USA

Amnesty report condemns US death rates of women in childbirth

Niluccio — Sat, 13 Mar 2010 11:12:38 +0000

The death rate of women giving birth in the US is worse than in 40 other countries, including nearly all the industrialised countries, Amnesty International said today in a report that describes the country's approach to maternity care as "disgraceful and scandalous".

Source: Amnesty report condemns US death rates of women in childbirth

The Downfall of Human Rights

Niluccio — Sat, 20 Feb 2010 07:05:58 +0000

Today the lack of interest in human rights has been virtually institutionalized in Washington and other capitals. A decade ago, policymakers could move up the ladder within bureaucracies like the U.S. State Department, the British Foreign Office, or Germany's Foreign Ministry by focusing on human rights, but today advocating for global freedom will get you nowhere.

Source: The Downfall of Human Rights

CIA Man Retracts Claim on Waterboarding | Foreign Policy

Fulup — Wed, 27 Jan 2010 09:05:30 +0000

Well, it's official now: John Kiriakou, the former CIA operative who affirmed claims that waterboarding quickly unloosed the tongues of hard-core terrorists, says he didn't know what he was talking about.

Source: CIA Man Retracts Claim on Waterboarding | Foreign Policy

Group That Shaped Death Penalty Gives Up on Its Own Work - NYTimes.com

Fulup — Tue, 05 Jan 2010 12:40:37 +0000

“They were absolutely singular on this topic” — capital punishment — “because they were the only intellectually respectable support for the death penalty system in the United States.”

Source: Group That Shaped Death Penalty Gives Up on Its Own Work - NYTimes.com

Banging the drum for Troy Davis

Niluccio — Fri, 25 Sep 2009 15:29:11 +0100

I spend most of my time playing the drums with Keane, but now I'm heading to death row in Savannah, Georgia to visit a man called Troy Davis. I must admit, I'm a little nervous.

Source: Banging the drum for Troy Davis

Doctors who oversaw CIA waterboarding 'guilty of war crimes'

Niluccio — Fri, 04 Sep 2009 07:14:27 +0100

The medical ethics group has investigated the role of doctors and psychologists, in alleged cases of torture at Abu Ghraib, Guantánamo, Bagram and other US detention sites where the worst abuses appear to have taken place.

Source: Doctors who oversaw CIA waterboarding 'guilty of war crimes'

Cheney 'ordered CIA to hide plan'

Niluccio — Sun, 12 Jul 2009 14:42:37 +0100

Former US Vice-President Dick Cheney gave direct orders to the CIA to conceal an intelligence programme from Congress, US media reports say.

The existence of the programme, set up after 9/11, was hidden for eight years and even now its nature is not known.

Source: Cheney 'ordered CIA to hide plan'

Suspected US drone 'kills 14' in Pakistan

Niluccio — Tue, 07 Jul 2009 11:59:11 +0100

A suspected US drone fired a missile into a Pakistani Taliban stronghold near the Afghan border today killing 14 militants, an intelligence agency official and residents said.

Source: Suspected US drone 'kills 14' in Pakistan

Suspected US drone 'kills 14' in Pakistan

Niluccio — Tue, 07 Jul 2009 11:58:41 +0100

A suspected US drone fired a missile into a Pakistani Taliban stronghold near the Afghan border today killing 14 militants, an intelligence agency official and residents said.

Source: Suspected US drone 'kills 14' in Pakistan

Doonesbury

Niluccio — Sun, 21 Jun 2009 16:50:40 +0100

"I'll just tell you that there are people at Gitmo that will kill American people at a drop of a hat and I don't believe that -- persuasion isn't going to work. Therapy isn't going to cause terrorists to change their mind."
-- George W. Bush

Source: Doonesbury

Barack Obama changes his mind over the release of prisoner abuse photographs

Niluccio — Thu, 14 May 2009 00:34:58 +0100

President Obama yesterday changed his mind over the release of thousands of photographs of the abuse of detainees in Iraq and Afghanistan after military commanders warned that the publication of such images would fuel anti-American sentiment and endanger US troops.

Source: Barack Obama changes his mind over the release of prisoner abuse photographs

‘Make sure you say that you were treated properly’

Niluccio — Thu, 07 May 2009 21:45:41 +0100

Seven years ago now, in January 2002, came the first shocking images of human beings in rows in aircraft, hooded and shackled for transportation across the Atlantic, much as other human beings had been carried in slave ships four hundred years earlier.

