World Can't Wait

Indefinite Detention Is Torture

Indefinite Detention Is Torture

Habeas corpus, or the Great Writ, is the legal procedure that keeps the government from holding you indefinitely without showing cause. “The serious physical and psychological harm that results from such detention can constitute cruel, inhuman and degrading treatment,” charges The Center for Victims of Torture. “These effects are amplified in detainees who have been tortured or experienced trauma prior to commencement of indefinite detention.”     

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United States of Denial

From the American "foundational atrocity" of slavery to the ascendance of German Nazification in the 1930s, a refusal of collective responsibility hindered a national reckoning for state-sponsored terror. It also enabled the forced displacement of millions of "undesirables," a policy now embraced by President Trump, along with the hideous programs advocated by his new cabinet-designates: preemptive war and torture, both war crimes.

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The Invasion Of Iraq Wasn't a 'Blunder,' Or Even a 'Colossal Mistake.' It's a Crime We Won't Forget.

Those who perpetrated the Iraq War are still at large, we are reminded by Attytood blogger Will Bunch. "The good people who made a few tiny mistakes back in those crazy post-9/11 times [haven't] turned over a new leaf."

How did America get to this state of amnesia?

CIA Director nominee Gina Haspel allies say she has learned from her mistakes (torture of Cat's Eye detainees). George W. Bush's Iraq War cheerleader John Bolton insists he's not that guy anymore. The former president channels his "inner Rembrandt" to rehabilitate his image by painting portraits of military veterans. Barack Obama turned a blind-eye to prosecution for war crimes in the interest of partisan harmony.

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A Failure of Accountability Made Gina Haspel's Nomination Possible

Few people have paid a professional price for involvement in America's torture program, notes Rogue Justice author Karen Greenberg. John Yoo, the author of the infamous 2002 memos declaring torture legal, remains a tenured professor at Berkeley. Steven Bradbury, who authorized "enhanced" interrogation techniques, now serves as General Counsel of the United States Department of Transportation. Disgraced Attorney General Alberto Gonzales eventually landed a job as Dean of Belmont University College of Law, in Nashville, Tennessee, where he currently teaches Constitutional Law. Former Bush and Obama administrators found senior posts in business and academia (universities, think tanks, foundations, corporations, law firms) and serve to arbiter public opinion on the crimes of the Trump/Pence regime. 

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The Mustache and The Sentry Team Up to Bomb North Korea

"There are few people more likely than Mr. Bolton is to lead the country into war. His selection is a decision that is as alarming as any Mr. Trump has made so far," asserts The New York Times Editorial Board. "Coupled with his nomination of the hard-line C.I.A. director, Mike Pompeo, as secretary of state, Mr. Trump is indulging his worst nationalistic instincts." 

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Madiha Tahir podcast: Drones & The Military Present

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This four-part series explores various aspects of how the present is shaped by war. To do so, we've invited anthropologists to help usmake sense of the current political moment.

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Comparison of ICE Raids to Nazi-era Roundups Is Hard to Avoid

The French term for targeted arrest of wartime Jews was rafle; in Denmark and the Netherlands, the practice was called razzia. The Polish lapanka can be translated as "to catch." By any name, the German tactic of enforced deportation was illegal and immoral, condemned as a war crime under international law. 

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War Is Peace, Bad Is Good, and Mike Pompeo Is a Diplomat

If confirmed as secretary of state, the former Kansas congressman "would become the first person to have served as both the United States' top spy and top diplomat," notes The New York Times reporter Scott Shane. "In the new job, Mr. Pompeo would no longer be constrained by the strictures of impartial intelligence analysis...

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How Many People Does It Take to Drive Out an Oppressor?

"We are still in the early stages of an authoritarian regime change," warns Salon writer Chauncey Devega. "We still have an aspiring authoritarian leader. Many people have gotten to the point where I was a year ago, which is recognizing that this situation is uncertain and the outcome depends upon us. Matters are not hopeless but they are dire. The stakes are very high."

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The Guantanamo Bay Reboot, Part of the Vicious “America First” Fascism of the Trump/Pence regime.

In his first State of The Union message, Donald Trump announced the signing of a new executive order to keep Guantánamo Bay open to the sound of applause. He said those who didn’t applaud his speech are traitors.. His remarks are a harbinger of new waves of prisoners, staying true to his campaign promise to fill Guantanamo up with “some bad dudes.” He pledged to, “have all necessary power to detain terrorists wherever we chase them down, wherever we find them. And in many cases for them it will now be Guantánamo bay.” He further stated that “Terrorists who do things like place bombs in civilian hospitals are evil. When possible, we have no choice but to annihilate them,” disregarding due process. This is an expression of painful hypocrisy as Trump is a blood-thirsty fascist who bombs whole villages, mosques and schools. The budget proposed by the Trump/Pence regime reflects these vows with a $69 million investment in a Guantanamo reboot.

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