NewsTrust - Torture - Most Recent Stories: Opinion (Independent)

The Big Distractions

Thu, 23 Feb 2012 00:00:00 -0800

Dissident Voice - Feb. 23 (Opinion) - The lesser of two evils is still… evil. Who decides what the American public focuses its attention upon on a day-to-day basis? With this nation at war with innumerable countries, with habeas corpus being tossed into the waste bin, with self-confessed tor

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Afghanistan: “The War is Unwinnable: It is a Stalemate. There is No Victory”

Tue, 01 Nov 2011 00:00:00 -0700

Democracy Now - By Amy Goodman, Jonathan Steele - Nov. 01 (Interview) - The U.S.-led war in Afghanistan, now entering its eleventh year, shows no sign of ending. On Saturday, 12 U.S. soldiers died in a suicide bombing in Kabul. It was deadliest single ground attack against NATO forces in the decade of war. To discuss Afghanistan, we speak with Jonathan Steele, a longtime correspondent for the The Guardian newspaper and author of the new book, "Ghosts of Afghanistan: The Haunted Battleground.” “The [U.S. military strategy] doesn't work because you create new resistance by being there. So resistance comes 'cause you're there. You're not there because of the resistance. The occupying force itself creates the resistance,” Steele said. “And so the crucial thing now is to recognize now is that the war is unwinnable: It is a stalemate. There is no victory." [Transcript to come. Check back soon.]

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Noam Chomsky on Israel-Palestine Prisoner Exchange, U.S. Assassination Campaign in Yemen

Tue, 18 Oct 2011 00:00:00 -0700

Democracy Now - By Noam Chomsky - Oct. 18 (Speech) - MIT Professor Emeritus Noam Chomsky, the world-renowned linguist and political dissident, spoke Monday night at Barnard College in New York City about the Israeli-Palestinian conflict, just hours before Israel and Hamas completed a historic prisoner exchange. "I think [Israeli soldier Gilad Shalit] should have been released a long time ago. But there’s something missing from this whole story. There’s no pictures of Palestinian women, and no discussion, in fact, in the story of—what about the Palestinian prisoners being released?

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Former CIA Agent Glenn Carle Draws Agency Censorship With Chronicle of "War on Terror" Interrogation

Wed, 22 Jun 2011 00:00:00 -0700

Democracy Now - By Amy Goodman - Jun. 22 (Interview) - We speak with Glenn Carle, who served 23 years in the Clandestine Services of the Central Intelligence Agency. Carle's book, "The Interrogator," has just been published and tells the story of one of the most secret and sensitive CIA interrogations during the "war on terror." Carle says he took part in the interrogation of a "high-value" al-Qaeda target kidnapped off the streets at an undisclosed site in the Middle East. The book chronicles this interrogation and Carle says that CIA censors initially tried to redact nearly half of the book's first draft, which was still published with significant blacked-out omissions.

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Three Words of Omission When It Comes to Torture

Thu, 09 Jun 2011 00:00:00 -0700

amnestyusa.org - By Matthew Alexander - Jun. 09 (Editorial) - Not a single one of us professional interrogators endorses torture. A former senior military interrogator exposes the popular myth that torture helps the US fight terrorism.

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Rumsfeld Disproves GOP's Tortured Argument

Thu, 05 May 2011 00:00:00 -0700

readersupportednews.org - By Keith Olbermann - May. 05 (Comment) - Guess who’s out tonight denying that waterboarding, or even “harsh treatment” led to the info that led to Bin Laden? “It is true that some information that came from normal interrogation approaches at Guantanamo did lead to information that was beneficial in this instance. But it was not harsh treatment and it was not waterboarding.” That was said by Don Rumsfeld.

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The illogic of the torture debate

Wed, 04 May 2011 00:00:00 -0700

Salon - By Glenn Greenwald - May. 04 (Opinion) - But even if it were the case that valuable information were obtained during or after the use of torture, what would it prove? Nobody has ever argued that brutality will never produce truthful answers. It is sometimes the case that if you torture someone long and mercilessly enough, they will tell you something you want to know.

