World-News

By Fred Branfman

Is the suffering our leaders inflict on innocent civilians relevant to deciding whether to support our present war-making in Afghanistan and Pakistan? Would it matter if the N.Y. Times had run daily profiles and photos of Iraqi civilian victims since 2003, as it did of U.S. victims after 9/11?

http://www.informationclearinghouse.info/article25790.htm



EU states 'use outsourced torture'

Britain, France and Germany must stop using intelligence obtained through torture in third-party countries, a report from Human Rights Watch has said.

http://english.aljazeera.net/news/europe/2010/06/2010629134355923668.html


From Information Clearing House

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Witnessing against torture

CounterPunch
by Kathy Kelly

06/23/10

Many people come to the capitol every day of the year. They are free to ask questions and to make comments. But, if you raise questions and comments of a political nature, police officials believe they must enforce a law to restrict your enactment of this right, even though the Constitution insists that Congress shall make no law to abridge the right of people to assemble peaceably for redress of grievance. We believed that expression of grief and remorse for the lost lives of these three men should properly happen in a place where U.S. people mourn the loss of a president’s life. While a U.S. president possesses near-unimaginable power, the men whom we mourned suffered from unimaginable powerlessness. Earnest mourning of these lost lives was crucial for truthful recognition that the U.S. government has used torture as a means of punishment, possibly even lethal punishment, in violation of international law and basic human rights...

http://counterpunch.org/kelly06232010.html



A legal cover for torture?

CounterPunch
by Sheldon Richman

06/23/10

It’s not enough that the last gang to occupy the Executive Branch got us into two illegal wars, accumulated autocratic powers, violated our civil liberties, and tortured suspects. Now it appears that it kicked things up a notch. Physicians for Human Rights (PHR) says it has unearthed ‘evidence that indicates the Bush administration apparently conducted illegal and unethical human experimentation and research on detainees in CIA custody’...

http://counterpunch.org/richman06232010.html



Under pressure, UK promises torture guidelines

Macon Telegraph

06/28/10

The British government promised Monday to quickly issue its spies a fresh set of guidelines on how to avoid being complicit in torture. The announcement addresses a legal challenge to the existing guidelines, which human rights group Reprieve said allowed British intelligence agents to gather information extracted through torture — even if they weren’t directly involved in the mistreatment...

http://tinyurl.com/2g7q4yk


Informant: Thomas L. Knapp

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Calling for Accountability on the International Day in Support of Victims of Torture

Andy Worthington, Truthout: "Today is the International Day in Support of Victims of Torture, established by the United Nations General Assembly in December 1997, to mark the ratification of the UN Convention Against Torture and Other Cruel, Inhuman or Degrading Treatment or Punishment on June 26, 1987. As UN Secretary-General Kofi Annan explained on June 26, 1998 (when the day was first marked), 'This is a day on which we pay our respects to those who have endured the unimaginable. This is an occasion for the world to speak up against the unspeakable....' At the time, Annan lamented that, although over 100 States had ratified the Convention, the use of torture was 'still reported' in many of those countries."

http://www.truth-out.org/calling-accountability-international-day-support-victims-torture60786

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Britain, France, Germany Use Torture Intel: HRW
http://www.commondreams.org/headline/2010/06/29-2



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