I know, fisking pro-Bashir propaganda is kind of a pointless task, but the article made me mad with its shameless inaccuracy. It's unfortunate that so many Arab readers -- the original article was published in the Al Rai Jordanian Daily -- are exposed to this kind of garbage concerning the ICC and Darfur. Without further ado, the fisking...
The blogosphere is all atwitter with news that the CIA has been using Viagra to bribe Afghan chieftains into revealing information about the Taliban. I was going to point out that, however successful the erections-for-info exchange might be, it is worth wondering to what extent the practice facilitates rape, marital and otherwise. But it appears Cara at Feministe has beaten...
Dan Drezner, a political scientist at Tufts and well known public intellectual aka blogger, has a short column at The National Interest from early December asking why it is that so many of the important foreign policy jobs in the Obama administration are going to lawyers, rather than to public policy or foreign affairs school graduates. Dan starts with Dani...
Scott Horton has a typically excellent post today at Harpers.org discussing the perversity of right-wing commentators who defend the use of torture. But I was troubled by the following comment about the ICC, which he offers in agreement with an old editorial by David Rivkin and Lee Casey: Rivkin’s history is much like that of Reynolds and Goldberg. Back when the...
The BBC is reporting that President-elect Obama has pledged to close Guantanamo within the next two years. The report is based on this Time Magazine article declaring him (big surprise!) their "Person of the Year." I am not 100% sure Obama has really made this pledge, but it certainly can be read that way. In response to the question as...
The UN Security Council has passed unanimously a US drafted resolution authorizing attacks upon pirates, whether by land or sea. It is one of those rare security issues in which the great powers, and many small ones, have been willing to come together, at least in granting authority. As the Washington Post reports: The U.N. Security Council voted unanimously Tuesday to authorize nations...
Scott Malcomson, an editor on foreign affairs at the New York Times Magazine, as well as being one of the Really Smart People I Know, had a short, interesting review in the NYT book review, on Sunday, December 14, 2008 of books on humanitarianism and intervention, "When To Intervene." Scott blogs over at HuffPo, but for this book review especially,...
Professor Bobby Chesney of Wake Forest (and the National Security Advisors blog) sends along the following: The 2nd annual National Security Law Junior Faculty Workshop will take place in Austin on March 12 and 13, 2009. This event is unique in that it combines discussion of works-in-progress with training in the law of war provided by instructors from the International Committee of...
Treat this as the latest round in the Guantanamo discussion ...
The ACLU has filed a habeas corpus petition on behalf of a U.S. citizen who, as of the time of filing, had been held by the United Arab Emirates for about three months without charges. And, beyond the issue of unlawful detention, there are now also allegations that the UAE Security Services have used torture to extract a false confession. Did the UAE...
Update, Friday, December 5. Eric Posner was kind enough to cite me on this and some other posts referenced under the Guantanamo tag. Eric might well be right in saying that this is premature; I am blogging about this, but will look more seriously (i.e., assign a research assistant to dig out What They Said Under Bush, What They Said...
Not according to Stephen Zunes, a Middle East expert at the University of San Francisco. He recently posted an essay on Alternet that should give progressive international lawyers and scholars pause. Here is the introduction: For those hoping for a dramatic change in U.S. foreign policy under an Obama administration -- particularly regarding human rights, international law, and respect for international...
