secret prisons

SAN FRANCISCO, Sep. 5, 2007 (KGO) - An exhibit at the Yerba Buena Center for the Arts in San Francisco will give you a glimpse into the world of espionage, featuring code words, secret prisons, and the like. To say that Berkeley's Trevor Paglen is obsessed with what others have called "the Dark Side of the War on Terror." is an understatement. Last year, he coauthored the book "Torture Taxi," a look at the CIA's "Extraordinary Rendition Program."

James Bond interviewed informants in nightclubs and luxury hotels. Le Carré's George Smiley preferred park benches or safe houses in Belgravia. But when Bisher Al-Rawi met the men from MI5, they chose somewhere more prosaic: a table in the basement section of McDonald's in Kensington, West London.

Just in case you haven't noticed before, the United States of America has become a presidential tyranny. We've been clanging this bell here (and elsewhere) since late September 2001, and have seen it confirmed over and over through the years – with torture edicts, domestic spying, rendition, secret prisons, indefinite detention of uncharged, untried captives, etc. – and most recently and most baldly with the "Military Commissions Act," which enshrined the principle of arbitrary presidential power in law and gutted the ancient privilege of habeas corpus. This was rubberstamped by the Republican-led Congress last year – and is still standing strong under the Democratic-led Congress.

PARIS, Feb. 6 -- Representatives from 57 countries on Tuesday signed a long-negotiated treaty prohibiting governments from holding people in secret detention. The United States declined to endorse the document, saying its text did not meet U.S. expectations.