torture
396 Articles
The New US Anti-Torture Law: A Genuine Step Forward
Just over two months ago, on the day before Thanksgiving, President Obama signed into law an important provision concerning torture that has garnered surprisingly little attention.…
Ten National Security Oversight Issues to Watch in 2016
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…
On Human Rights Day, One Year On: No Apology and No Accountability for US Torture
A year ago yesterday, the Senate Select Committee on Intelligence released a redacted version of the executive summary of its exhaustive report on the CIA’s detention and interrogation…
Belhaj v. Straw: UK Supreme Court Hearing Case on UK Complicity in US Rendition and Torture
The United Kingdom Supreme Court heard arguments this week in two critical cases concerning the UK’s role in the United States’ rendition, detention, and interrogation efforts…
Drone Disclosures, Official and Not
As readers of this blog already know, last week The Intercept published a series of fascinating stories about the US drone campaign. The stories, and the official documents that…
The Special Rapporteur on Torture’s Report on Extraterritoriality Speaks to Migrant Crisis
The United Nations Special Rapporteur on Torture, Juan E. Méndez, has issued a new expert’s report (his 17th)—this one on extraterritoriality. (JustSecurity’s extensive…
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…