Guantanamo Bay

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Shrink Waterboard 'Experts' Racked Up $1K a Day

Operation's architects lacked training in conducting interrogations, say CIS records

(Newser) - Two US psychologists with no training in conducting interrogations boasted of earning $1000 a day designing and helping to implement use of waterboarding techniques on CIA detainees, reports ABC News. Bruce Jessen and Jim Mitchell, former military officers, are considered the architects of the interrogation operation that Barack Obama has...

Gitmo Inmates May Land on Mainland: Gates

(Newser) - The fate of prisoners at Guantanamo Bay remains unclear, but Robert Gates hinted at one possibility during a Senate hearing today, reports the New York Times: Inmates who aren’t tried, repatriated, or sent to other countries could wind up in the US. Of the 250 “enemy combatants” in...

Spanish Judge to Investigate Torture at Gitmo

Declassified memos show there were abuses, Garzon says

(Newser) - A Spanish judge has launched a probe into allegations of torture at the American prison at Guantanamo Bay, AFP reports. Baltasar Garzon initiated the investigation after reading statements by Spanish citizen Hamed Abderrahman Ahmed and three other prisoners about their treatment there. Garzon also said that the memos recently declassified...

Court Approves Ex-Inmates' Suit Against CIA

Torture allegations trump state secrets argument, panel rules

(Newser) - Five men who allege they were kidnapped and tortured on the orders of CIA agents may bring suit in federal court, an appeals panel ruled yesterday. Presidents Bush and Obama both contended that the case should be dismissed to protect classified evidence. But a federal appeals court panel ruled presidential...

Holder Visits Another Famous Torture Facility

On trip seeking help to close Gitmo, AG stops by Tower of London

(Newser) - Eric Holder arrived in London yesterday and paid a visit to a prison as notorious in its time as Guantanamo Bay, the AP reports. The attorney general listened quietly as his guide at the infamous Tower of London described scenes of torture—such as the interrogation of Guy Fawkes, who...

Waterboarding Isn't Easier 2nd Time, or 183rd
Waterboarding Isn't Easier 2nd Time, or 183rd
ANALYSIS
Apr 24, 2009 2:39 PM CDT

Waterboarding Isn't Easier 2nd Time, or 183rd

Turns out the body never gets used to simulated drowning

(Newser) - Like many other forms of torture, waterboarding doesn’t get any easier with repeated exposure. After multiple sessions of the simulated drowning technique, accused al-Qaeda plotters Khalid Sheikh Mohammed and Abu Zubaydah would at best have been able to slightly modify their response, explains Brian Palmer in Slate. The experience...

Fate of Dozens of CIA Detainees Still Unknown

(Newser) - The Bush-era CIA memos made public last week revealed that an al-Qaeda suspect, Hassan Ghul, had been held in one of the agency’s secret jails. But the inadvertent disclosure of one name merely highlights how much the public still doesn’t know about the network of secret detention facilities,...

CIA Waterboarded Gitmo Detainee 183 Times in a Month

That's twice CIA's max, challenges efficacy

(Newser) - A Department of Justice memo that detailed interrogation techniques used on prisoners at Guantanamo Bay notes that in August 2002, suspected al-Qaeda official Abu Zubaydah was waterboarded 82 times, while the following March, 9/11 suspect Khalid Sheikh Mohammed was waterboarded 183 times. But as the blog Emptywheel points out, there's...

'Weighty' Torture Memo Decision Took Weeks

President's belief in rule of law won out in choice to release Bush-era memos

(Newser) - President Obama spent weeks thinking "very long and hard" about his "weighty decision" to release memos on harsh CIA interrogation techniques green-lighted by the Bush administration, senior adviser David Axelrod tells Politico. In the end, Axelrod says, the president's belief in transparency and the rule of law won...

We Need a Torture Commission
 We Need a Torture Commission 
opinion
Apr 16, 2009 9:31 PM CDT

We Need a Torture Commission

(Newser) - President Obama appears ready to put the whole issue of CIA torture behind him. He owes it to the nation to do otherwise, writes Mark Benjamin in Salon. In particular, he should appoint a torture commission—a bipartisan group to evaluate what, if anything, the US gained from these interrogation...

