Torture

Supreme Court Tortures the Constitution Again

by James Bovard June 1, 2022

The Supreme Court ruled in March that Americans have no right to learn the grisly details of CIA torture because the CIA has never formally confessed its crimes. The case symbolizes how the rule of law has become little more than legal mumbo-jumbo to shroud official crimes. And it is another grim reminder that Americans cannot rely on politically ...

James Comey and the Unending Bush Torture Scandal

by James Bovard November 6, 2018

The vast regime of torture created by the Bush administration after the 9/11 attacks continues to haunt America. The political class and most of the media have never dealt honestly with the profound constitutional corruption that such practices inflicted. Instead, torture enablers are permitted to pirouette as heroic figures on the flimsiest evidence. Former FBI chief James Comey is ...

James Comey and the Unending Bush Torture Scandal

by James Bovard July 1, 2018

The vast regime of torture created by the Bush administration after the 9/11 attacks continues to haunt America. The political class and most of the media have never dealt honestly with the profound constitutional corruption that such practices inflicted. Instead, torture enablers are permitted to pirouette as heroic figures on the flimsiest evidence. Former FBI chief James Comey is the ...

Getting Away with Torture

by Sheldon Richman December 17, 2014

Now we have it straight from the chairwoman of the Senate Select Committee on Intelligence, Sen. Dianne Feinstein: Under any common meaning of the term, CIA detainees were tortured. I also believe that the conditions of confinement and the use of authorized and unauthorized interrogation and conditioning techniques were cruel, inhuman, and degrading. I believe the evidence of this is ...

The Libertarian Angle: The Torture Scandal (video)

by Future of Freedom Foundation December 15, 2014

FFF president Jacob Hornberger and FFF vice president Sheldon Richman discuss the hot topics of the day. This week: the recent release of the Senate Torture Report. The Libertarian Angle airs weekly. Go to the podcast.

Obama Still Does a Good Imitation of Bush

by Sheldon Richman October 22, 2014

We really should be used to this by now. After almost six years in office, President Obama is far more like George W. Bush in national-security matters than he led the American people to believe. For example, the New York Times’ Charlie Savage reports that Obama has yet to decide whether the international ban on torture applies to U.S. government ...

The Presidential Authority to Torture and Assassinate, Part 1

by Jacob G. Hornberger August 1, 2014

Part 1 | Part 2 If our American ancestors in 1787 had been told that the Constitution was going to bring into existence a national government that would have the powers to torture and assassinate people, including American citizens, there is no reasonable possibility that Americans would have approved the document. They would undoubtedly have instead chosen ...

Solitary Confinement: Cruel, but Not Unusual?

by Wendy McElroy June 6, 2013

An estimated 103 prisoners have been on a hunger strike for well over three months at the American prison called Gitmo (Guantanamo Bay, Cuba). The protesters seem willing to die rather than live in the savage conditions that some of them have endured for a decade without so much as being charged with a crime. Human rights

“It is Indisputable that the United States Engaged in Torture”: So When Do the Prosecutions Begin?

by Andy Worthington April 23, 2013

“It is indisputable that the United States engaged in the practice of torture.” These powerful words are from “The Report of the Constitution Project’s Task Force on Detainee Treatment,” a 577-page report involving a detailed analysis of the treatment of prisoners following the terrorist attacks of September 11, 2001 (PDF). The project took two years to complete, ...

Torture and the Rule of Law

by Tim Kelly January 3, 2013

Last week, the Senate Intelligence Committee released a 6,000-page report providing a comprehensive analysis of the CIA’s detention and interrogation policies. Sen. Dianne Feinstein (D-Calif.), the committee chair, released a statement saying that “the report uncovers startling details about the CIA detention and interrogation program and raises questions about intelligence operations and oversight.” The report could shed some ...

Torture, Torture Everywhere

by Andy Worthington December 20, 2012

For those of us who have been arguing for years that senior officials and lawyers in the Bush administration must be held accountable for the torture program they introduced and used in their “war on terror,” last week was a very interesting week indeed. There were developments in Strasbourg, in London, and in Washington, D.C., that all pointed towards ...

Reflections on the Torture Debate

by Joseph Margulies September 1, 2012

What remains to be said of the torture debate? I asked myself this question because March 28 was an anniversary of sorts. On that date 10 years ago the United States cast the first person into a CIA black site. In time, he was subjected to each and every one of the Bush administration’s “enhanced” techniques. Waterboarding, of which ...