War on Terrorism

Torture: The Bush Administration on Trial

by Andy Worthington May 7, 2012

Law-abiding U.S. citizens have been appalled that Jose Rodriguez, the director of the CIA’s National Clandestine Service until his retirement in 2007, was invited to appear on CBS’s 60 Minutes program last weekend to promote his book, “Hard Measures: How Aggressive CIA Actions After 9/11 Saved American Lives,” in which he defends the use of ...

Obama, bin Laden, and Mitt

by Sheldon Richman May 7, 2012

The partisan squabbling over the killing of Osama bin Laden is a typical election-year distraction, effectively squelching discussion of more important matters one year after the execution of the al-Qaeda chief executive. Aided by cable-TV talking heads, Americans are spending too much time speculating over whether presumptive Republican presidential nominee Mitt Romney would have given the order to get bin ...

Canada’s Shameful Treatment of Omar Khadr

by Andy Worthington April 27, 2012

Last week, the Canadian government received a formal request for the return of Omar Khadr from Guantánamo Bay. Julie Carmichael, an aide to Public Safety Minister Vic Toews, told the Globe and Mail, “The government of Canada has just received a completed application for the transfer of prisoner Omar Ahmed Khadr. A decision will be made on ...

The Torture Trials at Guantánamo

by Andy Worthington April 19, 2012

In the last few weeks, Guantánamo has been under the spotlight as, for the first time since Barack Obama took office, the military-commission trial system — the government’s preferred method for trying terror suspects held in Guantánamo — has been readied for trying “high-value detainees,” i.e., those who, as well as being held in Guantánamo, were previously

Guantánamo and Recidivism: New Report Debunks the Government’s Inflated Claims

by Andy Worthington April 11, 2012

On Monday, April 9, the Center for Policy and Research at Seton Hall University School of Law in New Jersey released a new report, “National Security Deserves Better: ‘Odd’ Recidivism Numbers Undermine the Guantánamo Policy Debate” (PDF). It analyzes the fundamental problems with the claims made by the Pentagon and the Director of National Intelligence (DNI) regarding ...

Ten Years of Torture

by Andy Worthington March 29, 2012

Ten years ago, on the evening of March 28, 2002, the Bush administration officially embarked on its “high-value detainee” program in the “war on terror” that had been declared in the wake of the terrorist attacks on September 11, 2001, when Zayn al-Abidin Muhammad Husayn (more commonly identified as Abu Zubaydah), was captured in a house raid ...

Obama Codifies Indefinite Detention

by Sheldon Richman March 27, 2012

In yet another reversal of his professed commitment to the rule of law, President Obama says he will sign the National Defense Authorization Act (NDAA), which formalizes his authority to imprison terrorism suspects indefinitely without charge or trial. Where is the “progressive” outrage? George W. Bush and Obama both claimed that the 2001 Authorization for the Use of Military Force (AUMF) ...

The “Taliban Five” and the Forgotten Afghan Prisoners in Guantánamo

by Andy Worthington March 22, 2012

In the last three months, much discussion has focused on the possibility that, as part of negotiations aimed at securing peace in Afghanistan, the United States would release five high-level Taliban prisoners in Guantánamo. Almost entirely forgotten are 12 other Afghan prisoners at Guantánamo who are mostly so insignificant that they have no one to lobby for them and ...

Guantánamo and Recidivism: The Media’s Ongoing Failure to Question Official Statistics

by Andy Worthington March 13, 2012

Last week, the director of National Intelligence, in consultation with the director of the CIA and the director of the Defense Intelligence Agency, issued a two-page unclassified summary, entitled, “Summary of the Reengagement of Detainees Formerly Held at Guantánamo Bay, Cuba (PDF),” which provided information about the supposed “recidivism” of former prisoners. According to ...

Uncle Sam’s Greatest Hits: Coming Soon to a Neighborhood Near You

by Michael Tennant March 9, 2012

Suppose a murderous gang were on the loose in a city. The police, having been unable to prevent the gang’s crimes or apprehend the criminals, decide instead to draw up a secret list of people alleged to be gang members and sympathizers and then to start assassinating the people on the list — and to do ...

The Greatest Threat to Our Freedom, Part 2

by Jacob G. Hornberger February 27, 2012

Part 1 | Part 2 | Part 3 Suppose a nation’s constitution prohibits the ruler of the country from infringing fundamental, God-given rights such as freedom of speech, freedom of the press, freedom of religion, privacy, economic liberty, and gun rights. Suppose also that the constitution provides a myriad of procedural obstacles and obstructions before the government can ...

As the Underwear Bomber Receives a Life Sentence in Federal Court, Lawmakers Obsession with Military Trials Looks Idiotic

by Andy Worthington February 22, 2012

Last Thursday, February 16, Umar Farouk Abdulmutallab, the so-called underwear bomber, received a life sentence in a courtroom in Detroit. Abdulmutallab, a Nigerian, had tried and failed to blow up a plane bound for Detroit on Christmas Day 2009, receiving serious burns when the bomb failed to detonate. After he was apprehended, he was read his Miranda rights and ...