Harper's Magazine, one of the best publications in America today, continues to expose hypocrisy in American government and the violence that is integral to our country today.  Read Scott Horton's shocking investigation into the deaths of three detainees at the U.S. prison at Guantánamo Naval Base.  These three men each "committed suicide" in one night, in the same way:  by first (somehow) stuffing rags down their own throats and then (improbably) hanging themselves.

By Marci Greenstein Prisons are in the news these days.  The Washington Post’s Keith L. Alexander profiled another innocent person who was released from prison after 28 years based on DNA evidence.  The same week, Carrie Johnson of the Post covered the Justice Department’s disturbing report on the widespread sexual abuse of juveniles in detention facilities.  The report says that 12% of adolescents are abused by inmates or prison staff.  Johnson notes that the report comes as those advocates say that the Obama administration is moving too slowly on reforms that would reduce rape in U.S. prisons and as corrections officials are pressing Justice to overhaul reform proposals it is reviewing. These stories are likely to fade away unless the press keeps the spotlight on them.  By contrast, another kind of prison story is likely to gain traction among policymakers -- a proposal by California’s Governor to shift funds from prisons to schools, as reported by Judy Lin of the Associated Press.

Matthew Blake is starting a review of important stories from 2009 that are no longer garnering headlines, even though they reveal fundamental problems in American governance.  Many of these stories originated in the Bush Administration, whose legacy history is already struggling to judge because of that same administration's penchant for secrecy and deception.  David Cole brings back to life just such a story -- the exile and torture of Canadian citizen Maher Arar by American immigration and counterterrorism officials in 2002 -- in the New York Review of Books.  In 2002, Arar was pulled from a line in JFK, put in detention for 12 days, and then -- without having spoken to a lawyer -- sent to Syria.

Secretary of State Clinton's recent speech on America’s human rights agenda at Georgetown University may deserve a place in history, if the Obama Administration sticks to its own program. The language was definitely Clintonian (Hillarian?) – straightforward, mostly unambiguous, and inspiring in a grounded sort of way.  It included the following insights: "Democracy has proven the best political system for making human rights a human reality over the long term." "In democracies, respecting rights isn’t a choice leaders make day by day; it is the reason they govern." "We may call rights inalienable, but making them so has always been hard work." "Believing in human rights means committing ourselves to action, and when we sign up for the promise of rights that apply everywhere, to everyone, that rights will be able to protect and enable human dignity, we also sign up for the hard work of making that promise a reality." This was “the” Obama administration human rights speech for the next few years at least, since it laid out four key ingredients for human rights  in U.S. foreign policy.

As James Fallows' blog makes clear, President Obama's human rights effort in China was more nuanced, and probably more successful, than people unfamiliar with China and Asia more generally can easily gauge.  The question is whether human rights have a permanent foothold in U.S. foreign policy.

Whether or not you subscribe to the guilt-inducing, unrecyclable New York Review of Books -- a publication so erudite it hurts when you read it and hurts when you don't -- you should read David Cole's recent article, "The Case Against the Torture Memo Lawyers," which argues clearly and concisely that the legal justifications for torture of terrorism suspects in the "War on Terror" should be fully understood and investigated. I've always thought that John Yoo et al's memos justifying various kinds of cruel and unusual punishment were the logical extension of giving too many overgrown Young Republicans the power to change American history.  There are plenty of thoughtful Republicans out there, but the Office of Legal Counsel (OLC) and the Vice President's office didn't seem to have many of them.

Newsweek has broken an important story about intimidation techniques used by CIA officers questioning terror suspects. Mark Hosenball and Michael Isikoff write about a "long-suppressed" report by the CIA's inspector general that describes how one detainee, suspected USS Cole bomber Abd al-Rahim al-Nashiri, was threatened with a gun and ...

Third article in our series “The Face of America Abroad” By Mitchell Polman Washington, June 3 -- Two former employees of Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty (RFE/RL) recently sent to U.S. Attorney General Eric Holder a petition alleging unfair labor practices at the U.S.-supported radio and information service.  The petition is the latest salvo in an ongoing labor dispute that is causing international embarrassment for a venerable institution of America's public diplomacy.  It is also causing some headaches for the Obama Administration and especially for Secretary of State Clinton, whom the plaintiffs at one point petitioned to appear before the court in her capacity as a member of the Broadcasting Board of Governors (BBG), RFE/RL's parent agency. The former employees of RFE/RL, Snježana Pelivan of the Croatian service, and Anna Karapetian of the Armenian service, are suing RFE/RL and the BBG in the European Court of Human Rights in Strasbourg over the radios' employment practices.  The Croatian and Armenian governments are supporting their lawsuits.

Edward Cody of the Washington Post sheds harsh light on what America did to at least one person in the "war on terror." Describing this man's life before, during, and after incarceration at Guantanamo, Cody's report makes it clear that America cannot deny responsibility for any prisoners there -- ...

Charlie Peters has pointed out for years, here at Understanding Government and in The Washington Monthly, the bizarre fact that the U.S. government employs so few fluent speakers of Arabic.  This is the kind of thing that can get Charlie laughing, though it's often laughter to keep away the ...