Torture

US celebrates Nobel for Iran’s Narges Mohammadi, but We have Executions, Torture and Prisoner Abuse Too

Ann Arbor (Informed Comment) – The Norwegian Nobel Committee awarded the Peace Prize this year to Iranian feminist and human rights worker Narges Mohammadi, 51. It was the second time that an Iranian woman had won, the first having been attorney Shirin Ebadi in 2003. Mohammadi, although trained as a physicist, worked as a journalist […]

Militarization

The Guantánamo Prison Camp may someday be Closed, but it Will leave a Permanent Scar on America’s Conscience

Karen J. Greenberg

( Tomdispatch.com) – For 18 years, I’ve been writing articles for TomDispatch on the never-ending story of the Guantánamo Bay Detention Facility. And here’s my ultimate takeaway (for the moment): 21 years after that grim offshore prison of injustice was set up in Cuba in response to the 9/11 attacks and the capture of figures […]

Featured

Iraqis Tortured by US at Abu Ghraib have Never Received Justice or Compensation

Human Rights Watch

The US government has apparently failed to provide compensation or other redress to Iraqis who suffered torture and other abuse by US forces at Abu Ghraib and other US-run prisons in Iraq two decades ago. Iraqis tortured by US personnel still have no clear path for receiving redress or recognition from the US government though […]

Climate Crisis

The Ugly Side of American Exceptionalism: Refusing to Play by the Rules

Rebecca Gordon

( Tomdispatch.com ) – In 1963, the summer I turned 11, my mother had a gig evaluating Peace Corps programs in Egypt and Ethiopia. My younger brother and I spent most of that summer in France. We were first in Paris with my mother before she left for North Africa, then with my father and […]

Arab League

Syria faces daunting Obstacles in its Attempt to rejoin the International Fold

The Conversation

By Scott Lucas, University College Dublin | – (The Conversation) – In the carefully composed photograph released by their state news agencies at the beginning of May, Syria’s leader Bashar al-Assad has his arms outstretched to welcome the Iranian president, Ebrahim Raisi. The two men are beaming. Raisi’s visit was a sign of Tehran’s essential […]

Central America

The Crimes and Dangers of Elliott Abrams: Why Biden Should not Appoint Him

Waging Nonviolence

Ariel Gold and Rev. Graylan Scott Hagler ( Waging Nonviolence ) – It was a bright sunny March morning in 1980. Archbishop Oscar Arnulfo Romero was saying mass at a church hospital in San Salvador when a bullet from a sniper rifle ripped through his heart. He stumbled and fell to the ground, […]

Human Rights

Torture, American Style; and the Cover-UP

Karen J. Greenberg

( Tomdispatch.com ) – In the Blindman’s Buff variation of tag, a child designated as “It” is tasked with tapping another child while wearing a blindfold. The sightless child knows the other children, all able to see, are there but is left to stumble around, using sounds and knowledge of the space they’re in as guides. […]

Authoritarianism

Iranian-Baluch Prisoner Khodanoor Lajaei: Icon for a Revolution

Global Voices

By Hamid Yazdan Panah | – ( Globalvoices.org) – Unprecedented protests have been taking place in Iran over the last two months, with thousands taking to the streets to protest the Islamic Republic. The uprising that began in response to the death of Mahsa (Zhina) Amini has been called a revolution by many, and has […]

Featured

Biden Administration Tells U.S. Court Saudi’s Bin Salman can’t be sued for Role in Murder because he is Head of State

Juan Cole

Ann Arbor (Informed Comment) – Stephanie Kirchgaessner at the Guardian reports that the Biden administration has made a filing with the U.S. court that was considering a civil suit against Mohammed Bin Salman, the crown prince of Saudi Arabia, by the widow of slain Washington Post journalist Jamal Khashoggi, seeking damages for his involvement in […]