Source: ‘Make sure you say that you were treated properly’

Proceeds from torture devices auction to go to Amnesty International

Niluccio — Thu, 07 May 2009 16:04:04 +0100

NEW YORK – For sale soon: a variety of torture devices from the 16th century, including shame masks to enforce silence, a 14-foot table-like rack to stretch the victim's body, and a tongue tearer to punish blasphemers and heretics. Even an executioner's sword.

Source: Proceeds from torture devices auction to go to Amnesty International

Censorship beyond borders

Fulup — Tue, 28 Apr 2009 07:50:48 +0100

While people have been able to get around government-imposed barriers on politically sensitive sites (as well as seemingly innocuous ones such as Facebook which was suddenly blocked 18 months ago) using programs on their PCs, a harsher form of restriction is being enforced from the US.

Source: Censorship beyond borders

Obama publishes 'torture' memos

Niluccio — Thu, 16 Apr 2009 21:44:35 +0100

The US has published four secret memos detailing legal justification for the Bush-era CIA interrogation programme.

Critics of the programme say the methods used amounted to torture.

Source: Obama publishes 'torture' memos

The Green Light - article by Phillipe Sands on the US torture team

sara_h — Tue, 10 Mar 2009 19:16:15 +0000

This is the Vanity Fair article Phillipe Sands referred to when speaking at the "Terror, Security and Human Rights – The Global Perspective" on Saturday.

As the first anniversary of 9/11 approached, and a prized Guantánamo detainee wouldn’t talk, the Bush administration’s highest-ranking lawyers argued for extreme interrogation techniques, circumventing international law, the Geneva Conventions, and the army’s own Field Manual. The attorneys would even fly to Guantánamo to ratchet up the pressure—then blame abuses on the military. Philippe Sands follows the torture trail, and holds out the possibility of war crimes charges.

Source: The Green Light - article by Phillipe Sands on the US torture team

British complicity in US 'rendition'

Niluccio — Tue, 10 Mar 2009 16:59:59 +0000

Amnesty has documented that on at least one other occasion UK forces in Iraq were involved in the case of a foreign prisoner detained by US forces and flown out of Iraq for interrogation ("We did hand over terror suspects for rendition, Hutton admits", 27 February).

Source: British complicity in US 'rendition'

A hero’s death redeems Abu Ghraib tormentor

Niluccio — Sun, 08 Mar 2009 19:24:28 +0000

AT the end of his life Santos Cardona received the affirmation he had craved. He died a “hero”, according to his hometown media, after being blown up by a bomb.

There was no mention of his previous notoriety.

Source: A hero’s death redeems Abu Ghraib tormentor

Secrecy and denial as Pakistan lets CIA use airbase to strike militants

Niluccio — Wed, 18 Feb 2009 15:30:22 +0000

The CIA is secretly using an airbase in southern Pakistan to launch the Predator drones that observe and attack al-Qaeda and Taleban militants on the Pakistani side of the border with Afghanistan, a Times investigation has found.

Source: Secrecy and denial as Pakistan lets CIA use airbase to strike militants

President Obama 'orders Pakistan drone attacks'

Niluccio — Fri, 23 Jan 2009 19:33:29 +0000

Missiles fired from suspected US drones killed at least 15 people inside Pakistan today, the first such strikes since Barack Obama became president and a clear sign that the controversial military policy begun by George W Bush has not changed.

Source: President Obama 'orders Pakistan drone attacks'

Former guard on Guantanamo 'torture'

Niluccio — Tue, 13 Jan 2009 18:04:32 +0000

A former guard at the US detention centre at Guantanamo Bay has spoken in his first television interview about the brutality he witnessed to inmates.
Chris Arendt told the BBC what he saw amounted to ''torture'' and that some of his fellow guards were so violent as to be ''psychotic.''

Source: Former guard on Guantanamo 'torture'

Cheney the failed architect

Niluccio — Wed, 17 Dec 2008 16:46:31 +0000

The notion that the presidency of George Bush has been a disaster for the US approaches the level of self-evident truth. It has actually become quite difficult to find anyone who isn't a personal friend of the president who will argue otherwise.

Source: Cheney the failed architect

A letter to Barack

Niluccio — Thu, 06 Nov 2008 18:51:33 +0000

Dear Mr Obama,

Over the next few weeks, lots of people will be asking what you intend to do about the Middle East. Please don't rush to give them an answer, and don't assume that you really must do something – at least not until you're sure it won't make matters worse. That's one obvious lesson from the Bush years.

