Torture
176 Retired Flag Officers To Trump: Do Not Torture In Our Name
During the presidential campaign, one of Donald Trump's big applause lines was about the use of torture on our enemies, particularly terror suspects. During a February 2016 GOP debate he said, I would bring back waterboarding. And I would bring back a hell of a lot worse than ...read more
Donald Trump and Torture: The Definitive Presidential Disqualifier
If you wanted a single statement from Donald Trump that conclusively illustrates why he is completely unqualified to run for office, this would be it. Speaking with New Hampshire’s NH1, Trump said this about the United State's duty to commit war crimes: Well it’s not the ...read more
The CIA's Dismissal of Donald Trump's Torture Policy Says Everything You Need to Know About His Candidacy
One of the major rallying cries of Donald Trump's campaign for President is his pledge to commit war crimes against America's enemies. Not only has Trump promised to murder the families of suspected terrorists, he has stated that he will bring back waterboarding - a torture ...read more
It Would Have Been Nice If the NYT Demanded We Prosecute Dick Cheney When It Mattered
This week, the New York Times published a bombshell of an op-ed demanding that the Obama administration "prosecute torturers and their bosses," specifically Bush officials up to and including former Vice President Dick Cheney. It's probably the first time in recent history that ...read more
Public Support for Torture is Exactly Why We Shouldn't Torture
There are certain policy decisions that should never be left up to the American people. I'm not necessarily saying we're stupid. Actually, come to think of it, I'm absolutely saying too many of us are stupid. 29 percent of us can't name the vice president. Roughly 45 percent of ...read more
The 11 Most Psychotic Things Dick Cheney Said About Torture on Meet the Press
Miraculously, Dick Cheney is still alive. He's still alive and still the former Bush administration's most visible and tenacious historical revisionist when it comes to the tactics it employed in the Global War on Terror. So, naturally, Cheney was thawed from his cryo-chamber ...read more
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Can We Finally Agree That Congressman Pete King Doesn't Know What the Hell He's Talking About?
Cable news is nothing if not predictable, and whenever there's a major news story about terrorism or the Global War on Terror, the segment producers at CNN and MSNBC speed-dial Rep. Pete King (R-NY) and helicopter him in to say terrifying things about the evildoers and why we ...read more
Former GOP Congressman Thinks We Should Torture Our Enemies "Like Animals"
Yes, torture them like animals. Law enforcement should be keeping a closer eye on former congressman Joe Walsh. We'll circle back to that presently. The tea party Republican, current talk radio host and short-fusedex-deadbeat-dad was in the news again yesterday after tweeting ...read more
Former Bush CIA Directors Publish Huge Pro-Torture Editorial to Cover Their Guilty Asses
This issue is one of those cases where no matter how much contrary evidence you produce -- no matter how unimpeachable your sources are, the other side will simply plug their ears, sing "la-la-la-not-listening!" then regurgitate the same response over and over. In this case, ...read more
Here's What's Wrong With 'We Tortured Some Folks'
At Friday's impromptu presidential press conference, President Obama went a few extra innings, taking several shouted questions after he had announced the end of the presser, and one of those responses is generating a lot of wet heat in the news hole. While expressing support ...read more
Former GOP Congressman: IRS Director Lois Lerner Should Be Waterboarded
By now you're probably familiar with the slow-motion train wreck that is former Rep. Joe Walsh (R-IL). He used to be a leading member of both the tea party caucus and, in my own mind, the House Crazy Caucus. He also one-upped Todd Akin, Richard Mourdock and a long list of ...read more
Sarah Palin Defends Her Waterboarding Remarks, Hides Behind Flag-Draped Coffins
Sarah Palin's line about waterboarding terrorists in order to baptize them was ridiculous and incoherent, but her Facebook post in response to the backlash is hysterically unintelligible. Many of her posts are ghost-written, but this new Facebook item is all her. How can I tell? ...read more
Sean Hannity Clearly Didn't Learn His Lesson, Defends Sarah Palin's Waterboarding Remarks
A smart man doesn't blindly leap to the support of questionable characters twice in a row. Then again, Sean Hannity isn't a very smart man. After totally hosing himself with his ebullient support for Cliven Bundy, who ended up being an unapologetic racist, you'd think Hannity ...read more
Mos Def Goes Through Traumatic Guantanamo Force-Feeding Procedure
Yasiin Bey, formerly known as rapper and actor Mos Def, voluntarily underwent the standard force feeding procedure at Gitmo for detainees on hunger strike. The video was made to draw attention to the treatment of Guantanamo Bay prisoners. According to Gawker: The video was ...read more
Enough Is Enough: "Based on a True Story" Doesn't Mean "100% True Story"
