In the News

Will US personnel ever face torture charges?

Watch a panel discussion led by Al Jazeera's Shihab Rattansi discussing the decision of the Obama administration to abandon prosecution of US personnel accused of torturing prisoners while in US custody. PHR's Kristine Huskey participates in the panel with former CIA director of counter-terrorism Robert Grenier and human rights activist Scott Horton.

Learn More »

Don't Look Back

Last week, Attorney General Eric Holder closed the door on any accountability whatsoever for past war crimes and acts of torture. In truth, the door had by then only been open a few centimeters, but now it is slammed shut, locked, and chained. [The preface to PHR's report Broken Laws, Broken Lives, by Major General Antonio Taguba (Ret.) is quoted.]

Learn More »

DoD Confirms Forced Use of Psychoactive Drugs on Detainees

A recently declassified report by the Pentagon’s Inspector General confirms concerns raised years ago by PHR that health professionals administered mind-altering drugs to detainees in Afghanistan, Guantanamo Bay, and elsewhere without their consent and without telling them which medications they were receiving.

Learn More »

How the US Rendered, Tortured and Discarded One Innocent Man

In fall 2009, I found myself in a Tanzanian hotel lobby, sitting across from Suleiman Abdallah, a lanky man with a goofy smile and a broken tooth. Over the next few days, he would describe in excruciating detail how he had been captured in Mogadish in 2003 by a Somali warlord and handed over to American officials, who had him rendered via Kenya and Djibouti to Afghanistan for five years of detention and torture.

Learn More »