JAG CENTRALThe world's first weblog devoted to military justice and military law issues.
Wednesday, March 30, 2005
WEDNESDAY'S NATIONAL NEWSPAPERS
Busy news day for military legal issues.
From the NY Times: U.N. Council Approves Penalties in Darfur ("The Security Council voted Tuesday to impose sanctions on individuals in the conflicted Darfur region of Sudan who commit atrocities or break cease-fire agreements. The vote was 12 to 0, with three countries - Algeria, China and Russia - abstaining. Under the resolution, all 15 countries would contribute members to a new panel that would decide who was eligible for punishment. The measure, drafted by the United States, bans travel by individuals who are deemed guilty of offenses and freezes their assets. It also forbids the Sudanese government in Khartoum from conducting offensive military flights into Darfur and from sending military equipment there without first notifying the Security Council."); Harsh Tactics Were Allowed, General Told Jailers in Iraq ("The top United States commander in Iraq authorized prisoner interrogation tactics that were harsher than accepted Army practice, including using guard dogs to exploit "Arab fear of dogs," a memo made public on Tuesday showed. The memo, dated Sept. 14, 2003, and signed by Lt. Gen. Ricardo Sanchez, then the senior commander in Iraq, was released by the American Civil Liberties Union, which obtained it from the government under court order through the Freedom of Information Act."); Yemeni Held in Guantanamo Was Seized in Cairo, Group Says ("Sometime in September 2002, a Yemeni businessman and intelligence officer was abducted on a Cairo street, then kept incommunicado for more than a year by United States authorities, and is now among those imprisoned at Guantánamo Bay, Cuba, according to an examination of his case by Human Rights Watch. The case of Abdul Salam Ali al-Hila is an example of what human rights groups call "reverse renditions," in which a foreign government assists or cooperates in seizing someone who is then transferred to United States custody."); Judge Blocks Transfer of 13 from Guantanamo ("In a defeat for the Bush administration, a federal judge ruled on Tuesday that the government could not transfer 13 Yemenis from the detention center at Guantánamo Bay, Cuba, unless it notified the judge and gave their lawyers a month to challenge the removal. The opinion, by Judge Henry H. Kennedy Jr. of Federal District Court for the District of Columbia, was issued on a procedural skirmish that involved a small number of detainees, but it represented another rebuff to the administration's core legal contention that it has unbridled power to detain and transfer prisoners in the campaign against terror without court reviews.").
From the Washington Post: New U.N. Darfur Sanctions Passed; U.S. Barred from Sending 13 Detainees Abroad.
From USA Today: 38 Detainees Ruled Eligible for Release ("The Pentagon has completed hearings for the 558 detainees at the military prison at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba. It concluded that all but 38 should be held as “enemy combatants,” Navy Secretary Gordon England said Tuesday. Of the 38 who have been cleared after secret military tribunals, only five have been returned to their home countries: two from Afghanistan, one from the Maldives, one from Pakistan and one from France. The other 33 have been moved to a “better environment” at Guantanamo and will be returned “as expeditiously as possible,” England said.").
From the NY Times: U.N. Council Approves Penalties in Darfur ("The Security Council voted Tuesday to impose sanctions on individuals in the conflicted Darfur region of Sudan who commit atrocities or break cease-fire agreements. The vote was 12 to 0, with three countries - Algeria, China and Russia - abstaining. Under the resolution, all 15 countries would contribute members to a new panel that would decide who was eligible for punishment. The measure, drafted by the United States, bans travel by individuals who are deemed guilty of offenses and freezes their assets. It also forbids the Sudanese government in Khartoum from conducting offensive military flights into Darfur and from sending military equipment there without first notifying the Security Council."); Harsh Tactics Were Allowed, General Told Jailers in Iraq ("The top United States commander in Iraq authorized prisoner interrogation tactics that were harsher than accepted Army practice, including using guard dogs to exploit "Arab fear of dogs," a memo made public on Tuesday showed. The memo, dated Sept. 14, 2003, and signed by Lt. Gen. Ricardo Sanchez, then the senior commander in Iraq, was released by the American Civil Liberties Union, which obtained it from the government under court order through the Freedom of Information Act."); Yemeni Held in Guantanamo Was Seized in Cairo, Group Says ("Sometime in September 2002, a Yemeni businessman and intelligence officer was abducted on a Cairo street, then kept incommunicado for more than a year by United States authorities, and is now among those imprisoned at Guantánamo Bay, Cuba, according to an examination of his case by Human Rights Watch. The case of Abdul Salam Ali al-Hila is an example of what human rights groups call "reverse renditions," in which a foreign government assists or cooperates in seizing someone who is then transferred to United States custody."); Judge Blocks Transfer of 13 from Guantanamo ("In a defeat for the Bush administration, a federal judge ruled on Tuesday that the government could not transfer 13 Yemenis from the detention center at Guantánamo Bay, Cuba, unless it notified the judge and gave their lawyers a month to challenge the removal. The opinion, by Judge Henry H. Kennedy Jr. of Federal District Court for the District of Columbia, was issued on a procedural skirmish that involved a small number of detainees, but it represented another rebuff to the administration's core legal contention that it has unbridled power to detain and transfer prisoners in the campaign against terror without court reviews.").
From the Washington Post: New U.N. Darfur Sanctions Passed; U.S. Barred from Sending 13 Detainees Abroad.
From USA Today: 38 Detainees Ruled Eligible for Release ("The Pentagon has completed hearings for the 558 detainees at the military prison at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba. It concluded that all but 38 should be held as “enemy combatants,” Navy Secretary Gordon England said Tuesday. Of the 38 who have been cleared after secret military tribunals, only five have been returned to their home countries: two from Afghanistan, one from the Maldives, one from Pakistan and one from France. The other 33 have been moved to a “better environment” at Guantanamo and will be returned “as expeditiously as possible,” England said.").
