The Washington Independent

Posts Tagged human rights

DOJ Advice on Sleep Deprivation Varied Widely

By | 09.03.09 | 9:07 am

iron shackles
Among the many revelations in the CIA inspector general’s report released last week is this curious fact: the CIA did not have a coherent or consistent policy about the use and legality of sleep deprivation as an interrogation tactic. And it was More…

[UPDATED] Commission Inquiry Into Rendition May Rankle Obama Administration

By | 08.27.09 | 3:29 pm

Today’s news that the Inter-American Commission on Human Rights will hear the claims of kidnapping and torture filed against the United States by the American Civil Liberties Union on behalf of Khaled El-Masri, an innocent German citizen and car salesman subjected to the Bush administration’s extraordinary rendition program in 2003, More…

Iran Says It’s Ready to Negotiate on Nukes

By | 08.18.09 | 8:55 am

Via Laura Rozen, Reuters translates a report from Iranian state TV quoting the regime’s ambassador to the International Atomic Energy Agency saying “talks without preconditions is Iran’s main stance in negotiations on the nuclear issue.” So there it is: two months after apparently stealing the June 12 election, More…

The Real Test for Obama on Indefinite Detention

By | 07.02.09 | 5:09 pm

Here’s another point I should have made in my piece earlier today: Just because President Obama’s Justice Department has been asserting a remarkably broad, Bush-like view of his detention authority pursuant to the laws of war in the Guantanamo detainees’ habeas corpus cases, that doesn’t mean the president 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…

U.N. Human Rights Chief Condemns Iran Violence

By | 06.19.09 | 12:59 pm

Here’s an example of what Hadi Ghaemi’s talking about. Navi Pillay, the United Nations High Commissioner on Human Rights, has released a statement condemning the Iranian regime’ suppression of the opposition movement:

Pillay expressed particular concern about reported acts of violence by members of the Basij militia, which

More…

Thirty-Two Dead in Iran?

By | 06.17.09 | 2:50 pm

Reuters is reporting that state-run Iranian media claim that seven people have been killed in demonstrations and protests since Friday’s election. But my understanding is that this press release from a consortium of Iranian human rights activists claims to have confirmed 32 deaths due to regime crackdowns on More…

Obama’s Iran Policy to Focus on Human Rights, Not Election

By | 06.15.09 | 12:01 am

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As reports of political violence in Iran intensified after Friday’s fiercely disputed election, the Obama administration insisted that it would not interfere with the struggle for power between regime-backed President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad and the thousands of demonstrators who contend the election was stolen. Administration officials, on and off the More…

ACLU Unimpressed With Obama Human Rights Pledge

By | 04.27.09 | 6:13 pm

Shorter ACLU: Go back and do that again.

Human Rights in America

By | 04.27.09 | 4:03 pm

You know, spending a lot of time dredging through the public record on torture is a rather depleting exercise. So it’s a glass of lemonade in a desert to read the Obama administration’s human rights pledges issued by the State Department today. The administration announced last month that it would More…