Here are some quotes from Sami: After being reunited with his eight-year old son Mohammed, who was just a baby when he last saw him, Sami summoned the strength to greet Sudan's President, Omar Hassan al-Bashir, accompanied by dozens of … [Read more...]
Impeach John Yoo!
The text of the outrageous and infamous March 2003 torture memo drafted by John Yoo, then Deputy Assistant Attorney General in the Office of Legal Counsel, are now available here (part 1) and here (part 2). This, you may recall, is the … [Read more...]
American Jurisprudence on Torture
The "enhanced interrogation technique" was then called the "water cure" which is a form of simulated drowning. Sound familiar?Thus sayeth the Mississippi Supreme Court:The state offered . . . testimony of confessions made by the … [Read more...]
Schumer blasted on NYT’s letters page
Chuck Schumer took a pasting today on the letters page of the New York Times: To the Editor:Senator Charles E. Schumer tries to justify his deeply disappointing vote for Judge Michael B. Mukasey by the use of transparently incomplete … [Read more...]
Fighting to Stop Torture
I'm a cosponsor of Sen. Kennedy's bill that defines a wide variety of specific things as torture, including waterboarding. It's another reminder why I am so proud to be Ted's colleague. But it's also another reminder that those who suggest … [Read more...]
Delahunt vs. Torture
Of more than local interest: via Yglesias, US Rep. William Delahunt is drumming up support in Congress for a bill prohibiting United States agencies from using torture. Amazing that it has to be said, but that's the world we live in … [Read more...]
Go see “Rendition”
A bunch of us over here at the ACLU got a chance Wednesday night to see an advance screening of Rendition, which officially opens tonight.I'd recommend it to anybody. It has its Hollywood moments and oversimplifications, but overall … [Read more...]
My hero: Mari Oye of Wellesley
Who?In the Georgetown University dormitory the night before the big moment, the newly minted Wellesley High graduate persuaded 49 of her 140 fellow scholars to sign a letter she and a dozen others had drafted and she had just written … [Read more...]
Torture and our low dishonest decade
Hey, all those Verschärfte Vernehmungen ("enhanced interrogations") don't actually seem to be doing us any good:WASHINGTON -- As the Bush administration completes secret new rules governing interrogations, a group of specialists advising … [Read more...]
Absolutely required reading: Our torture, their torture
You simply must read this, as uncomfortable as will certainly make you: At some length, Andrew Sullivan compares both the language, theory and practice of torture by both the Nazis and the US today. The term "enhanced interrogation" was, in … [Read more...]