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Solitary Confinement is Torture

Wed, 05 Jan 2011 00:00:00 -0800

Democracy Now - By Dr. Atul Gawande, Amy Goodman - Jan. 05 (Interview) - The physical and psychological effects experienced by people held for extended periods in solitary confinement is a topic Dr. Atul Gawande has written extensively about. Yesterday, four prisoners in the supermax Ohio State Penitentiary launched a hunger strike to protest being held for more than 17 years years of solitary confinement. The alleged WikiLeaks whistleblower, U.S. Army Private Bradley Manning, has also been held in solitary confinement for much of the past seven months. "People experience solitary confinement as even more damaging than physical torture," says Dr. Gwande.

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Tortured Until Proven Guilty: Bradley Manning and the Case Against Solitary Confinement

Fri, 31 Dec 2010 00:00:00 -0800

Huffington Post - By Lynn Parramore - Dec. 31 (Opinion) - In 1890, the United States Supreme Court nearly declared the punishment unconstitutional. It is banned by the Geneva Convention, condemned by the United Nations, and either prohibited or restricted in most civilized countries. And yet today, as Atul Gawande revealed in his gut-wrenching 2009 New Yorker article, tens of thousands of Americans are tortured in this fashion every day, out of sight, in the "Supermax" prisons that have popped up like poisoned mushrooms on the American landscape since the 1980s. Some prisoners are consigned to these Houses of Unholiness for violations - both major and minor -- of prison rules. Some for gang activity. Others for trying to escape. Or for violent behavior. Some are placed there because they are mentally ill and there is nowhere else to put them -- the equivalent of casting a sufferer of pneumonia onto an Arctic tundra.

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2010: The Year In Crazy, Pt. 2

Tue, 28 Dec 2010 00:00:00 -0800

This Modern World - By Tom Tomorrow - Dec. 28 (Cartoon) - An incomplete and subjective look at the year in crazy.

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2010: The Year In Crazy, Pt. 1

Tue, 21 Dec 2010 00:00:00 -0800

This Modern World - By Tom Tomorrow - Dec. 21 (Cartoon) - An incomplete and subjective look at the year in crazy.

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Bradley Manning: WikiLeaks Alleged Source’s Life in Prison

Fri, 17 Dec 2010 00:00:00 -0800

The Daily Beast - By Denver Nicks - Dec. 17 (Interview) - The last time Bradley Manning saw the world outside of a jail, most Americans had never heard of WikiLeaks. On Friday, Manning, the man whose alleged unauthorized release of hundreds of thousands of classified documents put the website and its controversial leader, Julian Assange, on the map, turns 23 behind bars. Since his arrest in May, Manning has spent most of his 200-plus days in solitary confinement. Other than receiving a card and some books from his family, his birthday will be no different. In an exclusive interview with The Daily Beast, his attorney, David Coombs, revealed key details about Manning’s imprisonment and kind gestures from his family that provided a bit of comfort in the inmate's otherwise extremely harsh incarceration.

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As WikiLeaks' Assange Freed on Bail, Alleged Military Leaker Bradley Manning Imprisoned Under Inhumane Conditions

Thu, 16 Dec 2010 00:00:00 -0800

Democracy Now - By Glenn Greenwald, Amy Goodman, Juan Gonzalez - Dec. 16 (Interview) - A High court in London has upheld a decision to grant bail to WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange. But what about US Army Private Bradley Manning? The army intelligence analyst has been held for the last seven months on suspicion of leaking the massive trove of government documents to WikiLeaks. Manning. Salon.com blogger Glenn Greenwald says Manning is being held under conditions that constitute cruel and inhumane treatment -- and even torture.

