torture

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Former Gitmo Prisoner Fights to Save Torture Photo

Says Pentagon wants to kill 'abuse evidence'

(Newser) - A Guantanamo prisoner released to Britain after seven years in detention is fighting to keep the Pentagon from destroying a photograph he says proves he was abused, reports the Guardian. Binyam Mohamed does not have copies of the image, taken after he was brutally beaten, but he knows it exists...

Mousavi Backers Tortured, Told to Confess Foreign Plot

Regime seeks to force 'confessions' implicating reformist in conspiracy

(Newser) - Iran's opposition says prominent supporters have been tortured in an effort to extract "confessions" that foreign forces in league with Mir Hossein Mousavi are plotting against the Islamic republic, the Guardian reports. Amnesty International, citing "very credible sources," says screams have been heard from reformist politicians jailed...

Iran Teen Describes, Via Email, His Torture

(Newser) - Iranian-American activists are circulating an email, written in Farsi, in which a 17-year-old boy describes his torture at the hands of the regime, complete with graphic photographs, Salon reports. The boy, who says he's not an activist of any stripe, says he was minding his own business in a parking...

Torture Shrinks Rehired by CIA, Fired by Panetta

Contracts renewed after inauguration, then killed in April

(Newser) - The CIA renewed contracts with several psychologists considered the architects of waterboarding and other brutal techniques tantamount to torture a month after Barack Obama's inauguration. The revelation comes in a piece by New Yorker reporter Jane Meyer on Leon Panetta, the new CIA director, who nixed their contracts after his...

Cheney Almost Wants Attack on US Soil: CIA Head

(Newser) - CIA Director Leon Panetta says former Vice President Dick Cheney's criticism of the Obama administration's approach to terrorism almost suggests "he's wishing that this country would be attacked again, in order to make his point." Panetta told The New Yorker that Cheney "smells some blood in the...

London Cops Waterboarded Drug Suspects: Report

Officers also accused of fabricating evidence, theft

(Newser) - London police subjected accused pot dealers to waterboarding, charges a major inquiry into corruption and police brutality in the British capital. The investigation also claims that officers fabricated evidence and stole property from suspects in a drug case. Six officers are facing criminal proceedings, reports the Times of London, but...

Khmer Rouge Chief Admits Smashing Babies

'Duch' accepts blame for killing babies, children, teens

(Newser) - The former chief jailer of the Khmer Rouge told a war crimes tribunal yesterday that it was standard policy to kill babies and children by smashing their heads against trees, the Independent reports. The commander, known as  Duch, accepted full responsibility for his actions. He told the tribunal that he...

Laura Bush: Sotomayor a 'Good Nominee'
Laura Bush: Sotomayor a 'Good Nominee'
Interview

Laura Bush: Sotomayor a 'Good Nominee'

Former first lady says hubby is too gracious to attack Obama

(Newser) - George and Laura Bush aren’t interested in criticizing the new administration, Laura Bush tells ABC News, and she actually supports Sonia Sotomayor. The former first lady called Sotomayor “a very interesting and good nominee,” adding, “As a woman, I’m proud that there might be another...

Gitmo Detainee: I Was Tortured
 Gitmo Detainee: I Was Tortured 
Interview

Gitmo Detainee: I Was Tortured

(Newser) - In 2002, Lakhdar Boumediene was a relief worker who cared for orphans. “I’m a normal man,” he says. So when the US shackled him and flew him to Guantanamo Bay, he thought he’d be freed soon. “They have CIA, FBI. Maybe one week, two weeks,...

Intelligence Pick Bows Out Over CIA Tactic Ties

Obama wanted Mudd for top Homeland Security post

(Newser) - President Barack Obama's pick for intelligence chief at the Homeland Security Department withdrew from consideration today amid questions about his role in the CIA's interrogations of suspected terrorists. Philip Mudd was scheduled to appear next week before senators, but notified the White House today that he was withdrawing his name...

