Survivors of Torture, International

Ring in the New Year with SURVIVORS

2008-12-31T10:08:00.001-08:00

Dear Friends,

We would like to wish you a peaceful, happy, and healthy new year. Thank you for all that you have done to contribute to making San Diego a safe haven for torture survivors. We are so grateful.

Sincerely,
The Staff of SURVIVORS

P.S. There's still time to contribute to our year-end campaign! To qualify for the current tax year, your gift must be given online or postmarked by December 31, 2008.

CAN YOU MAKE A DIFFERENCE TODAY?

2008-12-18T10:47:00.000-08:00

As the year comes to a close, we are reflecting on the successes and struggles of this past year. Increasingly as survivors seek asylum in our country they are being detained in prison-like settings while their cases are evaluated. This year, more than 50% of our new clients- people we have evaluated and identified as survivors of torture-were or continue to be detained.
Providing services to detained clients is logistically difficult, time-consuming, and expensive, but the services we provide are critical. Detained torture survivors are already traumatized; the isolation and uncertainty of detention frequently deepens their trauma, and makes their ultimate recovery that much more difficult. Without the support of SURVIVORS, detained torture survivors are much less likely to be granted the political asylum they so desperately need.
We would like to invite you to make a difference for this group of San Diegans in crisis - torture survivors. Your contribution will be used to support services that help survivors to recover from torture through a holistic program that includes medical, dental, psychiatric, psychological, and social services. Your support helps torture survivors from all over the world to become integrated, healthy, and productive members of our communities.
Let's work together to show that we won't let torture survivors suffer alone. By making a thoughtful year-end donation, you will continue to help us meet the needs of individuals and families who have fled torture in pursuit of safety in San Diego County. All services are provided at no cost to the survivors and 91% of our funding is spent directly on our programs.
You can make a tax-deductible donation online through our secure website. Thank you for considering a year-end contribution to our effort to help survivors of torture and to help bring hope to them in their healing process.

Wishing You a Wonderful Thanksgiving!

2008-11-24T09:46:00.000-08:00

We have so much to be thankful for this year. All of our supporters have offered so much help and encouragement to us and we are very thankful for that! Help us keep the good work moving forward. Please go online and donate now www.notorture.org Happy Thanksgiving!

Interesting article:

Obama to Take On Torture?
By Michael Isikoff NEWSWEEK
Published Nov 22, 2008
From the magazine issue dated Dec 1, 2008

Despite the hopes of many human-rights advocates, the new Obama Justice Department is not likely to launch major new criminal probes of harsh interrogations and other alleged abuses by the Bush administration. But one idea that has currency among some top advisers is setting up a 9/11-style commission that would investigate counterterrorism policies and make public as many details as possible. "At a minimum, the American people have to be able to see and judge what happened," said one senior adviser, who asked not to be identified talking about policy matters. The commission would be empowered to order the U.S. intelligence agencies to open their files for review and question senior officials who approved "waterboarding" and other controversial practices.
Obama aides are wary of taking any steps that would smack of political retribution. That's one reason they are reluctant to see high-profile investigations by the Democratic-controlled Congress or to greenlight a broad Justice inquiry (absent specific new evidence of wrongdoing). "If there was any effort to have war-crimes prosecutions of the Bush administration, you'd instantly destroy whatever hopes you have of bipartisanship," said Robert Litt, a former Justice criminal division chief during the Clinton administration. A new commission, on the other hand, could emulate the bipartisan tone set by Tom Kean and Lee Hamilton in investigating the 9/11 attacks. The 9/11 panel was created by Congress. An alternative model, floated by human-rights lawyer Scott Horton, would be a presidential commission similar to the one appointed by Gerald Ford in 1975 and headed by Nelson Rockefeller that investigated cold-war abuses by the CIA.

Read whole article here

Obama Commits to Close Guantanamo Bay and Ban Torture on 60 Minutes

2008-11-17T10:48:00.000-08:00

Did you see 60 Minutes last night? Obama made a commitment to close Guantanamo Bay and ban torture in order to, "regain America's moral stature in the world."

