The Obama Administration has taken over the White House, and with it the www.whitehouse.gov website. Consistent with the earlier campaign's internet-focus, visitors will find a front-page link to a new blog, The White House Blog. Macon Phillips, the Director of New Media for the White House, already has a post up, Change has come to WhiteHouse.Gov, which introduces the new blog...
In the comments to my post below on the BBC story, Mark C has kindly provided a link to the "formal request" allegedly submitted on behalf of "millions" of Sudanese who oppose arresting Bashir. (The request also opposes arrest warrants for the rebel leaders, although perfunctorily -- protecting Bashir is its primary objective.) I hope to address the request's numerous...
ICC silliness doesn't just affect the media. States and NGOs suffer the malady, as well. Case in point: the recent, repeated calls for the ICC to prosecute Israel for war crimes allegedly committed in Gaza. First up, Bolivia: "The Andean state says it is intended to make regional allies take a unified stance against "the Israeli political and military leaders responsible...
Earlier today, the SFRC voted 16-1 in favor of Senator Hillary Clinton's nomination to be the next U.S. Secretary of State. That result is not surprising, nor was her generally well-regarded performance before the SFRC on Tuesday. Indeed, it's worth remembering on the second point that Clinton worked not only with transition officials and her own advisers to get ready,...
One of the take-aways from Hillary Clinton's confirmation hearing was the rise of the term "smart power." Sen. Clinton said: "I believe that American leadership has been wanting, but is still wanted," she said. "We must use what has been called smart power, the full range of tools at our disposal -- diplomatic, economic, military, political, legal, and cultural...
Hold the presses! President-elect Obama will issue an executive order in his first week in office requiring the U.S. detention center at Guantanamo Bay to be closed...
Deborah has already mentioned the bill introduced this week by Rep. John Conyers for a National Commission on Presidential War Powers and Civil Liberties, which has been likened in the popular press to a truth and reconciliation commission. (A draft version of the bill is available here.) I think this is a somewhat inaccurate description. Truth commissions are often focused on understanding...
Those who defend Israel's use of armed force -- in Gaza and elsewhere -- often complain that critics reflexively assume the worst about Israel's intentions. There is more than a grain of truth to that, but Israel doesn't help itself with its inability to admit that faulty intelligence sometimes leads it to make mistakes. Case in point: the attack on...
Philippe Sands gave an extensive interview on NPR's Fresh Air yesterday. Sands is already on record with his view that torture has occurred as a part of U.S. detention policy at GTMO and that high level officials are responsible for these acts. Although I'm not sure he had much new to say, his careful and eloquent arguments make for easy listening. ...
The New York Times has a thoughtful piece by Adam Liptak this weekend on the Obama Administration’s difficult choice in its forthcoming brief in the Supreme Court case of al-Marri v. Pucciarelli. Essentially, the Obama Administration will have to choose between continued detention, deportation to a third country, or prosecution. Each choice is perilous. If...
John Bolton and John Yoo have this op-ed in today's NY Times vaunting Article II treaties over congressional-executive agreements. While conceding the fact of CEAs in the international economic context, the duo argues that going the CEA route for such agreements as the ICC and a successor to the Kyoto protocol "would pose a serious challenge to American principles...
John Pike, of GlobalSecurity.org website, has a provocative op-ed in today's Washington Post (January 4, 2009, B3) arguing that the evolution of battlefield robots might mean robots as the soldiers that do the killing on future battlefields: Within a decade, the Army will field armed robots with intellects that possess, as H.G. Wells put it, "minds that are to our minds...
