RIGHTS-US: Study Challenges Claims of Gitmo Recidivism

A prominent law professor says the U.S. Defence Department is issuing questionable data on the number of Guantanamo detainees who have been released "and then returned to the battlefield" because the government "is now in a position where they have to find some bad guys - even if they have to invent them by naming people who were never there".

RIGHTS-US: Close Torture Loopholes, Physicians’ Group Urges

While applauding President Barack Obama's recent executive orders banning torture and other harsh interrogation practices, medical authorities are calling attention to a little-reported section of the Army's Field Manual on Interrogation that they say still allows the use of tactics that can constitute torture or cruel, inhuman or degrading treatment under U.S. and international law.

Q&A: "U.S. Must Take Seriously What the World Thinks"

John Brown, a Foreign Service officer with the U.S. State Department for more than 20 years, resigned in 2003 to protest the U.S. invasion of Iraq. He now teaches at Georgetown University.

US-EUROPE: Few Welcome Mats for Guantanamo Detainees

International human rights groups have expressed mixed reactions to the European Union's lukewarm pledge to accept some detainees from U.S. custody at Guantanamo Bay once the facility closes.

POLITICS: Muslim World Hails End of a Despised Symbol

While the decision of President Barack Obama to close the prison at Guantanamo Bay Cuba, and end the practice of interrogation techniques that violate international law, made front page news throughout the United States, press reaction in the Middle East was far less extensive - but generally favourable.

U.S.: Rights Groups Applaud Move to Halt Gitmo Trials

U.S. and international human rights groups Wednesday praised President Barack Obama's directive to immediately suspend the work of military commissions established by his predecessor, George W. Bush, to prosecute suspected terrorists at the U.S. detention facility at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba, and pressed for its earliest possible closure.

POLITICS-US: Bush’s Path from “Humility” to “Bring it On”

George W. Bush entered the White House in 2001 with the least foreign policy experience and the most modest foreign policy programme of any modern U.S. president.

MIDEAST: Syria Makes Its Mark on Regional Politics

The main artery of Damascus's famous covered souk (market) sports a giant red banner expressing - in Arabic and English - the disgust and anguish of a nearby private business for the Israeli military's attacks on Gaza.

RIGHTS: New U.S. Leadership Offers Ray of Hope

As human rights abuses continue around the world, global power shifts have created new coalitions that often successfully seek to deflect criticisms of their own and their allies' human rights records, says the comprehensive annual report issued by Human Rights Watch (HRW).

RIGHTS-US: Fate of Guantanamo Detainees Still Murky

Human rights groups are hailing reports that President-elect Barack Obama plans to issue an executive order on his first full day in office directing the closing of the Guantánamo Bay detention camp in Cuba. But they are urging him to provide details on when and how it will be done and what will happen to those now imprisoned there.

U.S.: Bush Foreign Policy Legacy Widely Seen as Disastrous

While in a farewell press conference Monday George W. Bush once again expressed the belief that his eight-year presidency, particularly his foreign-policy record, will be vindicated by history, the portents are not particularly good.

US-AFGHANISTAN: Bagram, Worse Than Guantanamo?

While millions know that the administration of George W. Bush has left Barack Obama with the job of closing the U.S. prison at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba, relatively few are aware that the new president will also face a similar but far larger dilemma 7,000 miles away.

POLITICS: Bush Plan Eliminated Obstacle to Gaza Assault

Until mid-2007, there was a serious political obstacle to a massive conventional war by Israel against Hamas in Gaza: the fact that Hamas had won free and fair elections for the Palestinian parliament and was still the leading faction in a fully legitimate government.

BOOKS-US: Dick Cheney, Master Bureaucrat

While lazier caricatures have always cast Vice-President Dick Cheney as the puppet-master pulling George W. Bush’s strings, it is the image of Cheney as master bureaucrat that provides the real key to understanding his power.

RIGHTS-US: “Bad Apples” Didn’t Fall Far From the Tree

On the heels of a bipartisan Congressional report blaming high-level officials of the George W. Bush administration for employing harsh interrogation techniques on detainees captured in the "global war on terror", many of the world's most respected civil libertarians are calling for the establishment of an independent commission to investigate the alleged abuses.

POLITICS: U.S. Military Defiant on Key Terms of Iraqi Pact

U.S. military leaders and Pentagon officials have made it clear through public statements and deliberately leaked stories in recent weeks that they plan to violate a central provision of the U.S.-Iraq withdrawal agreement requiring the complete withdrawal of all U.S. combat troops from Iraqi cities by mid-2009 by reclassifying combat troops as support troops.

BOOKS-US: When Neocons Ruled Washington

In the first two pages of his book on the neoconservative movement, historian Stephen Sniegoski tells us that U.S. Mideast policy during the George W. Bush presidency has been "colossally erroneous" and "disastrous to U.S. interests", that the Iraq War is a "blunder of colossal proportions", and that an attack on Iran is a "highly likely" "disaster" unless the country "eschews all elements of the Middle East war policy".

RIGHTS-US: No Amnesty for Cheney et al, Say Torture Opponents

Judging by the rare leaks from President-elect Barack Obama's transition team, investigations and prosecutions of high-level George W. Bush administration officials for torture and war crimes are a distant prospect. But likely or not, that won't stop pundits from debating the question of whether those officials responsible should be held accountable.

POLITICS: Pact Will End Iraqi Dependence on U.S. Military

The text of the U.S.-Iraq Status of Forces Agreement (SOFA) signed by U.S. Ambassador Ryan Crocker and Iraqi Foreign Minister Hoshyar Zebari Monday closes the door to a further U.S. military presence beyond 2011 even more tightly than the previous draft and locks in a swift end to Iraqi dependence on the U.S. military that appears to be irreversible.

US-PAKISTAN: Obama-Tied Think Tank Calls for “Dramatic” Shift

A think tank closely tied to U.S. President-Elect Barack Obama is calling for a "dramatic strategic shift" in Washington's policy towards Pakistan, one designed to both strengthen civilian institutions and promote an effective counter-insurgency against al Qaeda and indigenous Islamist extremists in the tribal areas along the Afghan border who increasingly threaten the country's stability.

RIGHTS-US: Activists Seek Executive Order Banning Torture

Shutting down the infamous detention centre at Guantanamo Bay is just one of a series of measures to reform U.S. counterterrorism practices being urged by the watchdog organisation Human Rights Watch (HRW).