10/15/08: The Los Angeles Times reports that the Defense Department has issued new policy directives requiring improved monitoring of detainee interrogations. Going forward, the directive requires that all interrogations by non-DoD personnel be monitored by military officials. The intent of the new policy is to prevent the abuse of detainees, a Pentagon spokesperson said. HT to How Appealing.
Secrecy News reports that the new policy bars the use of some of the more controversial interrogation methods that reportedly have been used on detainees. A copy of the directive can be found here.
10/15/08: The Washington Post reports that the Justice Department has withdrawn claims against a British citizen held at Guantanamo Bay. The government asserted in a federal court that the suspect planned to explode a "dirty bomb" inside the US and commit other atrocities. Defense attorneys said that the government obtained false confessions by the UK citizen through the use of torture.
10/15/08: The 2nd Iraq Security & Defense Summit will be held in Washington, DC, Oct 16-17, 2008. For more information, please see their event website. For information on more event, see our calendar.
10/14/08: Jurist reports that four former Bosnian Serb officers suspected of war crimes have been arrested. The four suspects are believed to have taken part in the murder of 200 civilians who were being transported from Prijedor in August 1992.
10/14/08: The Washington Postreports that defense lawyers for detainees in Guantanamo Bay have expressed concerns over the quality of the trial court interpreters. Defense lawyers and some court observers have claimed that the level of the interpreters is below that of most federal and international courts.
10/14/08: The Jurist reports that the British government has rejected by a wide margin a proposal for an anti-terror bill that would have extended to 42 days the period of time that the police could detain people without charging them with a crime. British Prime Minister Gordon Brown supported the extension.
10/13/08: The Los Angeles Times ran a story about a former Gitmo prosecutor who has criticized the military tribunal system at the naval base. He claims that the government has withheld exculpatory evidence from defendants. The government has dismissed the allegations.
10/13/08: The Jurist reports that a military judge has ruled that detainees at Guantanamo Bay will be unable to access the internet to aid their defense. The judge stated that the detainees who represent themselves did not have "a right or an entitlement to be placed on the same footing as a technologically state of the art law office."
The Miami Heralddescribes the technology that the detainees will have access to as they prepare their defense. HT to How Appealing.
10/11/08: Breitbart reports that a Google-sponsored satellite successfully sent back its first test image. The first high-resolution picture was taken while the satellite was positioned 423 miles above the eastern seaboard. The other main sponsor for the satellite is the National Geospatial-Intelligence Agency.
10/10/08: SCOTUSblog discusses the D.C. Circuit Court's recent order for military detainees' lawyers to file a response to the government's petition for an en banc rehearing of Bismullah v. Gates. The Circuit Court's 2007 Bismullah decision interpreted the Detainee Treatment Act as mandating the Court to review a broad-range of information, including government files on individual detainees. The government is challenging the Circuit Court's legal basis for reviewing detention orders under the 2005 Act on the basis of the Boumediene decision. SCOTUSblog predicts that this case will most likely end up in the Supreme Court if rehearing is denied.
The recently established Institute for Ethics, Law
and Armed Conflict at the University of Oxford is currently seeking a post-doc scholar working in one of the Institute's core fields of
philosophy, law or international relations. Applications are due on
October 24, 2008, and the position begins in January 2009. Details are here.
10/10/08: Young Professionals in Foreign Policy is hosting an event with Ambassador Thomas Krajeski, Senior Advisor for Northern Iraq Affairs at the U.S. Embassy in Baghdad, to discuss the status of Kirkuk and the lessons the conflict holds for the future of Iraq. See our calendar for details.
Johannes Reich, "Due Process and Sanctions Targeted Against Individuals Pursuant to Resolution 1267 (1999) - With an Added Note on European Court of Justice, Judgment in Cases C-405/05 and C-415/05 P, Yassin Abdullah Kadi and Al Barakaat International Foundation v. Council and Commission), September 3, 2008," Yale Journal of International Law, Vol. 33, No. 2, 2008. Read a summary here.
Jon D. Michaels, "All the President's Spies: Private-Public Intelligence Partnerships in the War on Terror," California Law Review, Vol. 96, 2008. Read a summary here.
10/10/08: The ACLU reports that a federal court has blocked the government from blacklisting an Ohio-based charity without providing adequate due process. The charity, KindHearts, had its assets frozen more than two years ago and was notified that it was "under investigation" based on classified evidence.
