Blog of Rights
Ateqah
Khaki
01/24/2012
U.S. Torture

Accountability for Torture Still the Goal, Still Elusive

By Ateqah Khaki at 4:37pm

A pair of developments Monday made abundantly clear the lack of accountability for U.S.-sponsored torture after 9/11.

In a criminal complaint filed by the Justice Department, former CIA officer John Kiriakou was charged with disclosing classified information to journalists and lying to the CIA’s Publications Review Board. ACLU Executive Director Anthony D. Romero declared, “It remains troubling that the government has failed to indict the CIA agents who participated in torture and who have thus far not been held accountable for these atrocities.”

Read More»
01/23/2012
GPS

Supreme Court Rules Government Violated Privacy Rights in GPS Tracking Case

By Ateqah Khaki at 12:29pm

The Court held 9-0 that the government violated the Fourth Amendment when it placed a GPS tracking device to Antoine Jones's car to track his movements for a month.

Read More»
01/10/2012
Indefinite Detention

Check Out Our "Close Gitmo" Activist Toolkit!

By Ateqah Khaki at 5:45pm

Tomorrow marks 10 years since the first prisoners were sent to the prison camp at Guantánamo Bay, making it the longest-standing war prison in U.S. history.

To learn how you can amplify the call to close Guantánamo, once and for all, check out our new activist toolkit.

And in case you missed them, be sure to check out the “Gitmo by the Numbers” Infographic that we blogged about yesterday, and our blog post about Lakhdar Boumediene, an innocent man who was imprisoned at Guantánamo for seven and a half years without charge or trial. Tomorrow, we’ll feature a podcast conversation with Mr. Boumediene.

Read More»
01/09/2012
Indefinite Detention

INFOGRAPHIC: Guantánamo by the Numbers

By Ateqah Khaki at 4:48pm

Our new infographic illustrates how, over the past decade, the prison camp has become a symbol of injustice, abuse and disregard for the rule of law.

Read More»
01/06/2012
U.S. Torture

ACLU Studio: The Torture Report

By Ateqah Khaki & David Felsen, ACLU at 6:09pm

Sometimes the truth is buried in front of us. That is the case with more than 140,000 pages of government documents relating to the abuse of prisoners by U.S. forces during the “war on terror,” brought to light by the ACLU.

Since 2004, the ACLU has requested and received thousands of documents on the Bush administration’s torture program. The task of extracting a narrative from this intimidating pile of documents was left to Larry Siems, Director of Freedom to Write at the PEN American Center.

Read More»
12/15/2011
Indefinite Detention

President Obama Should Listen to the American People – Not His Advisors – on the NDAA.

By Ateqah Khaki at 2:43pm

Last night, the House of Representatives voted to pass the 2012 National Defense Authorization Act (NDAA), a bill that contains harmful provisions that some legislators have said could authorize the U.S. military to pick up and imprison without charge or trial civilians, including American citizens, anywhere in the world.

Read More»
12/09/2011
Indefinite Detention

Help Us Stop Congress From Passing Indefinite Detention Bill!

By Ateqah Khaki at 4:24pm

Earlier this week we told you about Congress trying to rush a bill to the President’s desk that would authorize the military to go literally anywhere in the world to imprison civilians — even American citizens in the United States itself — without charge or trial. Prison based on suspicion alone.

But you certainly don’t need to take our word for it. In this new video, we’ve compiled some of the most disturbing statements made by Sen. Lindsey Graham (R-S.C.), in support of the sweeping bill.

Read More»
12/08/2011

One Small Step for the U.S., One Giant Step for LBGT Rights

By Ateqah Khaki at 8:56pm

Earlier today, we told you about a historic commitment by the United States to the cause of LGBT international human rights. We hope that this is just a first step toward a greater global recognition that LGBT rights are really core human rights, and we hope that the government will “walk the talk” when it comes to gay rights at home.

It is worth noting that in her remarks before the U.N in Geneva, Secretary Clinton acknowledged that the U.S. still has a long way to go when it comes to our own record on LGBT rights at home. She stated:

Read More»
11/29/2011
NDAA

Senate Rejects Amendment Banning Indefinite Detention

By Ateqah Khaki at 7:27pm

Today, the Senate voted 38-60 to reject an important amendment to the National Defense Authorization Act (NDAA) that would have removed harmful provisions authorizing the U.S. military to pick up and imprison without charge or trial civilians, including American citizens, anywhere in the world. The amendment offered by Sen. Mark Udall (D-Colo.), would have replaced those provisions with a requirement for an orderly congressional review of detention power.

Read More»
11/23/2011
U.S. Torture

Seriously? Senate Considering Repeal of Anti-Torture Measures

By Ateqah Khaki at 11:16am

Yesterday, the ACLU and over 30 other organizations sent a letter to the Senate asking them to oppose an effort in Congress that threatens to revive the use of torture and other inhumane interrogation techniques. If passed, an amendment introduced by Sen. Kelly Ayotte (R-N.H.) to the Defense Authorization bill would roll back torture prevention measures that Congress overwhelmingly approved in the 2005 McCain Anti-Torture Amendment, as well as a 2009 Executive Order on ensuring lawful interrogations. It would also require the administration to create a secret list of approved interrogation techniques in a classified annex to the existing interrogation field manual.

Read More»
Statistics image