Georgetown Security Law Brief

Uganda to arrest al-Bashir if he enters country

07/13/09: Jurist reports that Ugandan officials announced Monday that they plan to arrest Sudanese president Omar al-Bashir on war crimes charges if he enters the country, pursuant to an International Criminal Court warrant. The decision reflects a recommendation made by an African Union panel last week that AU countries cooperate with the warrant, contrary to a prior vote by the full AU to oppose the warrant.

CIA had secret Al Qaeda plan

07/13/09: The Wall Street Journal reports that a secret Central Intelligence Agency initiative terminated by Director Leon Panetta was an attempt to carry out a 2001 presidential authorization to capture or kill al Qaeda operatives, according to former intelligence officials familiar with the matter.

07/13/09: The Atlantic reports on the limited implications of the operations hidden from Congress.

07/13/09: The Miami Herald reports that the secret intelligence program canceled by CIA Director Leon Panetta in June was meant to find and then capture or kill al-Qaida leaders at close range rather than target them with air strikes that risked civilian casualties.

Accused Nigeria rebel leader given amnesty in treason case

07/13/09: Jurist reports that accused Nigerian rebel leader Henry Okah was released on Monday after the government dropped treason and gun trafficking charges against him as part of an unconditional pardon to members of the Movement for the Emancipation of Niger Delta that laid down their arms as part of a June amnesty agreement intended to lead to a cessation of hostilities.

Opinion: Walking point for an open military

07/13/09: The Philadelphia Inquirer has an editorial arguing that repealing the ban on gays openly serving in the military is long overdue, and supporting the efforts of Rep. Patrick Murphy (D-PA) in repealing the ban.

07/13/09: Politics Daily reports that Sen. Kirstin Gillibrand, the freshman New York Democrat who replaced Hillary Clinton, may introduce an amendment to the Defense Authorization bill tomorrow to put an 18-month moratorium on dismissing gay service members from the military under the Pentagon's Don't Ask, Don't Tell policy.

Journal of International Peace Operations

07/13/09:  The private security contractor industry now has its own journal: the Journal of International Peace Operations.  Among the articles in its most recent issue: "UK Pursues Licensing and Regulation of Private Security", "Australia and International Criminal Law", "Redefining Inherently Governmental", and "Letters of Marque".

Turkish lawyers seek trial of former chief of general staff under new law

07/13/09: Today's Zaman (Turkey) reports that a group of lawyers will petition the Van Military Court today both to open the way for the trial of former Chief of General Staff Gen. Yaşar Büyükanıt and to return the controversial Şemdinli case to civilian court, according to Selçuk Kozağaçlı, the chairman of the Contemporary Law Association.

Scholarship: Intelligence cooperation in international operations

07/13/09: Simon Chesterman of New York University Law School has posted Intelligence Cooperation in International Operations: Peacekeeping, Weapons Inspections, and the Apprehension and Prosecution of War Criminals in Accountability of international intelligence cooperation (Hans Born and Ian Leigh, eds., Forthcoming). The chapter examines the use of intelligence in three areas - peacekeeping, weapons inspection, and international criminal prosecution - with a view to considering the accountability challenges posed by such cooperation.

Calderon's drug offensive stirs 'wasp nest'

07/13/09: The LA Times reports that Ciudad Juarez resembles a city under military occupation as President Felipe Calderon ratchets up his war against drug traffickers. Calderon launched the military offensive 10 days after assuming office in December 2006, saying it was necessary to restore government authority in parts of the country. Today, 2 1/2 years later, Calderon and Mexico face a stark reality: The longer and harder the war is prosecuted, the more complex and daunting it becomes.

Scholarship: Rethinking 'preventive detention' from a comparative perspective

07/13/09: Stella Burch Elias, of Yale Law school, has posted Rethinking 'Preventive Detention' from a Comparative Perspective: Three Frameworks for Detaining Terrorist Suspects. The article seeks to advance the debate about 'preventive detention' by defining it and comparing regimes of 'preventive detention' in 32 different countries. 

