Deniz Aydiner wins the honors for one of the dumbest murderers ever. He was indicted for aggravated murder in 2003 and while the investigation was pending he returned to Turkey. The state of Oregon subsequently indicted him and sought to impose the death penalty. But Aydiner missed his wife so much that he just had to return...
Seed Magazine has an interesting roundtable discussion about whether or not conflicts over fresh water are a significant threat to international stability (and whether water shortages are even a cause of war). The introduction to the discussion notes the case being made that water shortages have been and will increasigly be a source of violent conflict: In 2007 an 18-month study of...
Interesting interview at CFR.org on public diplomacy and the use of social networking with Elliot Schrage, formerly of Google, now of Facebook (and author of a perceptive 2004 study on workplace codes of conduct). No surpise, the State Department has a Facebook page. Schrage has this to say about how governments should put these tools to work: The challenge is, how do...
People magazine reports: Before heading to the glitz and glamour of the Cannes Film Festival in France, Angelina Jolie spent Tuesday in a courtside booth at The Hague in the Netherlands watching the prosecution of warlord Thomas Lubanga, calling it "a landmark trial for children." At one point, Jolie found herself under the watchful eye of Lubanga, the founder and former leader...
Jack Goldsmith has a new essay out in The New Republic, "The Cheney Fallacy," comparing the basic elements of the Obama and Bush national security and counterterrorism policies. It walks through eleven core features of the national security-counterterrorism apparatus, from Guantanamo to targeted killing to interrogation, etc., and compares the two administrations. Certainly I think this is the right basic...
Anonymous senior official in the Obama administration, 2009: [T]he hearsay rule is not one of those things that is rooted in American values. The Sixth Amendment to the United States Constitution, 1791: In all criminal prosecutions, the accused shall enjoy the right...
The news (not yet officially announced) that former President Bill Clinton will be named a Special Representative of the Secretary General Ban Ki-Moon to Haiti is surely unprecedented. While ex-presidents, prime ministers, and foreign ministers have been called on in the past to serve as special envoys of the SecGen, I cannot recall an instance where the spouse of a...
There's no legal obstacle to appointing a dual citizen to the Supreme Court. In fact, in contrast to qualifications for Congress and the Presidency, the Constitution sets no citizenship requirements of any kind for justices of the Supreme Court. Now it's unlikely in the extreme that Obama will appoint a foreigner to the Court, although it would be an interesting little parlor game...
There’s already been a good bit of thoughtful (see Dave Glazier) and not so thoughtful commentary about the Obama Administration’s decision to revive the commissions. I admit, news of the continuation of the commissions (in some revised form) hardly filled me with joy. But I’ve also been sorry to see rhetoric that seems to paint it at the end...
Lately I have been doing extensive historical research on the development of international law and I came across this remarkable quote from the 1921 edition of Lassa Oppenheim's International Law: “A constant increase of population must in the end force upon a State the necessity of acquiring more territory, and if it cannot be acquired by peaceable means, acquisition by conquest...
Pre-Trial Chamber I of the ICC has summoned Bahar Idriss Abu Garda, a Darfuri rebel leader, to appear before the court to face war crimes charges: Abu Garda, member of the Zaghawa tribe of Sudan, is charged with three war crimes allegedly committed during an attack carried out on 29 September 2007 against the African Union Mission in Sudan (“AMIS”), a...
I'm not sure I entirely agree with Kevin's last post re the Wall Street Journal, but I'm going to let that go in favor of taking up another issue that comes from an earlier WSJ editorial, Pelosi's Self-Torture. (WSJ, editorial, May 15, 2009.) In the middle of that editorial (with which I otherwise largely agree), the Journal notes that Pelosi...