Obama Releases Bush Memos Detailing Torture

Justice docs released detail OK'd techniques

(Newser) - A Bush-era memo on interrogation techniques acknowledged that waterboarding represented a “threat of imminent death,” but that the simulated-drowning procedure was not torture because it caused no lasting psychological harm, Reuters reports. The Justice Department memo and three others on interrogations were released to the public today—and...

No Torture Trial for 'Bush Six': Spain's Top Cop

Case would turn courts into political 'plaything,' he says

(Newser) - Spanish prosecutors will recommend against opening an investigation into whether six Bush administration officials sanctioned torture against terror suspects at Guantanamo Bay, the country’s attorney general said today. The case against former high-ranking figures like Alberto Gonzales was without merit, he said, because the men weren’t present when...

Gitmo Detainee Calls al-Jazeera, Alleges Abuse

Prisoner, captured at 14, says he was beaten, tear-gassed

(Newser) - Prisoner abuse at Guantanamo Bay hasn’t gotten any better since Barack Obama took office, one detainee told al-Jazeera yesterday after using newly granted phone privileges to call the Middle Eastern news network. Mohammed al Gharani says he’s been abused “almost every day” since Obama’s term began,...

Spain to Indict Gonzales, 'Bush Six' Over Gitmo Torture

Prosecutors seek charges in US officials' Gitmo role

(Newser) - Spanish prosecutors will seek charges against Alberto Gonzales and five other Bush-administration officials over their role in torture at Guantanamo, the Daily Beast reports. The prosecutors plan to announce the probe into the so-called Bush Six today at Spain’s central criminal court. “The evidence provided was more than...

US Used Mentally Ill Witness at Gitmo

Detainee with antisocial personality disorder testified against others

(Newser) - Justice Department lawyers withheld records detailing the mental illness of a witness used against numerous fellow Guantanamo detainees, McClatchy Newspapers report. "How can this court have any confidence whatsoever in the United States government to comply with its obligations and to be truthful?" asked a federal judge, who ruled...

Obama, Sarko Pledge United Front

(Newser) - Nicolas Sarkozy and President Obama pledged cooperation today on a host of international issues, from Afghanistan to Iranian nukes, the AP reports. “It feels really good to work with a US president who wants to change the world,” said Sarkozy at their press conference. It’s a “...

Gitmo So 'Fun,' Miss Universe 'Didn't Want to Leave'

'It was very interesting,' she writes in blog

(Newser) - Not many people have fun at Guantanamo Bay, but Miss Universe did. Caracas-born beauty Dayana Mendoza visited the US naval base surrounded by barbed wire and watchtowers yesterday, and had a "relaxing, calm" time, she said. It was a "loooot of fun!" she wrote in her blog....

Obamas Arrive in Britain
 Obamas Arrive in Britain 
Mar 31, 2009 2:28 PM CDT

Obamas Arrive in Britain

President readies for G20 summit tomorrow

(Newser) - President Obama has arrived in Europe, with a hefty economic and political agenda for his first journey across the Atlantic since taking office two months ago. The first stop for the president and first lady was London, with the focus on the G20 meeting of the world's major economic powers...

Yemen Doc Cleared to Leave Gitmo After 7 Years

Justice Department clears detainee for transfer to unknown country

(Newser) - A Yemeni doctor held at Guantanamo Bay since 2002 has been cleared for transfer abroad as part of the administration's review of prisoner cases, reports CNN. Justice Department officials say the hard part now will be to find a country willing to take him. The Bush administration once claimed the...

Spain May Indict Gonzales, 5 Others for Torture

(Newser) - A top Spanish court is close to investigating six former Bush administration officials for circumventing international law to justify torture at Guantanamo Bay, the New York Times reports. Judge Baltasar Garzon, a human rights crusader who has gone after former Chilean ruler Augusto Pinochet, is reviewing the case, which could...

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