U.S.| CIA cancels Blackwater contract for loading bombs onto AfPak drones
The CIA has cancelled a contract with US private security firm Blackwater for its operatives to load bombs onto drone aircraft in Pakistan and Afghanistan. Read more
U.S.| CIA expanding drone program in Pakistan
The White House has authorized an expansion of the C.I.A.’s drone program in Pakistan’s lawless tribal areas. The news comes after Philip Alston, the UN human rights investigator, questioned in late October the US use of drones, suggesting it could constitute a breach of international law. Read more
UK| Milliband and Torture Evidence
David Miliband (centre), Secretary of State for Foreign and Commonwealth Affairs of the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland, addresses correspondents following a Security Council meeting on the situation in the Middle East. 11 May 2009.
Today sees the release by Human Rights Watch (HRW) of a searing exposé of the evidence against the British government of its complicity in the torture of people held in Pakistan suspected of terrorism.
The report, Cruel Britannia, is based on evidence collected by Ali Dayan Hasan, a senior HRW researcher who interviewed not only suspects and their lawyers but also members of the Pakistani ISI agency who were involved in the torture.
It corroborates and provides further detail for the investigative reporting on torture of the Guardian’s Ian Cobain, who recently won the Paul Foot award. [...]
More here from The Guardian.
