CIA Torture
Biden taps William Burns to head Central Intelligence Agency
By Jacob Crosse, 12 January 2021
With four decades as a diplomatic point man for US imperialism, Burns has been pivotal in regime-change operations and the consolidation of pro-US dictatorships.
Witnesses recall Collateral Murder attack: “Look at those dead bastards,” shooters said
By Thomas Scripps and Laura Tiernan, 19 September 2020
“The publication of that video and those words was the equivalent of the death of George Floyd and his words ‘I can’t breathe’. They had a profound effect on public opinion in the world.”
CIA releases TV recruiting ad for streaming video services
By Kevin Reed, 27 June 2020
The CIA has released a TV commercial portraying the agency as a diverse workplace and appeals to young people to become US spies.
Psychologist responsible for devising torture methods testifies at Guantanamo Bay hearing
By Adam Mclean, 30 January 2020
James Mitchell, an Air Force veteran and psychologist who was a leading architect of torture methods used at US “black sites” testified that he threatened to cut the throat of the son of detainee Khalid Shaikh Mohammed.
America’s torturers and their co-conspirators must be prosecuted
By Tom Carter, 9 December 2019
Five years after the release of the Senate report on CIA torture, the gruesome drawings contained in the Seton Hall Law School paper on “How America Tortures” are a powerful indictment of the entire US political establishment.
Pentagon fires Guantanamo prison commander for calling attention to US crimes
By Bill Van Auken, 30 April 2019
Vice Admiral Ring was removed from his post after telling the media that the US prison camp had to prepare for “end-of-life” care for detainees.
Rohini Hensman’s Indefensible: The ISO discovers its muse—the CIA—Part 3
By Alex Lantier, 17 December 2018
For Hensman, being “moral” means embracing the lies and provocations used to market US wars.
Rohini Hensman’s Indefensible: The ISO discovers its muse—the CIA—Part 2
By Alex Lantier, 15 December 2018
Hensman’s arguments tend inescapably in one direction: that US wars have been the main liberating force during the last quarter century.
CIA director briefs Trump on Khashoggi torture tape
By Bill Van Auken, 26 October 2018
CIA Director Gina Haspel, dispatched to Turkey to investigate the murder of the Saudi journalist, has intimate familiarity with acts of torture and tapes recording them.
CIA Democrats call for aggression against Russia, run pro-war campaigns in 2018 congressional races
By Patrick Martin, 3 October 2018
Democratic challengers seeking Republican congressional seats, particularly those with a military-intelligence background, are pushing for ever greater military spending.
The CIA Democrats and the US midterm elections
By Patrick Martin, 24 September 2018
While working people are looking for an alternative to the reactionary policies of the Trump administration, they will not find it in the Democratic Party.
The CIA Democrats: A balance sheet of the primaries
By Patrick Martin, 21 September 2018
Candidates with a military-intelligence background have won the Democratic congressional nomination in 30 districts considered competitive by the Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee.
CIA Democrat complains of political spying by Republicans
By Harvey Simpkins, 7 September 2018
Democrat Abigail Spanberger, whose main political “credential” is eight years as an undercover CIA operative, is denouncing the Republican Party for obtaining a copy of her full federal security clearance document.
Political warfare deepens as Democrats, ex-spies circle the wagons around Brennan
By Tom Hall, 20 August 2018
The intervention by Brennan and other ex-intelligence officials on the Sunday talk shows demonstrates the degree to which the spy agencies have become a dominant political force.
Trump revokes security clearance for former CIA chief Brennan: Ruling class warfare intensifies
By Patrick Martin, 17 August 2018
The warfare within the American state pits against each other two deeply reactionary factions of the capitalist ruling elite, personified by Trump and Brennan.
Cables document CIA Director Haspel’s direct role in torture at black site in Thailand
By E.P. Milligan, 15 August 2018
The 16 cables from Haspel published by the National Security Archive document scenes fit for a medieval dungeon.
Britain’s role in US rendition and torture revealed
By Steve James, 5 July 2018
The sheer number of abuse and torture cases testifies to a level of criminal depravity far greater than previously admitted.
By Barry Grey, 31 May 2018
Senate Intelligence Committee approves “black site” torturer to head CIA
By Barry Grey, 17 May 2018
Behind the threadbare trappings of parliamentary procedures, American “democracy” has been reduced to a dictatorship run by a military/intelligence/industrial apparatus.
