McCain: Down With Waterboarding

Michele Bachmann and Herman Cain, you’re on notice. John McCain took to Twitter on Monday, being a cyber-savvy senator and all, to disapprove of the two GOP candidates’ pro-waterboarding stance, as stated at Saturday’s Republican presidential debate.

Posted on Nov 14, 2011 READ MORE  |  5 COMMENTS



AP

Dispatches From Cairo: Torture in Post-Mubarak Egypt

Essam Atta died Thursday at Qasr El-Eini hospital in Cairo after prison guards allegedly tortured him by sodomization.

Posted on Oct 30, 2011 READ MORE  |  12 COMMENTS


Heroism

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Mr. Fish's Cartoon

Posted on Oct 4, 2011 READ MORE  |  6 COMMENTS        


Former FBI Interrogator Tells ‘60 Minutes’ About Emergence of Torture Tactics

Little is publicly known about the security investigations that followed the 9/11 terrorist attacks, but a recent “60 Minutes” interview with a former FBI agent shed some light on what had been going on behind the scenes.

Posted on Sep 17, 2011 READ MORE  |  16 COMMENTS



AP / Brennan Linsley

How Little We Know About the Origins of 9/11

For a decade, the main questions about 9/11 have gone unanswered while the alleged perpetrators who survived the attacks have never been publicly cross-examined as to their methods and motives.

Posted on Sep 8, 2011 READ MORE  |  268 COMMENTS



AP / Pablo Martinez Monsivais

How Not to Commemorate 9/11

We fashionably compress our commemorations of 9/11 events into a neat triangle to include the Afghanistan and Iraq wars. But in accepting this, we terribly distort our history.

Posted on Sep 6, 2011 READ MORE  |  70 COMMENTS



Surian Soosay (CC-BY)

Bin Laden’s Unintended Legacy

Ten years on, Osama bin Laden, were he not at the bottom of the sea, could be reasonably satisfied with what he has accomplished.

Posted on Sep 6, 2011 READ MORE  |  18 COMMENTS



AP / Sergey Ponomarev

Libya: Here We Go Again

I know enough of Libya, a country I covered for many years as the Middle East bureau chief for The New York Times, to assure you that the chaos and bloodletting have only begun.

Posted on Sep 5, 2011 READ MORE  |  132 COMMENTS



AP / Ed Zurga

Deceit of Shakespearean Proportions

Behold this unctuous knave, a disgrace to his nation as few before him, yet boasting unvarnished virtue.

Posted on Aug 30, 2011 READ MORE  |  97 COMMENTS



Gage Skidmore (CC-BY-SA)

Cheney, Rumsfeld and the Dark Art of Propaganda

“When one lies, one should lie big, and stick to it,” wrote Joseph Goebbels, Germany’s Reich minister of propaganda, in 1941. Former Vice President Dick Cheney seems to have taken the famous Nazi’s advice in his new book, “In My Time.”

Posted on Aug 30, 2011 READ MORE  |  34 COMMENTS



Illustration by Mr. Fish

The Election March of the Trolls

The trolls have gamed the system. There is no economic, political or environmental reform that can be implemented to impede the march of the corporate state.

Posted on Aug 28, 2011 READ MORE  |  278 COMMENTS



AP / Hussein Malla

Prosecuting War Crimes? Be Sure to Read the Fine Print

It all depends, I think, on whether criminals are our friends (Stalin at the time) or our enemies (Hitler and his fellow Nazis), whether they have their future uses (the Japanese emperor) or whether we’ll get their wealth more easily if they are out of the way (Saddam and Gadhafi).

Posted on Aug 28, 2011 READ MORE  |  18 COMMENTS



AP / Francois Mori

Reports of War Crimes as Tripoli Fighting Continues

Libyan rebels control most of Tripoli, yet fighting continues in the capital amid reports of possible war crimes by both sides. One doctor told a BBC reporter that some rebel bodies delivered to his hospital had bullet holes in the back of their heads and wounds that indicated torture.

Posted on Aug 25, 2011 READ MORE  |  10 COMMENTS



Paul Keller (CC-BY)

Taking the Justice Out of the Justice System

As the 10th anniversary of 9/11 approaches, the unexpected extent of the damage Americans have done to themselves and their institutions is coming into better focus.

Posted on Aug 21, 2011 READ MORE  |  18 COMMENTS



White House / Pete Souza

The World Has Been Watching

Few Americans know, or much care, about the opinions foreigners hold of the United States. This was displayed during the ignorant and solipsistic debate over when or whether the United States will pay its debts.

Posted on Aug 2, 2011 READ MORE  |  27 COMMENTS



Karl-Ludwig Poggemann (CC-BY)

The Difference Between Hacking and Attacking

In this age of terrorism and anxiety, we sometimes let loose a little too freely with loaded words like “attack.” Take the case of LulzSec, the humorous hacker collective that brought down the CIA’s World Factbook, penetrated PBS and resurrected Tupac. (more)

Posted on Aug 1, 2011 READ MORE  |  6 COMMENTS



Illustration by Mr. Fish

America’s Disappeared

Torture, prolonged detention without trial, sexual humiliation, rape, disappearance, extortion, looting, random murder and abuse have become, as in Argentina during the Dirty War, part of our own subterranean world of detention sites and torture centers.

