CIA Blogger Fired for Anti-Torture Post

Staff / Truthdig Jul 22, 2006 Christine Axsmith, a software contractor for the CIA, was fired when she posted a blog entry to the agency's closed network stating her opposition to torture. The post started like this: "Waterboarding is Torture and Torture is Wrong." Such a sad confirmation of our government's dismal human rights policies that so obvious a statement qualifies as grounds for termination. Dig deeper ( 1 Min. Read )

U.S. Will Give All U.S. Detainees Geneva Rights

Staff / Truthdig Jul 11, 2006 The White House said this morning that every prisoner in Gitmo and in US military custody everywhere is entitled to Geneva Convention protections Bush spokesman Tony Snow claimed that this apparent about-face is "not really a reversal of policy," while admitting that it stems directly from the Supreme Court's striking down of Bush's military tribunals Reminder: This is far from total victory Constitutional expert Glenn Greenwald reminds us that the Hamdan ruling also removed any conceivable argument to support Bush's illegal wiretapping programs, and we haven't heard about any policy shift on that front . Dig deeper ( 1 Min. Read )

Court Ruling May Cancel Bush’s ‘Blank Check’ for Terror War

Staff / Truthdig Jun 29, 2006 Specifically, today's Supreme Court ruling held that the president overstepped his authority in ordering military war crimes trials for Guantanamo Bay detainees. But more important, Think Progress interprets the ruling to mean that "the Authorization for the Use of Military Force -- issued by Congress in the days after 9/11 -- is not a blank check for the administration." Also, SCOTUSblog says the ruling means that the Geneva Convention does apply to the conflict with Al Qaeda, and consequently "this almost certainly means that the CIA's interrogation tactics of waterboarding and hypothermia (and others) violate the War Crimes Act." Dig deeper ( 2 Min. Read )