The US Justice Department has not yet made a decision on whether it will file criminal charges against Blackwater USA employees involved in the killings of 14 Iraqi civilians during a September 16 incident that took place in West Baghdad, a DOJ spokesperson said Wednesday. The comments came in response to reports from the New [...]
The US Court of Appeals for the Eleventh Circuit issued a per curiam opinion on Thursday overturning a district court order to stay the execution of Florida death row inmate Mark Dean Schwab . The federal district court blocked Schwab's execution on Wednesday pending the US Supreme Court's decision in Baze v. Rees (07-5439) , [...]
Center for Biological Diversity v. National Highway Traffic Safety Administration, US Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit, November 15, 2007 . Read the full text of the opinion . Reported in JURIST's Paper Chase here.
Order in Pending Case L Schwab, Mark D. V. Florida, US Supreme Court, November 15, 2007 . Read the full text of the order . Reported in JURIST's Paper Chase here.
Polish prosecutors have charged six Polish soldiers with murder and violations of the Geneva Conventions in connection with an August 16 incident in Afghanistan in which the soldiers allegedly fired into a crowd of civilians who posed no threat of harm to the soldiers. Six people, including three children, were killed by the Polish soldiers, [...]
Asim Qureshi : "Travelling through the world researching into abuses of human rights in the 'War on Terror', a familiar pattern begins to emerge; values and the safeguards of democracy are being stripped away in the name of international peace and security. Many governments have acquiesced the use of extra-judicial 'techniques' to apprehend and question [...]
A delegation of lawyers from the Iraqi bar association Wednesday hand-delivered a four-page letter to several US lawmakers that criticizes the US government for not devoting adequate financial resources to ensure the rule of law in Iraq, according to the Hill. The Iraqi lawyers, led by Iraqi bar association president Aswad al-Minshidi, delivered the letter [...]
The retired Supreme Court of Pakistan judge who unsuccessfully challenged General Pervez Musharraf in his recent bid for legislative re-election as president of Pakistan is bringing an application before the current high court challenging its constitutional status to rule on the pending case concerning Musharraf's eligibility for re-election while still Army chief of staff. Justice [...]
Malcolm Nance : "In my testimony last week to the House Judiciary Subcommittee on Torture, I attempted to clarify exactly what is involved in waterboarding. Simply put, waterboarding, when used in any capacity in a coercive environment against detainees, captives or hostages, with the intent to illicit information or to break the will to resist, [...]
A US military spokesperson on Wednesday acknowledged that a 238-page operating manual for the US facility at Guantanamo Bay was leaked on the Internet, but said the document is out-of-date and does not reflect current procedures. The manual, titled Camp Delta Standard Operating Procedures (SOP) , is dated March 28, 2003, and is labeled "Unclassified/for [...]
