JAG CENTRAL

From the NY Times, American Faces Charge of Graft for Work in Iraq:

The man, Philip H. Bloom, who controlled three companies that did work in Iraq in the multibillion-dollar reconstruction effort, was charged with conspiracy, wire fraud, conspiracy to launder money and interstate transportation of stolen property, all in connection with obtaining up to $3.5 million in reportedly fraudulent contracts.

The complaint, unsealed in the Federal District Court of the District of Columbia, also cites two unnamed co-conspirators who worked in the Coalition Provisional Authority, the American administration that governed Iraq when the contracts were awarded in early 2004. These were the officials who, with their spouses, allegedly received the payments.

"This is the first case, but it won't be the last," said Jim Mitchell, a spokesman for the Special Inspector General for Iraq Reconstruction, an independent office. Mr. Mitchell said as many as a dozen related cases had been referred to the Justice Department for possible prosecution.

Also from the Times, Iraqi Rift Grows After Discovery of Prison:

The discovery of the prison by the American military in a raid on Sunday has galvanized Sunni Arab anger and widened the country's sectarian divide just a month before elections for a full, four-year government.

The American general responsible for securing Baghdad said Wednesday that Sunni Arab leaders were supportive of the operation, which ended Wednesday afternoon. The commander, Maj. Gen. William G. Webster Jr. of the Third Infantry Division, said that American officers would help scrutinize the evidence seized from the prison, and that his troops were prepared to investigate other complaints of secret detentions by Iraqi security forces.

The American raid forced the prime minister of Iraq, Ibrahim al-Jaafari, who is a Shiite, to announce Tuesday that the government would investigate accusations of torture at the detention center, where many of the 173 prisoners were found in weakened, malnourished states. A former prisoner said in a telephone interview on Wednesday that he and other inmates, mostly Sunni Arabs, were regularly beaten and subjected to electric shocks. He was blindfolded for the entire duration of his stay, more than three months.

The Interior Ministry acknowledged on Tuesday that "instruments of torture" had been found and that torture had occurred.

Related to that story in the Times, Sunnis Tell of Abuses in Iraqi-Run Detention Sites. And, following up on the willie-pete news from yesterday, Pentagon Justifying Incendiary Arms Use:

Army Lt. Col. Barry Venable, a Pentagon spokesman, acknowledged that the United States military had used the weapons, but only against insurgents, he said. He denied that the flammable weapons had been used against civilians. An Italian state television report this month said such munitions had been used against men, women and children in Falluja who were burned to the bone.

"We categorically deny that claim," he said. White phosphorus weapons are not outlawed or banned by any convention, he said.

A protocol to an accord on conventional arms, which took effect in 1983, forbids using incendiary weapons against civilians. It also forbids their use against military targets in concentrations of civilians, except when the targets are clearly separated from civilians and "all feasible precautions" are taken to avoid civilian casualties.

The United States is a party to the overall accord, but has not ratified the incendiary arms protocol.

Again, as I said yesterday in this post, even if WP rounds are not specifically prohibited by convention, their use in certain circumstances is likely illegal anyways because the use of them is not necessary or proportional. If they were being used within close proximity of civilians, this may very well be the case.

Finally from the Times, Curbs on Insurance for Military are Urged:

In a report to be released today, the Government Accountability Office strongly urges Congress to act to protect military personnel from the deceptive sales practices and unsuitable investments and insurance policies that the report says have been a disturbing fact of military life.

The Senate Committee on Banking, Housing and Urban Affairs will examine the study at a hearing today in Washington. The report's delivery to Congress clears the way for the Senate to consider a bill that has been pending since early this year. The bill has twice passed the House with strong bipartisan support.

Senator Richard C. Shelby, Republican of Alabama and chairman of the banking panel, has said that passage of a law to protect troops from financial exploitation was a priority in the current session of Congress.

You can find the GAO study here.

From the Washington Post, Europeans Probe Secret CIA Flights:

The aim is to determine whether U.S. officials secretly used local airports and military bases to transfer terrorism suspects under conditions that violate local and international treaties.

This week, officials in Spain, Sweden, Norway and in the European Parliament said they had either opened formal inquiries or demanded answers from U.S. officials about CIA flights, in response to growing public opposition in Europe to U.S. anti-terrorism tactics.

In other countries, criminal probes have deepened into the alleged kidnapping of terrorism suspects by the CIA. In Italy, prosecutors last week filed a formal extradition request for 22 U.S. citizens alleged to be CIA operatives who are charged with kidnapping a radical Muslim cleric in Milan in 2003 and flying him to his native Egypt, where he said he was tortured.

The Post's World Briefing has two updates on war crimes tribunals in the Balkans:

THE HAGUE -- The trial of Slobodan Milosevic was adjourned until next week after the former Yugoslav president said he was feeling too ill to continue. The interruption came a day after Milosevic, 63, requested a six-week recess, citing a medical report that his heart condition has not stabilized. He has chronic high blood pressure.

AMSTERDAM -- The U.N. war crimes tribunal acquitted Sefer Halilovic, the highest-ranking Bosnian Muslim to stand trial in The Hague. The wartime Muslim commander was charged with murder for failing to prevent a massacre of Bosnian Croats in 1993, during the country's 1992-95 war.

Also in the Briefing, this update about a trial of a U.S. Airman in Japan ("A Japanese court on Thursday convicted a U.S. Air Force serviceman of molesting a 10-year-old Japanese girl on the island of Okinawa earlier this year. The Naha District Court gave Staff Sgt. Armando Valdez, 28, a suspended prison sentence of 18 months, a court spokesman said."). And, proving that war crimes have no statute of limitations, from the Post, Perpetrators of Ancient War Crime Sought.