Using the 14th amendment as their basis, many courts have treated corporations as people. Usually these rulings are beneficial to corporations and their larger interests, such as in the Supreme Court decision that allows corporations to endorse candidates like individuals. However, a new case will determine whether or not a corporation can be convicted as an accomplice to a crime against humanity. In Kiobel v. Royal Dutch Petroleum, Royal Dutch Petroleum and its subsidiary, Shell, are accused of aiding an autocratic regime that brutalized minorities in an oil-rich region of Nigeria.

Ten years ago today, President George W. Bush signed a two-page memorandum called "Humane Treatment of Taliban and al Qaeda Detainees." The memorandum, drafted in part by John Yoo, is now best known as the first of the so-called "terror memos." It argued that the government was exempt from the Geneva Conventions in any war on terror-related investigations, as, the document asserts, the treaty refers only to "High Contracting Parties."

Detainees in prisons run by the Afghanistan National Police and the country's intelligence service are routinely abused and subjected to what a new report from the United Nations refers to as "systematic torture." The report details repeated beatings, electric shocks, the use of stress positions and the threat of sexual assault. It is unknown whether American officials were aware of or complicit in the abuse.

Egypt has long been a crucial ally to America's program of extraordinary rendtion — the practice of sending terror suspects to other countries for interrogation. When Egypt's President Mubarak dissolved his cabinet last week, he appointed Omar Suleiman as his new vice president. Suleiman is already well known in the United States, specifically as the C.I.A.'s key Egyptian contact for extraordinary rendition.

Four Haitians are pressing charges against former dictator Jean-Claude "Baby Doc" Duvalier, who unexpectedly returned to Haiti on Sunday. Duvalier was living in exile in France, and came to Haiti on a diplomatic passport. The complainants charge Duvalier with crimes including torture, exile and arbitrary detention. Michele Montas is a former spokeswoman for U.N. Secretary General Ban Ki Moon. She is one of those pressing charges.

Can your home country be sued for letting you be taken and harshly detained in another? In the case of the U.K. and former Guantanamo Bay detainees, maybe so. 16 former prisoners from the facility are suing Britain for alleged complicity in their treatment during imprisonment, and in turn the U.K. has agreed to pay nearly $80 million to settle with them out of court. 

WikiLeaks released 400,000 documents on Friday that reveal cases of torture and abuse of detainees by Iraqi security forces. The reports also increase the number of civilian casualites in the war. WikiLeaks editor-in-chief, Julian Assange is the man at the center of this controversy, as he faces accusations that he has put U.S. troops and Iraqi civilians in danger. Also being heavily criticized is The New York Times, which published the reports.

The whistle-blowing site WikiLeaks has released a second set of documents out of Iraq — the “Iraq War Logs.” While the nearly 400,000 field reports detailing events seen and heard by the U.S. military troops on the ground in Iraq offer little information about the inner-workings of American detention facilities, they show that the U.S. military was not only aware of torture carried out by the Iraqi army and police — and perhaps even condoned and facilitated it.

The United States Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit in San Fransisco dismissed a lawsuit brought by former prisoners of the C.I.A. who claim that they were tortured in overseas prisons. The divided 6-5 decision is the latest episode of the ongoing legal drama over extraordinary rendition, a C.I.A. program that allegedly transfers prisoners to foreign countries in order to torture them.

The decision is a legal victory for the Obama administration, which has argued that such lawsuits are dangerous as they might expose state secrets. The argument of state secrecy was also used to obstruct lawsuits during the Bush administration.

A new book provides a window into Iran in 2009, after Western journalists were forced to leave. "Death to the Dictator!: A Young Man Casts a Vote in Iran's 2009 Election and Pays a Devastating Price" is an insider's account of one voter's experience in detention after the bloody protests that followed last summer's presidential election in Iran.

Last month, we spoke with Darell Cannon, one of a number of black men in Chicago who claim they were tortured and coerced into confessions during the 70s and 80s by Chicago Police. For men like Cannon, who spent 24 years in prison after being tortured by former police Lieutenant Jon Burge the men he commanded, justice has finally come.

Former Chicago Police Lieutenant Jon Burge was found guilty yesterday on charges of federal perjury and obstruction of justice. He could now face up to 45 years behind bars, after his sentencing hearing in November. Rob Wildeboer, criminal justice reporter for Chicago Public Radio tells us more about the case and the conviction.

After decades of claims by black men in Chicago that they were tortured and coerced into confessions during the '70s and '80s, former police commander Jon Burge now faces trial in federal court on obstruction of justice and perjury charges.

In the spring of 2002, members of the Bush administration came to John Yoo, then a deputy Assistant Attorney General at the Justice Department, to help the administration decide where the legal limit was between interrogation and torture.

