torture

Americans Still Fumble in the Dark for Facts on Torture

by Karen J. Greenberg

The persistent efforts of scholars and human rights advocates are chipping away at the secrecy surrouding America's use of torture under the banner of national security in the War on Terror. 

As a Massachusetts Museum Exhibits Parts of "Hanoi Hilton," Survivors Reflect

Salvaged remnants of the POW camp have been reconstructed by the American Heritage Museum in Massachusetts. 

Smuggled Recordings Revealed the Harshness of British Internment Policies in Northern Ireland

by Jack Sheehan

Tapes secretly recorded in the Long Kesh internment facility, where suspected IRA militants were detained without trial, revealed the degree to which the British government discarded human rights in its crackdown and speak to today's "states of exception."

Was the Legendary Viking "Blood Eagle" Torture Real?

by David M. Perry and Matthew Gabriele

"The blood eagle’s prominence within Viking society—both during the medieval era and as ascribed in the centuries since—stems from its emphasis on ritual and revenge."

9/11 Forever

by Joseph Margulies

"By creating the impression that the stakes were not merely consequential but existential, the attacks of September 11 normalized previously unimaginable cruelty."

Stabbing, Crucifixion, Eaten by Eels: Learn all about Murder the Roman Way

Historian Emma Souther's new book is a mix of the true crime genre and a history of crime and punishment in ancient Rome. 

The Untouchables: An Investigation into the Violence of the Chicago Police

by Paul Solotaroff

Historian Simon Balto is among experts who place the Chicago Police Department's treatment of the city's Black communities in historical perspective. 

C.I.A. Uncensors Memoir of F.B.I. Agent Who Protested Torture of Terrorists

The uncensored memoir makes the claim that torture interrupted and undermined effective interrogations by other means. 

The Scars of Being Policed While Black (video)

by Laurence Ralph

Anthropologist and police violence researcher Laurence Ralph made the film above to explain exactly what it means to be policed in America today. It moves from my own experiences with racial profiling as a teenager to the horrific history of police torture in Chicago.

Legalize Torture? It’s Tortured Logic

by Sam Ben-Meir

The Report is largely about another single-minded individual, Daniel J. Jones (Adam Driver), lead investigator of the Senate Intelligence Committee, who spent five arduous years doggedly uncovering the CIA’s suspect detention and interrogation program following the 9/11 terrorist attacks.

France’s Macron admits to military’s systematic use of torture in Algeria war

France will formally acknowledge the French military’s systemic use of torture in the Algerian War in the 1950s and 1960s, an unprecedented step forward in grappling with its long-suppressed legacy of colonial crimes.

Gina Haspel CIA Torture Cables Declassified

The CIA director described extended sessions of physical violence and waterboarding.

The Misleading Rationales for Gina Haspel's Nomination as CIA Director

by John Prados

They include her promise not to torture people.  

Gina Haspel Says C.I.A. ‘Historically’ Has Not Interrogated Subjects. History Shows Otherwise.

Fact check.

Gina Haspel’s CIA Torture File

The Trump administration’s nominee to be CIA director, Gina Haspel, personally supervised the torture of a CIA detainee in 2002 leading to at least three waterboard sessions.

The CIA's Tortured Historical Amnesia

by Kristie Macrakis

What to do about it.

To Torture or Not to Torture? Are We Seriously Still Asking this Question?

by James Stejskal

While our new president contemplates the renewed use of enhanced interrogation techniques, we would do well to remember where the discussion of the Law of Land Warfare and torture originated. It was in Washington DC 155 years ago.

Torture works . . . to produce Fake News (and that’s how we Got into Iraq)

by Juan Cole

The psychopaths in the White House will be perfectly happy to run with the fake news gained from torture and use it to bamboozle the public for their own nefarious purposes.

French Historian Accuses Khmer Rouge Defense Lawyers of "Cold Torture"

Henri Locard, retired academic from the Université Lumière - Lyon, is testifying about the brutality of the regime at a trial in Phnom Penh.

The History Lesson the American Psychological Association Forgot

by Sarah Bridger

The APA needed a debate about torture just as physicists during the Cold War had to decide if scientists should be held accountable for the consequences of their research.