flickering pictures

In a powerful op-ed piece for the New York Times, Nicholas D. Kristof points out something we already know but try not to think about: rape has moved from a by-product of war to a weapon of war, used coldly and calculatingly to inflict maximum pain and intimidation on an entire population. It’s […]

[Read more →]

Human Rights Watch has just released its report on the ongoing violence in Zimbabwe, entitled “Bullets for Each of You.” The title is taken from a Zimbabwean army address to villagers in Karoi, a small city in the province of Mashonaland West:

“If you vote for MDC in the presidential runoff election, you have seen […]

[Read more →]

Wired has just published new, apparently never-before-released pictures of the horrible brutality and abuse at the American-run Abu Ghraib prison in Iraq. I’m not going to post them here, because they churn my stomach and I almost wish I hadn’t seen them myself, but in the interest of creating public awareness of some of […]

[Read more →]

Responding to moral outrage from most of the world, Congress finally approved a bill barring the CIA from using torture techniques such as waterboarding and sensory deprivation. Unfortunately for the world, and for America, Bush promptly vetoed it — even though his own army banned the practices in 2006.
Says CNN:

“Bush said the CIA must […]

[Read more →]

It turns out that Americans were debating waterboarding over 100 years ago, according to a really interesting New Yorker article. Apparently, U.S. troops were using the technique to extract information during the 1899-1902 Philippine-American War.

“A letter by A. F. Miller, of the 32nd Volunteer Infantry Regiment, published in the Omaha World-Herald in May, 1900, […]

[Read more →]