A plague via Body and Soul
On both your...
Old news via Body and Soul
But all too familiar: Photographs of victims of a secret torture programme operated by British authorities during the early days of the cold war are published for the first time today after being concealed for almost 60 years. The...
Damn! And I used to like peanut butter via Body and Soul
Probably my least favorite thing about blogs is the obsession with personal invective, with seeking out losers and calling them names like third graders on the playground. Usually I skip over posts that start by tearing down other bloggers....
Faith in torture via Body and Soul
This is what torture looks like. And this has to be one of the most discouraging polls I've ever read. Almost half of all Americans think torture is at least sometimes justified. Fewer than one-third are completely against torture....
Psychotic reaction via Body and Soul
Although seemingly less brutal than physical methods, no-touch torture leaves deep psychological scars on both victims and interrogators. One British journalist who observed this method's use in Northern Ireland called sensory deprivation the worst form of torture because it...
Faces via Body and Soul
I hate cameras. I don't think I have more than a dozen pictures of myself taken in the past twenty years, and not many more before that, because I hate posing, and hate looking at myself. So I sympathize...
Not exactly preaching to the choir via Body and Soul
I don't run ads on this site, and I don't think I've ever clicked through one on anyone else's site (especially now), so I've never thought much about the effectiveness of ads on blogs. But this is kind of...
Vital signs via Body and Soul
Doctors demand end to Guantánamo force-feeding More than 260 doctors from around the world have called on the US to stop force-feeding hunger strikers at Guantánamo Bay. They say international agreements prevent doctors from force-feeding if individuals have made...
Wolves in freedom’s clothing via Body and Soul
The Wolf Brigade, one of the most feared of Iraqi commando units, and one with close US ties, no longer exists. It's now called the Freedom Brigade. Doesn't that sound noble? It's about changing images, [Army Maj. Gen. Joseph...
The exorcists via Body and Soul
Last year, Time Magazine published an article on the interrogation of Mohammed al-Qahtani, based on a secret log they had gotten hold of. It provided some of the first real insights into the tactics used on prisoners at Guantanamo,...
Twisted law via Body and Soul
We all knew the Graham Amendment, which denied Guantánamo prisoners access to U.S. courts, was going to be bad news. And here it is: Mohammed Bawazir alleges that he was tortured at the prison. Authorities shoved a feeding tube...
If the president does it, it’s legal via Body and Soul
I have a strange feeling Saddam Hussein has been reading the collected works of John Yoo: As president, Hussein explained, he had every right to confiscate land and raze orchards, as he did in Dujayl. The destruction of farmlands...
Bagram via Body and Soul
Yesterday's New York Times story on the Bagram detention center headlines something we've all known for a long time: Guantánamo is not the most brutal of the detention facilities. Take one measure: There have been 98 detainee deaths in...
Secret via Body and Soul
I knew the judge who dismissed Maher Arar's lawsuit had cited national security concerns, but apparently there's a lot more that some people think needs to be kept secret than I guessed: Brooklyn District Court Judge David Trager cited...
Shadowland via Body and Soul
America's idea of what is torture is not the same as ours and does not appear to coincide with that of most civilised nations. -- Justice Andrew Collins (U.K.) The American Government is breaking international law. The main building...
Prisons via Body and Soul
I'm finding something very confusing, and I want to write it out in the hope that one of my readers understands this better than I do, or if not, that just organizing my questions may help me find the...
The Salon photos via Body and Soul
Joan Walsh, at Salon, explains the decision not to immediately publish all of the Abu Ghraib photos and documents they possess: Salon, we believe, has the archive the ACLU and CCR have sought. We face a series of decisions...
Maher Arar via Body and Soul
A federal judge has dismissed Maher Arar's...
Responsible via Body and Soul
The Washington Post has a substantial number of Abu Ghraib photographs it has not published, not only because of their graphic nature, but out of concern that it may not be responsible for Western news organizations to distribute them....
Accountability via Body and Soul
Salon has obtained thousands of documents from the Army's Abu Ghraib investigation. It has posted a few previously unseen images. Based only on a description of the files and images, the deputy legal director for the Center for Constitutional...
Dots via Body and Soul
This makes its point pretty...
More photos via Body and Soul
In October 2003, the ACLU filed Freedom of Information Act requests for documentation on detainees' treatment. A year later, they had thousands of pages of important documents (and they keep on coming), but they were heavily redacted, and there...
Fear itself via Body and Soul
Almost two years ago, a British tabloid published photos of soldiers abusing Iraqi prisoners. The pictures turned out to be fakes. Anything is possible, but looking at the recent News of the World video of British soldiers kicking...
Life in a padded cell via Body and Soul
An old friend of mine, who spent some time in a mental hospital because of some drug issues as a teenager, said something a long time ago that's reverberating in my head today: The thing about nuthouses is,...
Trials and tribulations via Body and Soul
Some problems in Saddam's trial: After four months and 26 witnesses, prosecutors in the Saddam Hussein trial have offered little credible testimony directly linking the former leader to the killings and torture for which he's charged. But legal experts...
Limits via Body and Soul
Egypt? No problem.
Syria? Ask Maher Arar.
Uzbekistan? Go ahead.
But apparently there is one country we won't send prisoners to, at least not American citizens:
A U.S. District Court judge temporarily blocked the federal government
from transferring an American citizen to the custody of the Iraqi
government, noting Friday that the move could place the prisoner at
risk of torture and indefinite confinement....
How to escape from Guantánamo via Body and Soul
Amazing.
The Pentagon realized in 2003 that it had made a mistake in imprisoning 15 Chinese Muslims at Guantánamo. At least 9 of them are still there. A couple of weeks ago, a U.S. District judge essentially ruled that their imprisonment was illegal, but that he didn't have the power to stop the president from breaking the law.
On the other hand, Osama bin Laden's bodyguard -- or at least someone we claimed held that position, someone of such "high value" that the US would not allow the Red Cross to see him -- is free.
Contrary to rhetoric about Guantánamo being full of "the worst of the worst," it almost looks like the worst get out, the innocent remain.
The real difference between the detainees' cases, though, is that the bodyguard is Moroccan, and the Moroccan government...
Mowhoush via Body and Soul
Last summer, Josh White, of the Washington Post, described in some detail one of the worst cases of torture and murder in Iraq. An Iraqi general, Abed Hamed Mowhoush, who had walked into a forward operating base of his own accord, trying to secure the release of his four imprisoned sons (who were never charged with anything, and believe they were used as bait to capture their father), and who was initially described as cooperative, was interrogated and severely beaten by a Special Forces group, the CIA, and a CIA-sponsored Iraqi paramilitary, the Scorpions. According to his autopsy, he was left with seven broken ribs and at least 47 contusions, some of them thirteen inches long. Two days later, an Army interrogator stuffed him head-first into a sleeping bag, bound him with electrical...