torture

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UN: Syrian Snipers Targeting Children

Regime leaders accused of crimes against humanity

(Newser) - Syrian army snipers are deliberately targeting women and small children, and its security forces are dragging wounded people out of hospitals to be tortured, according to a United Nations report accusing the regime of crimes against humanity. Fragmentation mortar bombs have been fired into densely populated neighborhoods, and the orders...

Libyan Detainees Tortured to Death: Amnesty

Doctors Without Borders suspends work over 'exploitation'

(Newser) - Some of Libya's reported 8,500 detainees have died following torture, says Amnesty International, citing patients with open head, limb, and back wounds. "The torture is being carried out by officially recognized military and security entities as well as by a multitude of armed militias operating outside any...

'20th Hijacker' Sues for Gitmo Torture Tapes

Videos of sessions are 'sickening,' says lawyer

(Newser) - The Saudi national accused of being the "20th hijacker" on 9/11 is suing the government to release what his lawyers call "sickening" videos of his torture at Guantanamo Bay. Mohammed al-Qahtani was the victim of "torture and other profoundly cruel, inhuman, and degrading treatment," involving marathon...

Torture Kills Hundreds of Syrian Prisoners

 Torture Kills Hundreds 
 of Syrian Prisoners 
says group

Torture Kills Hundreds of Syrian Prisoners

Prisoners are deprived of sleep, shocked, claims human rights group

(Newser) - A suicide bomb in Syria's capital, reportedly aimed at a police bus, killed and wounded dozens today, the AP reports, as the country's political turmoil continues. And more disheartening news: A human rights group yesterday claimed that the government regularly tortures hundreds of prisoners; according to its research...

Afghanistan Probes Teen Bride's Torture

Sahar Gul kept in in-laws' basement after refusing prostitution: police

(Newser) - Afghanistan's president has ordered an investigation following reports that a 15-year-old girl was locked in her in-laws' basement and tortured. Police say they rescued Sahar Gul last month after her parents said they hadn't seen her for months. The girl had been starved and "we saw her...

Obama Re-Affirms: Waterboarding Is Torture

That torture is still being debated is Obama's fault, says Andrew Cohen

(Newser) - Just a day after Herman Cain and Michele Bachmann said they supported waterboarding , President Obama re-affirmed that the procedure is torture and "contrary to America's traditions," reports the AP . Obama and his administration have said that waterboarding is torture and illegal since taking office, but after several...

Syrian Hospitals Torturing Protesters: Amnesty

Amnesty International says security forces running free in state-run facilities

(Newser) - Wounded Syrian protesters would be well-advised to avoid state-run hospitals—because security forces and medical staff are torturing people within them, Amnesty International alleges in a new report. “Syrian authorities seem to have given the security forces a free rein in hospitals,” one Amnesty researcher said, according to...

Tortured Teen Held 10 Years by Dungeon Keeper: Cops

Case 'makes you want to cry,' says Philly police commissioner

(Newser) - Police rescued eight children from a Philadelphia home where four mentally disabled adults were found chained in a cellar . The kids ranged in age from a 2-year-old to a 19-year-old girl, who had been snatched 10 years ago and tortured so horribly it " makes you want to cry ,"...

UN: Solitary Confinement Amounts to Torture

Isolation longer than 15 days should be banned, says lead investigator

(Newser) - Solitary confinement doesn't just sound like torture—it literally can be torture, according to the UN's lead investigator on the topic. Juan Mendez has called for a ban on solitary confinement in excess of 15 days, and a total ban on the practice when juveniles or people with...

Amnesty International to Canada: Bust Bush

Canada to Amnesty: No way, eh

(Newser) - George W. Bush is visiting Canada next week and international law requires the country to arrest him for torture and war crimes ... according to Amnesty International. The group has sent a thousand-page memorandum to Canadian authorities explaining why the former president should be behind bars, Politico reports. Bush's own...

