Search: crossing lines
06 Sep We Still Don’t Know Where the CIA’s Public Authority Comes From
...the CIA with the necessary authority. Perhaps there is another source, such as Title 50 of the US Code, as my co-blogger Deb Pearlstein has suggested. Indeed, the redaction on page 16 of the new White Paper may well refer to that other source of authority, given that five or six lines of redacted text follow this statement: Thus, just as Congress would not have intended section 1119 to bar a military attack on the sort of individual described above, neither would it have intended the provision to prohibit an...12 Jun Weekday News Wrap: Tuesday, June 12, 2012
...former was ordered to target Iran’s nuclear program last week by President Obama. NPR posts an op-ed about the troubling hypocrisy in the US’ recent leaks about its targeted killings and cyber warfare programs while prosecuting more government officials under the Espionage Act of 1917 than all previous administrations combined. Inter Press Service reports that the US has halted talks with Pakistan on NATO supply lines. North Korea has denied any plans for a third nuclear test. Thousands are reportedly showing up in Moscow for the first mass protests against...
30 Oct Options for a Peace Settlement for Ukraine: Option Paper XVI – War Crimes, Crimes against Humanity and Genocide
...require UN Security Council authorisation, although at a minimum it will require UN or EU collaboration. With regards to the ICC and ad hoc tribunals, a suggested relational and jurisdictional structure would be to provide the ICC/ad hoc tribunal with jurisdiction over high-ranking military commanders and civilian superiors, with domestic courts supported to try lower-ranking perpetrators, along the lines of the relationship between the ICTY and Bosnian/Croatian/Serbian courts, or the ICTR and Gacaca courts in Rwanda. Proceedings in human rights bodies, such as the European Court of Human Rights or...23 Jun Gabriella Blum Comments on the Role of the Judiciary in Israel in Counterterrorism
...notes, one other crucial difference to be taken into account is that of the involvement of domestic civilian populations in the two wars, and civilians in very close geographic proximity across territorial lines. Notably, ever since 9/11, American civilians have been spared from the war on terrorism – as indeed from the wars in Afghanistan and Iraq. Israelis are part of the war, in a direct, immediate and continuous manner. Whether from suicide bombings or rockets launched, no part of Israeli territory has been immune to attacks. The vulnerability of...
15 Dec Why Ukraine and the International Community Should Demand that Russia Renounce Territorial Expansion
...of aggression cannot be made valid by treaty. This agreement may draw lines on the map of de facto control, but it cannot make aggression legal. Under 41(2) of ARSIWA, “No State shall recognize as lawful a situation created by a serious breach within the meaning of article 40, nor render aid or assistance in maintaining that situation.” States cannot recognize Russian purported annexation without committing an internationally wrongful act themselves. It is too much to ask Russia to sign an agreement that has a full mea culpa clause, just...
13 Apr From Infinite Scroll to Command and Control: What Big Tech’s Courtroom Reckoning Means for Military AI Governance
[Alexander Blanchard is Senior Researcher in the Governance of AI Programme at the Stockholm International Peace Research Institute (SIPRI), Sweden] In recent weeks, there has been a good deal of commentary about military applications of artificial intelligence (AI), prompted by the US military’s public spat with the AI company Anthropic and the use of AI in its war on Iran. But another set of headlines also merits attention for those concerned with the global governance of military AI. Last month, juries in US courts found two of the most powerful...02 Jan The End of the United States – Coming in 2010
OK, I know the blogosphere has chewed over this article from the Wall Street Journal, and spit it out already, but I still can’t resist posting this WSJ graphic describing a Russian professor’s prediction about the end of the Union sometime in the middle of Obama’s first term (in which case he would be the reverse-Lincoln). I can see disunion in the future, but not quite along the lines here. Utah and Idaho going with California to join China? Alabama and Georgia joining Mexico? Kentucky in the E.U.?...
17 May The Palestinian Right of Return Could Go to the ICC
...Crimes of Apartheid and Persecution (April 2021), at pages 204, 207. Requiring a racial group to reside in separate locations within a state qualifies as apartheid. Under the International Convention on the Suppression and Punishment on the Crime of Apartheid, one act that constitutes apartheid is the taking of measures “designed to divide the population along racial lines by the creation of separate reserves and ghettos for the members of a racial group.” If forcing a group into a designated area within a country constitutes apartheid, forcing the group out...25 Aug Joe Biden, World Government Guy
...aide, is now director general of the somewhat scary sounding World Nuclear Association). Bad idea? Maybe we’ve come around to a world in which Tom Franck’s then-daring proposition (elaborated here and in the memorable 1991 N.Y. Times op-ed, “Declare War? Congress Can’t”) doesn’t seem so outlandish any more. (Some hint here also along the lines of the Concert of Democracies.) I doubt we’ll hear too much from the Democratic ticket during the campaign about deferring to Turtle Bay, but perhaps we might see possibilities in this direction after inauguration day....