South Carolina judge rules that Padilla has no right to pursue torture charges in Padilla v. Rumsfeld

[ASIL] The U.S. District Court for the District of South Carolina has dismissed all claims of torture and abuse by Jose Padilla against several current and former government officials stemming from his capture, interrogation, and subsequent classification as enemy combatant. The judge also ruled that, even if Padilla were allowed to sue, the current and [...]

UN report confirms gap between law and reality, torture, secret detentions and police harassment in Tunisia under Ben Ali

The United Nations just published a report on its website which describes the fact-finding mission of the United Nations Special Rapporteur on the protection of human rights while countering terrorism in January 2010. On the basis of the evidence he gathered, he observed a pattern of unacknowledged detention being used vis-à-vis terrorist suspects. During the [...]

UK training Bangladesh ‘death squad’

The BBC reports that British officials in Bangladesh have confirmed Wikileaks reports that the UK is training a police force in the country accused of being a death squad.Rapid Action Battalion members have been taught “interviewing techniques” and “rules of engagement” by the UK authorities, said the leaked cables. One message says the US would [...]

Al-Qaida terrorist’s appeal argues that Britain was complicit in his torture

The Guardian reports that a man convicted of serious terrorism offences is to launch an appeal against his conviction today on the grounds that the British government was complicit in the torture he suffered before being put on trial. Rangzieb Ahmed, 35, from Rochdale, Greater Manchester, was convicted two years ago of directing a terrorist [...]

UK Lord Justice Gross speech on National Security and the Courts

Interesting speech by Lord Justice Gross at the Royal United Services Institute Intelligence Oversight Conference 2010, in which he outlined a variety of areas where national security impacts on the courts. He said that both the security agencies and the courts must come to a mutual understanding which helps them to perform their vital roles [...]

Mitchell complaint before Board of Psychologists for helping develop and participating in CIA interrogation techniques

The New York Times reports that a complaint against Dr. James E. Mitchell is now before the Texas State Board of Psychologists, alleging that he violated the profession’s rules of practice in helping the C.I.A. develop “enhanced interrogation techniques” for use in its so-called black prison sites during the Bush administration’s war on terror. Along [...]

Bush Addresses 9/11 Policy Controversies in Memoir

In the NY Times Charlie Savage describes how Bush’s forthcoming memoir covers, among other topics, five areas that address Mr. Bush’s use of presidential powers and his view of executive authority, including the 9/11 shoot down order, approving enhanced interrogation techniques and warrantless wiretapping. On interrogations and accountability Bush wrote: I knew that an interrogation [...]

British Troops Accused of Abusing Iraqi Detainees

The NY Times reports that a lawyer for 200 Iraqis demanding a public inquiry into what they have described as brutal mistreatment by British soldiers in a secret detention center near Basra told the High Court in London on Friday that the abuse amounted to “Britain’s Abu Ghraib.” The assertion was buttressed with video recordings [...]

France high court rules terror suspects have right to lawyer

[JURIST] The French Court of Cassation [official website, in French] ruled [judgment text, in French; press release, in French] Tuesday that all persons in custody of French law enforcement, including terrorism suspects, are entitled to consult with lawyers from the outset of criminal proceedings. Sitting en banc, the court ruled that France’s current rules regarding [...]

Confinement Conditions at a U.S. Screening Facility on Bagram Air Base

This Open Society Foundations report provides the first detailed account of mistreatment at a classified U.S. screening facility on Bagram Air Base in Afghanistan that was physically distinct from the Bagram Theater Internment Facility or the Detention Facility in Parwan. Detainees state that they were held in excessively cold isolation cells; supplied inappropriate or inadequate [...]