Taylor begins defense in war crimes trial

07/13/09: The Financial Times reports that defense counsel for former Liberian president Charles Taylor, on trial for war crimes, argued on Monday that he had been trying to broker peace not foment violence in Sierra Leone’s 1991-2002 civil war. Taylor, 61, who is charged with instigating murder, rape, mutilation, conscripting child soldiers and sexual slavery, is himself expected to take the stand for several weeks from Tuesday at the Special Court for Sierra Leone.

North Korean leader Kim 'has cancer'

07/13/09: The BBC reports that North Korean leader Kim Jong-il has life-threatening pancreatic cancer, South Korean TV news channel YTN says. YTN said Mr Kim was diagnosed with the illness last year, about the same time he was reported to have had a stroke.

Britain halts some arms exports to Israel in response to Gaza conflict

07/13/09: The London Times reports that Britain became the first country to halt arms exports to Israel in response to its Gaza offensive, rescinding five export licenses for parts used on warships which were deployed in the conflict.

Event: "The Reckoning," the battle for the International Criminal Court

07/12/09: July 14 PBS will air the documentary "The Reckoning," following ICC Prosecutor Luis Moreno-Ocampo and his team for three years across four continents as he issues arrest warrants for Lord's Resistance Army leaders in Uganda, puts Congolese warlords on trial, shakes up the Colombian justice system, and charges Sudan's President Omar al-Bashir with genocide in Darfur.

UN special rapporteur for gender-based violence appointed

07/12/09: IntLawGrrls reports that the United Nations Human Rights Council approved Rashida Manjoo’s appointment as the new UN Special Rapporteur on Violence Against Women its Causes and Consequences on June 18, 2009, according to a UN press release.

Iran threatens legal action on freed officials

07/12/09: The Financial Times reports that Iran’s foreign minister on Sunday said the Islamic regime could take legal action against Washington after five Iranian officials released from US jails in Iraq returned home. “The diplomats, the foreign ministry and the government reserve the right to take legal action against this brutal act of the Bush administration,” said Manouchehr Mottaki, foreign minister.

Wakil, Pentagon 'terrorist suspect,' close to Karzai

07/12/09: The Miami Herald reports that the Pentagon says that Haji Sahib Rohullah Wakil, currently a tribal elder, advocating for the needs of Kunar province in Afghanistan with high officials of the Karzai regime, is among 74 former Guantánamo Bay detainees who've returned to or are suspected of returning to terrorism after their release from the island prison camp.

AG Holder still considering investigation of Bush-era torture allegations

07/12/09: Newsweek reports that despite pressure from the White House to "look forward, not backwards" with regard to Bush-era interrogation tactics, Holder has reportedly requested a list of ten candidates, five from within the Department of Justice and five from outside the agency, possibly to serve as a special prosecutor to investigate alleged of torture during the Bush administration. HT to Jurist. 

Event: Senate Foreign Relations -- East Asian and Pacific Affairs Subcommittee hearing

07/11/09: The Senate Foreign Relations -- East Asian and Pacific Affairs Subcommittee will hold hearings to examine instability, terrorism, and economic disruption in relation to oil on July 16, 2009 at 09:30 am.

Congress urged to probe claims 'racial extremists' infiltrating the military

07/11/09: The Intelligence Daily reports that the Southern Poverty Law Center called on Congress Friday to investigate growing evidence that racial extremists are infiltrating the US military in order to ensure that the armed forces are not inadvertently training future domestic terrorists.The letter said the organization recently found dozens of personal profiles on a neo-Nazi website where individuals listed "military" as their occupation

US inaction seen after Taliban POW’s died

07/11/09: The New York Times reports that after a mass killing of hundreds, perhaps thousands, of Taliban prisoners of war by the forces of Abdul Rashid Dostum, an American-backed warlord, during the 2001 invasion of Afghanistan, Bush administration officials repeatedly discouraged efforts to investigate the episode, according to government officials and human rights organizations.

Will Obama clean up government secrecy labeling?

