Amnesty International released its annual review of death sentences and executions around the world. The review found the five biggest executors in 2012 were China, Iran, Iraq, Saudi Arabia and the USA. It also found that the number of countries that abolished the death penalty rose to 97 and progress toward abolition of the death [...]

The major newspaper endorsements indicate the makeover American superpower received when President Barack Obama was elected in 2008 worked. There is unanimous consensus among the top twenty newspapers that endorsed Obama that Obama repaired the image of America that was damaged by two terms of President George W. Bush. The Plain-Dealer wrote, “Obama has shown [...]

A congressional committee held a hearing on the security failures that led to the killings of four Americans at a US consulate in Benghazi, Libya, on September 11. The hearing included two witnesses from the State Department that agreed to begin to share key details on what occurred. Rep. Darrell Issa, chairman of the House Oversight & [...]

Human Rights Watch (HRW) has released a major new report detailing how the Bush Administration and other allied governments tortured and imprisoned opponents of former Libyan dictator Muammar Gaddafi. The prisoners were then rendered to Gaddafi’s own prisons where many of them were tortured. Perhaps the most explosive new information in the report concerns charges by one of the prisoners that he was waterboarded. Meanwhile, a new document released by a Canadian news outlet charges former Guantanamo child prisoner Omar Khadr was subjected to waterboarding-like torture while in U.S. custody.

Worldwide heads of the National Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO), military generals, heads of state from the alliance’s twenty-eight member countries will be coming to Chicago for a summit on May 20-21. The city will be put on lockdown all so the military arm of the G8—a group that can dial up a “humanitarian intervention” or [...]

With the increasing possibility of some kind of intervention in Syria looming, a University of Chicago panel was held to unpack how liberal thought and Western power politics often are used to mask the unsavory aspects of what many usually call “humanitarian intervention.” The speakers mentioned the Arab Spring, the war in Libya and went [...]

A new report published by the United Kingdom-based new organization The Guardian highlights the rendition and torture of a Libyan militant, who led the fight against Libyan leader Muammar Gaddafi, and his pregnant wife. Making use of documents uncovered in Tripoli after Gaddafi was defeated by coalition and rebel forces last year, the report pays particular [...]

A new report published by the United Kingdom-based new organization The Guardian highlights the rendition and torture of a Libyan militant, who led the fight against Libyan leader Muammar Gaddafi, and his pregnant wife. Making use of documents uncovered in Tripoli after Gaddafi was defeated by coalition and rebel forces last year, the report pays particular [...]

In the aftermath of the attempted bombing of a Northwest Airlines flight from Amsterdam to Detroit on Christmas Day in 2009 by Umar Farouk Abdulmutallab, the Transportation Security Administration (TSA) moved to increase airport security. Passengers flying “non-stop” to the US were subject to enhanced screenings, including in some cases a full-body pat-down. But, immediately, [...]

Muammar Gaddafi (photo: BRQ Network) The Wall Street Journal has a report in today’s newspaper on how Muammar Gaddafi hired firms from around the world to help his regime spy on Libyans. The article that appears in the newspaper is behind a paywall but other news organizations are publishing details in their own posts. Here’s [...]