War on Terror

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Ex-Detainee Describes Gitmo Tortures
Ex-Detainee Describes
Gitmo Tortures
May 21, 2008 12:02 PM CDT

Ex-Detainee Describes Gitmo Tortures

He was beaten, hung from ceiling, shocked with electricity

(Newser) - A man arrested in Pakistan and held as an enemy combatant in Afghanistan and Guantanamo Bay was hung from the ceiling, beaten, and shocked with jolts of electricity, he testified to Congress yesterday. The German-born Turkish citizen told lawmakers that US interrogators also forced water down his throat. He was...

Government's Spy Powers Up, But Terror Arrests Down

Civil-liberty groups squawk; feds say numbers don't tell whole story

(Newser) - Big Brother is watching … but hasn’t found much, the Los Angeles Times reports. Despite vastly increased domestic spying activities, terrorism prosecutions have plummeted 50% since 2002; last year alone saw a 19% drop, despite a 9% increase in eavesdropping warrants. The Bush administration, meanwhile, is pushing for even...

Al-Qaeda Is Still Worst Terrorist Threat: US

Safe havens in Pakistan have helped group recharge

(Newser) - Al-Qaeda remains the terrorist group that most threatens the US, Reuters reports. An annual State Department survey of worldwide terrorist activity, out today, said the group killed 5,400 civilians—50% Muslims—in 2007. Though weaker now than in 2001 due to multilateral anti-terrorism efforts, the group has used the...

UK Intelligence 'Sent Citizens to Be Tortured'

MI5 outsourced brutal interrogations to Pakistan, say lawyers

(Newser) - British intelligence officers have been accused of sending citizens to a Pakistani agency to be tortured, reports the Guardian. MI5 officials requested Pakistan's Inter-Services Intelligence Agency to arrest British terror suspects in the country, where they were subjected to beatings, whippings, sleep deprivation and fingernail extraction, according to lawyers...

Gitmo Drives Detainees Crazy: Lawyers
Gitmo Drives Detainees Crazy: Lawyers
Apr 26, 2008 10:48 AM CDT

Gitmo Drives Detainees Crazy: Lawyers

As trials draw near, prisoners' mental health at issue

(Newser) - Osama bin Laden's driver can't help his lawyers prepare his defense because he's been driven mad by years of isolation at Guantanamo Bay, his lawyers say. The conditions "boil his mind" and prevent a fair trial, they say, an argument that will become increasingly common as lawyers begin preparing...

Gitmo Detainees' Military Tribunals Mired in a Host of Snags

Untested system for 9/11 suspects stalling

(Newser) - Six men detained in Guantanamo in connection with the 9/11 attacks were charged with war crimes two months ago—they were to be the first defendants in President Bush's never-tested military commission system. But not a single one has even met their counsel yet because military lawyers are in extremely...

Bush Pledges More Troops for Afghanistan

Gates confident new administration will honor promise to NATO

(Newser) - The US will boost the number of its troops committed to NATO's effort in Afghanistan in 2009, President Bush told fellow alliance members at this week's summit, Reuters reports. Defense Secretary Robert Gates related the pledge to reporters as he left the Bucharest summit. He didn’t specify a figure,...

Bush Threw Out 4th Amendment After 9/11

Newly revealed Yoo memo voided search and seizure protections

(Newser) - Just a month after Sept. 11, 2001, the Justice Department concluded that anti-terror military operations on US soil were not constrained by the Fourth Amendment protections against search and seizure. The conclusion was detailed in a memo written by John Yoo, the theorist behind many of President Bush's expansions of...

Next Prez's To-Do: Fix Military
 Next Prez's To-Do: Fix Military 
OPINION
Mar 31, 2008 3:39 PM CDT

Next Prez's To-Do: Fix Military

Budget woes aren't the only defense issue facing White House's next denizen

(Newser) - Has President Bush done irreparable damage to our armed forces? Not necessarily, Phillip Carter and Fred Kaplan write in Slate, offering a to-do list for the next president to tackle as he or she begins the process of fixing a military "in strange shambles."
  1. Overhaul the budget: "
...