Attorney General Eric Holder will appoint federal prosecutor John Durham to investigate alleged prisoner abuses at CIA prisons during the Bush administration.  Durham has a long reputation as a no-nonsense, under-the-radar prosecutor who’s gone after career criminals and corrupt government officials for decades.

For more on this elusive figure, we talk to Durham’s old boss Kevin O'Connor, former U.S. Attorney for the State of Connecticut. And for more on the ramifications of the decision to investigate the CIA's interrogation techniques, we turn to New York Times Reporter Scott Shane.

In 2004, CIA Inspector General John Helgerson completed a report looking at abuses inside CIA prisons.  The report has been kept a secret until today, when portions of the report are expected to be made public. 

For more on the details of that report, we speak to Siobhan Gorman, intelligence correspondent for the Wall Street Journal and Art Keller, a former CIA case officer who served in Pakistan in 2006.

You can read Siobhan's article, "CIA Faulted for Conduct at Prisons," at the Wall Street Journal, and Art Keller's blog post on secrecy and political accountability around Washington and the CIA, "The Buck Stops Where?"

While most presidents, and certainly most vice-presidents retire from the spotlight when their terms of office end, former Vice President Dick Cheney has been everywhere lately. He spoke at the National Archives in Washington, D.C. yesterday, in a speech that immediately followed President Obama’s. He defended his opposing views on National Security and the controversial interrogation tactics he implemented under the Bush administration. To give us his take on the man and his plan, The Takeaway is joined by Jake Bernstein, a reporter for ProPublica and the co-author of the Cheney biography, Vice: Dick Cheney and the Hijacking of the American Presidency.

This morning President Obama will deliver what the White House is calling a major national security speech. At least part of his speech will detail his plan to close the Guantanamo Bay Detention Center. But with Congressman, Senators and even FBI Director Robert Mueller lining up against the closure of Guantanamo, what can Obama possibly say? The Takeaway talks to Jonathan Mahler. He’s a contributing writer for the New York Times Magazine and author of the book The Challenge: Hamdan v. Rumsfeld and the Fight over Presidential Power.

Last Wednesday, President Obama reversed his position and decided to block the release of photographs documenting abuse of prisoners in Iraq and Afghanistan by United States military personnel. His change of mind on the issue came after commanders warned that the images could set off a deadly backlash against American troops. The change in position was sharply criticized by the A.C.L.U.. Obama says he doesn't want the mission in Iraq and Afghanistan imperiled by an old fight. He may not prevail, but he has, importantly, shown solidarity with his military's view on this controversial issue.

To help us understand the international impact that these photos could have is Philip Gourevitch, co-author of The Ballad of Abu Ghraib , a book that describes in great detail the imagery in the Abu Ghraib photos. He’s also the editor of The Paris Review.

Here's the trailer for the film Standard Operating Procedure by Errol Morris:

Bush administration policies on the treatment of detainees have now embroiled President Obama in a growing controversy.

News broke last night that the U.S. will restart military tribunals for a small number of Guantanamo detainees (fewer than 20 of the 241 detainees in the prison). Obama had suspended the tribunals within hours of taking office in January. The military trials will remain frozen for another four months as the administration adjusts the legal system. Those changes to the system will be announced later today. Obama's new rules for military tribunals will reportedly include a ban on any statements made under so-called enhanced interrogation techniques.

The torture controversy has also spread to Congress. Speaker of the House Nancy Pelosi acknowledged that in 2003 she was informed by an aide that the CIA had used waterboarding during interrogation, which is an adjustment from Pelosi's previous statements. She claims the CIA misled the Congress.

Finally, Obama has reversed an earlier decision and said he wouldn't authorize the release of reportedly over 1,000 photos involving abuse of prisoners in Iraq and Afghanistan. The photographs were scheduled to be released to the American Civil Liberties Union on May 28. Following that story is Scott Shane, a reporter for our partners the New York Times. He joins The Takeaway with a look at whether the president will succeed in suppressing the photos.

For more, read Scott Shane's article, Experts Say Obama May Need to Classify Photos, in the New York Times.

Connecticut Senator Joe Lieberman yesterday spoke in support of President Obama's opposition to releasing new photos allegedly showing U.S. troops abusing prisoners in Iraq and Afghanistan. Today The Takeaway is looking at the ongoing controversy over how detainees were treated when in the CIA's custody-- and what allowed the Bush administration to use what the CIA called "enhanced interrogation techniques." Could Congress have stopped it? Vicki Divoll is a government teacher at the U.S. Naval Academy and was Former General Council of the State Intelligence Committee. She joins The Takeaway now to discuss whether four representatives can possibly constitute oversight.

For more, read Vicki Divoll's piece, Congress’s Torture Bubble in the New York Times.

For President Obama's take on releasing the photos, watch his statement below.