Talking Rights

The just-released report by the CIA Inspector General (CIA IG) is one of a series of documents released yesterday about the US torture program. The report dates from 2004, but has lots of new detail.
What you need to know about yesterday’s revelations (via Time’s Michael Scherer):

1. The CIA IG concluded that the public had [...]

From today’s Washington Post:
…in a broad swipe at the Bush administration’s lawyers, Obama nullified every legal order and opinion on interrogations issued by any lawyer in the executive branch after Sept. 11, 2001.

Just amazing what a psychic relief it is to hear this:
This week, at his confirmation hearing, Eric H. Holder Jr., the attorney general-designate, did not hesitate to express a clear view. He noted that waterboarding had been used to torment prisoners during the Inquisition, by the Japanese in World War II and in Cambodia under [...]

Leaving aside the horrors of actual torture, it is interesting to examine how the issue plays in the current US presidential campaign. Most prominent is Senator John McCain’s use of torture as an element that qualifies him to lead. He suffered torture as a POW during the Vietnam war. In part, it made him a [...]

Yesterday, Sen. Chris Dodd (D-CT) gave a magnificent speech on the Senate floor in opposition to the FISA bill before that body. Among its other reprehensible provisions, the bill would give retroactive immunity to telecommunications companies that fed information to the National Security Administration, without judicial warrant and without notifying the individuals.
But Dodd went much [...]