10/09/08: The AP reports that United States officials are increasingly concerned about alliances forming between terrorist organizations and Latin American drug lords. Not only could terrorist groups profit from the drug trade, but it is feared that drug channels could be used to smuggle people and weapons into the region and, specifically, the United States. HT to Counterterrorismblog.
10/9/08: Jurist reports that the Appeals Chamber of the International Criminal Tribunal for the former Yugoslavia affirmed the 2007 conviction of Milan Martic on 16 counts. Martic was found guilty of crimes against humanity and violations of laws and customs of war, including persecutions, murder, torture, deportation, attacks on civilians, and wanton destruction of civilian areas.
10/9/08: The Guardian reports that US State Department legal advisor John B. Bellinger III said Tuesday that British troops in Iraq and Afghanistan are not detaining suspected insurgents in those countries due to concerns that the soldiers will be liable for their treatment of the detainees under UK and European human rights law. Bellinger's comments stem from a 2005 appellate court ruling that British soldiers in Iraqi are forbidden to subject Iraqi prisoners to cruel or degrading treatment while in their custody. Jurist covers the story here.
10/8/08: The Washington Postreports that the Maryland State Police classified 53 nonviolent activists as terrorists and entered their names and personal information into state and federal databases that track terrorism suspects, the state police chief acknowledged yesterday.
10/8/08: The New York Timesreports that German authorities have released two men who were arrested at the Cologne airport last month on suspicion that they were planning to take part in terrorist attacks, prosecutors said Tuesday.
10/08/08: The New York Timesreports that a federal panel of policy makers and scientific experts urged a government-wide evaluation Tuesday of programs that sift through databases looking for clues on terrorism, to determine whether the programs are effective and legal.
Wired Blog Network argues that the data mining study is not feasible. The government should not be building predictive data-mining programs systems that attempt to figure out who among millions is a terrorist, a privacy and terrorism commission funded by Homeland Security reported Tuesday. The commission found that the technology would not work and the inevitable mistakes would be un-American.
10/08/08: Jurist reports that thirteen United Nations experts on Monday urged the international community to respect the rights of detainees. The statement of the 13 special rapporteurs, including Philip Alston, the Special Rapporteur on extrajudicial, summary or arbitrary executions, and Manfred Nowak, the Special Rapporteur on torture and cruel, inhuman and degrading treatment or punishment, comes as the UN Office of the High Commissioner for Human Rights celebrates Dignity and Justice for Detainees Week.
10/8/08: The National Security Advisors reports
that two more GITMO detainees have been repatriated, one to Algeria and
one to Sudan, leaving about 225 detainees held at GITMO.
10/7/08: Kevin Jon Heller of Opinio Juris discusses the potential for Ugandan military officers to be arrested and tried if they traveled to the US under the newly-enacted Child Soldiers Accountability Act.
The LA Times prints a letter from David Rivkin and Lee Casey criticizing the growing international popularity of granting judges extraterritorial jurisdiction for international crimes. They argue: "Using domestic criminal justice systems as a means of achieving foreign policy ends or, even worse, allowing individual magistrates to use their courts on a freelance basis makes global dispute resolution difficult."
10/6/08: A new article by Robb Willer and Nick Adams of the University of California at Berkeley, discusses how concerns about terrorism affect the way Americans view the 2008 presidential candidates. The authors conclude that Americans view the war on terror differently today then in the last presidential elections, and that increased concern about homeland security does not affect candidate preferences.
10/6/08: Human Rights Watch News reports that President Bush signed the Child Soldiers Accountability Act, which makes it a federal crime to recruit knowingly or to use soldiers under the age of 15 and permits the United States to prosecute any individual on US soil for the offense, even if the children were recruited or served as soldiers outside the United States. The legislation was introduced by Senator Richard Durbin of Illinois and adopted unanimously by both the US House of Representatives and the US Senate in September 2008.
10/6/08: The New York Timesreports that Thailand’s longstanding political crisis took an uncertain turn on Sunday when the police arrested the leader of the antigovernment protesters occupying the grounds of the prime minister’s office here. The protest leader, Chamlong Srimuang, a 73-year-old former army general, was detained early Sunday immediately after casting his vote in Bangkok’s gubernatorial election. He faces charges of insurrection and inciting unrest.
