The Washington Independent

Posts Tagged accountability

Supreme Court Rejects Key Torture Case

By | 12.14.09 | 11:55 am

The Supreme Court today issued a blow to victims of abuse by U.S. officials during the “war on terror.” The high court this morning refused to review a federal appeals court ruling that dismissed a lawsuit by four British citizens who claimed they were wrongly arrested More…

Did the Defense Department Stop Reporting Deaths of Detainees in U.S. Custody?

By | 09.04.09 | 4:40 pm

Dr. Steven Miles, a professor at the University of Minnesota Medical School and faculty member of its Center for Bioethics, for years tried to track the deaths of “war on terror” detainees being held in U.S. custody. The author of the book “Oath Betrayed: Torture, Medical Complicity and More…

ACLU to Argue Against Use of Evidence Obtained Through Torture in Federal Court

By | 06.30.09 | 6:31 pm

The American Civil Liberties Union will file a brief tomorrow urging the federal court to suppress evidence gathered using torture, which the government wants to rely on in the case of Mohammed Jawad, the boy who “confessed” to throwing a grenade at U.S. soldiers after being arrested and tortured More…

ACLU Asks UN to Investigate Extraordinary Rendition

By | 06.26.09 | 3:43 pm

The American Civil Liberties Union yesterday, along with Alkarama for Human Rights, asked two U.N. special rapporteurs to investigate the “extraordinary rendition,” detention and torture of Abou Elkassim Britel, an Italian citizen and one of the victims suing Jeppesen Dataplan, the subsidiary of Boeing the allegedly helped the More…

Democrats May Investigate Bush Officials’ Alleged Lies to Congress

By | 05.04.09 | 10:23 am

Facing staunch Republican opposition to a full-fledged investigation of the Bush administration’s torture policies — whether by an independent commission or an independent prosecutor — some senior Democrats are reportedly considering investigations for whether former Bush officials lied to Congress when they reported on the government’s activities, NBC News Capitol More…

U.S. Will Provide OAS Body with Obama Administration’s Position on Truth Commission

By | 03.20.09 | 5:57 pm

It was an odd but refreshing spectacle, to see U.S.-based human rights lawyers arguing to the Inter-American Commission on Human Rights that the United States has effectively insulated itself from accountability for torture and war crimes, and ought to be pushed by an international body to do better.

Leahy Announces Hearing Next Week on Truth Commission

By | 02.25.09 | 3:15 pm

Picking up on the controversial proposal he made during a Feb. 9 speech at Georgetown University, Sen.Patrick Leahy (D-Vt.) today reiterated his call for a “truth commission” on the Senate floor and said the Senate Judiciary Committee would hold a hearing next Wednesday to begin to consider the idea.

More ‘Damning’ Evidence of Bush Lawbreaking

By | 02.16.09 | 12:35 pm

Jason Leopold at The Public Record has acquired some important inside information about a still-classified report written by the Justice Department’s Office of Professional Responsibility that provides more evidence of Bush administration lawbreaking.

According to Leopold, OPR director H. Marshall Jarrett reached “damning” conclusions about the advice of John More…

A New Day for Accountability in Stimulus Plan

By | 02.15.09 | 6:08 pm

Amid the Democrats’ boostering and the Republicans’ assaults on the final stimulus package, almost no one is focusing on a key part of the bill that will be critical to making it work: accountability for how that $787 billion is spent. In fact, a look at the final bill reveals More…

Obama May Be Required to Prosecute Bush Officials for War Crimes

By | 01.19.09 | 12:21 am

The consensus seems to be growing that, despite his oft-repeated desire to “look forward rather than backward” when it comes to the Bush administration’s authorization of the use of torture on detainees in American custody, President-elect Barack Obama is going to have to open some sort of official investigation More…