07/11/09: ProPublica reports that a report released this week by OMB Watch, a group that promotes transparency in government, claims there are more than 100 special designations federal agencies apply to information that is not officially classified but in their view requires special handling. The special markings on government records often mean that agencies withhold unclassified information from the public, Congress, and even other government agencies.

Inspectors General warn Bush’s secret NSA spying may have tainted prosecutions

07/11/09: Wired reports that an oversight report from five inspectors general warns that the Justice Department needs to investigate whether the secretiveness of Bush’s warrantless wiretapping program tainted terrorism prosecutions by hiding exculpatory evidence from defendants, and that President Bush’s post-9/11 extrajudicial intelligence programs involved unprecedented collection of communications, and the government needs to be careful about storing and using that data.

UN rights commissioner says Somalia violence may constitute war crimes

07/11/09: Jurist reports that UN High Commissioner for Human Rights Navi Pillay said Thursday that human rights violations committed during recent Somalian conflicts may amount to war crimes. Pillay said that ongoing violence between Islamist rebels and the newly-formed government has resulted in hundreds of civilian deaths, despite a peace accord signed last year.

Islamic charity seeks summary judgment on NSA wiretapping case

07/10/09: Jurist reports that The Al-Haramain Islamic Foundation on Wednesday filed a request for partial summary judgment concluding that the National Security Agency illegally wiretapped several conversations between the charity and its lawyers. The organization is suing the government for the wiretapping and is seeking both disclosure of what was intercepted and monetary damages.

Journalists held in North Korea ask for pardon; Secretary Clinton Calls for 'Amnesty'

07/10/09: The Miami Herald reports that Lisa Ling, the sister of American journalist Laura Ling, sentenced with co-worker Euna Lee to 12 years in a North Korean labor camp said that the two are seeking a pardon as their only hope for freedom. Meanwhile, a scholar who visited the North said that North Korea has delayed sending the two convicted journalists to a prison labor camp, in a possible attempt to seek talks with Washington on their release.

07/10/09: The Washington Post reports that in a shift, Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton today called for the North Korean government to grant "amnesty" to the two jailed American reporters, dropping previous demands that they be freed on humanitarian grounds.

Detainees can ask to see their own statements

07/10/09: The BLT reports that Senior Judge Thomas Hogan of the U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia said judges could force the government to hand over detainees' statements if they found it was relevant to a detainee's case. The Justice Department had asked Hogan to deny the detainees any access to their own statements if they were deemed secret.

Egypt holds 26 over suspected Qaeda plot on Suez Canal

07/10/09: The Press Democrat reports that Egyptian authorities arrested 25 people on suspicion of plotting attacks on oil pipelines and ships in the Suez Canal, the Interior Ministry said in a statement on Thursday. The group, which Egypt said had links to al-Qaida, was made up of two dozen Egyptians - most of them engineers and technicians - and their Palestinian leader. They also had contacts with militants in the Gaza Strip, the ministry said.

South Korean web sites are hobbled in new round of attacks

07/10/09: The Washington Post reports that South Korea was bombarded Thursday with a third wave of cyberattacks, which disrupted and in some cases halted access to government, banking and media web sites. Intelligence officials in Seoul, meanwhile, presented no hard evidence to support earlier suspicions that North Korea may have been behind the disruptions that have hit web sites in South Korea and the United States in recent days.

Ethiopia lawmakers pass controversial new anti-terrorism law

07/10/09: Jurist reports that Ethiopian lawmakers passed a controversial new anti-terrorism Tuesday law that rights groups claim will negatively affect human rights in the country. Responding to a Human Rights Watch report claiming the law could "punish political speech and peaceful protest as terrorist acts and encourage unfair trials," Ethiopia maintained that the legislation is necessary to address threats from internal rebel groups and denied that it will be used to quash political dissent.

Scholarship: The legal regime of the International Criminal Court

07/10/09: José Doria, Hans-Peter Gasser & M. Cherif Bassiouni have published The Legal Regime of the International Criminal Court: Essays in Honour of Professor Igor Blishchenko. Contents include:

• Jackson Maogoto, The Experience of the Ad hoc Tribunals
• William Schabas, Customary Law or "Judge-Made" Law: Judicial Creativity at the UN Criminal Tribunals
• Jose Doria, The Work of the Special Court for Sierra Leone through its jurisprudence
• Richard Burchill, From East Timor to Timor–Leste: A Demonstration of the Limits of International Law in the Pursuit of Justice

HT to International Law Reporter.

