Explore Freedom

How U.S. Officials Circumvented the Bill of Rights

by Jacob G. Hornberger May 13, 2009

In another embrace of President Bush’s war-on-terrorism policies, President Obama has announced that he might retain the Pentagon’s military-commission system to try people accused of terrorism. Apparently, the president, like the U.S. military, lacks confidence in the federal judicial system established by the Framers to handle criminal cases involving terrorism. For those who still doubt ... [click for more]

The Death of Rendition Victim Ibn al-Shaykh al-Libi

by Andy Worthington May 11, 2009

From Libya comes news of the death of Ibn al-Shaykh al-Libi, a former “ghost prisoner” of the United States, whose false confession about a connection between al-Qaeda and Saddam Hussein — extracted under torture in Egypt — was used to justify the invasion of Iraq. The news will only add to the woes of the senior Bush administration ... [click for more]

Obama Returns to Bush Era on Guantánamo

by Andy Worthington May 4, 2009

Two distressing pieces of news emerged last week regarding the Obama administration’s plans to close Guantánamo, and both were delivered by Defense Secretary Robert Gates in testimony to the Senate Appropriations Committee. Discussing what would happen to the remaining 241 prisoners, Gates announced that the question was “still open” as to what the government should do with “the 50 to ... [click for more]

The Post–9/11 Roundup of Innocents, Part 1

by James Bovard May 1, 2009

Part 1 | Part 2 Many Americans have been lulled into a false sense of security by the end of the George W. Bush administration. In reality, the government continues to pose grave perils to people’s rights and liberties. And it could take only one shocking incident for the government to once again show its heavy-handed ways. Prior to the ... [click for more]

CIA Torture Began In Afghanistan Eight Months before Justice Department Approval

by Andy Worthington April 27, 2009

Last December, in a typically bullish defense of the Bush administration’s conduct in the “war on terror,” Vice President Dick Cheney stated, On the question of so-called “torture,” we don’t do torture, we never have. It’s not something that this administration subscribes to. e proceeded very cautiously; we checked, we had the Justice Department issue the requisite opinions in ... [click for more]

Ten Terrible Truths About The CIA Torture Memos, Part 4

by Andy Worthington April 23, 2009

Part 1 | Part 2 | Part 3 | Part 4 Andy Worthington, author of The Guantánamo Files, analyzes ten particularly disturbing facts to emerge from the four memos, purporting to justify the use of torture by the CIA, which were issued by the Justice Department’s Office of Legal Counsel (OLC) in August 2002 and May ... [click for more]

Ten Terrible Truths About The CIA Torture Memos, Part 3

by Andy Worthington April 22, 2009

Part 1 | Part 2 | Part 3 | Part 4 Andy Worthington, author of The Guantánamo Files, analyzes ten particularly disturbing facts to emerge from the four memos, purporting to justify the use of torture by the CIA, which were issued by the Justice Department’s Office of Legal Counsel (OLC) in August 2002 and ... [click for more]

Ten Terrible Truths About The CIA Torture Memos, Part 2

by Andy Worthington April 21, 2009

Part 1 | Part 2 | Part 3 | Part 4 Andy Worthington, author of The Guantánamo Files, analyzes ten particularly disturbing facts to emerge from the four memos, purporting to justify the use of torture by the CIA, which were issued by the Justice Department’s Office of Legal Counsel (OLC) in August 2002 and May ... [click for more]

Ten Terrible Truths About The CIA Torture Memos, Part 1

by Andy Worthington April 20, 2009

Part 1 | Part 2 | Part 3 | Part 4 Andy Worthington, author of The Guantánamo Files, analyzes ten particularly disturbing facts to emerge from the four memos, purporting to justify the use of torture by the CIA, which were issued by the Justice Department’s Office of Legal Counsel (OLC) in August 2002 and May ... [click for more]

The Story of Ayman Batarfi, a Doctor in Guantánamo

by Andy Worthington April 13, 2009

Andy Worthington, author of The Guantánamo Files, tells the strange story of Ayman Batarfi, a Yemeni doctor held as an “enemy combatant” for over seven years, whose release from Guantánamo was approved by the Obama administration’s Guantánamo review board on March 30. No one in the U.S. military ever doubted that Ayman Batarfi, a slim and articulate Yemeni, who ... [click for more]

Farce at Guantánamo

by Andy Worthington April 6, 2009

In 2007, after four rounds of administrative reviews at Guantánamo, Hedi Hammamy, a Tunisian prisoner, born in 1969, was cleared for release, having satisfied the Pentagon that he no longer represented a threat to the United States or its allies and no longer possessed any ongoing intelligence value. He was not released, however, because, although the U.S. government had ... [click for more]

Arrogance and Torture: A History of Guantánamo

by Andy Worthington April 1, 2009

The mesh-wire cages, suitable only for animals, are empty now and overgrown, but they will stand forever as a symbol of the Bush administration’s brutal and destructive “war on terror” policies, implemented in the wake of the terrorist attacks on the U.S. mainland on September 11, 2001. This is Camp X-Ray, the first of the prison camps at the U.S. ... [click for more]