03/07/2010
Washington D.C. - This Supreme Court justice has a history of dismissing prisoner brutality. And it's his former law clerk who was investigated for authorizing harsh interrogation tactics as a Justice Department lawyer. According to Supreme Court Justice Clarence Thomas, a prisoner who was slammed to a concrete floor and punched and kicked by a guard after asking for a grievance form -- but suffered neither serious nor permanent harm -- has no claim that his constitutional rights were violated. read more...
03/04/2010
A previously unreleased internal Department of Defense (DoD) memo, summarizing a review of the Navy SERE program in late February - early March 2007, reveals that there was fierce criticism within the DoD of the Navy SERE school in North Island, San Diego, for being the only SERE facility to still use waterboarding in its training program. read more...
03/03/2010
On 9 March, the IRCT and WMA jointly hosted the side event Exploring Sustainable Systems to Document Torture – The Role of Health Professionals at the 13th session of the UN Human Rights Council. Moderated by UN Special Rapporteur on Torture Manfred Nowak, the event was attended by some 50 representatives from governments, NGOs, the academic community, UN agencies and health professional organizations. read more...
03/03/2010
Letters to the Editor regarding: Torture Lawyers, AND Doctors Without Morals read more...
03/01/2010
Last week, the American Psychological Association (APA) finally revised its ethics code so that it no longer contained the so-called Nuremberg Defense, allowing dispensing with professional ethics when they conflicted with law, regulations, other governing legal authority. This clause was added in 2002, at the heyday of the Bush administration. APA dissidents, retired military personnel, ethicists,and human rights advocates have long pushed for its removal. read more
03/01/2010
After five years of investigation, the Justice Department has released its findings regarding the government lawyers who authorized waterboarding and other forms of torture during the interrogation of suspected terrorists at Guantanamo Bay and elsewhere... In contrast, the government doctors and psychologists who participated in and authorized the torture of detainees have escaped discipline, accountability or even internal investigation... read more
02/24/2010
Is this really the state of ethics in the American legal profession? Government lawyers who abused their offices to give the president license to get away with torture did nothing that merits a review by the bar? read more
