Will U.S. Torturers Ever Be Held Accountable as War Criminals?

Marjorie Cohn / Truthout May 18, 2018 Gina Haspel's confirmation as CIA director sends a message to future administrations that those who authorize and facilitate torture will escape liability. Dig deeper ( 8 Min. Read )

Prosecutorial Misconduct Reaches Epidemic Proportions

Bill Blum / Truthdig Mar 26, 2018 From the Bush-era torture memos to everyday criminal trials, prosecutorial misconduct has been running rampant. Dig deeper ( 7 Min. Read )

Waterboard Memo Authors Won’t Be Investigated

Staff / Truthdig Feb 21, 2010 Officially closing the hotly contested chapter on how the Bush administration conducted its war on terror, the Justice Department has rejected calls for ethics investigations against the two lawyers who wrote and signed off on the memos justifying the waterboarding of detainees. Dig deeper ( 1 Min. Read )

Basis of Domestic Surveillance Was ‘Flawed,’ Report Finds

Staff / Truthdig Jul 11, 2009 Former President Bush's infamous warrant-free domestic surveillance plan, instituted after 9/11 to monitor potentially suspicious communication between parties within and outside of the U.S., has deservedly gotten a bad rap -- and it's about to get worse, thanks to a congressionally mandated report released Friday. Dig deeper ( 1 Min. Read )

Yoo’s Views Make Philly News

Amy Goodman / Truthdig May 20, 2009 The Philadelphia Inquirer, one of that city's two major daily newspapers, is in the news itself these days after hiring controversial former Bush administration lawyer John Yoo as a monthly columnist. Dig deeper ( 3 Min. Read )

Krugman on Bybee and the ‘Apparatchiks’

Staff / Truthdig Apr 27, 2009 Clearly, Paul Krugman, pictured above, is no fan of federal Judge Jay Bybee, legislative enabler of the "enhanced interrogation technique" that's become one shameful symbol of the past eight years: waterboarding. You know it's not good when Newt Gingrich is held up as a paragon of a bygone, and preferable, brand of Republicanism. Dig deeper ( 1 Min. Read )

Cheney, Rove Struck by ‘Balzheimer’s Disease’

Staff / Truthdig Apr 24, 2009 What has emboldened Dick Cheney and Karl Rove to so brazenly criticize the new administration? Has Cheney lost his trademark sneer since he left the White House? All this and more in this clip from Wednesday's "Daily Show" episode. Dig deeper ( 1 Min. Read )

Torturers Should Be Punished

Amy Goodman / Truthdig Apr 22, 2009 The door to bringing torturers to justice is open only a crack. Whether it is kicked open or slammed shut is not up to the president. Though he may occupy the most powerful office on Earth, there is a force more powerful: committed people demanding change. Dig deeper ( 3 Min. Read )

Obama: Justice Could Prosecute Torture Lawyers

Staff / Truthdig Apr 21, 2009 Responding to reporters Tuesday, the president walked back from his "torture is a thing of the past" policy. While the administration still doesn't want to hassle the good Germans who carried out torture, or even the superiors who ordered it, Obama said the Justice Department may go after the Bush lawyers who tried to legalize such abuses. Dig deeper ( 1 Min. Read )

Bybee Must Go

Marie Cocco / Truthdig Apr 21, 2009 It is astonishing that someone who has proved in his memos to be so lacking in judgment and so ideologically twisted in his reasoning that he laid a blanket of legal immunity over those who wanted to torture now holds one of the most powerful and prestigious seats a lawyer can attain. Dig deeper ( 3 Min. Read )

DoJ Releases Bush-Era Torture Memos

Staff / Truthdig Apr 17, 2009 After President Obama announced that the CIA operatives who employed harsh interrogation methods (read: torture) on suspected terrorists during the Bush administration won't be subject to legal repercussions, the Department of Justice made four "torture memos" publicly available on Thursday. Dig deeper ( 1 Min. Read )

Bush’s Legacy of Torture

Eugene Robinson / Truthdig Jul 29, 2008 I still find it hard to believe that George W. Bush, to his eternal shame and our nation's great discredit, made torture a matter of hair-splitting, legalistic debate at the highest levels of the United States government. But that's precisely what he did. Dig deeper ( 3 Min. Read )