Click here to watch video

We Still Need Help With the Phone Bank on Wednesday Nov. 19th

2008-11-13T09:31:00.000-08:00

We still have slots to fill for our phone bank on Wednesday Nov. 19th from 5pm-8pm. If you are interested in helping out please contact Sara at svaz@notorture.org

Interesting Article:

Obama's plans for probing Bush torture
President Bush could pardon officials involved in brutal interrogations -- but he may also face a sweeping investigation under the new president.
By Mark Benjamin

Nov. 13, 2008 WASHINGTON -- With growing talk in Washington that President Bush may be considering an unprecedented "blanket pardon" for people involved in his administration's brutal interrogation policies, advisors to Barack Obama are pressing ahead with plans for a nonpartisan commission to investigate alleged abuses under Bush.
The Obama plan, first revealed by Salon in August, would emphasize fact-finding investigation over prosecution. It is gaining currency in Washington as Obama advisors begin to coordinate with Democrats in Congress on the proposal. The plan would not rule out future prosecutions, but would delay a decision on that matter until all essential facts can be unearthed. Between the time necessary for the investigative process and the daunting array of policy problems Obama will face upon taking office, any decision on prosecutions probably would not come until a second Obama presidential term, should there be one.

Read whole article here

STILL TIME TO SIGN UP FOR PHONE BANK NOV. 17-21

2008-11-11T09:32:00.000-08:00

Email Sara at svaz@notorture.org to sign up for the fundrasing phone bank next week. We need your help!

Campaign against torture gears up to lobby Obama
Mercer professor instrumental in organizing effort
By CHRISTOPHER QUINN
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
Tuesday, November 11, 2008
An extensive network of religious leaders, including an Atlanta Baptist leader, will begin a lobbying campaign to get President-elect Barack Obama to issue an executive order banning torture as one of his first acts Wednesday.

Read whole artcile here

Sign up for our Fundraising Phonebank Nov. 17-21

2008-11-10T09:44:00.000-08:00

Please sign up for our fundraising phone bank. We will be calling all of our supporters the week of Nov. 17-21 from 5pm-8pm nightly. If you are interested in helping please email Sara at svaz@notorture.org

Interesting Article:

Obama Plans Guantanamo Close, US Trials
MATT APUZZO and LARA JAKES JORDAN November 10, 2008 12:13 PM EST

WASHINGTON — President-elect Obama's advisers are quietly crafting a proposal to ship dozens, if not hundreds, of imprisoned terrorism suspects to the United States to face criminal trials, a plan that would make good on his promise to close the Guantanamo Bay prison but could require creation of a controversial new system of justice.
During his campaign, Obama described Guantanamo as a "sad chapter in American history" and has said generally that the U.S. legal system is equipped to handle the detainees. But he has offered few details on what he planned to do once the facility is closed.
Under plans being put together in Obama's camp, some detainees would be released and many others would be prosecuted in U.S. criminal courts.

Read whole article here

Volunteer Orientation Wednesday Nov. 12th at 6:00pm

2008-11-07T15:38:00.001-08:00

Volunteer Orientation Wednesday Nov. 12th at 6:00pm

To sign up please email Sara at svaz@notorture.org

Interesting article:

Rodrigo Abd / AP
The Guantanamo Bay facility presents a number of headaches for the incoming administration.
THE ROAD TO THE INAUGURATION
The Gitmo Dilemma
Four reasons Obama won't close the controversial prison soon
By Dan Ephron NEWSWEEK
Published Nov 7, 2008

The detention center at and the flawed justice system created to try terrorist suspects held there are among the most complicated legacies of the Bush administration. They're 's problem now. The president elect has said he will shutter Gitmo and put some of the detainees on trial in American criminal courts or military courts martial (his campaign did not return calls seeking comment. But the prisoner mess created by Bush with the stroke of a pen in November, 2001, and made messier over seven years, will take time and resourcefulness to clean up. Here are four reasons the controversial facility will probably still be open for business a year from now.

Read whole article here

What are the Presidential Candidates Records on Torture-related Issues?

2008-10-31T10:08:00.000-07:00

The following scorecard is based on records of Senators’ actions on major pieces of torture-related legislation in the 109th and 110th Congresses (2005 – 2008).

If you would like to see the full scorecard click here

Please get out there and VOTE!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Join us at the Pledge to Vote Event Sunday Nov. 2nd

2008-10-30T15:00:00.000-07:00

Join us at the Pledge to Vote Event on Sunday November 2nd!
Time: 12-7
Place: Legacy Plaza in Liberty Station- 2801 Rosecrans
Let's make sure we demand our next President bans torture from Day 1!

