On September 22, in the District Court in Washington D.C., Judge Reggie B. Walton denied the habeas corpus petition of Tawfiq al-Bihani, consigning him to indefinite detention in Guantánamo, on an apparently legal basis, despite the fact that there is no evidence that he ever took up arms against anyone, or had any contact with anyone involved in preparing, facilitating or supporting acts of international terrorism. Judge Walton also ignored that despite being, at most, a lowly foot soldier, al-Bihani was held in a variety of secret CIA prisons in Afghanistan before his transfer to Guantánamo, where he was subjected to torture.

The D.C. Circuit federal appeals court, backed by the Supreme Court’s inaction, continues to threaten the independent judiciary’s role in checking the Executive’s unilateral imprisonment of suspected non-citizen armed conflict participants – this time by allowing the immediate rendition to Algeria of an unlawfully-detained Guantanamo prisoner against his wishes, though he fears for his life if sent to Algeria, a nation he left behind more than fifteen years ago.

In a summary of recent news in the fight against torture, a D.C. judge has dismissed all charges against demonstrators arrested in an anti-Guantanamo demonstration last January. Meanwhile, the Supreme Court has announced it will not review the District Court’s decision refusing to review Canadian citizen Maher Arar case against U.S. officials for their role in rendering him to Syria to be tortured. At the same time, the Canadian RCMP is revealed to be investigating both Syrian and U.S. officials for this crime.

Over the past decade, many Americans have been shocked and disturbed about the CIA’s secret program of rendition and torture carried out in numerous secret sites (dubbed “black sites” by the CIA) around the globe. The dimensions of this program for the most part are still classified “Eyes Only” in the intelligence community, but the program’s roots can be clearly discovered in the early 1950′s with the CIA’s Artichoke Project. This article looks at a prominent Artichoke case, and compares it with torture-rendition stories from the past nine years.

A new UN report notes secret detentions “might reach the threshold of a crime against humanity.” Obama’s OLC braintrusts the Detention Task Force’s recommendation of indefinite detention of some Guantanamo prisoners. These actions make sense in the light of a 55 year old report on CIA covert actions.

When we last saw the Republican Superfriends, they thought all was lost, as the terrible Blue Plague had consumed most of our Great Nation, portending a dark era of socialist terrorist unAmericanisms! Little did they know, a hidden force lay dormant and waiting, like radon gas, cocooned in a deep bunker filled to the ceilings with computer processors and digital panels, to emerge in the Republican Superfriends direst hour of need!

Multiple violations of several provisions of the Convention Against Torture should result in an investigation of President Obama.

I can’t wrap my mind or heart around the lack of outrage and empathy among my leaders and the vast majority of my fellow citizens. The Iraq war was launched illegally. The torture program is against the law. The Geneva Convention was ratified by Congress. Habeas corpus has been in place since 1679. The atrocity of 9/11 apparently justified a “gloves off” bloodlust defiance of the legal and moral pillars of our democracy. All these years since, the mandate for constitutional and moral justice “for all” goes unheeded.

Why was Mark Danner able to get hold of a classified report detailing torture of “high value” detainees and publish an article about it in The New York Review of Books before leading newspapers like the New York Times and the Washington Post?

As someone that changed their support away from one candidate to then Sen. Obama, because of the implicit promise of investigation of torture by the criminal Bush administration, the Dog has to ask, has he been rolled on torture?