Human Rights

“Iraq war vet Brown’s death in jail was murder”: US Army veteran
The death of Sergeant James Brown in a Texas jail was an outrageous "torture operation," author and US Army veteran Rory Fanning told RT. But the odds that police officers involved get indicted are very low, unless there are massive protests, he added. A video obtained by KFOX14 has revealed aggressive force being used by officers during Brown’s time in custody in 2012. [...]
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Poland pays compensation to ex-inmates of CIA torture sites on its territory
Warsaw has paid €230,000 to two former inmates of CIA "black site" prisons, which used to be on Poland's territory - a move that has raised questions in the country. "Poland has fulfilled the ruling of the European Court of Human Rights," Deputy Foreign Minister Rafał Trzaskowski said on Thursday, RIA Novosti reports. [...]
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Castro meets Pope, promises to go ‘back to praying & church’
Cuban President Raul Castro has promised to attend all Pope Francis's masses when the pontiff visits Cuba. Castro said he may even go back to praying and church if "the pope continues to talk as he does." The talks between the Cuban leader and the pontiff in Vatican were strictly private and lasted for about an hour. [...]
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Supreme Court to rule on lethal injection drugs after Oklahoma botched executions
The US Supreme Court is hearing arguments on lethal injections for the first time in nearly a decade, following a botched execution in Oklahoma and amid a nationwide shortage of the drugs used in the procedure. On Wednesday, the state of Oklahoma and lawyers for three death row inmates there presented their arguments to the Supreme Court, where the nine justices appeared to be sharply split bet [...]
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Journalists’ killings: Western media blind spot on what’s happening in Kiev
The recent killings in Ukraine are reported in Western media in a completely distorted way says investigative journalist Tony Gosling. It's a dangerous situation that may provoke further killings and less reporting of certain points of view, he told RT. Opposition journalist Oles Buzina was killed near his home in Kiev on Thursday. Ukraine's President Petro Poroshenko has ordered a full investi [...]
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Christians in peril – because of Western foreign policy
Easter should be a time of celebration for Christians, but for those of the faith living in the Middle East, there hasn't been too much to celebrate in recent years. "Kill the Christians" is the title of a new BBC documentary, to be broadcast this week. [...]
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“Slave labor” Migrants building Guggenheim, Louvre in UAE “treated like battery hens”
An International Trade Union Confederation (ITUC) has slammed conditions faced by migrant workers building Abu Dhabi's $27-billion Saadiyat Island cultural hub, set to feature new branches of the Louvre and the Guggenheim museums. [...]
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Six released Guantanamo detainees “happy to be” in Uruguay
Six former US detainees, who have never been charged, are beginning their new life as refugees in Uruguay. They arrived on Sunday and have given their first comments to the press to say they are happy to be there. The six include four Syrians, a Palestinian and a Tunisian. Although they were cleared for release in 2009, the US was not able to discharge them until Uruguayan President Jose Mujica [...]
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All dogs go to heaven: Pope Francis says animals will enter pearly gates
Pope Francis has promised that your favorite pooch will have a spot in heaven, along with all other animals. He made the vow while comforting a little boy mourning the loss of his dog, according to media reports. During his weekly address in the Vatican's St. Peter's Square, the pope told the boy that “paradise is open to all of God's creatures.” [...]
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10 most shocking facts we found in CIA torture report
The so-called "torture report" released by the Senate this week contains only a fraction of the findings on how the CIA aimed to gather intelligence from detainees through interrogation. Still, it contains more than a few shocking revelations. According to the Senate committee’s findings released on Tuesday, the “enhanced interrogation techniques,” or EITs, used against foreign prisoners [...]
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Freedom vs. Stability: Are Dictators Worse than Anarchy?
Although there is always reason to celebrate the toppling of an autocrat, the outcome of the Iraq war and the rise of Islamic State have demonstrated in horrific terms that the alternative can be even worse. In mid-April 2003, German author Hans Magnus Enzensberger published a piece in the daily Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung in which he celebrated the fall of Saddam Hussein. [...]
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“Who the f**k authorized this?” Obama’s chief of staff cursed Panetta over CIA torture probe
Former CIA Director Leon Panetta says that he was cursed at by President Barack Obama's former chief of staff after he agreed to cooperate with the Senate's investigation into his agency's torture tactics in the wake of 9/11. In passages taken from his new book and published online bythe Intercept, Panetta explains the event that triggered the outburst, which flowed from the former chief of sta [...]
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The Why of Obama’s Failed Hope | Consortiumnews
The election of Barack Obama in 2008 brought hope and optimism to Americans and non-Americans alike. But after one and a half terms, the reality is sinking in that for all the promised change, it’s the “same old, same old.” The big question is why, writes Australian Greg Maybury. For folks who were fans of the late, great comedian Bill Hicks, they likely will be familiar with one of his m [...]
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“Taped hands, gun wounds”: RT witnesses exhumation of mass graves in E. Ukraine
Mass graves with bodies bearing signs of violent death, and grieving relatives of those who were identified: That was the blood-curdling scene witnessed by an RT crew in a village near the city of Donetsk, in eastern Ukraine. Four bodies were found in two shell craters behind a burned-out coal mine near the village of Nyzhnia Krynka, 35 kilometers northeast of Donetsk. RT’s Maria Finoshina re [...]
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Gone from CNN, Piers Morgan says he wants his show to be remembered for Alex Jones gun debate
News anchor Piers Morgan's tenure with CNN officially ended on Tuesday this week, and according to a tweet sent by the British journalist, an exchange with radio host Alex Jones was among the highlights of his career there. "If I'm to be remembered for anything [at] CNN, I'd like it to be this" Morgan told his 4.23 million Twitter followers on Tuesday along with a link to a YouTube clip of his [...]
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Military lawyer resigns in protest of “show trial” of accused 9/11 mastermind
Last week, a US military lawyer on the defense team for self-proclaimed 9/11-attacks mastermind Khalid Sheikh Mohammed resigned from the Army in protest of the "show trial" conducted by the US at Guantanamo Bay. Maj. Jason Wright resigned on Aug. 26, according to NPR. He accused the US government of “abhorrent leadership” on human rights and due process at the military detention center at G [...]
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‘I Could Have Stopped Them’: Ex-CIA Lawyer Defends Waterboarding Decision
In an interview, former top CIA lawyer John Rizzo says the US' waterboarding and other "enhanced interrogation methods" for terror suspects had "deep trouble" written all over them. But he doesn't regret his decision to approve the measures. After the terror attacks in the US on Sept. 11, 2001, John Rizzo, 66, was responsible for approving the Central Intelligence Agency's "enhanced interrogati [...]
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Putin: Russians need to engage, but have no confrontation with wider world
Russians must consolidate and develop their country, neither sliding into isolationism nor sacrificing their dignity for the sake of pleasing anyone, President Vladimir Putin declared. “We have to develop our country with calm, dignity and efficiency, without barricading ourselves from the outer world or breaking ties with partners, but also without allowing anyone to treat us with disrespect [...]
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Kiev: Russia’s humanitarian convoy will not be allowed into Ukraine
Kiev intends to hold up the internationally-supervised Russian humanitarian aid convoy meant for East Ukraine for at least a week, a spokesman for the Ukrainian military said. Ukraine said the time is needed for the International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC), which is contributing to the Moscow-initiated mission, to establish where the aid should go in the Ukrainian region engulfed by civi [...]
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