This Day in Infamy: Gitmo’s Birthday

Staff / Truthdig Nov 14, 2009 Feliz cumpleaños, Gitmo: Eight years ago Friday, then-President George W. Bush signed what we now refer to as Military Order No. 1, thus paving the way for the creation of the Guantanamo Bay prison and for the creative adaptations of international justice codes that supported it. Dig deeper ( 1 Min. Read )

Tortured Law

Staff / Truthdig Oct 8, 2009 A new short film by the group Alliance for Justice examines the role that lawyers played in authorizing and legitimizing torture under the Bush administration. It calls on the attorney general to investigate not just CIA operatives but the authors of torture memos in the Justice Department's Office of Legal Counsel. 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 )

Defending John Yoo

Staff / Truthdig May 27, 2009 What was behind The Philadelphia Inquirer's decision to give torture memo draftsman John Yoo a platform to air his views as a columnist? The paper's publisher, Brian Tierney, endorses Yoo to WHYY's "Radio Times" host Marty Moss-Coane, while fellow guest and Philadelphia Daily News journalist Will Bunch offers a different take on George W. Bush's erstwhile legal adviser. Dig deeper ( 1 Min. Read )

In Praise of Empathy

Ellen Goodman / Truthdig May 21, 2009 So it is that I am watching the run-up to the nomination of a new Supreme Court justice with eyes wide open. We've already had pre-emptive strikes against three women on the media short list. Elena Kagan, Diane Wood and Sonia Sotomayor are getting the scary radical treatment without even getting picked. Dig deeper ( 3 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 )

Bush Lawyers Likely in the Clear

Staff / Truthdig May 6, 2009 A Justice Department report suggests that the possibility of legal consequence for those who broke the law is steadily waning, as Bush administration lawyers who approved the torture-interrogation technique of waterboarding will likely escape prosecution. Dig deeper ( 1 Min. Read )

Torture’s Paradigm Shift

Staff / Truthdig Apr 22, 2009 In their effort to build a "new paradigm" for dealing with enemy prisoners, senior Bush administration officials, according to a report released by the Senate Armed Services Committee, suppressed or ignored conflicting legal opinions to ensure that "aggressive interrogation techniques" (torture) would be available to interrogators. 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 )

Way Beyond Waterboarding

Staff / Truthdig Jul 2, 2008 Last week Rep. John Conyers tried to get a straight answer out of John Yoo, the former Bush administration lawyer who argued that the president had a legal right to order torture. The spectacle of Yoo equivocating over whether the president could have someone buried alive is something to behold. Dig deeper ( 1 Min. Read )

The Tortured Law on Torture

Robert Scheer / Truthdig May 14, 2008 Ah, yes, those torture confessions have proved so useful. That, at least, was the claim of our president in justifying one of the most egregious assaults ever on this nation's commitment to the rule of law. But now comes news that charges have been dropped against the so-called Sept. 11 attacks' 20th hijacker, one of dozens so identified, because the "evidence" he supplied under torture and later recanted is not credible enough to go to trial. Dig deeper ( 3 Min. Read )