Monday, Nov 17th
Last update05:31:43 AM GMT
Human Rights Glance
A group of former Guantanamo Bay detainees who claim they were tortured with the complicity of the British security services have been paid millions of pounds to drop legal action against the Government.
Ministers will announce on Tuesday that a deal has been reached with the men, at least one of whom is expected to receive more than £1 million of taxpayers’ money.
James Bonard Fowler is 77 now, but in 1965 he was a white Alabama state trooper facing the rising tide of the civil rights movement. On Monday, at the Perry County Courthouse in Alabama, that past came calling: Mr. Fowler pleaded guilty to the 1965 killing of a black man whose death triggered the historic civil rights marches from Selma to Montgomery.
Mr. Fowler will face six months in prison for the fatal shooting of Jimmie Lee Jackson, a 26-year-old civil rights marcher who died after a confrontation with the police in Marion, Ala. His death inspired the first of the famous Selma marches the next month, an event that also ended in violence.
The United States must prosecute former President George W. Bush for torture if his admission in a memoir that he authorized waterboarding holds true, rights group Amnesty International said on Wednesday.
In "Decision Points," published this week, Bush defended his decision to authorize waterboarding, a form of simulated drowning condemned by some as torture.
Last week, David House, a developer working on human rights issues with the Bradley Manning Support Network joined the ranks of Targeted Individual human rights workers. Not being "with" the Bush-Obama team, he is considered a threat, subsequently experiencing what such targets do on a regular basis. Returning home from a Mexican vacation, House was detained and the FBI seized his computer and other personal belongings, including his research papers.
As with every Targeted Individual that has contacted the writer, House committed no crime, nor was he ever alleged to have committed a crime.
The United States must prosecute former President George W. Bush for torture if his admission in a memoir that he authorized waterboarding holds true, rights group Amnesty International said on Wednesday.
In "Decision Points," published this week, Bush defended his decision to authorize waterboarding, a form of simulated drowning condemned by some as torture.
Bush said the practice was limited to three detainees and led to intelligence breakthroughs that thwarted attacks and saved lives. He told NBC in an interview to publicize the book that his legal adviser had told him it did "not fall within the anti-torture act."
Three British soldiers are being investigated by military lawyers over the alleged abuse of an Iraqi detainee, a court has been told. They have been referred to prosecutors and could face war crimes charges.
The High Court is being asked to order a public inquiry into mistreatment claims by more than 200 civilians in UK-controlled detention sites in Iraq. A government lawyer revealed the ongoing inquiry as he argued that a public probe was unnecessary.
The United States submitted Friday at the United Nations to unprecedented public scrutiny of its human rights record, drawing censure from friends and rivals for its policies on detention and the death penalty, but also praise from allies for its candor and willingness to accept constructive criticism.
A delegation of top officials, led by Assistant Secretary of State Esther Brimmer, gave diplomats at the U.N. Human Rights Council a detailed account of U.S. human rights shortcomings and the Obama administration's efforts to redress them. It marked the first time the United States has subjected its rights record to examination before the Geneva-based council, as part of a procedure that requires all states to allow their counterparts to grade their conduct.
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