Two Senate Democrats assure Haspel’s confirmation as CIA director
By Patrick Martin, 15 May 2018
Joe Donnelly of Indiana joined Joe Manchin of West Virginia to give the former torture supervisor a seemingly unassailable margin in the Senate.
US Senate pays homage to CIA torturer
By Bill Van Auken, 10 May 2018
Gina Haspel, nominated by Trump to head the CIA, defended her intimate role in the torture of detainees as “lawful” at her Senate confirmation hearing.
CIA expands its Signature School program to University of Illinois Chicago
By George Gallanis and Kristina Betinis, 4 May 2018
The program permits the CIA to have a regular recruiting presence on the university’s Chicago campus.
The Democratic Party and the confirmation of Mike Pompeo
By Patrick Martin, 27 April 2018
The nominal “opposition” party paved the way for the installation of an advocate of war, mass surveillance and torture as the new US secretary of state.
Seven days in March: The Trump administration and the breakdown of American democracy
By Patrick Martin, 15 March 2018
Actions taken by the Trump administration this week reveal its ever more open turn to authoritarianism, while the Democrats have become the party of the CIA.
Trump taps torturer to head CIA
By Bill Van Auken, 14 March 2018
Touted as the first woman to head the US spy agency, the nomination of Gina Haspel marks a further rehabilitation of the methods of torture and forced disappearances.
CIA contractors settle ACLU torture lawsuit
By John Burton, 24 August 2017
The ACLU settled its lawsuit against two psychologists on behalf of three victims brutally tortured by the CIA.
Amazon and the CIA: a match made in hell
Part Two: Amazon, war propaganda, and the suppression of free speech
By Evan Blake, 14 July 2017
Amazon won the confidence of the CIA through its suppression of WikiLeaks, and since constructing the C2S cloud has become ever more deeply connected to the military-intelligence apparatus.
Right-wing furor over Canadian government’s “apology” to child Guantanamo Bay detainee Omar Khadr
By Roger Jordan and Keith Jones, 13 July 2017
In 2003 and 2004, Canadian officials colluded with their US counterparts in Khadr’s Guantanamo Bay interrogation, despite knowing he was a minor, had no legal representation, and had been tortured.
Amazon and the CIA: a match made in hell
Part One: Amazon cashes in on war crimes and mass surveillance
By Evan Blake, 13 July 2017
Since signing a $600 million deal with the CIA in 2013, Amazon has become ever more integrated with the American state apparatus and implicated in its crimes.
US, UAE operate network of torture chambers in Yemen
By Niles Niemuth, 27 June 2017
The brutal torture regime began during the Obama administration and continues under President Donald Trump.
CIA’s cover blown in Brazil, but still safe in the New York Times
By Bill Van Auken, 23 June 2017
Whatever the reason for the public exposure of the CIA’s top man in Brasilia, there was one quarter where his secret remained safe: the pages of the Times.
030 Supreme Court on post-9/11 abuse
21 June 2017
Congressional Republicans seek to obliterate record of CIA torture
By Tom Carter, 8 June 2017
The fate of the Senate Intelligence Committee’s report, which exposed the most sadistic and depraved crimes perpetrated by the Central Intelligence Agency, is a milestone in the collapse of the rule of law and the emergence of a police state.
US Attorney General Sessions praises Guantanamo as a “very fine place”
By Bill Van Auken, 11 March 2017
Sessions call for sending new “enemy combatants” to the prison camp in Cuba is a measure of both the lawlessness of the new administration and its preparation of new wars of aggression.
Trump administration invokes “state secrets” in CIA torture case
By Barry Grey, 11 March 2017
Among the CIA officials the government is seeking to shield is Deputy CIA Director Gina Haspel, who ran a secret torture site in Thailand in 2002.
Veteran of torture program appointed new deputy CIA director
By Fred Mazelis, 6 February 2017
Gina Haspel ran the black site prison in Thailand where waterboarding and other gruesome practices were carried out.
045 Deputy CIA director and torture
4 February 2017
Trump delivers diatribe against press at CIA headquarters
By Barry Grey, 23 January 2017
Trump’s attack on the corporate-controlled press underscores the degree of tension and conflict within the state as the new administration takes office.
Declassified reports reveal torture techniques used by Bush-era CIA
By Shelley Connor, 21 January 2017
Newly declassified reports reveal evidence of the CIA’s torture techniques at black sites throughout the world excluded from the official Senate Torture Report released in 2014.