Karadzic demands Norwegian documents

07/10/09: BalkanInsight reports that wartime Bosnian Serb leader and war crimes indictee Radovan Karadzic has asked the Hague Tribunal to demand that the government of Norway provide documents for his defence. Karadzic’s defence claims that in early 1995, Norwegian soldiers from the UN Protection Forces, UNPROFOR, witnessed deliveries of weapons to the Bosnian Army at the airport in Tuzla in a process monitored by Americans in civilian clothes. At that time, there was a ban on weapons to Bosnia in place as well as a ban on flights to Bosnia.

Kuok, Chinese, accused of spying in purchases of NSA crypto gear

07/10/09: Wired reports that a Chinese national, Chi Tong Kuok, was indicted this week for conspiring to violate U.S. export law, following a nearly three-year investigation into his alleged efforts to acquire sensitive military and NSA-encryption gear from eBay and other internet sources. According to a government affidavit in the case, “Kuok indicated he and PRC officials sought the items to figure out ways to listen to or monitor U.S. government and military communications.”

Turkish army loses legal battle

07/10/09: The National (Abu Dhabi) reports that by signing a controversial bill that gives civilian courts more power to try military personnel, Turkey’s president has put the country’s EU bid before the interests of the powerful armed forces, ushering in a new era in the delicate relationship between Turkey’s civilian and military leadership.

UN Warns Eritrea on Aiding Islamists

07/10/09: The New York Times reports that the United Nations Security Council warned Eritrea on Thursday that it would consider taking action against anyone who undermined peace in Somalia. Somalia’s government and others have accused Eritrea of supplying arms to the insurgents in breach of a United Nations embargo that allows arms to be shipped only to the government.

US says Iranian prisoner release not a gesture to Tehran

07/10/09: The VOA reports that the United States said Thursday that its release of five Iranian prisoners in Iraq was required under the US-Iraq security accord and not a political gesture toward Tehran.  The five Iranians, held by US forces since early 2007, were transferred to Iraqi custody on Thursday and immediately handed over to Iranian authorities.

Sweden will be first EU nation to extradite Rwandan facing genocide charges

07/10/09: Jurist reports that Sweden will become the first European Union nation to extradite a Rwandan, Sylvere Ahorugeze, who headed the Rwanda Civil Aviation Authority, to his native country so that he can stand trial for his alleged role in Rwanda's 1994 genocide.

Canadian Federal Court Justice Simon Noel finds embarrassment no reason for security shield

07/10/09: The Canadian Press reports that in his reasons for approving the release of disputed sections of a 2006 inquiry report into the overseas torture of Maher Arar, said there is a "genuine public interest" in openly dealing with the subject of torture of detainees, and the use of information gathered through force. "Protection from embarrassment is not covered in our security laws," Noel wrote.

Opinion: Recent cyber attacks raise issues of weaknesses

07/09/09: Security Debrief has an opinion piece by Steven Bucci, former Deputy Assistant Secretary for Homeland Defense at the Department of Defense, arguing that the most recent attacks on numerous cyber infrastructure targets have once again raised issues of the vulnerability of the US to this sort of attack. He highlights the magnitude of the attacks, the anonymity of the attacker(s), and the unevenness of US agencies' response.

Annan hands Kenya suspects names to ICC

07/09/09: The Financial Times reports that former Secretary General of the UN, Kofi Annan, has upped the pressure on Kenya’s coalition government to decide how to prosecute people accused of orchestrating post-election violence by handing a sealed envelope with the names of top suspects to the prosecutor of the International Criminal Court.

