This story by Robert Carroon provides the historical background of the 1863 poem “I Heard the Bells on Christmas Day” written by Henry Wadsworth Longfellow (pictured left). This poem is especially appropriate for any Christmas celebrated in the midst of war. Happy Holidays to all! In March 1863 a seventeen year old native of Cambridge, Massachusetts, slipped away...
Since 1955 NORAD (and its predecessor CONAD) has tracked Santa's each Christmas Eve and has answered questions for boys and girls about his progress. NORAD's Santa tracking services have uses interactive maps updated every few minutes at www.noradsanta.org. As Santa stops in each location, you can click an icon to learn more about that part of the world....
President Bush has signed the Genocide Accountability Act of 2007. As I noted last month, the Act provides for conditional universal jurisdiction over the crime of genocide. 18 USC sec. 1091 previously provided as follows:(a) Basic Offense.— Whoever, whether in time of peace or in time of war, in a circumstance described in subsection (d) and with...
Noted without sarcastic comment:The Serbian Defense Ministry has announced an agreement to sell $230 million in military equipment to Iraq. In September and November, Defense Minister Abdul-Qadir al-Obaidi became the first top Iraqi official to visit Belgrade since the fall of Slobodan Milosevic. Milosevic had close ties to fellow former dictator, Saddam Hussein of Iraq. During his trips, Obaidi discussed developing a...
I thought that I Am Legend was at the top of my Christmas movie list — but then I read about My Enemy's Enemy, a new documentary by Kevin Macdonald that explores the possibility that the capture and subsequent murder of Che Guevara in Bolivia was orchestrated by...
It's been a tough December for Alberto Fujimori, the former President of Peru. Two weeks ago, a Peruvian court sentenced him to six years in prison for ordering an illegal warrantless search of an apartment owned by the wife of his murderous intelligence chief, Vladimiro Montesinos — the first time a former Peruvian head of state has been convicted...
Time Magazine’s Person of the Year is Vladimir Putin (runner up Al Gore; sorry Al). The article, the wittily titled "A Tsar is Born” is here. Here’s a brief excerpt (highlights added):He is clear about Russia's role in the world. He is passionate in his belief that the dissolution of the Soviet Union was a tragedy, particularly since...
A federal district court in West Virginia recently rendered one of the most interesting extradition decisions I have ever read. The case of In re Extradition of Exoo, 2007 WL 3166926, involved allegations that George Exoo aided and abetted the suicide of Rosemary Toole. Exoo is a minister for Compassionate Chaplaincy Foundation, an organization that travels abroad to...
[Dan Bodansky is the Associate Dean for Faculty Development and Emily and Ernest Woodruff Chair in International Law at the University of Georgia Law School and a leading expert on climate change regulation. He participated in the Bali meeting and contributed this report to Opinio Juris.] Only in the context of the climate negotiations could Bali be considered a “breakthrough,”...
The WaPo reports here on the UN task force report that has uncovered "a pervasive pattern of corruption and mismanagement involving hundreds of millions of dollars in contracts for fuel, food, construction and other materials and services used by U.N. peacekeeping operations, which are in the midst of their largest expansion in 15 years." The Task Force, which was created...
I want to share a small vignette that I think symbolizes the stresses on countries that were once part of the Soviet Bloc but are now unsure if their future will be in seeking a closer alliance with Russia or with the West. In an article I published earlier this year I called such states systemic borderlands—states that are the...
Governor Corzine's statement today as he signed the NJ death penalty ban: Thank you all for being here. Today, December 17th 2007, is a momentous day - a day of progress - for the State of New Jersey and for the millions of people across our nation and around the globe who reject the death penalty as a moral or practical...
