I know that there are hundreds, if not thousands, of former Nazis still roaming the earth -- but I never thought that their ranks would include a Nobel laureate and anti-war icon. So this certainly came as a suprise: Gunter Grass, Germany's greatest living author and doyen of the left, has confessed that he was a teenage member of...
Each year, pursuant to the Trafficking Victims Protection Act, the Department of State submits to Congress a report on countries' efforts to eliminate human trafficking. The report divides countries into three tiers, with Tier 1 including countries that have made significant efforts to comply with U.S. law's minimum standards for the elimination of trafficking in persons, and Tier 3 including...
This report from the Bahrain News Agency doesn't bode well -- especially the highlighted clause:Tehran, Aug. 13, (BNA) Iranian Oil Minister, Khadim Waziri and his Iraqi counterpart, Hossein Shahrastani, signed here on Sunday a memorandum of understanding on cooperation in the oil field. Iran News Agency (IRNA) said the Mou stipulated that Iran should supply Iraq with kerosene and liquefied...
Courtesy of Arms & Influence, here is the actual Powerpoint slide created by Joint Task Force IV to depict the political outcome that was supposed to result from the invasion of Iraq: Apparently, Powerpoint presentations were the norm during the Defense Department's "planning" for the Iraq war. From Thomas Ricks' new book, Fiasco:[Army Lt. General David] McKiernan had another, smaller...
Some interesting developments at the international tribunals over the past few weeks: Most notably, Saddam Hussein has asked the ICC to investigate his alleged mistreatment by the U.S. while incarcerated during trial. Whatever the substantive merits of the allegations, the ICC has no jursidiction to investigation them, because neither Iraq nor the U.S. has ratified the Rome Statute. The...
Saturday was the 60th anniversary of the bombing of Hiroshima. Tens of thousands of Japanese thronged Peace Park in downtown Hiroshima to commemorate the attack, which killed nearly 140,000 people. From all accounts, the ceremony was deeply moving, a tribute to the need to abolish nuclear weapons once and for all: During the ceremony, children dressed in black...
An Argentine court has sentenced a former policeman to 25 years imprisonment for "disappearing" a couple and abducting their child in 1978, during Argentina's "Dirty War": A federal court in Buenos Aires sentenced Julio Héctor Simón to 25 years in prison for the illegal arrest and torture of José Poblete Roa and Gertrudis Hlaczik de Poblete, a Chilean/Argentine couple who “disappeared”...
Following up on Julian's post below, Uganda has announced that the ICC has agreed not to prosecute the five LRA leaders, including Joseph Kony, as long as the final agreement reached between the government and the LRA does not "condone impunity." Interestingly, Uganda also claims that it only initiated peace talks with the LRA because it could not find a partner...
I have recently been appointed the Book Review Editor -- along with Peter Ramsay, who is a member of the law faculty at LSE -- of the New Criminal Law Review, formerly published as the Buffalo Criminal Law Review. Here is the publisher's description of the journal's mission: Focused on examinations of crime and punishment in domestic, transnational, and international...
There is a fascinating story in the Jerusalem Post about the possibility of German soldiers defending Israel from Hezbollah attacks as part of a NATO force. Israel has recently signaled its openness to a NATO defense force, and Germany is obviously a leading member of NATO. Would it be a good idea to have German soldiers defending Israel? The...
Okay, it's official. We have lost the Iraq war: In an unannounced move, the House cafeteria has removed the terms "freedom fries" and "freedom toast" from its offerings, and has reverted to using the dishes' more common names, "french fries" and "french toast." Rep. Bob Ney (R-OH), who had implemented the change in 2003 in a fit of hollow...
Today will be Peter Spiro's final day guest-blogging. On behalf of all of us, I want to thank him for his stint -- which was, by any account, a smashing success. We wish him well in his new position at Temple! ...
