JAG CENTRAL

From The New York Times: Pentagon Seeks to Transfer More Detainees From Base in Cuba:

The Pentagon is seeking to enlist help from the State Department and other agencies in a plan to cut by more than half the population at its detention facility in Guantánamo Bay, Cuba, in part by transferring hundreds of suspected terrorists to prisons in Saudi Arabia, Afghanistan and Yemen, according to senior administration officials.

The transfers would be similar to the renditions, or transfers of captives to other countries, carried out by the Central Intelligence Agency, but are subject to stricter approval within the government, and face potential opposition from the C.I.A. as well as the State and Justice Departments, the officials said.

Administration officials say those agencies have resisted some previous handovers, out of concern that transferring the prisoners to foreign governments could harm American security or subject the prisoners to mistreatment.

ANALYSIS: Note that this is a Department of Defense plan, one that is being resisted by the CIA and State. The article suggests that this plan is coming straight from the White House, which is growing weary of the divisiveness in public opinion that Guantanamo has caused. With rendition, it's out of sight, out of mind. Very interesting that CIA and State are resisting. Philip Carter has been blogging a lot about rendition and enemy combatant "outsourcing." His most recent post: "More Details Emerge About U.S. Rendition Program."

More NY Times: Kosovar Faces 37 U.N. Counts of War Crimes Against Serbs:

Ramush Haradinaj, the former prime minister of Kosovo, was charged by a United Nations tribunal on Thursday with 37 war crimes counts that include atrocities against Serbs like murder and rape. He could face life in prison if convicted on a single count.

Mr. Haradinaj, a former commander of the ethnic Albanian rebels who fought Serbian forces in Kosovo's 1998-99 war, surrendered to the court on Wednesday after resigning as prime minister. Two other Kosovo Albanian rebel commanders also turned themselves in.

In the indictment unsealed by United Nations judges, Mr. Haradinaj faces 17 counts of crimes against humanity for murder, rape, persecution, inhumane acts, unlawful detention and deportation or forcible transfer of civilians. He also faces 20 counts of violations of the laws or customs of war for cruel treatment, murder and rape.

As the commander of the Kosovo Liberation Army, Mr. Haradinaj "personally ordered, controlled and participated in beatings" of civilians, according to the indictment.

ANALYSIS: One of the big problems we faced in Kosovo (served there for six months in 2001-2002) was that the Serbs felt that we were "on the side" of the Kosovars. It was easy to perceive that based on the fact that most of the problems we faced were from Serb areas and thus we had to step up our presence in those areas. In the early days of the UN Tribunal, nearly all the people we were looking to apprehend were Serb. The fact that a Kosovar is also being charged with war crimes helps to put a more balanced face on our presence there. Note also that in the past two days, two former commanders, one Kosovar and one Serb, have surrendered to the ICTY.

More NYT: Official Declines to Pin Blame for Blunders in Interrogations ("A senior military investigator told Congress on Thursday that high-level American officials failed to establish clear procedures for interrogating prisoners in Iraq and Afghanistan, but said it was not his job to hold anyone responsible. In response, several Democrats faulted the investigator, Vice Adm. Albert T. Church III of the Navy, for not assigning blame to specific senior Defense Department civilians and military commanders for the lack of guidance and oversight in developing interrogation policy."); Man Held at Guantanamo Freed ("One of three French citizens repatriated to France this week from Guantánamo Bay, Cuba, has been set free. French investigators said Moustaq Ali Patel, a native of India who was detained by American troops in Afghanistan in 2001, had no record of any past radical activity. His lawyer said Mr. Patel, who obtained French citizenship through marriage, had been in Afghanistan for business purposes."); Civil Lawsuit on Defoliant in Vietnam Is Dismissed ("In a decision that could close a brutally contentious chapter of America's involvement in Vietnam, a federal judge in Brooklyn yesterday dismissed a damage suit filed on behalf of millions of Vietnamese that claimed American chemical companies committed war crimes by supplying the military with the defoliant Agent Orange.").

From The Washington Post: Army, CIA Agreed on "Ghost" Prisoners ("Top military intelligence officials at the Abu Ghraib prison came to an agreement with the CIA to hide certain detainees at the facility without officially registering them, according to documents obtained by The Washington Post. Keeping such "ghost" detainees is a violation of international law. Army Lt. Col. Steven L. Jordan, who was second in command of the intelligence gathering effort at Abu Ghraib while the abuse was occurring, told military investigators that "other government agencies" and a secretive elite task force "routinely brought in detainees for a short period of time" and that the detainees were held without an internment number, and their names were kept off the books."); Rwanda Community Court Makes First Genocide Conviction ("A nine-judge community court handed down its first conviction of a Rwandan accused of killings in the 1994 genocide, as authorities set in motion a system designed to speed the trials of the 63,000 people accused of taking part in the slaughter. The community court system is filling the gap left by Rwanda's conventional courts, which are trying only the cases of the alleged leaders of the 100-day genocide. Saddam Nshimiyimana, 37, was convicted of killing people at a roadblock and slaying others who took refuge in a Catholic church. He was sentenced to 30 years.").

From USA Today: Pentagon report on prisoner abuse met with skepticism; probe to go on.