Austin Powers Thug Killed Cell Mate: Police

Joseph Son, who played Random Task, suspected in sex offender's murder

(Newser) - A jailbird California actor who played Doctor Evil's henchman in an Austin Powers film is suspected of killing his sex-offender cell mate, investigators have revealed. The 50-year-old victim was serving two years for failure to register as a sex offender. He was found dead in a cell in Wasco...

Afghanistan Routinely Tortures Prisoners: UN

'Even stones confess here,' one guard said; Kabul promises reform

(Newser) - A UN investigation has uncovered “a compelling pattern … of systemic torture and ill-treatment” in Afghan prisons, with prisoners reporting being beaten and shocked with electrical cables, hung by their hands, and having their genitals twisted until they passed out, the New York Times reports. Nearly half of all...

USS Cole Terrorist Faces Capital Charges Again

Original charges were dropped because suspect was tortured

(Newser) - One of the "high-value" detainees imprisoned at Guantanamo Bay has been charged with planning the 2000 terrorist attack on the USS Cole in Yemen that killed 17 US sailors, reports the LA Times . Abd al Rahim al Nashiri, a Saudi of Yemeni descent, faces the death penalty if convicted...

I Guess Torture Is Legal Now
 I Guess Torture Is Legal Now 
OPINION

I Guess Torture Is Legal Now

Dick Cheney makes a farce of our 'rule of law': Dahlia Lithwick

(Newser) - With his memoir, and accompanying media blitz, Dick Cheney is trying to provoke us into once again discussing the merits of torture, a topic “about as compelling as a debate about the efficacy of slavery or Jim Crow laws,” writes Dahlia Lithwick of Slate . Almost everyone agrees torture...

Kids Among 88 Tortured and Killed in Syrian Prisons
Kids Among 88 Tortured and Killed in Syrian Prisons
AMNESTY INTERNATIONAL

Kids Among 88 Tortured and Killed in Syrian Prisons

Along with 78 others

(Newser) - At least 88 people have been tortured and killed in Syrian detention centers over the past five months, including 10 children, according to a new report from Amnesty International. Victims were burned, beaten, and electrocuted, among other abuses, the report alleges. “These deaths behind bars are reaching massive proportions,...

Judge Lets Army Vet Sue Rumsfeld Over Detention

American contractor says defense sec approved his detention, torture in Iraq

(Newser) - An Army vet who says he was imprisoned unjustly and tortured by the US military in Iraq can sue former Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld personally for damages, a judge ruled yesterday. The veteran, a private contractor who worked as a Marine translator in the volatile Anbar province, says he was...

Australia Freezes Ex-Gitmo Inmate's Assets

Prosecutors say royalties from book on Guantanamo violate law

(Newser) - An Australian man who was captured fighting with Taliban forces in Afghanistan and spent five years in Guantanamo Bay prison , where he says he was tortured, has had a family trust frozen by the Australian Supreme Court, reports ABC News in Australia. The trust contains money David Hicks earned from...

Infamous Iraqi Prison Still Open: Red Cross

Critics blame Maliki, who controls the elite units running the prison

(Newser) - A notorious Baghdad prison run by security forces controlled by Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki continues to operate months after it was supposed to have shut down amid allegations of torture, says the Red Cross, which is demanding access to prisoners. Though the government denies the allegation, the situation at Camp...

Prosecute Bush, Cronies: Human Rights Watch

Group wants torture allegations investigated

(Newser) - Human Rights Watch wants George W. Bush and his top officials prosecuted for war crimes and criminal conspiracy, the Guardian reports. In a new report, the US group calls for foreign governments to move forward with the prosecution if the Obama administration does not investigate. In addition to allegations of...

US to Investigate Deaths of Two Detainees

Holder orders pair of inquiries but drops nearly 100 others

(Newser) - The is-it-torture debate is probably going to rev up again: The Justice Department says it will launch criminal inquiries into the deaths of two detainees in US custody in 2002 and 2003, reports the Washington Post . Eric Holder gave the green light on the recommendation of federal prosecutor John Durham,...

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