10/5/08: Jurist reports that the Department of Justice has filed charges of conspiracy, major fraud, and wire fraud against a USAID subcontractor working in Afghanistan. The individuals charged are four executives and employees who are accused of attempting to interfere with U.S. military and reconstruction efforts by inflating their expenses and collecting reimbursements which they were not due.
10/4/08: IntLawGrrls' guest blogger Linda M. Keller discusses how the International Criminal Court is capable of promoting both peace and justice in Africa, particularly in Sudan and Uganda. Keller is an Associate Professor of Law at the Thomas Jefferson School of Law in San Diego.
10/3/08: The Boston Globereports that a U.S. funded legal aid clinic has begun work in Iraq hoping to relieve the backlog of cases and prison crowding by getting fair trials or releases for detainees. Currently, there are more than 50,000 Iraqis in custody awaiting some form of legal process. Complicating matters are claims that a substantial majority of those detained are Sunnis while the majority of the security forces are Shi'ites.
10/3/08: Jurist reports that a U.S. soldier has pleaded guilty for his role in the killing of four unarmed Iraqi prisoners near Baghdad last year. The soldier admitted to standing guard as fellow soldiers killed the prisoners, allegedly in response to the deaths of two of their own in January 2007. The defendant was sentenced to eight months in prison and a bad conduct discharge at a reduced rank. Seven other soldiers in that battalion await trial on charges of murder, conspiracy, and obstruction of justice.
10/3/08: Jurist reports that a court of appeals in the Hague increased the sentences of four Dutch terrorists who were convicted in 2006. The men had been found guilty of membership in a terrorist organization and of plotting to attack government officials and buildings. The increases in the sentences were based on what the judges saw as a lack of remorse and a hatred of the Dutch people on the part of the defendants.
10/2/08: National Security Advisors reports that Derrick Shareef was sentenced to 35 years for his role in a plot to set off hand grenades in an Illinois shopping mall. Shareef pled guilty to the attempted use of a weapon of mass destruction.
10/2/08: The House of Representatives passed the Military Personnel Citizenship Processing Act, which expedites naturalization applications filed by members of the Armed Forces. The measure was introduced by Sen. Schumer (D-NY) and passed unopposed, 416-0. It now goes to the President for signature. HT to Immigration Daily.
10/2/08: UVA's Center for National Security Law will host a Capitol Hill Forum on the afternoon of Thursday, October 9, in room SR 385 of the Russell Senate Office Building starting with a 4:30 PM wine and cheese reception and concluding at 7 PM. See our calendar for more details.
10/2/08: The Blog's Gregory McNeal discusses the tensions felt by the recently resigned Guantanamo prosecutor with regard to the need to protect intelligence assets and defendants' rights. The prosecutor notes that discovery was particularly difficult not only because of the classification of much of the material but because of how much had to be gone through to make sure everything discoverable was indeed brought into the process.
10/1/08: Jurist reports that Russian President Dmitry Medvedev has presented a legislative package to the Anti-Corruption Council for endorsement before sending it in front of the Duma. The package contains a number of measures aimed at curbing official corruption including requiring local and state government officials to submit financial disclosures. Freedom House has released a report concluding that the corruption prevalent in Russia threatens basic legal rights.
10/1/08: Secrecy News reports that the Chief of Naval Operations has directed naval classfiers to be more alert to the need to classify compilations of material that, though individual pieces be unclassified, taken and read together meet the thresholds for classification.
10/1/08: CNN reports that Mexican President Felipe Calderon has sent his Congress a security plan to help with the escalating government fight against drug traffickers in the country. The proposed laws seek to better coordinate local and national police, establish bases for operations, add protections for human rights, increase sentences given to those who sell drugs to minors, and combat internal corruption.
10/1/08: Open CRS reports that a Congressional Research Report has been issued titled, "Temporary Protected Status: Current Immigration Policy and Issues."
10/1/08: SpyTalk reports that the FBI has refused permission for two of its Special Agents to appear on a PBS documentary exploring the conflicts between the CIA and the FBI in the run up to September 11. The two agents were expected to discuss how the CIA blocked them from forwarding important intelligence to FBI headquarters and then tried to cover it up in the subequent investigations.
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Commentary: Torture Triptych
10/1/08: Professor David Luban discusses how despite being replaced, the Bybee/Yoo torture memo is alive and well.
October 01, 2008 at 07:50 AM in Judiciary / Cases, Law Enforcement / Criminal Law, International Law / Law of War / Human Rights, Commentary / Opinion | Permalink | TrackBack (0)