The Washington Independent

Posts Tagged DOD

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…

CIA Says Military Officers Threatened Detainees, Too

By | 09.01.09 | 10:35 am

I’m already hearing speculative groans that the CIA planted this story with Walter Pincus at The Washington Post today about how a military commander in 2003 did things just as bad as the things the CIA interrogators discussed in the recently-released CIA inspector general report did, so Attorney More…

McCain Admits Bush Administration Violated International Law

By | 08.31.09 | 10:12 am

Sen. John McCain (R-Ariz.) said on “Face the Nation” Sunday that — like most Republicans and even some Democrats, including some in the president’s cabinet — he thinks President Obama was right when he said “we ought to go forward, not back.”

But then he went on to More…

Former Intelligence Official: CIA IG Report Redactions Hide Deaths and ‘Lost’ Detainees

By | 08.26.09 | 9:42 am

While many of us have been speculating about what the 30-plus pages of blacked-out material in the newly released 2004 CIA inspector general report might be hiding, Brian Ross and Matthew Cole at ABC News have found a former intelligence official who’s seen the unclassified version and said More…

Footnote Suggests Broader Probe Is Needed – of CIA and DOJ

By | 08.24.09 | 5:34 pm

Following up on Spencer’s post, I don’t feel too sorry for Jay Bybee or John Yoo, the lead lawyers at the Justice Department’s Office of Legal Counsel who approved the CIA’s so-called “enhanced interrogation techniques.” As Spencer writes and Footnote 26 of the newly released Inspector General report More…

Former FBI and DOD Interrogators Support Holder’s CIA Probe, and Want More

By | 08.24.09 | 3:57 pm

Although there is already criticism of Attorney General Erc Holder’s planned investigation of CIA interrogators, it’s worth noting that former senior FBI and Defense Department interrogators support the criminal probe — and also want a more thorough investigation.

As I noted earlier, the Center for Constitutional Rights and More…

Obama Defies Federal Courts in Holding Yemeni Detainees

By | 08.21.09 | 6:00 am

On Monday a federal court judge ordered the Department of Defense to release a 47-year-old father of two with a heart condition who it has imprisoned at Guantanamo Bay for the past seven years without justification. But like the other Yemeni men cleared for release but still held at the More…

Unpopular Photography

By | 08.12.09 | 5:11 pm

Daphne Eviatar is guest-blogging for Glenn Greenwald today. The following is cross-posted at Salon.

If, as the latest reports indicate, Attorney General Eric Holder is serious about prosecuting the worst torture and abuse of “war on terror” prisoners that occurred during the Bush administration, then More…

Detainee Task Force Recommends Reformed Military Commissions to Try Some Gitmo Detainees

By | 07.21.09 | 8:51 am

The Obama administration’s Detention Policy Task Force has issued a preliminary report recommending that Guantanamo Bay detainees be tried in federal court for criminal violations, if possible, and in military commissions if they’ve violated the laws of war.  But the big decisions about future detention policy, and issuance of More…

Defense Department Still Won’t Comment on Chinese Government Interrogation of Uighurs

By | 07.17.09 | 12:25 pm

CQ Politics notes that a fight is brewing in Congress (finally) over the charge that the Defense Department allowed Chinese government agents to abusively interrogate the Uighur detainees at Guantanamo Bay.

Reports CQ:

Jay Alan Liotta, principal director of the Defense Department office responsible for detainee policy, told a

More…