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The inhumane conditions of Bradley Manning's detention

Wed, 15 Dec 2010 00:00:00 -0800

Salon - By Glenn Greenwald - Dec. 15 (Opinion) - Bradley Manning, the 22-year-old U.S. Army Private accused of leaking classified documents to WikiLeaks, has never been convicted of that crime, nor of any other crime. Despite that, he has been detained at the U.S. Marine brig in Quantico, Virginia for five months -- and for two months before that in a military jail in Kuwait -- under conditions that constitute cruel and inhumane treatment and, by the standards of many nations, even torture.

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Keith Olbermann's Tax Cut Special Comment: Obama 'Goddamned Wrong' On Deal, Betrayed His Base (VIDEO)

Wed, 08 Dec 2010 00:00:00 -0800

Huffington Post - By Jack Mirkinson, Keith Olbermann - Dec. 08 (Opinion) - Keith Olbermann tore into President Obama over his tax cut compromise, calling him "goddamned wrong" and accusing the president of betraying his base. Olbermann called the compromise, which the New York Times has reported will mostly benefit the wealthy and actually raise taxes on the poor, a "searing and transcendent capitulation," saying that Obama had "bowed" to the rich by accepting tax cuts that will bring no benefit to the economy.

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U.N. Special Rapporteur Juan Mendez: Instead of Focusing on Assange, U.S. Should Address WikiLeaks' Disclosures of Torture

Thu, 02 Dec 2010 00:00:00 -0800

Democracy Now - By Juan Méndez, Amy Goodman - Dec. 02 (Interview) - We speak to Juan Méndez, the new U.N. Special Rapporteur on Torture and Other Cruel, Inhuman and Degrading Treatment or Punishment. He has called on the United States to investigate and prosecute torture committed under former President George W. Bush. He also said he hopes to visit Iraq and Guantánamo Bay to probe widespread torture allegations. Méndez says, "We seem to be focusing on whether disclosing these cables ... merits some kinds of action against Julian Assange... I’m very concerned about the documents that show that literally thousands of people were first imprisoned by American forces and then transferred to the control of forces in Iraq and perhaps even in Afghanistan, where they knew that these people were going to be tortured."

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Costs of Convenience

Fri, 26 Nov 2010 00:00:00 -0800

Huffington Post - By Ashley Judd - Nov. 26 (Opinion) - I dream of the day when Apple and other electronics companies fully commit to tracing, auditing, and certifying the minerals they use in their products, and rape minerals are successfully excluded from the marketplace. We no longer have lead in our paint. Companies report with full transparency contents and manufacturing processes in order to assure public health and gain consumer confidence. This is no different. It is a minimum standard of conduct. I dream of the day when North Americans recoil in horror at the introduction of an otherwise revolutionary and exciting electronic product that lacks TAC....when the queues are expressions of solidarity for 11-year-old mine slaves, women whose vaginas have been perforated by object insertion rape, and families forced to eat one another in each other's presence.

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Remember This, the Next Time an American Soldier is Tortured

Sat, 13 Nov 2010 00:00:00 -0800

sensen-no-sen.blogspot.com - By Pbi - Nov. 13 (Opinion) - The hypocrisy of our collective, shoulder-shrug in the face of a presidential admission to war crimes is not only the deepest of stains on our national character, but corrosive to our foundational principles of equal justice and fuel for the fires of our enemies.

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Argentine Torture Survivor Patricia Isasa Tells of Her Struggle to Bring Her Torturers to Justice

Fri, 12 Nov 2010 00:00:00 -0800

Democracy Now - By Amy Goodman - Nov. 12 (Interview) - We speak with Patricia Isasa, a torture survivor from Argentina's military dictatorship. She was a sixteen-year old student union organizer in 1976 when she was kidnapped by police and soldiers, and tortured and held prisoner without trial for two and a half years at one of the 585 clandestine detention and torture centers set up during the dictatorship. After a long legal battle to bring her torturers to justice, six of her nine torturers were recently sentenced to prison.

