Archive for the ‘Counterterrorism’ Category
(New York) – A Libyan-Canadian citizen who was imprisoned for eight years by the Muammar Gaddafi government says that agents from the Canadian Security Intelligence Service (CSIS) were among foreign agents who interrogated him while he was in Libyan custody for suspected terrorist ties, Human Rights Watch said today.
(New York) – Documents recently discovered by Human Rights Watch in Tripoli reveal new details of the high level of cooperation among United States, United Kingdom, and Libyan intelligence agencies in the transfer of terrorism suspects, Human Rights Watch said today. The documents underscore the need for the US and UK to account for past abuses, Human Rights Watch said.
(London) – The findings on September 8, 2011, of the inquiry into the death of an Iraqi detained by British soldiers in 2003 provide an opportunity for the United Kingdom government to reform its military detention and justice systems, Human Rights Watch said today.
(New York) – A decade’s perspective highlights the enormous damage that the attacks of September 11, 2001 did to the human rights cause. There was, first of all, the irreparable damage of lives lost that day – some 3,000 people from many nations. Terrorism – the deliberate targeting of civilians for political ends – is an affront to the human rights movement.
(Washington, DC) – The Australian prosecutor’s office should drop the asset-seizing case against former Guantanamo detainee David Hicks for money he earned from a book he wrote about his six years in US custody at Guantanamo Bay, Human Rights Watch said today.
Human Rights Watch is deeply concerned by the human rights implications of the draft Penal Law for Crimes of Terrorism and Its Financing of 2011 (the “draft counterterrorism law”).
King Abdullah bin Abd al-‘Aziz
Prime Minister
Riyadh
Kingdom of Saudi Arabia
Re: Draft Law of Sanctions for Crimes of Terrorism and Its Financing
Your Majesty,
(Beirut) – Saudi Arabia’s King Abdullah should withdraw a draft counterterrorism law from consideration by the cabinet because it would facilitate serious human rights violations, Human Rights Watch said
This 107-page report presents substantial information warranting criminal investigations of Bush and senior administration officials, including former Vice President Dick Cheney, Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld, and CIA Director George Tenet, for ordering practices such as “waterboarding,” the use of secret CIA prisons, and the transfer of detainees to countries where they were tortured.
ISBN: 1-56432-789-2
President Obama’s policy toward the Bush administration’s use of torture has been one of splitting the difference – Obama ordered an end to further torture but largely avoided investigating, let alone prosecuting, what Bush administration officials had done.
(Washington, DC) - The US Attorney General’s decision to conduct a full criminal investigation into the deaths of two detainees in US custody is a necessary but insufficient step towards justice, Human Rights Watch said today. The Obama administration should pursue the full scope of detainee torture and ill-treatment, Human Rights Watch said.
(Washington, DC) – Provisions in the US Senate Armed Services Committee’s defense spending bill threaten to eliminate the essential role of civilian law enforcement in countering terrorism, Human Rights Watch said today.
Dear President Obama:
We were among the many Americans who strongly supported your executive order prohibiting American personnel from using torture. As you said when you issued the executive order in January 2009 and again at the National Archives in May 2009, torture is inconsistent with our laws and our values and counterproductive as a matter of national security policy.
Dear Chairman Levin and Ranking Member McCain: