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The kangaroo courts begin to collapse

Tuesday, May 13, 2008 9:30 PM
The sham "trials" of detainees at Guantanamo have always been legally and Constitutionally invalid, but they were continuing anyway. Now, the process of these show trials has met some blowback from within the Pentagon (in contrast to civilian trials,
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Another Yoo torture memo

Thursday, May 08, 2008 11:40 PM
In August 2002, John Yoo wrote an infamous memo on behalf of the Justice Department's Office of Legal Counsel which attempted to justify the use of torture by the CIA. The memo has since been released ( PDF here ), widely circulated, and then disavowed
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On the Olympic torch protests

Thursday, April 10, 2008 10:26 PM
When China was awarded the 2008 Olympics seven years ago, the executive director of the International Olympic Committee made the announcement with breathtaking naiveté : Beijing was the front-runner throughout the race, even with criticism about its human
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The horrid Colombia "Free" Trade Agreement, in a nutshell

Tuesday, April 08, 2008 1:11 PM
President Bush signed the Colombia Free Trade Agreement yesterday and sent it to Congress for consideration, over the objections of practically anyone with a conscience : President Bush’s decision to send the U.S.-Colombia Free Trade Agreement (FTA) to
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Give these people money, right now

Wednesday, March 26, 2008 10:40 PM
Of all the humanitarian aid organizations in the world, Doctors Without Borders (Médecins Sans Frontières) stands head and shoulders above the rest. They go where the Red Cross and others dare not. In the face of murderous assaults on aid workers, in
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"Baby Doc" Bush vetos bill banning waterboarding

Saturday, March 08, 2008 6:32 PM
George "Baby Doc" Bush vetoed a bill today that would have banned the CIA from torturing people using waterboarding. The bill would have required the CIA and other government agencies to abide by the interrogation guidelines set forth in the US Army Field
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Some clarity on GOP scare tactics

Tuesday, February 26, 2008 10:20 PM
Senators Jay Rockefeller and Patrick Leahy and Congressmen Silvestre Reyes and John Conyers have an op-ed piece in tomorrow's Christian Science Monitor that calls out the White House on its fear-mongering tactics regarding warrantless surveillance : Our
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White House surprised by Kosovo independence?

Monday, February 18, 2008 6:12 PM
While on a tour of several African countries, George Bush acknowledged Kosovo's recent declaration of independence from Serbia and stated that the US would soon establish reciprocal diplomatic relations : President Bush hailed the newly independent Kosovo
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Spielberg tells China where to stick it

Thursday, February 14, 2008 10:01 PM
Steven Spielberg resigned this week as the artistic adviser for the 2008 Beijing Olympic Games. He disassociated himself from the Chinese as a protest against their unclean hands regarding Darfur: Mr. Spielberg accused Beijing of not putting enough pressure
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McCain's hypocrisy on torture

Wednesday, February 13, 2008 9:15 PM
On the subject of waterboarding, here's John McCain, who was tortured by the North Vietnamese, last October : Waterboarding is a form of torture no matter how it is done and should be a prohibited among U.S. military interrogation practices, Republican
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The continuing crisis

Tuesday, February 12, 2008 9:33 PM
Today's updates on the continuing decline: The six Guantanamo detainees who are slated to be tried by the Bush administration's kangaroo courts are now facing the death penalty; if that's their sentence, they'll be executed at Guantanamo . The charges,
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US admits to torture, refuses to prosecute

Thursday, February 07, 2008 8:35 PM
In the span of just a couple of days, the disastrous Bush administration has admitted that it has ordered the use of torture and may do so in the future if it feels like it , whether it's legal or not . And if it's illegal, no one will be prosecuted for
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Update on Canadian torture watch list

Saturday, January 19, 2008 4:15 PM
A couple of days ago, I blogged about the US showing up on a Canadian watch list of countries that practice torture. As a result of behind-the-scenes political pressure, the US and Israel have since been dropped from that list: Canada's foreign ministry,
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Canada places US on torture watch list

Thursday, January 17, 2008 9:29 PM
This is beyond shameful (via HuffPo ): An inquiry into the Arar affair ordered a new focus on torture, and CTV News has learned that, as part of a "torture awareness workshop," diplomats are now being told where to watch for abuse. The aim of the workshop:
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The topsy-turvy state of human rights

Friday, January 11, 2008 9:55 PM
Throughout the Cold War, propagandists in this country consistently painted the US as the world's champion of human rights and the rule of law, while the Soviet Union and its member states were cast as paragons of evil. Although neither characterization
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Justice to "investigate" CIA tape destruction

Wednesday, January 02, 2008 9:53 PM
Attorney General Michael Mukasey announced today that he has initiated an investigation into potential criminal wrongdoing by the CIA in its destruction of video tapes which showed the torture of detainees by US personnel : "Following a preliminary inquiry
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Urbi et Orbi

Tuesday, December 25, 2007 10:53 AM
The Pope said this in his 2007 Urbi et Orbi speech: Benedict said he was turning his thoughts this Christmas to victims of other injustices, citing women, children and the elderly, as well as refugees and victims of environmental disasters and religious
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CIA covering up more of its crimes

Saturday, December 22, 2007 9:28 PM
This should come as absolutely no surprise to anyone: Former members and staffers of the 9/11 Commission have concluded that the CIA withheld videotapes of harsh interrogation sessions even after specific and "very detailed" requests about the two prisoners
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More torture evidence waiting to be destroyed

Monday, December 10, 2007 8:48 PM
After the revelation that the CIA had destroyed many hours of video proving they had used torture, this story takes on a new urgency : Lawyers for a British resident who the US government refuses to release from Guantanamo Bay have identified the existence
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Destroying evidence of their crimes

Friday, December 07, 2007 10:59 AM
The bombshell du jour should come as no surprise to anyone : The CIA made videotapes in 2002 of its officers administering harsh interrogation techniques to two al-Qaeda suspects but destroyed the tapes three years later, CIA Director Michael V. Hayden
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