Army Finds Remains of Soldier Captured in 2004

Ominous video showed Matt Maupin surrounded by masked men

(Newser) - The remains of an Ohio soldier who was captured in Iraq four years ago have been found, reports the Cincinnati Enquirer. DNA tests identified the remains as Matt Maupin, 20, an Army general told the young soldier's parents. Maupin had been listed as missing in Iraq since his fuel convoy...

Carla Outshines Sarko in UK
 Carla Outshines Sarko in UK
Mar 27, 2008 12:20 PM CDT

Carla Outshines Sarko in UK

Substance in French leader's talks with PM before Sarko blasts query about wife

(Newser) - Gordon Brown and Nicolas Sarkozy tackled Afghanistan, immigration, climate change, and global markets as the French president’s visit to Britain continued—but Carla Bruni still hogged the headlines. Sarkozy ripped a French reporter who suggested his wife had overshadowed his trip, the Times of London reports—saying, “this...

Bush: 4,000 US Lives 'Were Not Lost in Vain'

Prez suffers worse 'burden' than military families, Cheney says

(Newser) - President Bush sympathizes with the families of 4,000 Americans slain in Iraq, he said today. They "were not lost in vain. One day, people will look back at this moment in history and say, 'Thank God there were courageous people willing to serve,'" CNN reports. In an...

NYPD and FBI Tussle Over War on Terror

Frustrated NY cops use 1,000 officers to thwart attacks

(Newser) - Irked by the FBI, New York police have quietly turned their anti-terror mission into a global operation, the Washington Post reports. They have nabbed suspected terrorists and won convictions, but Big Apple cops still fume over the FBI's refusal to share data. “Controlling information is power, and they don't...

Military Death Payments Trouble Families

$500,000 windfalls for next of kin can cause confusion, discord

(Newser) - The military pays $500,000 to the next of kin of every soldier killed in Iraq or Afghanistan, but the sudden injection of cash during a time of grief often throws survivors off balance. Young military spouses can struggle with money management and long-lost friends and relatives sometimes appear asking...

Bush Approval Rating Hits New Low: 31%

Ratings hit their lowest yet on war's 5th anniversary

(Newser) - More than two-thirds of Americans now think George W. Bush is doing a poor job, according to a new poll that pegged his approval rate at 31%—a new low. The director of the CNN poll noted that the hefty 40-point drop in Bush's approval ratings since the start of...

Qaeda Suspect Held by CIA, Moved to Gitmo

Bin Laden aide has been in CIA custody since last year

(Newser) - A top al-Qaeda suspect who has been in secret CIA detention for at least 6 months was moved this week  to Guantanamo Bay, the Pentagon said yesterday. Muhammad Rahim, described as a "tough, seasoned, jihadist," is said to have been a close associate of Osama bin Laden's who...

US 'Buried' Tortured Yemeni in Jail for Years: Rights Group

Prisoner finally freed without charge was hung upside down, beaten

(Newser) - A Yemeni man was held by the US in secret prisons for nearly three years and subjected to torture after his capture in Iraq, a human rights group has charged in a condemnation of America's "cruel" defiance of international law. The man, Khaled al-Maqtari, was held in Baghdad's notorious...

Prince Harry Should Have Stayed
Prince Harry Should Have Stayed
OPINION
Mar 12, 2008 9:11 AM CDT

Prince Harry Should Have Stayed

Christopher Hitchens asks what threat he posed others

(Newser) - When Matt Drudge revealed to the world Prince Harry was in Afghanistan, there he should have stayed, writes Christopher Hitchens for Slate. It's "piffle" to think that his royal highness was a "bullet magnet" in Helmand province, already one of the most dangerous places on Earth for any...

Terrorists Will Party if Obama Wins: Iowa Rep.

Conservative GOP congressman stands by controversial slam

(Newser) - An Iowa congressman isn't going to back down from remarks that terrorists will be "dancing in the streets" if Barack Obama is elected, the Des Moines Register reports. Republican Steve King told a radio station last week that Obama's middle name—Hussein—would be one reason terrorists would hail...

US Troops Lose Hearing at Alarming Rates

Aural damage from Iraq, Afghanistan wars reaching epidemic levels

(Newser) - US troops are coming home from Iraq and Afghanistan with epidemic rates of hearing damage, AP reports, with 128,000 disabled by permanent hearing loss or tinnitus, ringing in the ears. The nature of the current conflict is part of the problem, with roadside bombs and sudden ambushes giving troops...

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