torture
389 Articles

Beyond the APA: The Role of Psychology Boards and State Courts in Propping up Torture
The image of torture in US popular culture is an intimate one: a government agent and a suspect in a dark cell, usually alone. But the reality of our state-sanctioned torture program…

The APA’s Watershed Move to Ban Psychologists’ Complicity in Torture
As Marty Lederman wrote about here, the APA Council of Representatives made waves on Friday by approving, with a near-unanimous vote, a resolution that (1) bans psychologists…

Background Reading on Umm Sayyaf’s Transfer to Kurdish Authorities
The Pentagon yesterday announced that it has transferred Umm Sayyaf, the US’s first detainee in the campaign against ISIL, to the Interior Ministry of Iraqi Kurdistan where…

Skeptical of Guantánamo Diary? Question the US Government Instead
It is sort of a cardinal rule for writers not to respond to negative reviews, and I can easily imagine that Mohamedou Ould Slahi would let the new review of his Guantánamo Diary…

The APA Scandal
This post is the latest installment of our “Monday Reflections” feature, in which a different Just Security editor examines the big stories from the previous week or looks…

Abu Ghraib and the Perversion of the Political Question Doctrine
I’ve written extensively about the important and complex legal questions raised by state-law tort suits against private military contractors, many of which have arisen in…

A Sweeping Victory for the McCain-Feinstein Anti-Torture Measure
The anti-torture measure that David talks about here passed the Senate by an overwhelming majority today of 78-21. Not that this should be a surprise. After all, as David wrote,…

Closing Guantánamo Will Help Combat Terrorist Propaganda
It’s no secret that extremist groups like al-Qaeda and ISIL use the American prison at Guantánamo Bay as a recruiting tool and rallying cry against the United States. The topic…

No Torture Means No Torture – Why We Need the McCain-Feinstein Anti-Torture Amendment
Do we mean what we say when we ban torture? That has been a question for more than a decade, ever since President George W. Bush, on United Nations International Day in Support…

UK High Court: UK Gov’t can be Held Liable for Abuse of Detainees in U.S. custody in 2003-2011 Iraq conflict
Earlier this week, the U.K. High Court handed down a further judgment in the ongoing litigation brought on behalf of hundreds of Iraqi civilians against the British government—holding…

Polish Outrage to Paying Victims of CIA Black Sites—and What the Eur Court Said
Poland will be paying a quarter of a million dollars to two Guantánamo detainees, Abu Zubaydah and Abd al-Rahim al-Nashiri. The payment arises in the context of the torture of…

As the Senate Torture Report Gathers Dust, Is the Obama Administration Giving Torturers De Facto Amnesty?
It has been more than four months since the Senate Intelligence Committee (SSCI) published the summary of its report on the secret detention program operated by the CIA after the…