Quick: There's a big-budget Hollywood movie that's nominated for the Academy Award for Best Picture this year, a drama about a real-life event from America's history, that's currently being raked over the coals by some very vocal critics for what they claim is its lack of ...read more
The Depressing ‘Zero Dark Thirty’
By Robert Parry When I watched the get-bin-Laden movie Zero Dark Thirty at a theater just outside Washington D.C., I was struck by how silent the audience was from beginning to end with almost no reaction to the climatic killing of the terrorist leader or to the film’s lame ...read more
Finding Excuses to Torture
Depiction of torture methods in the 16th Century. By Lawrence Davidson In 2005, I wrote an essay, published in the journal Logos, entitled “Torture in our Time.” In it I laid out the historical evidence for the conclusion that torture rarely works. This position goes back at ...read more
The Brilliantly Frustrating Ambiguity of "Zero Dark Thirty"
Just before the limited release of Zero Dark Thirty, I wrote a column for this site that took to task those who hadn't seen the film yet but were already howling about its portrayal of the CIA's enhanced interrogation techniques -- torture by any other name -- and their ...read more
Zero Dark Thirty: See It Before You Criticize It
Spoiler alert: There are images of torture in Zero Dark Thirty. The new film by Oscar-winner Katherine Bigelow about the manhunt for Osama bin Laden apparently features at least a few scenes of the CIA performing "enhanced interrogation techniques" on an Al Qaeda prisoner and, ...read more
When Rule of Law Meets Politics
By Ivan Eland: One of the most important issues in the 2012 election is a non-issue because both parties want to ignore it: punishment for Bush-era human rights violations by torture. Nevertheless, in a country where the rule of law (that is, we are all supposed to be equal ...read more
An All-Clear for Bush’s Torturers
By Marjorie Cohn: The Obama administration has closed the books on prosecutions of those who violated U.S. and international laws by authorizing and conducting the torture and abuse of prisoners in U.S. custody. Last year, Attorney General Eric Holder announced that his office ...read more
UN Accuses Syria of Crimes Against Humanity
A top U.N. human rights official accused Syria Thursday of engaging in crimes against humanity. "They are both widespread and they are being committed in a systematic manner," said Ivan Simonovic, assistant secretary-general of the Office of the High Commissioner for Human ...read more
Spinonymous Sources @ WaPo Agree: Dick Cheney Brand Torture Is The Best
Glenn Greenwald on the ridiculous pro-torture story the Washington Post is pushing now. Who are the Post's sources for this full-scale vindication of Dick Cheney's defense of torture? "Two sources who described the sessions, speaking on the condition of anonymity because much ...read more
Con Radio Host Mancow Waterboarded
Sean Hannity, its your turn... (via) "The average person can take this for 14 seconds," Marine Sergeant Clay South answered, adding, "He's going to wiggle, he's going to scream, he's going to wish he never did this." With a Chicago Fire Department paramedic on hand, Mancow was ...read more
McCain Says Cheney's Supporting The Spanish Inquisition
I clearly don't agree with John McCain on practically every issue under the sun, but I'll say that he's been pretty consistent in his opposition to torture and in light of Cheney's torture defense speech today -- McCain remains so. And of course it's worth noting that in this ...read more
Jesse Ventura vs. Elisabeth Hasselbeck
You know how stupid Elisabeth Hasselbeck is when Jesse Ventura comes across as the sober and sane one. ...read more
Cheney Torture Authorization/Suggestion For Iraq-Al Qaeda "Link"?
We know for sure that Dick Cheney and his crew were obsessed with proving some sort of link between Iraq and Al Qaeda. That was their golden key to provoking the nation into war. But there now seems to be some evidence that Cheney pushed for torture in order to prove this - and ...read more
Pelosi & The CIA? Bush Was Still The Trigger Man
My guess? Speaker Pelosi is, at best, being misleading about what the CIA did and didn't tell her. In all likelihood? She's probably lying. But does it really matter? After 9/11, the Democrats not only lost their marbles the way the rest of us did at the horror, they also had ...read more
It Doesn't Matter If Pelosi Knew
As John notes, whether Nancy Pelosi knew or didn't know about the Bush administration's authorization and execution of torture doesn't matter. Either Pelosi didn't know or she abdicated her responsibility as a political leader and American by not speaking up and opposing it. ...read more
Clinton Slaps Cheney
The ABC News headline to this story is a little misleading. It says that Sec. Clinton "questions" Dick Cheney's credibility. There isn't any question in Sec. Clinton's words what she feels about Cheney's credibility. She, like the vast majority of Americans, knows he has none. ...read more
Cheney Approved Torture And Your President Is A Moron
It's Friday in America. Bush administration officials from Vice President Dick Cheney on down signed off on using harsh interrogation techniques against suspected terrorists after asking the Justice Department to endorse their legality, The Associated Press has learned. The ...read more