• Military judge Colonel James Pohl, listens at a military commission hearing in this courtroom sketch at Guantanamo Bay Navy Base, Cuba on May 5, 2012.
    As I sat in the Guantánamo courtroom this weekend for the arraignment of the five leading suspects, the alleged masterminds of the September 11th attacks, I couldn’t help but feel cheated.

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Reports

Counterterrorism

  • May 16, 2012
    Continued detention of Imad Al Husin - who has never been charged with a crime - shows Bosnia has taken steps in the wrong direction when it comes to balancing human rights against national security issues.
  • May 15, 2012

    Iraq’s government has been carrying out mass arrests and unlawfully detaining people in the notorious Camp Honor prison facility in Baghdad’s Green Zone, based on numerous interviews with victims, witnesses, family members, and government officials. The government had claimed a year ago that it had closed the prison, where Human Rights Watch had documented rampant torture.

  • May 13, 2012

    Syrian security forces are arbitrarily arresting and holding peaceful activists incommunicado, despite the government’s commitment under Kofi Annan’s six point plan to release everyone who has been arbitrarily detained. People being arrested include peaceful protesters and activists involved in organizing, filming, and reporting on protests and humanitarian assistance providers and doctors, Human Rights Watch said after interviewing dozens of activists, witnesses, and family members.

  • May 10, 2012
    United Arab Emirates (UAE) authorities have expanded their crackdown on peaceful political activists with the recent arrests of two more members of a non-violent political association advocating greater adherence to Islamic precepts.
  • May 9, 2012

    Andrea Prasow writes on Huffington Post regarding the significance of the military commission arraignment of Khalid Sheikh Mohammed, the alleged mastermind of the 9/11 attacks.

  • May 6, 2012
    As I sat in the Guantánamo courtroom this weekend for the arraignment of the five leading suspects, the alleged masterminds of the September 11th attacks, I couldn’t help but feel cheated.
  • May 1, 2012
    Human Rights Watch responded to a statement made by chief US counterterrorism advisor John Brennan on April 30, 2012, that sought to clarify and justify the US use of aerial drones in targeted killings in Pakistan, Yemen and elsewhere.
  • May 1, 2012
    The Obama administration has displayed a lack of interest in changing Justice Department rules on religious profiling or in supporting legislation like the End Racial Profiling Act, which would impede the government’s ability to monitor Muslim communities without cause.
  • Apr 20, 2012
    Remarks by a US Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) official suggesting the agency is not legally bound by the laws of war underscore the urgent need for the Obama administration to transfer command of all aerial drone strikes to the armed forces.
  • Apr 20, 2012

    Last week's shutdown of Sanaa's airport by security forces seeking to reverse President Abed Rabbo Mansour al-Hadi's dismissal of top brass loyal to the ancien regime exemplified exactly where Yemen is stuck.