torture

Fighting continues in Syria, where Kurdish troops from the People's Protection Units are facing down ISIS militants in Raqqa, Syria.

Is Syria 'the war of our time, a humanitarian test of our time?'

ISIS militants are being squeezed out of their final strongholds in eastern Syria.

Is Syria 'the war of our time, a humanitarian test of our time?'
A satellite image of Syria’s Saydnaya military prison, annotated by Amnesty International, via Google Earth and DigitalGlobe.

Amnesty accuses Syria of ‘extermination’ of thousands of prisoners

Amnesty accuses Syria of ‘extermination’ of thousands of prisoners
Syrian activist Karam Al Hamad at work. Hamad is currently waiting for permission to leave Turkey to travel to the US for a fellowship.

After a year of torture in Syrian jail, an activist finally makes it to the US

After a year of torture in Syrian jail, an activist finally makes it to the US
US Ambassador to the UN Samantha Power reads a statement following a United Nations Security Council vote on a resolution about the ongoing crisis in Iraq on August 15, 2014.

Shocking photos push Samantha Power to seek peace in Syria

Shocking photos push Samantha Power to seek peace in Syria
Supporters of the National Religious Campaign Against Torture attended a rally outside the White House in 2009.

CIA interrogators didn't just break detainees' bodies — they also attacked their souls

CIA interrogators didn't just break detainees' bodies — they also attacked their souls
Detainees in orange jumpsuits sit in a holding area watched by military police at Guantanamo Bay's Camp X-Ray in 2002.

How the US provides inspiration for terrorists groups like ISIS

It's no coincidence that ISIS prisoners are kept in bright orange jumpsuits. The terrorist group took the idea from the US, who places Guantanamo Bay prisoners in the same garb — and that's not the only way terrorists have been able to crib from American actions.

How the US provides inspiration for terrorists groups like ISIS
The logo of the U.S. Central Intelligence Agency is shown in the lobby of the CIA headquarters in Langley, Virginia March 3, 2005.

There may be reason for optimism following the CIA torture report

Is the release of the Senate Intelligence Committee's report the start of real change at the CIA? Some people believe the airing of gruesome details will force the agency to be more accountable to Congress.

There may be reason for optimism following the CIA torture report
Soldiers from the 35th US Volunteer Infantry subject a Filipino to the ‘water cure,’ a common ‘enhanced interrogation’ technique employed during the war to pacify the Philippines between 1899 and 1902.

America has used water to torture people for more than a century

You may not be surprised to hear that simulated drowning as a torture was first documented during the Middle Ages. But did you know it was once a common technique in US law enforcement in the early 20th century?

America has used water to torture people for more than a century
A US Army soldier from the 1st Infantry Division stationed in Tikrit closes the entrance of the dentention center at Forward Operating Base Danger on September 8, 2004.

Torture doesn't work — so here's what does

The world now officially knows that CIA interrogators tortured and abused prisoners, but what about the men and women who did the job for the military and other parts of the government? One former Army interrogator says torture was never on the table.

Torture doesn't work — so here's what does
A demonstrator is held down during a simulation of waterboarding outside the Justice Department in 2007.

For Black Hawk Down author, CIA torture report is no surprise

Mark Bowden's view: The use of ''coercive methods does and did produce very useful information.''

For Black Hawk Down author, CIA torture report is no surprise
A guard shuts the gate to the airport in Szymany, Poland, in 2005. Polish media said the airport was identified by Human Rights Watch as a potential site of alleged CIA prisons used to interrogate al-Qaeda captives.

Poles say aiding the CIA's torture program 'was simply being a good ally'

Poland was home to one of the secret CIA "black sites" where detainees were held and tortured. But while a new report detailed the abuses prisoners suffered, some Poles wonder why they seems to be the only country willing to take their leaders to task for their involvement.

Poles say aiding the CIA's torture program 'was simply being a good ally'
Leaked pictures from a man who allegedly served as a military police and was tasked with photographing the dead bodies brought to the military hospitals controlled by the Syrian regime during the civil war.

Investigators say the photos from Syria show industrialized, systematic killing

New evidence was released this week of alleged war crimes by the regime of Syrian leader, Bashar al-Assad. The evidence took the form of photos taken by the regime itself to document 11,000 deaths. They indicate widespread torture, starvation and execution of prisoners.

Investigators say the photos from Syria show industrialized, systematic killing