Torture on Vice

I Was Kidnapped by a Bulgarian Human Trafficking Ring

Of the estimated 30 million people trapped in slavery around the world, only about 140,000 of them come from Europe. While that might make some Europeans feel a little better about the continent they're dwelling on (bankrupt and increasingly irrelevant), it shouldn't. Because that slavery statistic is constantly rising. Full story

I Guess We Need to Say It Again: George W. Bush Was the Worst

The important things he did and didn’t do when he was the most powerful elected official in the world were all pretty much uniformly awful. He had a chance to change the world in a real way and he made in demonstrably worse. Fuck him and his library. Full story

Back Behind Bars with Gaddafi's Would-Be Assassin

Twenty-six years ago, Azeddine Madani would have done anything to escape his cell in Tripoli's notorious Abu Salim prison, but right now he’s wrangling with armed guards in an effort to get back in. We’re here to attend a tribute to Abu Salim’s former political prisoners, part of… Full story

Joshua Oppenheimer and Indonesia's Murderous Playboys

Director Joshua Oppenheimer traveled to Indonesia for a project that brought him in contact with people who survived the 1965 government massacre of the Indonesian Communist Party (PKI), when anywhere between 500,000 and 3 million PKI members were killed. Full story

Greece's New Anarchist Generation Is Being Tortured by Police

A group of eight people armed with AK-47s attempted to rob a bank and a post office in the Greek town of Velventos. Although bank-robbing anarchists armed with AK-47s might not seem like individuals deserving of pity, the police tortured them so badly that NGOs like Amnesty Inter… Full story

America's Rules for Drone-Killing Americans Is More Torturous Than America Imagined

Before his CIA pick John Brennan gets grilled in Congress, Obama's own "torture memos" on targeted killings—and a new set of intel on Bush's torture program—shed some harsh light on how America secretly conducts war. Full story

Strange Things Are Happening at Khalid Sheikh Mohammed’s Trial

If the trial had happened in federal court in New York City, like the Obama administration originally wanted, it’s unlikely that the surreal shenanigans of justice that went down this week at the Khalid Sheikh Mohammed’s pre-trial hearings in Guantanamo Bay would have gone so unn… Full story

'Zero Dark Thirty': Interrogating Reality

The "problem" with "Zero Dark Thirty"'s portrayal of torture isn't the portrayal itself, but what it represents. Even though waterboarding is now prohibited, that hasn't diminished its value for some in government. To assume torture is a thing of the past—or to criticize "Zero Da… Full story

The Torture of Bradley Manning

If there’s a bad time to discuss holiday shopping, it’s while waiting for someone to describe being tortured. I was soaking wet and still half asleep when our driver turned to the back seat of the press shuttle and said something so totally irrelevant and ill-timed that I knew ri… Full story

VICE Meets

Robert Baer

We met former CIA man Robert Baer in a shady motel room in Newport Beach, California, to discuss the difference between the life of a real-life spy and the crap you see in the movies. Full story