Talking Rights

A much-needed oped in Sunday’s New York Times, pointing out that the government’s investigations of legal misconduct on the part of John Yoo and Jay Bybee have not been matched by inquiries into how medical professionals designed and implemented torture.
Leonard Rubenstein and Stephen Xenakis write that “the government doctors and psychologists who participated in and [...]

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 [...]

Here is a sickening defense of torture — and it is from a coward.  Someone with cojones would have actually used the words:  “I support torture.” But John Yoo is not only wrong and a criminal — he is sin cojones…
I’ve included refutations of his argument in parentheses.
Obama Made a Rash Decision on Gitmo
by John [...]

Paul Krugman makes a powerful appeal in Rolling Stone:
I’m an economist, but I’m also an American citizen — and like many citizens, I spent the past eight years watching in horror as the Bush administration betrayed the nation’s ideals. And I don’t believe we can put those terrible years behind us unless we have a [...]

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 [...]

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 [...]