Preventative Detention
Hilzoy pronounces herself "happy as a clam" with President Obama's speech yesterday on national security issues, with one glaring exception: But even when this process is complete, there may be a number of people who cannot be prosecuted for past crimes, in some cases because evidence may be tainted, but who nonetheless pose a threat to the security of the United ...Posted in Outside The Beltway on May 22, 2009 08:20
Guantanamo Complies with Geneva Convention
The Department of Defense has reviewed itself and found that it's doing nothing wrong. Pam Hess for AP: The report found the camp to be in compliance with the Geneva Conventions Common Article 3, the international rules that require the humane treatment of prisoners taken in unconventional armed conflicts, like the war on terrorism. The camp's controversial force-feeding of prisoners on hunger ...Posted in Outside The Beltway on February 21, 2009 08:40
Colombia Misused Red Cross Symbol in Betancourt Rescue
The daring rescue of Ingrid Betancourt from FARC terrorists misused the Red Cross symbol in violation of the Geneva Conventions. A member of the military mission that tricked Colombian rebels into freeing 15 hostages wore the insignia of the International Red Cross during the operation, President Alvaro Uribe said Wednesday. Mr. Uribe said his government had apologized to the Red Cross for ...Posted in Outside The Beltway on July 16, 2008 15:20
General Taguba: Bush Administration ‘Guilty of War Crimes’
Physicians for Human Rights has just published a report detailing the medical evidence of detainee torture at the hands of U.S. Personnel in Iraq, Afghanist, and Guantanamo Bay. Maj. General Antonio Taguba (Ret.) authored the preface to the report, in which he accuses the Administration of having committed war crimes:The profiles of these eleven former detainees, none of whom ...Posted in Outside The Beltway on June 25, 2008 14:06
Bill Richardson’s New Realism
Foreign Affairs has, over the last several issues, had one major Republican and one major Democrat publish an essay under their name outlining the foreign policy agenda they would pursue if elected president. Bill Richardson was either tired of waiting or figured he wouldn't be asked, so instead published his in the latest issue of The National Interest. ...Posted in Outside The Beltway on November 7, 2007 17:00
WWII Interrogators Criticize Today’s Methods
Today's WaPo fronts the story of the most interrogators of WWII, who had a reunion yesterday at Fort Hunt. Not surprisingly, perhaps, the focus is on those who spoke out about the war in Iraq and the interrogation techniques now being used. For six decades, they held their silence. The group of World War II veterans kept a military code ...Posted in Outside The Beltway on October 6, 2007 09:32
Senate Rejects Terror Suspect Habeas
The Senate has narrowly failed to pass habeas corpus protection for terrorist suspects: The Senate narrowly rejected legislation on Wednesday that would have given military detainees the right to protest their detention in federal court. The 56-43 vote against the bill, by Sens. Patrick Leahy, D-Vt., and Arlen Specter, R-Pa., fell four votes shy of the 60 needed to cut off ...Posted in Outside The Beltway on September 19, 2007 15:15
CIA Bans Water-Boarding
CIA Director Michael Hayden has officially banned water-boarding, the most criticized of its interrogation techniques and one that has not been used in several years. The practice of water-boarding has been branded as "torture" by human rights groups and a number of leading U.S. officials, including Sen. John McCain, R-Ariz., because it amounted to a "mock execution." Today, in New Hampshire, ...Posted in Outside The Beltway on September 15, 2007 09:05
Bill Richardson’s New Realism
Bill Richardson sets forth his foreign policy vision in a piece called "New Realism: Crafting a US Foreign Policy for a New Century" published in the Harvard International Review. The beginning is standard boilerplate, with plenty of sops to the base thrown in: US foreign policymakers face novel challenges in the 21st century. Jihadists and environmental crises have replaced armies and missiles ...Posted in Outside The Beltway on August 9, 2007 11:31
Why Terrorists Are Not Combatants
Yesterday's discussion of the question, "Is It ‘Terrorism’ if Soldiers are the Target?" demonstrated the complexity of fitting modern international terrorism, or perhaps 4th Generation Warfare period, into the rubric of the international law of war which evolved over centuries. One of the side issues we got into in the comments section was whether terrorists such as the Fort ...Posted in Outside The Beltway on May 10, 2007 14:39
Dodd to Introduce ‘Restoring the Constitution Act’
Tomorrow, February 13, Senator Chris Dodd will be introducing the Restoring the Constitution Act of 2007. The text of the bill hasn't been released yet, but purports to:The bill will restore Habeas Corpus protections to detainees, bar information acquired through torture from being introduced as evidence in trials, and limit presidential authority to interpret the meaning and application of ...Posted in Outside The Beltway on February 12, 2007 23:20
The Sticky Parts of the ISG Report Recommendations
As I re-read the recommendations in the Iraq Study Group (does this conjure up images of James Baker, Lee Hamilton, Sandra Day O'Connor, etc. huddled together in the college library for anybody other than me?) Report published yesterday, several points jumped out at me that made me wonder if the members of the group realized how controversial some of their ...Posted in Outside The Beltway on December 7, 2006 15:38
Republicans Backbenchers Beat Bush, Leadership on Detainees
An alliance of prominent Republican Senators, Colin Powell, and Congressional Democrats have won the first round in a battle with President Bush and the Republican Congressional leadership over the treatment of suspected terrorist detainees. A Senate committee, in a bipartisan rebuff to President George W. Bush, approved military tribunal legislation that would give more legal protection to suspected terrorists than ...Posted in Outside The Beltway on September 15, 2006 08:02
Torturing Prisoners and Practical Effects
Marc Danziger takes down the NYT editorial board for making the specious argument, "The Geneva Conventions protect Americans. If this country changes the rules, it’s changing the rules for Americans taken prisoner abroad. That is far too high a price to pay so this administration can hang on to its misbegotten policies." After providing a litany of examples of American soldiers ...Posted in Outside The Beltway on August 18, 2006 12:26
Bush Considers Weakening War Crimes Act
The Bush administration is considering li The Bush administration has drafted amendments to a war crimes law that would eliminate the risk of prosecution for political appointees, CIA officers and former military personnel for humiliating or degrading war prisoners, according to U.S. officials and a copy of the amendments. Officials say the amendments would alter a U.S. law passed in the ...Posted in Outside The Beltway on August 9, 2006 09:07
