Human Rights News January 01, 2010 to 08, 2009

From BILL of RIGHTS Defense Committee -- Simply GO here

1st one: U.S. President Barack Obama had a good first day on the job.

Within 24 hours of his inauguration, he signed orders calling for the closure of Guantanamo Bay by January 2010, banning torture and closing black prisons run by the CIA. With the stroke of a pen, the new President turned his back on some of the Bush-era's most offensive policies

That was day one. As we approach day 365, the President has admitted he won't meet Gitmo's January deadline.

That's not really the concern. As Democratic Rep. John Murtha put it, "The problem with Guantanamo was never about the bricks and mortar. The problem with Guantanamo is that its very existence stains and defies the moral fiber of our great nation."

Rather than the building itself, it's what went on inside Guantanamo that was so offensive. As allegations of torture, abuse and lack of access to international law come out of the Bagram Theatre Internment Facility, a detention centre in Afghanistan, it's clear the issue isn't closing Guantanamo Bay. It's guaranteeing human rights.

The Bagram detention centre lies in a secret location north of Kabul and is currently estimated to hold 600 prisoners - three times that of Guantanamo - without charge. Bagram was not included under a 2004 Supreme Court decision that extended habeas corpus, the right to challenge detention, to Guantanamo. Now, there is evidence that a number of prisoners are in need of that contest.

The United States contends because the prison is in a battle zone, it's not possible to conduct investigations into individual cases. That means prisoners lack access to lawyers.

But recently, two teenaged Afghan boys told the Washington Post that this year in Bagram "they were beaten by American guards, photographed naked, deprived of sleep and held in solitary confinement for at least two weeks," clear violation of Obama's torture ban. Further, former detainees told the New York Times that some prisoners are kept hidden from the Red Cross, the only civilian organization allowed access to the centre

These are not the only allegations of misconduct... See rest of article - GO here

Jan 8, 2010, Craig and Marc Kielburger, Huffington Post, Obama needs to live up to promises on human rights

Jan 8, 2010, Democracy Now!, After Years in Guantanamo Prison Without Charge, Future Even More Uncertain for Yemeni Detainees

Jan 8, 2010, Editorial, Times (UK), The Real Problem With Profiling

Jan 7, 2010, Zack Kaldveer, California Progress Report, The Politics of Fear and “Whole-Body-Imaging”

Jan 7, 2010, Mike Scarcella, BLT: Blog of Legal Times, Bagram Detainees Argue for Habeas Rights at D.C. Circuit

Jan 7, 2010, Jason Leopold, TruthOut, OPR Torture Report Still Under Review, Should Be Released "Soon"

Jan 7, 2010, David Swanson, OpEdNews, FOIA Request Filed for OPR Report on Bush's Lawyers

Jan 7, 2010, Joshua Partlow, Washington Post, U.S. military probes allegations of prisoner abuse in Afghanistan

Jan 7, 2010, Andy Worthington, Huffington Post, An Afghan Nobody Faces Trial by Military Commission

Jan 7, 2010, Avery Fellow, Courthouse News Service, Gitmo Confession Tainted by Torture, Judge Says

Jan 7, 2010, Andy Worthington, Neiman Watchdog, Yemeni Gitmo Detainees Now the Victims of Hysteria

Jan 7, 2010, Shayana Kadidal, Huffington Post, New York Times Re-runs Retracted Story on Guantanamo Detainees' "Return to Terror"

Jan 6, 2010, Jon Wiener, Los Angeles Times, Obama's fight against secrecy

Jan 6, 2010, Bill Egnor, The Seminal, DC Court Of Appeals Up Holds Sweeping Detention Policy

Jan 6, 2010, New York Times, Will Profiling Make a Difference?

Jan 6, 2010, Monique Garcia, Chicago Tribune, State panel approves sale of Illinois prison to house terrorism suspects

Jan 6, 2010, Glenn Greenwald, Salon, The backfiring of the surveillance state

Jan 5, 2010, Tom Ramstack, All Headline News, Human Rights Group Challenges Terrorism Law

Jan 5, 2010, Mark Sherman, Associated Press, Appeals court ruling limits Guantanamo detainees' rights, gives president wide detention power

Jan 5, 2010, Reuters, Civil liberty groups oppose new U.S. air screening

Jan 5, 2010, Glenn Greenwald, Salon, Civilian trials and the so-called rule of law

Jan 5, 2010, David Cole, New York Review of Books, Getting Away with Torture

Jan 4, 2010, H. Lee Sarokin, Huffington Post, What Does Dick Cheney Want More: America's Safety or Obama's Failure?

Jan 4, 2010, Daphne Eviatar, Washington Independent, Surprise! John Yoo Believes in Broad Executive Powers

Jan 4, 2010, Shahid Buttar, Huffington Post, Double Standards: How Our Lawlessness Strengthens Our Enemies

Jan 4, 2010, Kim Zetter, Wired, Author of Torture, Spy Memos Was Just Doing His Job

Jan 4, 2010, Adam Serwer, TAPPED: Blog of The American Prospect, The Cards You're Dealt.

Jan 4, 2010, Anushay Hossain, Huffington Post, Security Could Be Obama's Downfall

Jan 4, 2010, Matthew Yglesias, ThinkProgress, The Real Torture Debate

Jan 3, 2010, Gary Younge, Guardian (UK), The war on terror has been about scaring people, not protecting them

Jan 3, 2010, David Edwards and Gavin Dahl, Raw Story, Lieberman: No facility more humane than Gitmo

Jan 3, 2010, New York Times, Yes, It Was Torture, and Illegal

Jan 1, 2010, Matthew Harwood, Guardian (UK), New Year's resolution for Guantánamo

All the Above JUST IN from Bill of Rights Defense Committee -- Simply GO here