Check out this article:

Ex-Liberian president's son convicted of torture

(CNN) -- Federal jurors convicted the son of former Liberian president Charles Taylor Sr. of torture and conspiracy charges Thursday, said a spokeswoman for the U.S. attorney's office in the southern district of Florida.

Former Liberian President Charles Taylor's son, Charles McArthur Emmanuel, is shown during his trial.

Charles "Chuckie" Taylor Jr., also known as Charles McArthur Emmanuel, was found guilty on one count of torture, one count of conspiracy to commit torture and one count of possession of a firearm during the commission of a violent crime, said Alicia Valle, special counsel to the U.S. attorney.

Taylor's case, tried in Miami, Florida, was the first brought under a 1994 United States law saying those accused of committing torturous acts overseas can be tried in a U.S. federal court.

Read whole article here

LAST CHANCE TO SIGN UP FOR VOLUNTEER ORIENTATION ON WEDNESDAY!

2008-10-27T09:52:00.000-07:00

LAST CHANCE TO SIGN UP FOR VOLUNTEER ORIENTATION ON WEDNESDAY!

Please email svaz@notorture.org if you are interested in attending the Volunteer Orientation on Wednesday October 29th. We only have a few more seats available so please RSVP as soon as possible! You will learn all the ways you can help get involved with SURVIVORS during this orientation.

Check out this article:

"UN torture sleuth awaits new US government on Iraq"
By Patrick Worsnip UNITED NATIONS, Oct 24 (Reuters) - The U.N.

The U.N. investigator on torture said on Friday he was waiting to see whether a new U.S. administration would change Washington's policy of not allowing him into its prisons in Iraq.The United States has turned down two requests by Manfred Nowak to visit facilities where it holds thousands of Iraqis suspected of involvement in attacks against its troops."They were very clear in saying at the moment we won't change. Might change under a new administration," Nowak, the U.N. special rapporteur on torture, told reporters.Republican John McCain and Democrat Barack Obama face off in a Nov. 4 U.S. presidential election. The winner takes office on Jan. 20.

Read whole article here

2nd Volunteer Orientation Added on October 29th at 6:00pm

2008-10-20T10:29:00.000-07:00

We have added a 2nd Volunteer Orientation because of the overwhelming response to the 1st one. The Orientation will be held on Wednesday, October 29th, at 6:00pm. Please email svaz@notorture.org for more information.

This is a very interesting article and something to really consider:

John Feffer
Posted October 20, 2008 09:20 AM (EST)

The Art of Torture

Reposted from Foreign Policy In Focus
The pictures from Abu Ghraib have achieved iconic status. The hooded man on the box, his arms outstretched, has superceded the image of the toppling of Saddam Hussein's statue. The Bush administration will forever be remembered as "the administration that tortured."
Iconic images have a concentrated power. The Abu Ghraib pictures convey, in visual shorthand, a range of messages - the sufferings of all Iraqis under U.S. occupation, the double standards of U.S. human rights policy, the failures of "democracy promotion." They are pictures that are worth a thousand protests. The enduring images from the Vietnam War - the young girl running naked down the street to escape her napalmed village, the bullet-to-the-head execution of a Vietcong officer - acquired the same power of concentration.
But iconic images have their disadvantages, too. Victims of violent crimes frequently talk of feeling victimized all over again when they recount their traumas. Even as we use the images to decry U.S. policy in Iraq, do we continue to torture the detainees from Abu Ghraib when we reproduce the images of their prison abuses?

Read whole article here

Join us at the Social Ministry Fair at St. Andrew's Lutheran Church

2008-10-17T15:15:00.000-07:00

Join us at the Social Ministry Fair at St. Andrew's Lutheran Church
8350 Lake Murray Blvd
San Diego, Ca 92119
Saturday October 18th after the 5:30pm service
Sunday Octiber 18th after the 8:00am 9:30am and 10:45am services

Interesting Editorial from the Orlando Sentinel:

We think: The next president needs to restore U.S. moral authority
October 17, 2008
Republican John McCain fired off the most memorable line of this week's presidential debate when he told Democrat Barack Obama, "I am not President Bush. If you wanted to run against President Bush, you should have run four years ago."Whichever one of them moves into the White House in January, there's a simple but critical step they could take right away to make a clean break from Mr. Bush: Outlaw, once and for all, the use of torture against prisoners in U.S. custody.Torture isn't just un-American; it's counterproductive. Veteran U.S. interrogators have testified that it doesn't yield reliable intelligence. It encourages enemies to keep fighting rather than surrender and submit to interrogation. It puts captured U.S. troops in greater peril.