The Obama administration and the legitimization of torture
By Tom Carter, 7 January 2017
Virtually no one has been allowed to read the 6,700-page Senate Intelligence Committee report on CIA torture, and a concerted effort is underway to make sure that nobody is able to read it in the future.
210 Torture report ruling and Obama's legacy
6 January 2017
New revelations detail Canada’s complicity in torture
By Roger Jordan, 12 October 2016
Canada’s security agencies developed their own rendition-type program to circumvent the prohibitions on detention without charge and torture.
Tunisian men reveal new details of torture at CIA black sites
By Kevin Martinez, 6 October 2016
The ex-detainees described gruesome forms of torture not mentioned in the Senate Intelligence Committee report on the CIA torture program.
050 Human Rights Watch Report on CIA torture
4 October 2016
Political prisoner Chelsea Manning begins hunger strike
By Tom Hall, 12 September 2016
Manning began her hunger strike in military prison on Friday in protest against the abuse and harassment that drove her to attempt suicide in July.
US torture victim Abu Zubaydah given “hearing” at Guantanamo
By John Burton, 29 August 2016
Zubaydah, one of 41 inmates still not cleared for release or transfer eight years after Obama pledged to close Guantanamo Bay, made a brief, silent appearance on video.
Obama, Pentagon outline latest plan to close Guantanamo, move prisoners to US
By E.P. Bannon, 24 February 2016
The maneuver is a cynical ploy aimed at assuaging opposition to the horrific crimes committed in the name of the "war on terror," which have continued unabated under Obama.
Torture, murder and Donald Trump
By Patrick Martin, 11 February 2016
After his embrace of torture and “a hell of a lot worse” during last Saturday’s debate, the Republican frontrunner has now advocated assassination, targeting North Korean ruler Kim Jong Un.
Obama administration continues suppression of torture photos
By Tom Carter, 8 February 2016
After 12 years of litigation, the Obama administration has released only 198 out of at least 2,000 photographs depicting torture and other war crimes perpetrated by US forces in Iraq and Afghanistan.
Report reveals torture and murder of Afghan civilians by Navy SEALs
By George Gallanis, 19 December 2015
While the report details horrendous accounts of torture, resulting in the death of a detainee, charges against all four SEALs were dropped.
Report makes case for prosecuting US war criminals
By Tom Carter, 5 December 2015
The Human Rights Watch report calls for the criminal prosecution of senior US officials involved in CIA torture and exposes the ongoing cover-up by the Obama administration.
Obama administration continues to suppress report on CIA torture
By Tom Carter, 16 November 2015
The Department of Justice has instructed its employees not to read the report, and the State Department has stamped the report, “Do Not Open, Do Not Access.”
Last British prisoner at Guantánamo Bay released
By Robert Stevens, 4 November 2015
Shaker Aamer was released October 30 after 5,017 days in detention.
US judge orders release of Guantanamo torture videos
By Tom Carter, 31 October 2015
A federal district judge rejected the Obama administration’s latest attempt to block the disclosure of videos that depict beatings and force-feeding at the torture camp.
Lawsuit charges US psychologists involved in CIA torture program with war crimes
By Nick Barrickman, 15 October 2015
Although the CIA has officially admitted to having waterboarded only three individuals, the charges detail torture methods and abuse which can essentially be described as the same thing.
Obama administration suppresses account of CIA torture
By Patrick Martin, 12 September 2015
The US government has stamped “classified” on the declaration by a Guantanamo detainee of how he was tortured in a secret CIA prison.
US psychologists’ convention bans participation in torture
By Tom Carter, 10 August 2015
The American Psychological Association overwhelmingly adopted a resolution Friday banning participation in national security interrogations.
The American Psychological Association, torture and the Nuremberg doctors’ trial
By Tom Carter, 13 July 2015
A 542-page independent report made public Friday implicates the American Psychological Association in the CIA torture program.
US government covered up 14,000 photos documenting CIA secret prisons
By Thomas Gaist, 29 June 2015
The existence of a trove of photos documenting the CIA's global network of “black site” torture centers came to light over the weekend.
Entourage and Spy: Celebrity, wealth and the CIA—Hollywood’s idea of summer fun
By Joanne Laurier, 19 June 2015
Two new, not-so-comic comedies: one preoccupied with the life of Hollywood celebrities and the other, with the intelligence apparatus. What fun.
CIA authorized experimentation on human beings, document shows
By Thomas Gaist, 18 June 2015
Previously secret CIA internal regulations show that the agency has assumed sweeping powers to engage in illegal human experimentation and covert espionage against the US population.
