Torturers

San Francisco ( Tomdispatch.com) – Sometimes the good guys do win. That’s what happened on August 8th in San Francisco when the Council of Representatives of the American Psychological Association (APA) decided to extend a policy keeping its members out of the U.S. detention center at Guantánamo Bay, Cuba. The APA’s decision is important — […]

Featured

Torture works . . . to produce Fake News (and that’s how we Got into Iraq)

Juan Cole

By Juan Cole | (Informed Comment) | – – I told this story back in 2005 but it is a good story, has held up, and bears repeating now that President Trump is again promoting torture as “effective.” Torture is a good way to get people to tell you what they think you want to […]

Donald Trump

Will Donald Trump bring back torture? Can Foreign leaders stop him?

contributors

By Vincent Charles Keating | (The Conversation) | – – There can be no doubt that the swearing in of Donald Trump on January 20 will usher in a new era for the United States. But the president-elect’s open support for torture and waterboarding could mean his inauguration also marks a return to what President […]

Donald Trump

Donald Trump claims torture ‘works’ – but what does the science say?

contributors

By Coral Dando | (The Conversation) | – – The US president-elect Donald Trump has on several occasions insisted that torture is a good idea and that procedures such as water-boarding are not “tough enough” when dealing with terrorist groups like Islamic State. The view is clearly morally and ethically questionable. But if we put […]

Bill of Rights

Will Trump Bring in a New Era of Surveillance and Torture?

contributors

TeleSur | – – Trump’s picks for important security positions look intent on rolling back civil liberties. While there are many questions about what U.S. President-elect Donald Trump will change once he officially takes office on Jan. 20, one of the biggest questions, and indeed concerns, is what a Trump administration will bring in terms […]

Bill of Rights

Snowden on Torture Report: “When the CIA destroys s.th., it’s never a Mistake”

contributors

TeleSur | — After the CIA inspector general admitted it destroyed a 6,700 page report on torture, the famed whistleblower said the CIA does not destroy by “accident.” Edward Snowden commented this week on the CIA inspector general office’s “mistaken” destruction of its only copy of a top secret torture report: ““When the CIA destroys […]

Bush

Not al-Qaeda: Abu Zubayda as Bush’s Mengele Experiment

contributors

By Rebecca Gordon | ( Tomdispatch.com) | – – Intro: Rebecca Gordon catches the nightmarish quality of those [Bush] years, now largely buried, in the grim case of a single mistreated human being. It should make Americans shudder. She has also just published a new book, American Nuremberg: The U.S. Officials Who Should Stand Trial […]

National Security Agency

Is Trump Right on Torture?

contributors

Written by Bridge Initiative Team | ( Bridge) | – – In the wake of the Belgium terrorist attacks, Republican presidential front-runner Donald Trump has double-downed on his position in favor of torture. In a recent telephone interview with CNN’s Wolf Blitzer, Trump argued “we have to change our law on the waterboarding thing,” that […]

Republican Party

GOP Candidates’ Sick, Illegal, Fixation on Torture

contributors

By John Kiriakou | (Otherwords.org) | – – GOP presidential candidates are endorsing torture, again. For anyone who cares deeply about being informed, watching Republican presidential debates can feel like a form of torture. But the program becomes more terrifying altogether when their ignorance is hitched to an endorsement of actual torture. At the latest […]