Posted on Jul 18, 2011 READ MORE  |  110 COMMENTS



Flickr / Marion Doss

Human Rights Watch: Prosecute the Bush War Criminals

A U.S.-based human rights group published a report Tuesday calling on foreign governments to prosecute George W. Bush and some of his chief officials in light of a growing body of evidence of war crimes. (more)

Posted on Jul 12, 2011 READ MORE  |  8 COMMENTS



Eddy (CC-BY-ND)

WikiLeaks, Wimbledon and War

Last Saturday, Julian Assange joined me and Slovenian philosopher Slavoj Zizek for a public conversation about WikiLeaks, the power of information and the importance of transparency in democracies.

Posted on Jul 5, 2011 READ MORE  |  32 COMMENTS


Obama Nearly Triples Bagram Detainee Population

The number of detainees held at a Guantanamo-like military detention center in Afghanistan has almost tripled in the three years since President Obama took office. (more)

Posted on Jun 5, 2011 READ MORE  |  6 COMMENTS



Flickr / sanfamedia.com

Wife Is Allowed to See Jailed Chinese Activist

According to his wife, who was granted a visit with the dissident artist for the first time in the six weeks since he was detained at an airport and accused of tax evasion, Chinese authorities seem to be looking after the physical welfare of Ai Weiwei. The news dispels earlier rumors that he was being physically tortured, though he appeared mentally distressed, his wife said.

Posted on May 16, 2011 READ MORE  |  2 COMMENTS



Collage from images by Dan Raustadt (CC-BY-SA) and Thomas J. O'Halloran.

The Return of the Real McCain

John McCain has returned to his senses, just in time to refute the sinister attempt by his fellow Republicans to justify torture as the instrument of Osama bin Laden’s demise.

Posted on May 12, 2011 READ MORE  |  39 COMMENTS


Torture Is Still Torture

It wasn’t torture that revealed Osama bin Laden’s hiding place. Finding and killing the world’s most-wanted terrorist took years of patient intelligence gathering and dogged detective work, plus a little luck.

Posted on May 5, 2011 READ MORE  |  71 COMMENTS



Photo illustration from an image by Colin Grey

Truthdig Radio: Debunking the bin Laden Torture Myth

This week on Truthdig Radio, Mark Danner debunks the bin Laden torture myth; Sharon Smith gives us tips for young activists; Holger Keifel makes art out of boxing; and Chris Hedges says Osama bin Laden’s death will lead to only more terrorism.

Posted on May 4, 2011 READ MORE


Truthdig Radio: Debunking the bin Laden Torture Myth (Update: Transcript)

This week on Truthdig Radio, Mark Danner debunks the bin Laden torture myth; Sharon Smith gives us tips for young activists; Holger Keifel makes art out of boxing; and Chris Hedges says Osama bin Laden’s death will lead to only more terrorism.

Posted on May 4, 2011 READ MORE



Flickr / Protest Photos1

Gray Lady Catches Heat for Torture Terminology

Dan Kennedy of Media Nation used The Guardian to attack The New York Times for its squeamishness about calling “enhanced interrogation” what it is—torture. (more)

Posted on May 4, 2011 READ MORE  |  3 COMMENTS



Flickr / Gage Skidmore

No Waterboarding Used to Obtain bin Laden Intel, Rumsfeld Says

Former Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld has thrown cold water on the argument that extreme interrogation methods are necessary to prevent terrorist attacks, telling NewsMax that waterboarding was not used to identify Osama bin Laden’s courier.

Posted on May 3, 2011 READ MORE  |  5 COMMENTS



Wikimedia Commons

WikiLeaks’ Guantanamo Files Released

A large cache of military documents, obtained by WikiLeaks, reveals what many Guantanamo critics have alleged for years: The U.S. government detained and tortured suspects who it knew had no legitimate intel value.

Posted on Apr 25, 2011 READ MORE  |  28 COMMENTS


U.S.-Backed Bloodshed Stains Bahrain’s Arab Spring

One month into Bahrain’s uprising, Saudi Arabia sent military and police forces over the 16-mile causeway that connects the Saudi mainland to Bahrain, an island. Since then, the protesters, the press and human-rights organizations have suffered increasingly violent repression.

Posted on Apr 12, 2011 READ MORE  |  52 COMMENTS



Wikimedia Commons

China on U.S. Human Rights Scolding: Look Who’s Talking

The U.S. and China are bickering again over human rights after the U.S. condemned the arrest of Chinese dissidents. Beijing dismissed Washington’s latest criticism and said the U.S. is beset by violence, racism and torture and thus has no authority to condemn the actions of other governments. Above, Ai Weiwei, a jailed activist.

Posted on Apr 10, 2011 READ MORE  |  9 COMMENTS


‘Democracy Now!’: Psychologist Accused of Torture in Guantanamo Interrogations

Amy Goodman reports on Dr. John Leso, a psychologist who allegedly participated in the torture (or “harsh interrogation,” his defenders might say) of Guantanamo detainees and now faces trial in New York.

Posted on Apr 6, 2011 READ MORE


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A Progressive Journal of News and Opinion. Editor, Robert Scheer. Publisher, Zuade Kaufman.
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