Dems Rip GOP for Sharing Interrogation Secrets

House Republicans go on record after closed-door briefing

(Newser) - Democrats are seething today after Republicans told the press about classified intelligence gleaned in a closed-door briefing about interrogation techniques. GOP members told the Hill they were informed that harsh techniques led to information that prevented terrorist attacks. That led Democrats to blast their rivals for disclosing secret information, triggering...

Cheney Championed Interrogations Before Congress

Veep intervened when legislators got twitchy

(Newser) - Dick Cheney personally led at least four briefings with senior House and Senate members about harsh interrogation techniques, reports the Washington Post. The former vice president's interventions took place at critical moments when Congress was threatening to investigate or even outlaw techniques, such as waterboarding, that are widely considered torture....

'Mancow': Waterboarding 'Absolutely Real'

Says term 'hoax' used to throw off police, station management

(Newser) - Erich “Mancow” Muller is outraged by the Gawker report that he faked his own waterboarding, the Chicago Tribune reports. The right-wing shock jock defended himself last night on MSNBC's Countdown: “It’s like saying that Mike Tyson’s daughter didn’t really hang herself,” he said. He...

'Mancow' Waterboarding May Have Been a Hoax

(Newser) - Erich “Mancow” Muller’s on-air waterboarding was a hoax, an anonymous tipster tells Gawker, forwarding a seemingly damning e-mail exchange between the shock jock’s publicist and a veterans group she was hoping could find a torturer. “It is going to have to look ‘real,’”...

Abu Ghraib Photos Don't Show Rape: Pentagon

(Newser) - The Pentagon denies a report that classified photos of prisoner abuse at Abu Ghraib depict rape and sexual abuse, Reuters reports. Britain’s Daily Telegraph “completely mischaracterized the images,” a spokesman said today. “None of the photos in question depict the images that are described.” The...

Abu Ghraib Photos Reveal Rape: US Officer

Guards raped male and female detainees, used wire for sex torture, according to probe

(Newser) - Unreleased photos of prisoner abuse at Abu Ghraib depict apparent rape and sexual abuse, according to a retired American officer who conducted an inquiry at the infamous Iraqi prison. Two photos depict the rape of a male and a female prisoner, while others show sexual assaults using a truncheon, wire,...

Fidel to Cheney: It's Torture
 Fidel to Cheney: It's Torture 

Fidel to Cheney: It's Torture

(Newser) - Fidel Castro thinks those creative forms of interrogation used by the US amount to torture, and he criticized Dick Cheney for defending them, the AP reports. In an online essay, Castro argued that torture should never be used to get information from terror suspects. In fact, he went one better...

Disgusted Mancow: Hannity Still Says It's Not Torture

"Sean, it is torture," wateboarded Mancow tells his buddy

(Newser) - Right-wing mouth Sean Hannity, who chickened out on a dare to be waterboarded for charity, still claims the procedure is not torture, says conservative shock jock Erich "Mancow" Muller, who discovered firsthand it "absolutely" is. Mancow again described his experience being waterboarded to Keith Olbermann last night as...

Waterboarded Shock Jock Mancow: 'Absolutely Torture'

(Newser) - A Chicago radio host submitted himself to a waterboarding demonstration to prove it isn’t torture, but it didn’t work out that way, NBC affiliate WMAQ-TV reports. “Way worse than I thought it would be, and that’s no joke,” Erich “Mancow” Muller said. “I...

You Can't See It, But Cheney's Pants Are on Fire
You Can't See It, But Cheney's Pants Are on Fire
ANALYSIS

You Can't See It, But Cheney's Pants Are on Fire

Ex-veep's speech full of torture distortions

(Newser) - In his full-on assault on the president's conterterrorism policies yesterday, Dick Cheney deployed an arsenal of “omissions, exaggerations and misstatements,” charge Jonathan Landay and Warren Strobel of McClatchy. Among them:
  • Cheney claimed that harsh interrogations yielded vital, attack-preventing information and quoted Adm. Dennis Blair, director of national intelligence.
...

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