The Washington Post reveals the myths of torture:

Torture's defenders, including the wannabe tough guys who write Fox's "24," insist that the rough stuff gets results. "It was like flipping a switch," said Kiriakou about Abu Zubaida's response to being waterboarded. But the al-Qaeda operative's confessions -- descriptions of fantastic plots from a man who intelligence analysts were convinced was mentally ill -- probably didn't give the CIA any actionable intelligence. Of course, we may never know the whole truth, since the CIA destroyed the videotapes of Abu Zubaida's interrogation. But here are some other myths that are bound to come up as the debate over torture rages on.

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According to The New York Times ...

For six years, Central Intelligence Agency officers have worried that someday the tide of post-Sept. 11 opinion would turn, and their harsh treatment of prisoners from Al Qaeda would be subjected to hostile scrutiny and possible criminal prosecution.

Now that day may have arrived, after years of shifting legal advice, searing criticism from rights groups — and no new terrorist attacks on American soil.

Read more about C.I.A. Agents Sense Shifting Support for Methods

BBC News has an excellent story explaining the history of water-boarding. Unfortunately it has a vast and varying history.

The Khmer Rouge were fast workers. In only a few years they managed to kill one
quarter of Cambodia's population with a mixture of execution and starvation.

But like others who butchered in the pursuit of utopia, they borrowed heavily from the past. Water-boarding was not their invention. The Spanish Inquisition used it and called it the toca.

The Dutch East India Company used it in the massacre of Amboyna in 1623.

For much of history, water-boarding has been to torturers what cream is to apple pie. They go hand-in-hand.

Read more here

The Washington Post reveals details of the destroyed Torture Tapes:

When it destroyed at least two videotapes of the interrogation of captured al-Qaeda operatives, the Central Intelligence Agency may have eliminated evidence of criminal activity. Abu Zubaida, one of the two detainees whose questioning was taped, is known to have been subjected to waterboarding.

Read more about the destroyed tapes here.

Another victory for human rights, according to the Washington Post:

An Ethiopian dictator known as "the butcher of Addis Ababa" was convicted of genocide Tuesday in a rare case of an African strongman being held to account by his own country. Lt. Col. Mengistu Haile Mariam, who has been living in exile in Zimbabwe since 1992, was convicted in absentia after a 12-year trial.

Yet some bloggers are doubtful if Mariam will ever face justice. He is
currently residing in Zimbabwe under the protection of President Mugabe. The writers at the Center for Global Development are hopeful that this conviction may shine light on Mugabe's own human rights violations:

Coddling a genocidaire will only serve to highlight the blood on Mugabe's own hands, too, particularly from a military campaign known as gukuruhundi that slaughtered up to 20,000 people in Matabeleland in the early 1980s. The abuses are well-documented by human rights groups and the Catholic Commission for Justice and Peace, but there has been no action yet taken against those responsible. Indeed many of them are still in top positions in the Mugabe government, and several are even considered possible successors to the 82-year old president. The outcome in Addis yesterday may be a partial victory for justice in Ethiopia. But it could also help to force Zimbabwe to face its demons as well.

The Miami Herald reports the adminstrations new plans to expand Guantánamo Bay:

The Pentagon plans to build a military commissions compound at Guantánamo Bay, Cuba, costing up to $125 million, a major undertaking meant to accommodate up to 1,200 people for the first U.S. war crimes trials since World War II, The Miami Herald learned Thursday. If funded by Congress, the compound would be the largest single construction expenditure at Guantánamo since the Bush administration set up the offshore detention center in January 2002.

Find out more about how you can halt this expansion.

A new issue of the Torture Journal came out today. This issue includes several human rights practitioners and academics writing about access to justice and reparations for torture survivors. The International Rehabilitation Council for Torture Victims (IRCT) wrote:

"In one of the articles, UN Special Rapporteur on Torture, Manfred Nowak, and his assistant Elizabeth McArthur contribute to a clarification of the distinction between torture and cruel, inhuman or degrading treatment, which has become extremely relevant in the context of counter-terrorism measures in which a number of scholars have attempted to narrow the definition of torture. "

All of the articles can be downloaded on the IRCT publications site.

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