Human Rights Watch claims Iran forcing confessions from political prisoners

07/09/09: Jurist reports that People arrested in Iran after last month's disputed presidential election have been beaten, deprived of sleep, and threatened with torture in an effort to force false confessions, according to a report released Wednesday by Human Rights Watch. The advocacy group alleges that Iranian authorities are attempting to support accusations that the post-election civil unrest was orchestrated by Western powers by having detainees sign blank statements or give videotaped confession under duress.

Despite President Obama, G-8 drags feet on Iran

07/09/09: Politico reports that a declaration the Group of Eight industrialized countries issued following a top-level meeting in L’Aquila, Italy Wednesday set no firm deadline for Iran to resume negotiations over its nuclear efforts and made no mention of tightening sanctions on Tehran if its recalcitrance continues.

US suspends $16.5 million in military aid to Honduras

07/09/09: The New York Times reports that the United States government has suspended $16.5 million in military assistance programs to Honduras after last month’s coup. A further $180 million in aid for Honduras could be at risk as a result of the coup that toppled President Manuel Zelaya.

Zimbabwe military blamed for bloodshed in diamond mining

07/09/09: CNN reports that an investigation into illegal diamond mining by Zimbabwean troops by a global watchdog group formed to cut the flow of so-called "blood diamonds" found bloodshed and attacks against civilians. The probe started days after a Human Rights Watch report accused the nation's armed forces of violently taking over the diamond fields in Marange district and killing about 200 people since last year. Some victims of the clash were buried in mass graves, the report said.

UN says financial crisis boosts organized crime

07/09/09: The Miami Herald reports that Antonio Maria Costa, executive director of the United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime, reports the world financial crisis offers organized crime a unique opportunity to return to the global banking systems from which it had been barred by sanctions imposed after the Sept. 11, 2001 terror attacks. Organized crime has been forced into cash transactions since 2001, and now with world financial institutions illiquid and starved for cash, it is easier for organized crime to penetrate the financial system.

Obama threatens veto of intelligence funding bill

07/09/09: The Atlantic reports that the Obama administration has threatened to veto the funding bill for US intelligence agencies because the House included a provision that would require intelligence agencies to brief all members of the House and Senate intelligence committees on virtually every sensitive classified project, including "special access programs" that have traditionally been orally briefed only to the chairs ranking members of the intel committees, the Speaker and Minority Leader of the House of Representatives, and the majority and minority leaders of the Senate.

Your recommendations for classification policy

07/09/09: The Office of Science and Technology reports the results of yesterday's public meeting to hear recommendations for revisions of classification policy. Independent review of individual agency classification policies and no re-classification of de-classified material feature prominently.

Stephen Rapp picked for US war crimes post

07/09/09: The New York Times reports that the White House has nominated Stephen Rapp, a well-known figure in international criminal law, to be ambassador at large for war crimes issues. Mr. Rapp, a former United States attorney from Iowa, has served at the United Nations tribunal dealing with the genocide in Rwanda and is the chief prosecutor of the Special Court for Sierra Leone, which is trying former President Charles Taylor of Liberia.

Pakistani president Asif Zardari admits creating terrorist groups

07/09/09: The Daily Telegraph reports that Pakistan's president, Asif Zadari, has admitted his country created terrorist groups to help achieve its foreign policy goals.Speaking to a group of former civil servants, he said the groups were not thrown up because of government weakness, but as a matter of policy. He said they were deliberately "created and nurtured" as a policy to achieve some short-term tactical objectives.

Liberia's president comes under fire

07/09/09: The Economist reports an analysis of the outcome of Liberia's Truth and Reconciliation Commission, calling for President Ellen Johnson-Sirleaf to be banned from office and others to be prosecuted for their involvement in human rights abuses during that country's civil war.

RICO violations leveled against Blackwater over Baghdad massacre

07/08/09: The Public Record reports that new civil charges filed against private security contractor Blackwater accuse the company of murder, destruction of audio and videotaped evidence, distribution of controlled substances, tax evasion, child prostitution, and weapons smuggling. The new claims were filed under the Racketeer Influenced and Corrupt Organizations Act by several of the Iraqi civilians who were injured or who lost family members when Blackwater personnel opened fire in Nisoor Square in Baghdad in September 2007.