I know not everyone is a fan of punk, but this is ridiculous: British anti-terrorism detectives escorted a man from a plane after a taxi driver had earlier become suspicious when he started singing along to a track by punk band The Clash, police said Wednesday. Detectives halted the London-bound flight at Durham Tees Valley Airport in northern England and Harraj Mann,...
Prosecutors began cross-examining Saddam today. During questioning, Saddam insisted that it was legal for him to authorize the execution of the 148 Dujail villagers, because they had been properly sentenced to death by the People's Revolutionary Court: In the current trial, Saddam and seven former members of his regime are charged in a crackdown against Shiites launched after a...
Citing insufficient evidence, a three-judge Iraqi court has dismissed charges of insurgent activity against Abdul Ameer Younis Hussein, a CBS cameraman detained and held by the U.S. military for nearly a year after he filmed the aftermath of a bombing in Mosul: Scott Horton, one of his American lawyers, said the U.S. military claimed Hussein had prior knowledge of the car...
Peru's Minister of Justice, Alejandro Tudela, reiterated yesterday his intention to have Alberto Fujimori, the former President of Peru, extradited from Chile to stand trial on corruption and human-rights charges, including using a death squad to kill 25 people, illegal wiretapping -- still a crime in Peru, if not in the U.S. -- bribery, and illegal payments of more...
Here's a fascinating statistic: of the 20 Iraq combat veterans who have announced their intention to run for Congress in 2006, 19 are running as Democrats. That's a staggering percentage, given that a poll taken prior to the 2004 election found that 72% of active-duty military personnel and 73% of National Guard and Reserve personnel favored Bush over Kerry....
The International Crisis Group has released its April report concerning whether 70 conflict situations have improved, worsened, or stayed the same over the previous month. In March, ten situations worsened: Belarus: Incumbent Aleksandr Lukashenko declared winner of 19 March presidential election with 82.6% of vote. OSCE observers said poll not free and fair. Opposition came under pressure in run-up to...
The Iraqi High Tribunal has announced that Saddam Hussein and six others have been charged with genocide in connection with Operation Anfal, a three-phase attack on the Kurds in northern Iraq in the late 1980s during the war with Iran. Saddam's co-defendants in the Operation Anfal case include Ali Hassan Majid, better known as "Chemical Ali"; former Defense...
To no one's surprise, the Serbian government has finally admitted, after years of denials, that a group of nearly 50 military and intelligence officials conpsired to help Ratko Mladic avoid capture. Some of the officials have been reassigned or fired, and the Serbian government insists that "the noose is tightening" around Mladic. Serbia better hope so. As I've noted...
On the thirtieth anniversary of the coup in Argentina that removed Isabel Peron from power, the ever-essential National Security Archives has released a series of fascinating documents detailing the massive atrocities committed by the military junta in the wake of the coup and revealing Henry Kissinger's intent to immediately support the junta despite warnings of the impending bloodshed. The...
There is an interesting story in The Australian today reporting that Vladimir Putin not only plagiarized his economics thesis, "The Strategic Planning of Regional Resources Under the Formation of Market Relations," from two American economists at the University of Pittsburgh, but would not have earned the Ph.D in economics he claims to have even if he had written it: A new...
Bush's string of broken promises to the victims of Hurricane Katrina are well-documented. So this story -- wherein, when faced with a choice between politics and compassion, he once again chooses politics — comes as little surprise: Cuba's prize money from the first World Baseball Classic has become a political football in President Fidel Castro's 4-decade-old sparing match with the...
A couple of weeks ago, I discussed the ICTR's acquittal of Andre Ntagerura and Emmanuel Bagambiki, two high-ranking Rwandan officials charged with genocide and crimes against humanity. Rwanda has now announced that it intends to prosecute Bagambiki, the former governor of Cyangugu, for crimes against humanity involving rape and sexual violence — charges that were not part of...
