Reuters : U.S. faces questions over ‘kidnappings’ in Europe

Pressure is growing on the United States to respond to allegations that its agents were involved in spiriting terrorist suspects out of three European countries and sending them to nations where they may have been tortured.

The Independent: Afghan prisoners were ‘tortured to death’ by American guards

During an interrogation, the severely injured Dilawar begged a translator to get him a doctor. The translator says he told the interrogators, but one replied: “He’s OK. He’s just trying to get out of his restraints.”

An autopsy found that Dilawar died of heart failure caused by “blunt force injuries to the lower extremities”. The coroner, Lieutenant-Colonel Elizabeth Rouse, told a pre-trial hearing that his legs “had basically been pulpified … I’ve seen similar injuries in an individual run over by a bus.”

The Guardian: Jury anger over threat of torture

Jurors who acquitted four Algerians in the so-called “ricin plot” trial that ended at the Old Bailey last month have expressed outrage at the news that the government is seeking to deport three of the accused to Algeria.

Seymour Hersh: The unknown unknowns of the Abu Ghraib scandal

It’s been over a year since I published a series of articles in the New Yorker outlining the abuses at Abu Ghraib. There have been at least 10 official military investigations since then - none of which has challenged the official Bush administration line that there was no high-level policy condoning or overlooking such abuse. The buck always stops with the handful of enlisted army reservists from the 372nd Military Police Company whose images fill the iconic Abu Ghraib photos with their inappropriate smiles and sadistic posing of the prisoners.

LA Times: Mock Executions of Iraqi Detainees Cited by Army

A U.S. Army captain forced an Iraqi detainee to dig his own grave and then ordered troops to pretend to shoot the detainee in one of several mock executions described in investigative documents released Tuesday by the Army.

Greg Palast: Cowardice in Journalism Award for Newsweek Goebbels Award for Condi

“It’s appalling that this story got out there,” Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice said on her way back from Iraq.

What’s not appalling to Condi is that the US is holding prisoners at Guantanamo under conditions termed “torture” by the Red Cross. What’s not appalling to Condi is that prisoners of the Afghan war are held in violation of international law after that conflict has supposedly ended. What is not appalling to Condi is that prisoner witnesses have reported several instances of the Koran’s desecration.

Baghdad Burning: The Dead and the Undead…

The last two weeks have been violent. The number of explosions in Baghdad alone is frightening. There have also been several assassinations- bodies being found here and there. It’s somewhat disturbing to know that corpses are turning up in the most unexpected places. Many people will tell you it’s not wise to eat river fish anymore because they have been nourished on the human remains being dumped into the river. That thought alone has given me more than one sleepless night. It is almost as if Baghdad has turned into a giant graveyard.