(Washington, DC) – The US Senate Intelligence Committee’s report summary on the Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) detention and interrogation program is a powerful denunciation of the agency’s extensive and systematic use of torture, Human Rights Watch said today. The 525-page partially redacted summary, released on December 9, 2014, is part of a 6,700-page classified report that the committee has still not indicated it plans to release. The summary documents numerous misrepresentations the CIA made about the program’s effectiveness and demonstrates US officials’ knowledge that it was illegal. It underscores the need for the US government to promptly release the full report, bolster…

Last night, in Beijing, I sat in a historic Szechuan restaurant with a friend who happens to be a Chinese diplomat. We exchanged some stories, ordered food, and then, suddenly, my throat felt dry and my eyes got misty. I bowed and thanked her for the heartfelt offer China made to rescue Russia. Just before leaving my hotel, I read the news on the RT: “China’s foreign minister has pledged support to Russia as it faces an economic downturn due to sanctions and a drop in oil prices. Boosting trade in Yuan is a solution proposed by Beijing’s commerce minister.…

In his final address to the troops, Defense Secretary Chuck Hagel warned Thursday against "micromanaging" the military in what could be seen as veiled criticism of the White House. "You cannot micromanage or even attempt to micromanage" the Defense Department, Hagel said in a town hall meeting with senior enlisted soldiers at the Army Sergeants Majors Academy at Fort Bliss, Texas. "If you think you've got the right leaders, then let them do their jobs," said Hagel, who abruptly announced his resignation Nov. 24 after reportedly clashing with an overbearing White House staff on national security issues. Hagel also appeared to…

  Human experimentation was a core feature of the CIA’s torture program. The experimental nature of the interrogation and detention techniques is clearly evident in the Senate Intelligence Committee’s executive summary of its investigative report, despite redactions (insisted upon by the CIA) to obfuscate the locations of these laboratories of cruel science and the identities of perpetrators. At the helm of this human experimentation project were two psychologists hired by the CIA, James Mitchell and Bruce Jessen. They designed interrogation and detention protocols that they and others applied to people imprisoned in the agency’s secret “black sites.” In its response…

   Today the US House passed what I consider to be one of the worst pieces of legislation ever. H. Res. 758 was billed as a resolution “strongly condemning the actions of the Russian Federation, under President Vladimir Putin, which has carried out a policy of aggression against neighboring countries aimed at political and economic domination.”In fact, the bill was 16 pages of war propaganda that should have made even neocons blush, if they were capable of such a thing.These are the kinds of resolutions I have always watched closely in Congress, as what are billed as “harmless” statements of…