JAG CENTRALThe world's first weblog devoted to military justice and military law issues.
Saturday, June 26, 2004
SATURDAY'S NATIONAL NEWSPAPERS
The New York Times: Briton Condemns Proposed U.S. Trials ("Britain's top legal officer on Friday condemned as "unacceptable" military tribunals proposed by the United States for Guantánamo Bay prisoners. The comments by the attorney general, Lord Goldsmith, represented one of the bluntest statements yet of London's disquiet over America's handling of terrorism suspects at the American base in Cuba. "While we must be flexible and be prepared to countenance some limitation of fundamental rights if properly justified and proportionate, there are certain principles on which there can be no compromise,"the prepared text of Lord Goldsmith's speech said. "Fair trial is one of those."), C.I.A. Contractor to Be Held Till Trial ("A C.I.A. contractor accused of beating an Afghan detainee who later died will be held without bond until his trial, a federal magistrate ruled Friday. The magistrate, William Webb, linked a 1990 assault by the contractor, David A. Passaro, when he was a police officer in Hartford, Conn., and the beating of the detainee, Abdul Wali. Mr. Passaro, of Lillington, N.C., is charged with four counts of assault and assault with a dangerous weapon, a large flashlight.").
The Washington Post: More GIs at Prison May Face Charges; Abu Ghraib Investigators Examine Intelligence Unit ("Army investigators continue to sift through photographs and evidence of alleged abuse of detainees at Abu Ghraib prison to try to identify more soldiers who were involved, possibly including members of military intelligence, and sources close to the investigation said more soldiers would likely be charged. Investigators are looking closely at the actions of three Army junior reservists with the 325th Military Intelligence Battalion -- Spec. Roman Krol, Spec. Israel Rivera and Spec. Armin J. Cruz, the sources said. All seven soldiers charged to date were members of a military police unit. Investigators have identified the three military intelligence soldiers in a photograph taken in late October in a hallway in a cellblock on Tier 1 at the prison, where most of the abuse is alleged to have occurred, according to the sources. The picture shows three shackled detainees naked and splayed on the floor, while a military police officer leans over them and the three intelligence soldiers and others stand nearby."), Former CIA Contractor to Be Jailed Until Trial in Afghan Prisoner Assault, U.N. Investigators Appeal to U.S. ("A group of 31 U.N. human rights investigators issued a rare joint appeal to the United States to give them access to detention centers in Iraq, Afghanistan and Guantanamo Bay, Cuba. The request came at the end of a week-long meeting in Geneva on the impact of the U.S.-led counterterrorism campaign on human rights. It signaled mounting frustration over the Bush administration's refusal to open the doors of its detention centers to U.N. human rights monitors. The statement asks that four specialists -- trained to check for evidence of torture, arbitrary detention, medical and physical abuse, and judicial independence -- be invited to Iraq, Afghanistan and Guantanamo Bay "at the earliest possible date" to determine whether the human rights of prisoners are "properly upheld." They would present their findings to the U.N. Commission on Human Rights. "The way prisoners are treated in Iraq, Afghanistan and Guantanamo is totally contrary to international law and humanitarian law," said Doudou Diene of Senegal, the United Nations' special rapporteur for racism and discrimination. We want to "send a team of special rapporteurs to go and visit those places.").
The Washington Post: More GIs at Prison May Face Charges; Abu Ghraib Investigators Examine Intelligence Unit ("Army investigators continue to sift through photographs and evidence of alleged abuse of detainees at Abu Ghraib prison to try to identify more soldiers who were involved, possibly including members of military intelligence, and sources close to the investigation said more soldiers would likely be charged. Investigators are looking closely at the actions of three Army junior reservists with the 325th Military Intelligence Battalion -- Spec. Roman Krol, Spec. Israel Rivera and Spec. Armin J. Cruz, the sources said. All seven soldiers charged to date were members of a military police unit. Investigators have identified the three military intelligence soldiers in a photograph taken in late October in a hallway in a cellblock on Tier 1 at the prison, where most of the abuse is alleged to have occurred, according to the sources. The picture shows three shackled detainees naked and splayed on the floor, while a military police officer leans over them and the three intelligence soldiers and others stand nearby."), Former CIA Contractor to Be Jailed Until Trial in Afghan Prisoner Assault, U.N. Investigators Appeal to U.S. ("A group of 31 U.N. human rights investigators issued a rare joint appeal to the United States to give them access to detention centers in Iraq, Afghanistan and Guantanamo Bay, Cuba. The request came at the end of a week-long meeting in Geneva on the impact of the U.S.-led counterterrorism campaign on human rights. It signaled mounting frustration over the Bush administration's refusal to open the doors of its detention centers to U.N. human rights monitors. The statement asks that four specialists -- trained to check for evidence of torture, arbitrary detention, medical and physical abuse, and judicial independence -- be invited to Iraq, Afghanistan and Guantanamo Bay "at the earliest possible date" to determine whether the human rights of prisoners are "properly upheld." They would present their findings to the U.N. Commission on Human Rights. "The way prisoners are treated in Iraq, Afghanistan and Guantanamo is totally contrary to international law and humanitarian law," said Doudou Diene of Senegal, the United Nations' special rapporteur for racism and discrimination. We want to "send a team of special rapporteurs to go and visit those places.").