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Bush Boasts of Waterboard Order

Sun, 07 Nov 2010 00:00:00 -0700

Consortium News - By Ray McGovern - Nov. 07 (Opinion) - For such a frank admission of high-level criminality, we can say, with ample justification, Shame on Bush. But that shame also sticks like Saran wrap to the rest of us – and especially to the Fawning Corporate Media (FCM), which has soft-pedaled the significance of Bush’s confession, and to his make-nice successor, Barack Obama, who has refused to demand any accountability.

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Ray McGovern on WikiLeaks Assault

Thu, 28 Oct 2010 00:00:00 -0700

Consortium News - By Ray McGovern - Oct. 28 (Opinion) - The U.S. news media is framing the debate about the WikiLeaks revelations of the Iraq War's savagery as a story about the alleged misconduct of WikiLeaks' founder Julian Assange, in an attempt to destroy the message by discrediting the messenger, says former CIA analyst Ray McGovern.

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Washington Post Downplays Iraq War Crimes

Wed, 27 Oct 2010 00:00:00 -0700

Consortium News - By Robert Parry - Oct. 27 (Opinion) - The Post editors also sought to shift responsibility for the death toll away from the Bush administration – and themselves – by noting that “the vast majority of Iraqi civilian deaths were caused by other Iraqis, not by coalition forces.” But that argument misses the point understood by the Nuremberg Tribunals – that it is the original war of aggression that unpacks all the other evils of war

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America the Exceptional

Sat, 11 Sep 2010 00:00:00 -0700

Salon - By Glenn Greenwald - Sep. 11 (Opinion) - So, to recap: the U.S. creates a worldwide regime of torture, disappearances and lawless imprisonment. Then, the Bush administration, the Obama administration, and the American federal judiciary all collaborate to shield the guilty parties from all accountability (Look Forward, Not Backward!), and worse, to ensure that not a single victim can even access American courts to obtain a ruling as to the legality of what was done to them, let alone receive compensation for their suffering, even while recognizing that many of the victims were completely innocent and even though other countries have provided the victims with compensation for their much more minor role in what happened. Our courts even ensure that Blackwater guards are shielded from prosecution for the cold-blooded murder of Iraqi citizens. But we invade, occupy and destroy Iraq -- while severely abusing, torturing and killing their citizens -- and then demand, as a condition for our allowing the end of crippling sanctions, that they fork over hundreds of millions of dollars in compensation to American torture victims, even though it all happened 20 years ago, under an Iraqi regime that no longer even exists. They hate us for our Freedoms.

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"Torture" Study Reveals Appalling Cowardice of America's Newspapers

Thu, 01 Jul 2010 00:00:00 -0700

Media Matters - By Will Bunch - Jul. 01 (Opinion) - On the one hand, waterboarding is torture. On the other hand.... I'm sorry -- there is no other hand. Waterboarding is torture, period. It's been that way for decades -- it was torture when we went after Japanese war criminals who used the ancient and inhumane interrogation tactic, it was torture when Pol Pot and some of the worst dictators known to mankind used it against their own people, and it was torture to the U.S. military which once punished soldiers who adopted the grim practice. And waterboarding was described as "torture," almost without fail, in America's newspapers. Until 2004, after the arrival of George W. Bush, Dick Cheney, and their criminal notions of "enhanced interrogations." For four years -- in what would have to be the bizarro-world version of "speaking truth to power," waterboarding was almost never torture on U.S. newsprint. Then waterboarding-as-torture nearly made a mild comeback in journo-world, until perpetrators like Cheney and Inquirer op-ed columnist John Yoo began the big pushback, when American newspapers bravely turned their tails and fled.

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New Study Documents Media's Servitude To Government

Wed, 30 Jun 2010 00:00:00 -0700

Salon - By Glenn Greenwald - Jun. 30 (Opinion) - An analysis by Harvard students reveals that the media shifted torture standards and even language on command.

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