Maj. Gen. Antonio Taguba’s (Ret.) new report regarding human rights abuses in Iraq and elsewhere, initiated and published by Physicians For Human Rights, has lent credible gravity to the argument that officials within the administration are guilty of war crimes… “The Army general who led the investigation into prisoner abuse at Iraq's Abu Ghraib prison accused the Bush administration Wednesday of committing "war crimes" and called for those responsible to be held to account. The remarks by Maj. Gen. Antonio Taguba, who's now retired, came in a ...More »

First, McClatchy Newspapers has conducted an eight-month investigation of the US detention system created in the aftermath of 9/11. Guantanamo: Beyond the Law is an unprecedented examination of the detention system, one which every free thinking person should seriously examine. It is a five part series that will begin publication on the 15th of this month. “Reporter Tom Lasseter, with help from Matt Schofield, conducted in-person interviews with 66 former detainees now living mostly in the Middle East and South Asia. No other news organization has ...More »

What can you expect from American politicians when you’re addressing them as an individual that was held captive at Guantanamo for almost five years of your life despite the fact that you did nothing wrong and were eventually released without charge? Very little. First, you can expect less than half a dozen of those that sit on the House of Representatives Committee on Foreign Affairs to actually show up to hear you speak. Second, you can be assured that most of them won’t even be able ...More »

I don’t know what to say about this. It's quite beyond me... “A 73-year-old Austrian is under arrest on suspicion of hiding his daughter in a cellar for 24 years and fathering seven children with her, police say. The existence of the woman, believed missing since 1984 and now 42, emerged after a teenage child fell ill and had to be taken to hospital. Both the woman and teenage girl are receiving medical treatment and the other children are in care. A police investigation in Amstetten, Lower Austria Province, ...More »

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Yesterday’s Congressional testimony by FBI Director Robert Mueller was one of the most blatant examples of doubletalk that you will ever come across. During his testimony, Mueller verified that numerous FBI agents had complained about the conduct of CIA interrogators and their use of harsh techniques. Given that, according to Mueller’s testimony, when questioned by Rep. Robert Wexler… “Robert Mueller: I can go so far sir as to tell you that a protocol in the FBI is not to use coercion in any of our interrogations ...More »

The war in Iraq is the most privatized conflict in American history. Some 180,000 civilians and paramilitaries work for firms contracted by the US government, a sum larger than that of the US military presence in the country. From Halliburton to Blackwater, the use of contractors has become so prevalent in Iraq that without them the US military would face significant setbacks. The billions spent have come out of taxpayer’s pockets, and on many occasions have been used to employ companies that, not ...More »

There’s an old expression – don’t open your mouth until you’ve walked a mile in another man’s shoes. When it comes to homelessness here in the city of milk and honey nothing could be further from the truth. Who willfully chooses to be homeless, to sleep huddled in doorways in the rain, or in a park? Believe it or not, there are those out there that actually believe that root causes do not exist that explain homelessness; that those that are out on the streets ...More »

“The worst barbarity of war is that it forces men collectively to commit acts against which individually they would revolt with their whole being.” – Ellen Key. Something has silently occurred. Something that, as Michael Isikoff and Mark Hosenball pointed out in a recent Newsweek piece, hasn’t received any public attention… “The Canadian government is no longer using evidence gained from CIA interrogations of a top Al Qaeda detainee who was waterboarded. According to documents obtained by NEWSWEEK, the Canadian Security Intelligence Service (CSIS), the country's national-security agency, ...More »

First, just to draw attention to it, Lydia Polgreen focuses on recent events in Darfur in today’s edition of the New York Times. Unfortunately, and as one might expect, the news isn’t good. That out of the way, the Canadian military has resumed the transfer of detainees to Afghan authorities. In a statement made by Lt.-Col. Grant Dame, the military will be “exercising discretion” during each transfer to ensure that prisoners are not placed in situations where they will be abused. The reasoning behind this is ...More »