Rebecca Gordon: Torture Redux
The Trump administration revives institutionalized torture.
Francesca Albanese | UN: Israel’s escalating use of torture against Palestinians in custody a preventable crime against humanity
Torture and sexual violence in Israel’s Sde Teiman prison are grossly illegal and revolting, but only represent the tip of the iceberg.
Larry Levis: François Villon on the Condition of Pity in Our Time
We’re broken buttons, we’re blown dust.
There’s not one tear left in all of us.
I know, for I am François Villon, murderer
Maha Hilal: Carceral Imperialism
The legacy of the U.S. war in Iraq is, among other things, torture.
Brett Wilkins: 6 Mississippi ‘Goon Squad’ Deputies Plead Guilty to Torturing Black Men
Anyone surprised by this, at this point, can only be a willful denier of what Black people have said—and continue to say—about the broken culture of policing in America.
Karen J. Greenberg: Donald Trump’s Document Grab
A refusal to share information has been part of the Washington scene far longer than the current moment.
Video: Though There are Torturers | Michael Coady
Though, at this moment,
Men are screaming in prisons,
There are jazzmen raising storms
Of sensuous celebration
Nina Kossman: Giordano Bruno’s Unwritten Letter
He didn’t have time to complete the letter
which he was composing in his head,
as the flames were beginning to engulf his body
Rebecca Gordon: Torture’s Legacy
If one administration can get away with confining detainees in coffinlike boxes and torturing them in myriad other ways, why shouldn’t a later one go unpunished for, to take but one example, putting migrant children in cages?
Doug Anderson: Original Sin
I don’t know what I’ve done
but I’m guilty.
Majid Naficy: Ezzat’s Last Will
The Will Room in Evin Prison Has two ways out. Alas! One cannot take both. Thus, she writes that life Is beautiful and desirable And puts down the date of … Continue reading
Doug Anderson: The Torturers
Took their break after they finally broke a man and made him lie, implicate his friends and cause their deaths. They washed off the blood, sat smoking in the shade. … Continue reading
Sharon Doubiago: Abu Ghraib. Guantanamo Bay
You can’t unring the bell, he admonished, meaning 1948, Israel. So all these bells are ringing, Nazi, Kamakazi waves out into the universe forever and I have seen you, as … Continue reading
Tom Engelhardt: My War on Terror — Letter to an Unknown American Patriot
Dear American Patriot, I wish I knew your name. I’ve been thinking about you, about all of us actually and our country, and meaning to write for a while to … Continue reading →