The Week in Torture

Fight disinformation: Sign up for the free Mother Jones Daily newsletter and follow the news that matters.


No, Obama doesn’t plan to prosecute the CIA agents who tortured prisoners during the Bush era. But will he taze the policymakers? Note to Obama: Here’s a torture chain of command cheat sheet. Looks like you’ll need it.

Meanwhile, the right continues to preach moral absolutism on everything except the “We’re America, We Don’t Fucking Torture” front; a Playboy writer gets waterboarded for kicks; and Dick Cheney still just loooooves the torture talk. Maybe Cheney tapes will make it onto the next torture playlist; in the meantime, does Jonathan Mann have to credit John Yoo after setting his torture memos to music?

Alas, we can’t tell you which soldier gave us this secret footage inside the Abu Ghraib cellblocks. But you should watch it anyway for the sheer spooky matter-of-factness. Those cells are wicked small! And narrated!

Hey, did you know our special torture investigation is up for a National Magazine Award? See why: Listen to our exclusive torture playlist and re-read the secrets of Abu Ghraib, Guantanamo, and the war on terror.

DONALD TRUMP & DEMOCRACY

Mother Jones was founded to do journalism differently. We stand for justice and democracy. We reject false equivalence. We go after stories others don’t. We’re a nonprofit newsroom, because the kind of truth-telling investigations we do doesn’t happen under corporate ownership.

And we need your support like never before, to fight back against the existential threats American democracy faces. Fundraising for nonprofit media is always a challenge, and we need all hands on deck right now. We have no cushion; we leave it all on the field.

It’s reader support that enables Mother Jones to report the facts that are too difficult, expensive, or inconvenient for other news outlets to uncover. Please help with a donation today if you can—even a few bucks will make a real difference. A monthly gift would be incredible.

payment methods

DONALD TRUMP & DEMOCRACY

Mother Jones was founded to do journalism differently. We stand for justice and democracy. We reject false equivalence. We go after stories others don’t. We’re a nonprofit newsroom, because the kind of truth-telling investigations we do doesn’t happen under corporate ownership.

And we need your support like never before, to fight back against the existential threats American democracy faces. Fundraising for nonprofit media is always a challenge, and we need all hands on deck right now. We have no cushion; we leave it all on the field.

It’s reader support that enables Mother Jones to report the facts that are too difficult, expensive, or inconvenient for other news outlets to uncover. Please help with a donation today if you can—even a few bucks will make a real difference. A monthly gift would be incredible.

payment methods

We Recommend

Latest

Sign up for our free newsletter

Subscribe to the Mother Jones Daily to have our top stories delivered directly to your inbox.

Get our award-winning magazine

Save big on a full year of investigations, ideas, and insights.

Subscribe

Support our journalism

Help Mother Jones' reporters dig deep with a tax-deductible donation.

Donate