Source: A letter to Barack

What do you mean, bin Laden doesn't exist?

Niluccio — Thu, 06 Nov 2008 17:25:03 +0000

America's President-elect was being watched a lot closer to the front lines of the US War on Terror than he may have been aware on Saturday night.

As Barack Obama's face shone from a huge wide screen television into the officers' mess at a Pakistani army fortress in Khar, in the tribal area of Bajaur, the room shook to heavy artillery blasting from gun positions at the gates. Barely a mile up the road Pakistani troops traded fire with Taleban raiding parties.

Source: What do you mean, bin Laden doesn't exist?

Mind your language, Mr President-elect

Niluccio — Thu, 06 Nov 2008 17:13:01 +0000

I have sent out a request that Barack Obama, or Michelle Obama, get in touch with me. While waiting for a response (and imagining how busy they must be), I decided to write down my thoughts. After watching the debates between Mr Obama and John McCain, something has leapt out at me. It has now leapt out twice, and I would like to avoid having it appear a third time. It is Mr Obama's statement that, when he is President, he (the US) will pursue al-Qaeda in the hills of Pakistan, find Osama bin Laden and “kill” him. Though I understand that Mr Obama wishes to show himself as “strong”, even “tough”, this is problematic on ethical, moral, and practical levels.

Source: Mind your language, Mr President-elect

Now he must declare that the war on terror is over

Niluccio — Thu, 06 Nov 2008 12:54:15 +0000

A day of joy but also another day of horror. Even as American voters were giving the world the man whom opinion polls showed to be the overwhelming favourite in almost every country, his predecessor's terrible legacy was already crowding in on the president-elect.

Twenty-three children and 10 women died in the latest US air strike in Afghanistan, a failed war on terror that has only brought worse terror in its wake. In Iraq, explosions killed 13 people. Obama's stand against an unpopular war was the bedrock of his success on Tuesday, even though the financial meltdown sealed his victory. Now he must make good on his promises of withdrawal.

Source: Now he must declare that the war on terror is over

President Obama: A champion for human rights?

Niluccio — Thu, 06 Nov 2008 12:48:11 +0000

Never mind Sleepless in Seattle, it’s been sleepless in Stratford, Stoke and Stornoway. I for one am a bit bleary with the intensity of it all. Having grabbed about three hours sleep, I’ve been back on the internet this morning searching for fresh morsels. Why did Florida turn blue? How did the demographics break down?

Historians will obviously pore over this election race for decades to come, but to my mind one area that’s received much less attention than it should is the significance of the presidential contest on key human rights issues.

Source: President Obama: A champion for human rights?

A pro-gay president

Niluccio — Wed, 05 Nov 2008 18:05:36 +0000

I woke up this morning holding my breath, and 1 minute and 5 seconds into the next President's acceptance speech, the nightmare ended. Three sentences in, he said: "It's the answer spoken by young and old, rich and poor, Democrat and Republican, black, white, Hispanic, Asian, Native American…" By now my boyfriend and I were clutching onto each other's arms. "… Gay, straight, disabled and not disabled." We both let out our breath and gave a little jump. We were almost punching the air like, well, Americans.

Source: A pro-gay president

UN drone inquiry

Niluccio — Tue, 04 Nov 2008 17:56:55 +0000

In using remotely piloted Predator drones for air strikes in Pakistan, the CIA claims to distinguish between civilians and "militant" targets (Suspected US missile strikes kill 27 in Pakistan, November 1). But in the wake of increasing numbers of civilian casualties, this intensified bombing campaign should be censured. The CIA has now used pilotless drones, or unmanned aerial vehicles (UAVs), as an attack aircraft both inside a theatre of war (Afghanistan and Iraq) and outside (Pakistan and Yemen).

Source: UN drone inquiry

Robert Fisk: Scandal of six held in Guantanamo even after Bush plot claim is dropped

Niluccio — Fri, 31 Oct 2008 21:59:43 +0000

In the dying days of the Bush administration, yet another presidential claim in the "war on terror" has been proved false by the withdrawal of the main charge against six Algerians held without trial for nearly seven years at Guantanamo prison camp.

George Bush's assertion in his 2002 State of the Union address – the same speech in which he wrongly claimed that Saddam Hussein had tried to import aluminium tubes from Niger – was that "our soldiers, working with the Bosnian government, seized terrorists who were plotting to bomb our embassy [in Sarajevo]."

Source: Robert Fisk: Scandal of six held in Guantanamo even after Bush plot claim is dropped