Read whole article here

VOLUNTEER ORIENTATION

2008-10-16T13:51:00.000-07:00

Volunteer Orientation
Wednesday, October 22, 2008 at 6:00 p.m.
Please email svaz@notorture.org for details!

Check out this article:

WashPost: Dick Cheney briefed on torture; secret memos detail CIA tactics
There's a healthy Internet buzz today on a Washington Post story saying the CIA endorsed such harsh interrogation techniques as waterboarding against Al Qaeda suspects in 2003 and 2004 -- and eventually got a written endorsement from Bush administration higher-ups.
According to the Post, the existence of two specific memos endorsing the practice had not been disclosed. It said Vice President Dick Cheney and then-national security advisor Condoleezza Rice were briefed by the CIA director, who wanted White House "policy approval."

Read whole article here

Amnesty International Walk

2008-10-15T09:25:00.000-07:00

Amnesty International North County Chapter’s 20th Anniversary & Candlelight Walk for Human Rights
Sunday, October 19, 2008 at 5:30pmAt the Oceanside Amphitheater - Next to the Pier(I-5 Exit in Oceanside @ Mission Ave. - West to the end)
Featuring speakers
• REBIYA KADEER: An "adopted" Prisoner of Conscience
• BRIDGET SUHR: International Criminal Court
• PETER SCHEY: Reconciliation Process in South Africa
• Joan B. Kroc Institute for Peace & Justice will receive the Digna Ochoa Human Rights Defender Award 2008 Find details at the Amnesty International web site

Check out this article:

CIA Tactics Endorsed In Secret Memos
Waterboarding Got White House Nod
By Joby WarrickWashington Post Staff Writer Wednesday, October 15, 2008; Page A01

The Bush administration issued a pair of secret memos to the CIA in 2003 and 2004 that explicitly endorsed the agency's use of interrogation techniques such as waterboarding against al-Qaeda suspects -- documents prompted by worries among intelligence officials about a possible backlash if details of the program became public.
The classified memos, which have not been previously disclosed, were requested by then-CIA Director George J. Tenet more than a year after the start of the secret interrogations, according to four administration and intelligence officials familiar with the documents. Although Justice Department lawyers, beginning in 2002, had signed off on the agency's interrogation methods, senior CIA officials were troubled that White House policymakers had never endorsed the program in writing.

Read whole article here

2008-10-14T09:24:00.000-07:00

"My Guantanamo Diary" event with author Mahvish Rukhsana Khan
Tuesday, October 21, 2008 at 7:00 p.m.
Location: Multipurpose Room in the student services center, UCSD.Address: 9500 Gilman Dr, La Jolla, CA, 92093
Cost: Free

Mahvish Rukhsana Khan's 'My Guantánamo Diary'

My Guantánamo Diary The Detainees and the Stories They Told Me. By Mahvish Rukhsana Khan. Illustrated. 302 pages. $25.95. PublicAffairs.
In 2005, while a law student at the University of Miami, Mahvish Rukhsana Khan decided to volunteer as an interpreter for Afghan detainees at Guantánamo Bay. The American daughter of Afghan immigrants (her parents are Johns Hopkins-educated physicians), Khan thought it unfair that the detainees could not understand their lawyers, who did not speak Pashto, and although she didn't know whether they were guilty, she believed they were entitled to prove their innocence.

Read the whole Article

2008-10-13T13:14:00.000-07:00

Please join us for the Academy Award Winning Documentary Screening of
"Taxi to the Dark Side"
Tuesday, October 21, 2008 at 9:30 a.m.
Location: San Diego City College, Room D121A1313 Park Blvd, San Diego, CA 92101
Cost: Free
This event is co hosted with the Amnesty International Club at City College

In 2002 taxi driver Dilawar was picked up by US forces with his passengers in the desert and taken to Bagram prison in Afghanistan. Five days later he was dead. Injuries to his legs were compared with those he would have sustained if he had been run over by a truck – had he lived it was likely that his legs would have had to have been amputated due to the damage. With this as the starting point, this documentary tells the story of the role of "torture" in the war on terror, from Abu Ghraid to Guantanamo

Check out this article on the potential release of Chinese Muslims from Guantanamo Bay:

