In association with the International Commission of Jurists

Author: Kevin Jon Heller

27 Mar

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...

|
26 Mar

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...

|
25 Mar

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...

|
25 Mar

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...

|
23 Mar

I couldn't agree more with Roger about the CPT response. I'm particularly appalled by the verb the CPT uses to describe what happened to the hostages — "released." Not "rescued." Not "freed." "Released" — as if, like Roger says, the Brigades of the Swords of Righteousness simply had a change of heart and let them go. I understand being opposed to...

|
22 Mar

According to the Times (UK) Online, the Vatican sponsored a conference last weekend aimed at rehabilitating the Crusades as wars fought with the "noble aim" of reclaiming the Holy Land for Christianity: At the conference, held at the Regina Apostolorum Pontifical University, Roberto De Mattei, an Italian historian, recalled that the Crusades were “a response to the Muslim invasion of Christian...

|
21 Mar

According to a recent report by the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees, the number of persons seeking asylum in the industrialized countries has fallen by 50% since 2000, reaching their lowest level in nearly two decades. In most individual countries, the 2005 total was the lowest in many years. The number of persons who sought asylum in Germany was the...

|
21 Mar

A Spanish Judge, Fernando Grande-Marlaska, has indicted 32 suspected Islamic militants for conspiring to drive a truck carrying 1,100lbs of explosives into the National Court in Madrid. The judge said that the attack could have killed more than 900 people, although he he did not release a date for the planned attack and no explosives have ever been found....

|
20 Mar

Voice of America reports that an Afghan man, Abdul Rahman, is facing the death penalty for converting to Christianity from Islam, a capital offense under Afghanistan's Islamic law. The case points to an fundamental tension in the new Afghan constitution. On the one hand, the constitution declares Afghanistan an "Islamic Republic" (Ch. 1, Art. 2) and prohibits...

|
19 Mar

Behold the new face of the anti-war movement. Sure, she's pretty. And I'm completely on board with the "no war" sentiment. But why does she have — as Josh Marshall astutely points out — a Mercedes-Benz symbol on the other side of her face? Have the hippies been so soon forgotten? Or is she trying...

|