Archive for: 08/2009

protest
© AI

The Disappeared

30th August marks the International Day of the Disappeared. Disappearance, defined as abduction, arrest or detention by the state or its agents, is one of the cruellest forms of human rights violations and it impacts many people around the world.

Eric Holder
Attorney general Eric Holder © Reuters

Special Prosecutor Appointed

US Attorney General Eric Holder has appointed a Special Prosecutor, John Durham, to open a preliminary investigation into prisoner abuse cases which commenced as part of the "war on terror". Although this is a positive step, the scope of the investigation is limited to the investigation of only around a dozen cases of abuse and is not going to investigate the many others involved in the torture and abuse of men and women in US custody including high ranking Bush officials.

tortured man
Source: Newsweek © Kamil Vojnar / Getty Images

A CIA Horror Story

The internal 2004 CIA Inspector General's report investigating the cruel and illegal 'interrogation programme' run by the CIA after September 11th has been released. The heavily redacted shocking report includes details torture and cruelty including mock executions, threats of killing the detainee's children, the use of guns and power drills in interrogations and having their lives threatened if they did not speak.

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