“You could almost see their dicks getting hard as they got new ideas." A Vanity Fair reporter investigates the chain of command that tossed out the Geneva Conventions and instituted coercive interrogation techniques -- some might call them torture or even war crimes -- in Bush's Global War on Terror. UC Berkeley law professor John Yoo's now-obsolete 81-page memo to the Pentagon in 2003 [available as PDFs here and here] was crucial, offering a broad range of legal justifications and deniability for disregarding international law in the name of "self-defense." Others say that Yoo was just making "a clear point about the limits of Congress to intrude on the executive branch in its exercise of duties as Commander in Chief." [previously here and here.]
posted on Apr 3, 2008 - View this thread

How To Start Your Own Country In Four Easy Steps. You’ve picked out a flag, written a national anthem, even printed up money with your face on it. But what’s the next step?
posted on Feb 27, 2008 - View this thread

Wikipedia wrangling once more: the entire German edition was shut down this week over the contents of a single entry. The parents of the article's subject, a German hacker who died in 1998 under mysterious circumstances, are displeased with his real name being disclosed in the encyclopedia. It is now back online; however, the future of the family's efforts is currently unclear, not only due to the German order's debatable validity in the US - but also because the order was, initially at least, mistakenly addressed to St. Petersburg, Russia, instead of St. Petersburg, Florida.
posted on Jan 20, 2006 - View this thread

Cruel and Unusual - The End Of The Eighth Amendment
It might seem at first that the rules for the treatment of Iraqi prisoners were founded on standards of political legitimacy suited to war or emergencies; based on what Carl Schmitt called the urgency of the ''exception,'' they were meant to remain secret as necessary ''war measures'' and to be exempt from traditional legal ideals and the courts associated with them. But the ominous discretionary powers used to justify this conduct are entirely familiar to those who follow the everyday treatment of prisoners in the United States—not only their treatment by prison guards but their treatment by the courts in sentencing, corrections, and prisoners' rights. The torture memoranda, as unprecedented as they appear in presenting ''legal doctrines . . . that could render specific conduct, otherwise criminal, not unlawful,'' refer to U.S. prison cases in the last 30 years that have turned on the legal meaning of the Eighth Amendment’s language prohibiting ''cruel and unusual punishment.'' What is the history of this phrase? How has it been interpreted? And how has its content been so eviscerated?
posted on Nov 8, 2004 - View this thread

Human Rights Watch Report: The Road to Abu Ghraib
Introduction, A Policy To Evade International Law:
Circumventing the Geneva Conventions, Undermining the Rules Against Torture, Renditions, “Disappearances” and so on and so on...
See also Human rights group finds Abu Ghraib cover-up
posted on Jun 9, 2004 - View this thread

The United States is cutting off military aid to 35 countries, including Colombia and six east European nations, because they back the International Criminal Court and have not exempted Americans from possible prosecution.
"...the Bush administration is afraid the tribunal in The Hague, Netherlands, backed by most European countries, might hear politically motivated prosecutions of U.S. military and civilian leaders."
posted on Jul 2, 2003 - View this thread

Despite American efforts, world criminal court is born With China, Russia, and the United States refusing to go along with this international court, just how effective can it become? And will the refusal of these major nations to join in add the what now appears the disintegration of global attempts at moderating international affairs?
posted on Mar 11, 2003 - View this thread

U.S. tries to block UN anti-torture vote "Concerned about the possibility of independent visits to U.S. civilian and military prisons, the United States sought Wednesday to block a vote on a U.N. plan meant to enforce a convention on torture. "
posted on Jul 24, 2002 - View this thread

"A sad day for the United Nations." When it comes to international law, there's one law for the USA and one law for the rest of the world. Disgusting.
posted on Jul 12, 2002 - View this thread

China has no respect for international law. In case you hadn't heard, China broke into the Japanese Consulate and forcibly removed five North Koreans seeking asylum. Since when can Chinese Police just waltz into the Japanese Consulate and drag people out? Not only does this demonstrate China's blatant disregard for the sovereignty of another country, it demonstrates how closely they share values with the Impregnable Fortress.
posted on May 13, 2002 - View this thread

As usual, when it's the U.S. turn, they play by different rules How come Russian and Scandinavian hackers can be charged under U.S. law for activities done in their home countries, yet when an American company gets a very reasonable request (IP tracking that it is done for web banners anyway) from a judge overseas, the U.S. grabs the free speech / local law argument.
posted on Nov 8, 2001 - View this thread