Highlights This Month
Eight O'Clock Ferry to the Windward Side: Seeking Justice in Guantanamo Bay
"A measured and uniquely informed account of systemic brutality and blind folly on an epic scale, of the tragic perversion of America's judicial system, and of the licensing of torture throughout the world by those who imagine themselves opposed to it." --John le Carre
Clive Stafford Smith, Nation Books
 As a press conference in the summer of 2003, George W. Bush described the prisoners being held at Guantanamo Bay. "The only thing I know for certain is that these are bad people." Presumably the worst of the world's terrorists, U.K. based human rights lawyer Clive Stafford Smith has represented more than fifty of these prisoners and spent many weeks in their company. Through their stories, he explores the steep human costs of jettisoning the rule of law to combat terrorism, tracing the proffered justifications for torture of suspects, cataloging the array of deceits that shield the actions of the U.S. prison authorities, and recounting what happens when a military commission goes off-script.
Told by one of the few individuals who has had independent access to the prisons at Guantanamo Bay, this is a raw, first-hand account of the notorious U.S. detention facility and the experiences of the men being held there under the banner of the War on Terror.
More...
Ben Sargent
Nation's Most Prominent Anti-Immigration Group has History of Hate, Extremism
Southern Poverty Law Center
The country's leading anti-immigration organization — whose leaders have testified repeatedly before Congress and are frequently quoted in the media — has ties to known racists and a long track record of bigotry, according to a new report released today by the Southern Poverty Law Center (SPLC).
The group, the Federation for American Immigration Reform (FAIR):
• is the creation of a man who operates a racist publishing company and has compared immigrants to "bacteria;"
• has employed members of white supremacist groups in key positions;
• has promoted racist conspiracy theories; and
• has accepted more than $1 million from the Pioneer Fund, a racist foundation devoted to eugenics and to proving a connection between race and IQ.
FAIR and its ties to white supremacy are examined in the latest issue of the SPLC's quarterly Intelligence Report.
More...
John McCain Sells His Soul: Backs Off on Torture Ban
The former POW embraces extreme interrogation techniques in his desperate attempt to win over the lunatic fringe that is running the Grand Old Party.
By Arianna Huffington, Huffington Post
Has there ever been a more repugnant example of political pandering than John McCain's decision to vote against a bill banning waterboarding, putting hoods on prisoners, forcing them to perform sex acts, subjecting them to mock executions, or depriving them of food, water, and medical treatment?
That's right, John McCain, the former POW who has long been an outspoken critic of the Bush administration's disturbing embrace of extreme interrogation techniques.
But that was before his desperate attempt to win over the lunatic fringe that is running the Grand Old Party.
More...
 Christo Komarnitski
CIA’s Acknowledgment of Waterboarding is Admission of a Crime
"General Hayden’s acknowledgment that the CIA subjected three detainees to waterboarding is an explicit admission of criminal activity. Those who authorized these crimes have to be held accountable." --Joanne Mariner, Human Rights Watch
Human Rights Watch
CIA Director Michael Hayden’s admission that the CIA used waterboarding should prompt an immediate criminal investigation by the Department of Justice, Human Rights Watch said today. Although use of waterboarding has been widely reported in the press, this is the first time that the CIA has openly acknowledged employing the practice.
During a Senate Intelligence Committee hearing (Feb 5), General Hayden stated that the CIA had waterboarded three al Qaeda suspects – Abd al-Rahim al-Nashiri, Abu Zubaydah, and Khalid Sheikh Mohammed – while holding them in secret custody in 2002 and 2003. Waterboarding, a torture technique in which a prisoner is made to believe he is drowning, violates both the federal anti-torture statute and the War Crimes Act.
More...
Bush Vetoes Anti-Torture Law: Don't Give Bush the Last Word on Torture!
The Torturous Logic of The New York Times
Related articles
What the Science Says - And Doesn't Say - About Homosexuality
4 deputies suspended in wheelchair dump
ACLU Urges Congress not to Rubberstamp FISA Plan
Petition congressional leaders: No Finagling on FISA
Rigged Trials at Gitmo
David Vitter is Thinking About Your Granddaughter's Vagina
Bush Vetoes Anti-Torture Law: Don't Give Bush the Last Word on Torture!
The Torturous Logic of The New York Times
|
Public
Computing Services 
