Human Rights Glance
The Justice Department investigation into CIA torture allegations may have already jeopardized American intelligence capabilities, seven former CIA directors told President Obama. In a letter, the spy chiefs urge him to reverse Attorney General Eric Holder's decision to re-review case files of a dozen interrogations for possible criminal prosecution.
TVNL Comment: Three of the directors -- Porter Goss, Michael Hayden and George Tenet -- were directly responsible for authorizing and overseeing the CIA's interrogation program, which was known inside the agency as "GST." A fourth, R. James Woolsey is a member of PNAC. Why would these criminals want an investigation? Just asking....
Signaling a shift in the U.S.'s handling of overseas interrogations, FBI director Robert Mueller reassured Democratic lawmakers Wednesday that his agents would never turn over detainees to the CIA for rendition, despite the bureau's heightened role in the questioning of terrorism detainees.
A number of new reports have, in recent weeks, highlighted evidence of illegal human experimentation on US-held "terrorism" prisoners undergoing torture. Those reports come on the heels of a "white paper" by Physicians for Human Rights (PHR), "Aiding Torture: Health Professionals' Ethics and Human Rights Violations Demonstrated", in the May 2004 inspector general's report.
Hundreds of prisoners held by the U.S. military in Afghanistan will for the first time have the right to challenge their indefinite detention and call witnesses in their defense under a new review system being put in place this week, according to administration officials.
Seven months after his release from Guantanamo Bay, Mustafa Ait Idr cautiously sips coffee in a Sarajevo cafe. His face is still partially paralyzed and numb from when guards pinned him onto gravel and jumped on him. He is nursing a broken finger — punishment for refusing to strip naked in his cell. On another occasion, his head was held in a toilet for prolonged periods of time.