Guantanamo detainee details CIA sexual abuse and torture
By Thomas Gaist, 5 June 2015
Majid Khan was subjected to torture “more brutal and sadistic” than even that documented in the Senate report on CIA torture released last year.
Federal court blocks release of CIA torture report
By Ed Hightower, 22 May 2015
The court turned the facts and the law upside down to keep evidence of CIA torture and spying on Congress from seeing the light of day.
“Frontline” broadcast documents CIA torture program
By Eric London, 21 May 2015
The PBS series’ May 19 episode is a chilling account of the CIA’s torture of hundreds of detainees during the Bush administration.
Chicago residents speak on police torture at Homan Square “black site”
By George Marlowe, 18 May 2015
Reporters from the WSWS spoke to workers and youth about recent revelations of torture at Homan Square as well as the decaying social conditions in Chicago.
Seymour Hersh exposes official lies about Bin Laden killing
By Niles Williamson, 12 May 2015
An article by the Pulitzer Prize winner, published Sunday in the London Review of Books, exposes the entire official narrative of the 2011 killing of Osama bin Laden as a concoction of lies.
Ex-CIA whistleblower Jeffrey Sterling sentenced to three years in prison
By Thomas Gaist, 12 May 2015
Sterling allegedly provided details of covert operations conducted by the CIA against Iran to journalist James Risen.
Ex-Guantanamo child detainee Omar Khadr released on bail
By Carl Bronski, 12 May 2015
The Conservatives have gone to extraordinary lengths to prolong Khadr’s ordeal since he was repatriated, fighting to ensure he remains behind bars.
American Psychological Association played critical role in CIA torture program
By David Walsh, 1 May 2015
A report by health professionals and human rights activists exposes the collusion between the APA and the Bush White House in the torture and abuse of detainees.
Judge orders end to Pentagon stalling on torture photos
By Patrick Martin, 23 March 2015
The Pentagon has been fighting for more than a decade to keep visual evidence of the torture at Abu Ghraib and other military sites from becoming public.
Chicago’s Abu Ghraib
By Andre Damon, 27 February 2015
The Guardian newspaper has revealed the existence of a “black site” on the West Side of Chicago, where police detain, beat and torture prisoners.
Guantanamo in America
By Andre Damon, 21 February 2015
A report in the Guardian has revealed that a leading interrogator at Guantanamo Bay had used torture to extract false confessions as a police detective in Chicago.
CIA whistleblower calls for prosecution of officials responsible for torture
By Tom Hall, 17 February 2015
John Kiriakou, the former CIA agent who helped reveal the agency’s use of waterboarding, was released from prison this month after serving a two-year sentence.
Interpreter for 9/11 defendants at Guantanamo Bay was a CIA agent
By Ed Hightower, 13 February 2015
The presence of a CIA spy on the defense team fits the show trial character of the proceedings as a whole, which make a mockery of due process.
Guantánamo Diary: A book that needs to be read
By Tom Carter, 6 February 2015
Guantánamo Diary, written by a current inmate of the infamous camp and suppressed by the US government for seven years, is a terrifying exposure of the secret US torture program—and much more.
New Senate Intelligence Committee chair moves to suppress CIA torture report
By Patrick Martin, 24 January 2015
The new Republican chairman of the committee has demanded the Obama administration return all copies of the report on CIA torture.
Behind whitewash of CIA spying: The trail leads to the White House
By Thomas Gaist and Patrick Martin, 17 January 2015
CIA Director John Brennan discussed plans to investigate the Senate Intelligence Committee staff with White House Chief of Staff Denis McDonough.
CIA panel whitewashes spying on US Senate
By Thomas Gaist, 17 January 2015
Wednesday saw the public release of a report produced by the CIA “accountability board” appointed by CIA Director John Brennan to review the agency’s spying on the staff of the Senate Select Committee on Intelligence (SSCI) as it prepared its report on the CIA torture program.
Obama administration continues to block report on Saudi financing of 9/11 attacks
By Tom Carter, 14 January 2015
The fact that Washington’s ally was the principal financier of the September 11, 2001 attacks calls into question the entire official “war on terror” narrative.
Washington buries the CIA torture report
By Patrick Martin, 8 January 2015
One month after its release, official Washington and the American media have suppressed any discussion of the Senate Intelligence Committee’s detailed and grisly exposure of CIA torture.
