Iraqi opposition lawmaker claims government holding thousands in unofficial prisons An Iraqi opposition lawmaker claimed Thursday that thousands of his countrymen are being mistreated in detention centers outside the official prison system. Sunni legislator Mohammed al-Daini claimed the government and paramilitary groups control 420 unofficial detention centers to hold people without legal justification. Speaking through an interpreter, al-Daini told reporters in Geneva he had gained access to 13 such prisons and obtained ...

The head of Amnesty International called on Thursday for the winner of next week's U.S. presidential election to shut the Guantanamo Bay detention centre in Cuba within 100 days of taking office. Irene Khan also urged the U.S. Congress to investigate human rights abuses at the U.S. naval base at Guantanamo and by U.S. forces in Iraq and Afghanistan during President George W Bush's administration, and take action against those responsible. "I ...

Attorney General to investigate abuse claims By Robert Verkaik  Senior CIA officers could be put on trial in Britain after it emerged last night that the Attorney General is to investigate allegations that a British resident held in Guantanamo Bay was brutally tortured, after being arrested and questioned by American forces following the terrorist attacks on New York and Washington in 2001.   The Home Secretary Jacqui Smith has asked Baroness ...

By Ryan Singel The CIA can hide statements from imprisoned suspected terrorists that the agency tortured them in its set of secret prisons, a federal judge ruled Wednesday, Chief Judge Royce Lamberth of the Washington D.C. Circuit Court declined to review the government's assertions that the allegations of torture from men held in the CIA's black site prisons -- whether truthful or not ...

California congressman's office evacuated after it receives package labeled 'anthrax' A state office of a California congressman has been evacuated after receiving an envelope labeled "anthrax." No one was hurt after the package was received Wednesday at the Modesto office of Rep. George Radanovich. Some staffers were sent to a hospital for precautionary examinations. Radanovich spokesman Spencer Pederson says authorities have not confirmed what was in the package. A receptionist says it ...

By Mariam Karouny and Peter Graff | BAGHDAD (Reuters) - Iraq demanded changes to a draft security pact with the United States Tuesday after it failed to win the support of its political leaders despite months of painstaking negotiations with Washington.   The announcement effectively reopens negotiations which had led last week to the unveiling of a draft that would require U.S. forces to leave Iraq by the end of 2011. The ...

By Vicky Short and Paul Mitchell | Explosive testimony has been presented to the inquest into the police killing of Jean Charles de Menezes, suggesting that he was shot even though he was known to be unarmed. Evidence was given that the innocent Brazilian was killed despite his not being clearly identified as a suspected terrorist. In addition, officers involved have said that they were prepared to kill de Menezes even ...

By Amol Rajan | A feisty debate between Robert Fisk and the author Professor Sir Lawrence Freedman brought The Independent Woodstock Literary Festival to a close on a high note last night.   The absence of a debate on the conflict between Israelis and Palestinians in the US presidential elections was "shocking", Fisk told a packed hall at Blenheim Palace, the grand 18th-century home in Woodstock, Oxfordshire, which hosted the festival. "America ...

The government's plan for teachers to monitor their pupils for signs of extremism stifles debate and encourages secrecy Francis Gilbert  | Of all the roles I thought I might play as a classroom teacher, it never occurred to me that I might be called upon to be a spook. Social worker, surrogate parent, cleaner, technician, crowd controller, salesman for the damaged goods of the national ...

Madrid - The human rights group Amnesty International (AI) on Wednesday accused the Spanish government of not having tried to prevent US flights transporting terrorist suspects to illegal detention centres across Spanish airspace. At least 90 flights linked to the Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) made stopovers at 15 Spanish airports, mainly on the Canary Islands, between 2002 and 2007, the Spanish section of AI said in a report. About 200 people were ...

By BARRY SCHWEID | In an effort to help the United States counter al-Qaida after the 9/11 attack, Iran rounded up hundreds of Arabs who had crossed the border from Afghanistan, expelled many of them and made copies of nearly 300 of their passports, a former Bush administration official said Tuesday. The copies were sent to Kofi Annan, the U.N. secretary-general, who passed them on to the United States, while ...

BigNewsNetwork | The U.S. government is to sell $6.4 billion of weapons to Taiwan, the State Department announced on Friday. State Department deputy spokesman Robert Wood said Congressional approval was required, but believes this will come quickly. A submission went to Congress on Friday afternoon. The sales involve a range of U.S.-made weapons systems, including Patriot III anti-missile missiles, Apache attack helicopters, Harpoon missiles, and Javelin anti-tank missiles. The ...

Sean O’Neill | Gordon Brown is preparing for a humiliating climbdown over his proposal to hold terrorist suspects for 42 days after being told that it will be defeated in the House of Lords. Ministers admit privately that there is not “a cat in Hell’s chance” of the legislation, which returns to the Lords this week, being passed into law. The Government has decided against using the Parliament Act to ...

In an apparent violation of federal regulations, the State Department has outsourced to private contractors the responsibility to investigate possible crimes committed by security contractors in Iraq. Earlier this year, the State Department's Bureau of Diplomatic Security hired the private firm U.S. Investigations Services (USIS) to fill positions in the newly created Force Investigation Unit (FIU) that investigates potential misuses of force against civilians by U.S. security contractors. The contract investigators ...

$300 million media program meant to 'engage and inspire' local population By Karen DeYoung and Walter Pincus | MSNBC.com The Defense Department will pay private U.S. contractors in Iraq up to $300 million over the next three years to produce news stories, entertainment programs and public service advertisements for the Iraqi media in an effort to "engage and inspire" the local population to support U.S. objectives and the Iraqi government. The ...