HARPER’S– Advocates often portray torture, like waterboarding, as black magic that quickly enables the interrogator to break through his subject’s defenses and force him to divulge the location of the bomb that will destroy Los Angeles. But what does the scientific literature say? A 2006 Intelligence Science Board flatly noted that there was no data supporting the claim that torture … Read More
RAW STORY– In a brief filed Thursday evening, Obama Justice Department lawyers extended many of the same arguments made by Bush attorneys — that top government officials have qualified immunity from prosecution and that Guantanamo detainees do not have constitutional rights to due process. The Department of Justice has asserted that a Supreme Court ruling reaffirming the rights of Guantanamo … Read More
WASHINGTON POST– President Obama rebuffed calls for a commission to investigate alleged abuses under the Bush administration in fighting terrorism, telling congressional leaders at a White House meeting yesterday that he wants to look forward instead of litigating the past. In a lengthy exchange with House Minority Leader John A. Boehner (R-Ohio), Obama appeared to back away from a statement … Read More
NEW YORK TIMES– To paraphrase Al Pacino in “Godfather III,” just when we thought we were out, the Bush mob keeps pulling us back in. And will keep doing so. No matter how hard President Obama tries to turn the page on the previous administration, he can’t. Until there is true transparency and true accountability, revelations of that unresolved eight-year … Read More
TIMES ONLINE– CIA interrogators used the controverisal waterboarding technique 183 times on Khalid Sheikh Mohammed, the mastermind behind the September 11, 2001, attacks and 83 times on another al-Qaeda suspect, according to The New York Times. A 2005 Justice Department memorandum revealed that the simulated drowning technique was used on Mohammed 183 times in March 2003. Abu Zubaydah, the first … Read More
