One of the underlying issues in the Wikileaks controversy is whether Julian Assange is truly that harmful. His defenders, and even some of his critics, maintain that Assange is not that dangerous. I disagree. Diplomacy. Diplomacy will be immeasurably more difficult if what government officials say in secret to one another can never be trusted to remain secret. ...
And why not? Assuming that the feds don't catch up with this operation at this rate (by my calculation) we have more than four years of daily document dumps ahead of us. From Foreign Policy, let's welcome Wikileaked to the blogosphere. Today's highlights include more accounts of inebriated and otherwise less-than-sparkling eastern European and central Asian leaders. (Material from these realms...
I don't know enough about the facts or the law in the U.K. to know whether there is a serious basis for charging Sri Lanka's President Mahinda Rajapaksa with war crimes arising out of the conflict last year with Tamil Separatists. But it looks like there will be an attempt to force his detention and a war crimes investigation during his...
So Business Week reports, noting that Nigeria intends to file a request for a Red Notice with Interpol: Nigeria will file charges against former U.S. Vice President Dick Cheney and officials from five foreign companies including Halliburton Co. over a $180 million bribery scandal, a prosecutor at the anti-graft agency said. Indictments will be lodged in a Nigerian court...
The quote of the day, from Japan's failed bid for the 2022 FIFA World Cup (which went to Qatar, much to the surprise of the Americans): Japan, probably the biggest outsider, threw the longest Hail Mary, suggesting it would beam the games into stadiums all around the world in 3D, digitally replicating the games live in the foreign stadiums....
The following is a guest-post by Steve Vladeck, Professor of Law at American University. Our thanks to him for contributing it. The Espionage Act, the Documents/Information Distinction, and the Press I’ve been following (with great interest) the exchange between Roger, Kevin, and those who have commented on their posts concerning Julian Assange, the Espionage Act, and the broader question of...
From an interview with Jennifer Rubin, a new conservative blogger on the WaPo: Bolton has begun to talk openly to conservative gatherings and media about his interest in a 2012 presidential run. "I'm seriously considering it," he told me in an interview, in large part because of the "lack of foreign policy debate." Having gotten past the idle...
I had a colleague ask an interesting question, "If Julian Assange is indicted and detained in London, would the U.S.-U.K. extradition treaty authorize extradition to the United States?" There's not an easy answer. The U.S.-U.K. Extradition Treaty requires "double-criminality"--the offense must be punishable in both States. Not surprisingly, the United Kingdom imposes criminal penalties for disclosing state...
