The Bush administration, in an about face, has decided to release Salim Hamdan, the former driver for al-Qaida leader Osama bin Laden, from detention at the Guantanamo Bay prison facility. Hamdan has emerged as the center-piece for the Bush administration's detainee policy in the so-called war on terror. Hamdan was captured in Afghanistan in 2001. […]
The senior leadership of the Holy Land Foundation was convicted today of conspiring to provide material support to terrorists – in this case, Hamas – as well as money laundering and tax evasion. The Dallas Morning News describes the changes each side made to their case after the first prosecution ended in a mistrial. The […]
Orin Kerr has this strong analysis, explaining the importance of today's Second Circuit decision upholding the convictions of several individuals involved in bombing American embassies in Africa ten years ago. (The decision is available here, split into 4th and 5th Amendment issues and other claims, as well as here). Here is Andy McCarthy, one of […]
The trials began 63 years ago yesterday. The groundbreaking trials were a revolution in international criminal law, setting forth the principle that legalizing vicious abuses such as crimes against humanity under domestic law could not provide impunity. Rather, such abuses always violated international law. When the Khmer leaders or the interhamwe or Charles Taylor or […]
For those of you interested in pirates outside of their rakish hilarity and annual holiday – that is, in the continuing and significant threat they pose to international security – there's been considerable additional discussion today of the Somali pirate affair. Here's Patrick Barry on the various international parties now attempting to police the Gulf […]
Here is Evan Kohlmann at CounterTerrorismBlog. Short version: Al-Zawahiri has put his foot in his mouth before, angering even other Islamic terrorists by acting as if groups like Hamas and other Iraqi insurgents are duty-bound to do as he tells them. Walid Phares assesses the whole tape. Kohlmann also helpfully links a full transcript of […]
Ilan Goldenberg's analysis here. Goldenberg suggests the attack on Obama shows Al Qaeda's recruitment efforts are threatened by Obama's ability to rebrand America's image, particularly in Africa and the Middle East. Our own Josh Hammer has a similar analysis here. As always, when we discuss Al Qaeda, whether it's an attack on AQ-affiliated targets in […]
The problem of international naval piracy has received renewed attention in recent days, prompted by attacks on several ships, including a Saudi tanker off the coast of Somalia. Voice of America reports almost 100 ships have been attacked off of Somalia this year. Piracy, of course, is the original crime under international law, and so […]
Agence-France Press reports the Rwandan government may issue indictments against former French President Francois Mitterand and Prime Minister Dominique de Villepin for their alleged role in the 1994 Rwandan genocide. A recent Rwandan government investigation held approximately 20 French officials, including Mitterand and Villepin, responsible. At the same time, a Rwandan official has been arrested […]
Pakistan just might be the thorniest of the myriad pressing foreign policy challenges that will demand President Obama's attention the minute he's sworn in. Josh Hammer has this summary of the several recent terrorist attacks conducted by Taliban-allied forces. Meanwhile, the United States continues to target Al Qaeda militants living on the Pakistani side of […]
Charles Taylor's son Chucky was convicted of torture Friday, in the first prosecution under the United States’ Extraterritorial Torture Statute. Taylor is accused of leading a special unit in his father's Liberian army, known as the Demon Force, from 1999 to 2002; according to the Times of London, the force allegedly used tactics like “dripping […]
At Foreign Policy magazine's Passport blog, Elizabeth Dickinson has this moving and incisive piece on the causes and effects of the long-running conflict in the Democratic Republic of Congo, which flared up again. It's a compelling read. As for the conflict, the EU is sending aid for some of the displaced civilians, of whom there […]
Former UN High Representative in Bosnia Paddy Ashdown and American diplomat Richard Holbrooke wrote this column last week warning of an impending crisis in the region and asserting that the Dayton Agreement, which has crafted an uneasy and separate peace which has lasted more than a decade now in Bosnia, is on the rocks. Niheer […]
Kevin Heller at Opinio Juris points to an announcement by the ICC's Chief Prosecutor that he will bring war crimes charges against Darfuri rebels. As Heller ably lays out, it's not easy to decide what to think of the charges; the offense in question, an armed attack on African Union peacekeepers, seems appropriate for the […]
Georgian President Mikhail Saakashvili Tuesday strongly denied accusations his armed forces had committed war crimes during an August offensive in the breakaway republic of South Ossetia. The BBC reported Georgian troops had used indiscriminate force, turning their guns and tanks on civilian targets. Eyewitness accounts of the incursion details civilians being shot as they […]