After nearly 7 years at Guantanamo, Chinese Muslims set to be freed this week are told to wait
By HOPE YEN Associated Press Writer
8:14 AM EDT, October 9, 2008
WASHINGTON (AP) _ A group of Chinese Muslims set to be freed into the U.S. this week from Guantanamo Bay found their freedom stymied yet again after a simple government plea: What's a couple more weeks or so in jail after nearly seven years?That in essence was the Bush administration's argument to a federal appeals court in a 19-page emergency request that maintained there would be only "minimal harms" if the detainees were to stay at Guantanamo a while longer.Late Wednesday, the U.S. Court of Appeals for the D.C. Circuit agreed, halting the 17 men's release for at least another week to give the government more time to make arguments in the case.

Read the whole article

2008-09-10T15:38:00.000-07:00

A “little death penalty” case: One refugee’s story of seeking protection in the United States.

A fascinating interview from inthefray.org about the story of a Kenyan farmer who, after being tortured for organizing a protest, applied for asylum in the United States .

David Kenney was a political activist in his native Kenya in the early 1990s. He didn’t choose to become a political activist; he was a peasant farmer trying to grow tea and making a living. By doing so he discovered he couldn’t make a living growing tea because the price the government was paying was so low that it was causing him to lose money to grow tea. And yet the contract he had signed with the government monopoly prevented him from growing any other crops on his land.

So he organized a farmers’ boycott and protest to try to get the government to justify its policy or change it. And as a result, he was put in jail [and] nearly executed at gunpoint in a forest. He was saved at the last minute because the security forces of Kenya thought he could be more useful to the regime alive than dead. So they tortured him for a week, putting him in a water-filled cell in which he was in constant threat of being killed by drowning, and eventually put in solitary confinement for eight months.

...

He ended up coming to the United States on a basketball scholarship. He got a U.S. college degree, and when his education was over, Daniel arap Moi, who was in charge of Kenya when he was jailed and tortured, was still in power. So he applied for asylum. The book tells the story of his four-year struggle with our immigration services, in which he was constantly denied asylum by one bureaucracy after another, and eventually forced to go back to Africa, where he was nearly killed once again.

Read the whole article

2008-09-03T09:41:00.000-07:00

Lawyers for Detainee Assert Coercion

A brief article from The New York Times relating an account by Salim Hamdan, Osama Bin Laden's driver and the first detainee tried for war crimes, of sexual humiliation and coercion at Guantanamo.

A secret government document submitted at the trial of the first detainee to face a war crimes trial confirms the detainee’s account of having been sexually humiliated while interrogated by a female government agent, defense lawyers said at the tribunal here on Wednesday.
The lawyers described the document as an account by the unidentified agent and said it bolstered their claim that their client, Salim Hamdan, was subjected to measures at Guantánamo including late-night interrogations that amounted to coercion.
One of the lawyers, Harry H. Schneider Jr., said in the courtroom that Mr. Hamdan was “right on the money” in his description of a female interrogator’s physical contact with him in a way that a Muslim man would find nearly unbearable.

read the brief article

2008-08-27T15:27:00.000-07:00

California Becomes First State to Condemn Use of Torture in ‘War on Terror’

An encouraging article from California Progress Report about the State of California's strong stance against torture and initiative in challenging the interrogation policies of the federal government.

On Thursday, the California Legislature adopted SJR 19, a resolution to prevent the state’s licensed health professionals from engaging in torture.

As a result of SJR 19, state medical boards will inform health professionals of their obligations under both domestic and international law regarding treatment of prisoners and detainees. They will be warned that if they participate in interrogations that do not conform to these standards, they risk future prosecution. The state will also request the Department of Defense and Central Intelligence Agency to remove California doctors and psychologists from settings that fall short of international standards of treatment.

The myth that the U.S. does not torture is coming apart at the seams. Every week there are new revelations of misconduct. The abuses are not the result of “a few bad apples,” but rather stem from a short-sighted and reckless policy that has damaged the lives of countless people held in U.S. custody, attacked the emotional and spiritual well-being of American soldiers who have witnessed it and undermined the moral authority of America in the world community.

Read the entire article

2008-08-20T12:44:00.000-07:00

Two Women Sentenced to ‘Re-education’ in China

An interesting and revealing article in The New York Times about disturbing human rights violations and the suppression of freedom of speech in China.

Two elderly Chinese women have been sentenced to a year of “re-education
through labor” after they repeatedly sought a permit to demonstrate in one of
the official Olympic protest areas, according to family members and human rights
advocates.

