The case of Abdullah Sa'd should serve as a stark reminder to the US and its allies as they meet with Yemeni officials in London on Wednesday to craft a strategy to confront Al Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula (AQAP), the group's Yemen-based franchise. If donors don't stringently monitor and condition their planned counterterrorism aid for Yemen, they may inadvertently become complicit in such abuse.

Governments in the Middle East were responsible for serious human rights violations over the past year, including harassment and attacks against human rights defenders and organizations that document abuse.

Governments participating in a high-level meeting on Yemen in London on January 27, 2010, should press the Yemeni authorities to  address the country's serious human rights problems.

As one would expect from so eloquent a leader, Barack Obama has brought a marked improvement in presidential rhetoric on human rights compared with his predecessor. The challenge facing his administration is translating that rhetoric into policy and practice.

US President Barack Obama has made significant progress in his first year in office toward ending the Bush administration’s abusive counterterrorism policies, but he has also made some serious missteps.

Within days of taking office in January 2009, President Barack Obama issued executive orders that repudiated key elements of the Bush administration's abusive approach to fighting terrorism. By changing course in such a swift and high-profile way, President Obama appeared to signal a new and reformed counterterrorism policy, one consistent with basic US values and with international law. But in the months that followed this promising start, the administration chose to retain a number of the previous administration's most problematic policies, albeit in modified form.

The Obama administration should commemorate Guantanamo’s eighth anniversary tomorrow by renewing its pledge to close the prison quickly and responsibly. Prisoners implicated in crimes should be charged and brought to trial before federal courts, and the remainder should be sent home or resettled in other countries.

The Moroccan court currently hearing the appeal of 35 people convicted on terrorism-related charges should address allegations that confessions were falsified or obtained through torture and other violations of their right to a fair trial.