In her exhaustively researched new book, Larissa Tracy, an associate professor of medieval literature at Longwood University in Farmville, Virginia, says linking “medieval” with acts of torture is a fallacy.

“Torture was not a pervasive means of medieval judicial control, despite accounts of public brutality and secular punishment …,” Tracy wrote in the introduction to “Torture and Brutality in Medieval Literature,” which cites the “Getting Medieval” scene from “Pulp Fiction” as a way of explaining how our understanding of the medieval era has been misguided.

A “war court judge” allowed a First Amendment attorney to represent a “consortium” of media organizations and argue against closing a hearing expected to feature testimony from an accused USS Cole bomber on how he was treated during CIA interrogations. The judge, Army Col. James Pohl, let attorney David Schulz make his argument and then indicated a solution to the issue had been agreed upon in a private conference between the government and prosecution.

The Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) has been trying to prevent former FBI employee and whistleblower Sibel Edmonds from publishing a book she submitted for prepublication review nearly one year ago, the National Whistleblower Center reports. The reasons are spurious. It’s part of a pattern of CIA and FBI suppression of any publications that might expose corruption, incompetence or unlawful activities of the US Government, while hiding behind bogus claims of national security.

The Guardian highlights the rendition and torture of a Libyan militant, who led the fight against Libyan leader Muammar Gaddafi, and his pregnant wife. Part 1 highlighted details surrounding the rendition of Abdel Hakim Belhaj and his pregnant wife, Fatima Bouchar. Now, Part 2 focuses on how the US could potentially interfere with their attempt to bring British intelligence agents to justice and expose the CIA’s role.

A new report published by the United Kingdom-based news organization The Guardian highlights the rendition and torture of a Libyan militant, who led the fight against Libyan leader Muammar Gaddafi, and his pregnant wife. This is part I, covering the couple’s capture, mistreatment and rendition by US and UK personnel.

A look back at the week’s stories covering whistleblowers, watchdogs, and government accountability.

A group of news organizations that include the New York Times, the Washington Post and the McClatchy Co. has filed an objection to the Pentagon’s plan to close an upcoming hearing in the case of Abd al Rahim al Nashiri, who is alleged to have been involved in masterminding an attack on the USS Cole in 2000 which killed seventeen US sailors.

As McClatchy reports, “Al-Nashiri is expected to testify” at an upcoming hearing on April 11 because his attorneys are going to argue before a military commission at Guantanamo that their client should not be “shackled to the floor” when he testifies because that is likely to remind him of “trauma that he suffered in CIA custody.” The testimony is to be given “behind closed doors” to protect “sensitive information” from being revealed.

A federal grand jury in Alexandria, Virginia, indicted former CIA agent John Kiriakou for releasing classified information to journalists that included the identities of a “covert CIA officer” and information on the role of “another CIA employee in classified activities.” The Justice Department charged him with one count of violating the Intelligence Identities Protection Act and three counts of violating the Espionage Act, along with a count for “allegedly lying to the Publications Review Board of the CIA” so he could include classified information in his book.

A State Department internal memo opposing the Justice Department’s arguments for CIA “enhanced interrogation techniques”—torture—has been released. The memo from February 2006 was written by Philip Zelikow, then counselor to Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice. It was believed that all copies of the memo had been destroyed, but on April 3, the National Security Archive, obtained a copy through a FOIA request and posted it online.

Pulitzer Prize-winning journalist Tim Weiner has a talent for getting clandestine government agencies to spill their secrets. After dissecting the Central Intelligence Agency in Legacy of Ashes, for which he won a National Book Award, Weiner now turns his sights on the Federal Bureau of Investigation’s intelligence activities in Enemies: A History of the FBI. Those who watched the 9-11 Commission hearings during which the FBI was criticized for being no more than gumshoe detectives might be shocked to find that the FBI engaged in clandestine anti-terrorism and counter-espionage right from its very beginning in 1908.