The women, Wu Dianyuan, 79, and Wang Xiuying, 77, had made five visits to
the police this month in an effort to get permission to protest what they
contended was inadequate compensation for the demolition of their homes in
Beijing.

read the whole article

2008-08-19T15:03:00.000-07:00

Nobel nominee in torture ban call

Brief blurb in the BBC about a call for an international ban on torture during the 12th World Congress on Pain.

A several-time nominee for the Nobel Peace Prize has led calls at a
conference in Glasgow, for an international ban on torture.
Dr Inge Genefke
urged more than 45 countries to sign the United Nations Convention Against
Torture.
The Danish activist was speaking at the 12th World Congress on Pain
on Tuesday.
About 5,000 delegates are expected to attend between 17 and 22
August. The congress will also discuss the latest research and treatment of
pain.

link to article here

2008-08-15T10:13:00.000-07:00

Detainee Death

The New York Times has created an excellent video relating the story of Boubacar Bah who died in the at an Immigration Detention Center:

Word spread quickly inside the windowless walls of the Elizabeth Detention Center, an immigration jail in New Jersey: A detainee had fallen, injured his head and become incoherent. Guards had put him in solitary confinement, and late that night, an ambulance had taken him away more dead than alive.

But outside, for five days, no official notified the family of the detainee, Boubacar Bah, a 52-year-old tailor from Guinea who had overstayed a tourist visa. When frantic relatives located him at University Hospital in Newark on Feb. 5, 2007, he was in a coma after emergency surgery for a skull fracture and multiple brain hemorrhages. He died there four months later without ever waking up, leaving family members on two continents trying to find out why.
Mr. Bah’s name is one of 66 on a government list of deaths that occurred in immigration custody from January 2004 to November 2007, when nearly a million people passed through.

Watch the video.

2008-08-13T15:41:00.000-07:00

Ill and in Pain, Detainee Dies in U.S. Hands

This New York Times article describes some of the inadequate care and shameful neglect that detainees often suffer in detention facilities throughout the United States. Diseases are left undiagnosed and detainees often endure great pain without any relief or concern shown to them.

But when Mr. Ng, who had overstayed a visa years earlier, went to immigration headquarters in Manhattan last summer for his final interview for a green card, he was swept into immigration detention and shuttled through jails and detention centers in three New England states.
In April, Mr. Ng began complaining of excruciating back pain. By mid-July, he could no longer walk or stand. And last Wednesday, two days after his 34th birthday, he died in the custody of Immigration and Customs Enforcement in a Rhode Island hospital, his spine fractured and his body riddled with cancer that had gone undiagnosed and untreated for months.
...

In federal court affidavits, Mr. Ng’s lawyers contend that when he complained of severe pain that did not respond to analgesics, and grew too weak to walk or even stand to call his family from a detention pay phone, officials accused him of faking his condition. They denied him a wheelchair and refused pleas for an independent medical evaluation.
Instead, the affidavits say, guards at the Donald W. Wyatt Detention Facility in Central Falls, R.I., dragged him from his bed on July 30, carried him in shackles to a car, bruising his arms and legs, and drove him two hours to a federal lockup in Hartford, where an immigration officer pressured him to withdraw all pending appeals of his case and accept deportation.
“For this desperately sick, vulnerable person, this was torture,” said Theodore N. Cox, one of Mr. Ng’s lawyers, adding that they want to see a videotape of the transport made by guards.

Read the whole article

2008-08-12T14:26:00.000-07:00

Detention at Guantanamo

The BBC recently published an informative article that deals with the legality of the detainees at Guantanamo and the various processes that defendants are subjected to.

What about evidence obtained by torture or coercion?
Evidence obtained under torture will not be permitted, but evidence obtained by coercion could be.
One problem is that "waterboarding" is not classified as torture by the Bush administration.
If evidence was obtained before 30 December 2005 (that is, the date when the Detainee Treatment Act came into force, outlawing "cruel, inhuman or degrading treatment"), the military judge can allow the evidence if "the totality of the circumstances renders the statement reliable" and "the interests of justice would best be served".
This suggests that some evidence obtained in the so-called "secret prisons" operated by the CIA might be admissible. If it was obtained after 30 December 2005, then the judge would also have to be satisfied that no "cruel, degrading or inhumane treatment" had been used.

Read the whole article