Category Archives: Torture

YATA

BBC News reports Moroccans claim Guantanamo abuse:

The five defendants claim that on numerous occasions while in detention at Guantanamo Bay, they were stripped naked and handcuffed before having dogs set upon them.

All five defendants plead not guilty to having links with al-Qaeda and Osama Bin Laden, or to having undergone military training in Afghanistan.

When asked by the judge at Rabat's appeal court why they had signed testimonies to the contrary, they replied that they had been blindfolded for much of their time at Guantanamo and were still blindfolded when they were told to sign testimonies once in Morocco.

The Moroccan judge, the article makes clear, doesn't want to hear about it.

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YATA (Yet Another Torture Allegation)

Via Jurist: Released Briton details assault, torture at Guantanamo

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Apologia Pro Tormento: Analyzing the First 56 Pages of the Walker Working Group Report (aka the Torture Memo)

I have read a redacted copy of the first 56 pages of the Torture Memo (alternate source). The memo — or at least the approximately half of it we have — sets out a view as to how to make legal justifications for the torture of detainees unilaterally labeled by the government as “unlawful combatants”, including (but not limited to?) al Qaida and Taliban detainees in Guantanamo.

Here are my initial comments on some of the main points, especially those regarding Presidential powers and international law. I've concentrated on those parts because those are the relevant issues I think I know the most about; in contrast, I say little here about the direct criminal law issues. I wrote this in a hurry, so please treat these as tentative remarks. I look forward to discussion with other readers, and will post amendments and corrections when they are brought to my attention.

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Posted in Guantanamo, Law: Constitutional Law, Law: International Law, Torture | 120 Comments