Cover-up of Canada’s complicity in torture continues
By Roger Jordan and Keith Jones, 24 December 2014
The media and opposition parties are allowing the government’s claim that the US Senate report documenting CIA torture had “nothing to do” with Canada to go entirely unchallenged.
The New York Times calls for torture prosecutions
By Patrick Martin and David North, 23 December 2014
An editorial published Monday reveals a deep-going political crisis within the American ruling elite.
No punishment for CIA officials who spied on Senate Intelligence Committee
By Barry Grey, 23 December 2014
The news that the CIA-appointed review board has exonerated those involved in an unconstitutional attack on Congress illuminates the connection between the official use of torture and the creation of the infrastructure of dictatorship.
What is behind the German media’s condemnation of CIA torture?
By Johannes Stern, 23 December 2014
Calls are mounting in the media and the political establishment demanding that Germany pursue its imperialist interests more independently from the US.
What is in the Senate Intelligence Committee report on CIA torture: Part three
By Eric London, 22 December 2014
This is the third of three articles summarizing the contents of the unclassified executive summary of the US Senate Intelligence Committee’s report on the CIA torture program.
The European powers and CIA torture
By Chris Marsden, 20 December 2014
The European powers have issued only pro-forma and self-serving statements on the US Senate report into torture and extraordinary rendition by the US and its allies.
What is in the Senate Intelligence Committee report on CIA torture: Part two
By Ed Hightower, 20 December 2014
This is the second of three articles summarizing the contents of the unclassified executive summary of the US Senate Intelligence Committee’s report on the CIA torture program.
Physicians’ group details psychologists’ role in CIA’s “extensive system of torture”
By Matthew MacEgan, 19 December 2014
A report from Physicians for Human Rights states that health professionals working under the direction of the White House committed war crimes and crimes against humanity.
Former Polish president confirms existence of secret CIA torture prison
By Konrad Kreft, 18 December 2014
The publication of the US Senate report on torture has proven the existence of a clandestine CIA prison in Poland and the close collaboration between European and US governments.
US Supreme Court Justice Scalia says Constitution allows torture
By Joseph Kishore, 17 December 2014
Scalia’s remarks were made the day after the Senate Intelligence Committee released its report on CIA interrogations.
What is in the Senate Intelligence Committee Report on CIA torture: Part one
By Tom Carter, 16 December 2014
This is the first of three articles summarizing the contents of the unclassified executive summary of the US Senate Intelligence Committee’s 6,700-page report on the CIA torture program, released last week.
Cheney on CIA torture: “I’d do it again in a minute”
By Patrick Martin, 15 December 2014
The former vice president defended CIA torture and boasted that both he and President George W. Bush approved the methods used against prisoners.
Brennan’s defense of CIA torture
By Barry Grey, 13 December 2014
That the spy agency head issued the Obama administration’s rebuttal to the Senate Intelligence Committee report on CIA torture makes clear who is really in control of the American state.
US Senate committee agreed to conceal UK complicity in CIA torture
By Robert Stevens, 13 December 2014
Home Secretary Theresa May, among other senior UK government officials, met with members of the US Senate committee working on the CIA report.
French neo-fascist National Front defends CIA torture
By Alex Lantier, 13 December 2014
The neo-fascists decided to overlook their anti-American rhetoric and leap to the defense of CIA torturers.
Canadian government lies over complicity in CIA torture
By Roger Jordan, 13 December 2014
Canada acted as a major transit route for US rendition flights that sent captives to third countries or CIA black sites to be tortured.
Who are Obama and the US Congress to sanction Venezuela?
By Bill Van Auken, 13 December 2014
In the midst of the deepening crisis over CIA torture, the Obama administration has decided to sanction Venezuela for alleged human rights abuses.
Canada’s International Socialists promote unions’ “anti-Harper,” pro-Liberal campaign
By Dylan Lubao and Keith Jones, 13 December 2014
The pseudo-left International Socialists are lining up behind the trade unions’ campaign to back a Liberal or a Liberal-NDP coalition government.
Obama CIA director defends “enhanced interrogation” torture program
By Niles Williamson and Joseph Kishore, 12 December 2014
CIA Director John Brennan gave an extraordinary press conference at CIA headquarters on Thursday, outlining the Obama administration’s response to the Senate Intelligence Committee report on torture.
Torture, police killings and the militarization of America
By Bill Van Auken, 12 December 2014
The release of the CIA torture report in the midst of nationwide protests over US police killings has exposed a corrupt system in which state criminals at every level enjoy absolute impunity.
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