Spokesmen for several of Iraq's religious minorites, including Chaldo/Assyrian Catholics , Iraqi Turkmen Muslims , and Mandaeans have expressed concern that new Iraqi constitution due out in a month may leave out any meaningful provisions guaranteeing religious freedom. Panel members at a National Press Club discussion Thursday called on the United States to ensure that [...]
Negotiations over a global anti-terrorism treaty get under way again the week of July 25, according to Mohamed Bennouna, chairman of the UN General Assemby's treaty-writing (Sixth) legal committee. Earlier this month G8 leaders called for early agreement on a draft of the Comprehensive Convention on International Terrorism , which has been stalled in the [...]
AP is reporting that a US federal appeals court has ruled that Guantanamo detainees may be tried by military commissions. Read the US DC Circuit Court of Appeals opinion in Hamdan v. Rumsfeld. JURIST's Paper Chase provides background coverage of the Hamdan case. AP has more. 12:35 PM ET – The ruling overturned a lower [...]
The Pakistan government Friday asked the Supreme Court of Pakistan to rule on a controversial Islamic law passed Thursday by the conservative Islamist legislature of the country's North West Frontier Province . President General Pervez Musharraf is seeking the Court’s ruling on the constitutionality of the new law which bears a resemblance to Afghan regulatons [...]
At a Senate Armed Services subcommittee hearing Thursday, three top military lawyers said they had lodged complaints about the definition of torture put forth by the US Department of Justice and its application to the interrogations of enemy combatants held by the US. The testimony marked the first time the JAGs have publicly acknowledged objections [...]
US Army Gen. Geoffrey Miller has made contradictory statements regarding his interactions with high-level Pentagon officials on the Abu Ghraib scandal, according to Friday's Chicago Tribune. In May 2004 Miller, a former Guantamao commander later transferred to Abu Ghraib, told the US Senate Committee on Armed Services that he had simply filed a report on [...]
Britain's most senior military figures in the House of Lords Thursday assailed the UK Ministry of Defense for subjecting soldiers to litigation arising out of their conduct in Iraq. The English Attorney General, Lord Goldsmith, is shortly expected to announce charges against soldiers arising from the murder of Baha Mousa and other Iraqis allegedly abused [...]
Moazamm Begg , a UK national formerly detained at Guantanamo Bay, has told the Associated Press that rampant racism in Britain, a lack of assimilation in certain communities, anger over US involvement in Iraq and Afghanistan, and conditions in Guantanamo may have contributed to the motivations of those involved in the London bombings earlier this [...]
US District Court judge Jeffrey Miller has thrown out a lawsuit filed in March 2005 against the Associated Press and reporter Seth Hettena claiming that the news group violated privacy and copyright laws by publishing photos of Navy SEALs with Iraqi prisoners. All four counts of the lawsuit were dismissed Tuesday when Miller concluded that [...]
Brandon Mayfield , a Portland lawyer and Muslim convert, returns to a federal courthouse in Portland Friday for a pretrial hearing in his civil lawsuit against the US government. A little over a year ago Mayfield was arrested as a suspect in the Madrid train bombings that killed 191 people. The FBI originally claimed that [...]
