Dafna Linzer writes at Propublica that the review process for detainees at Guantanamo is “painstakingly slow”. She also writes this little tidbit of information: Officials with knowledge of that work said it has become complicated by a federal court ruling in April to give some detainees held by the military…
The use of force in international relations is a common practice in the world today, as it has historically been, with the responsible party never failing to claim some noble cause or worthy justification for its actions. Such declarations of benevolence aside, the reasons publicly stated as pretext for wars…
Thirty years ago today, a bomb exploded on a Cubana Airlines plane over the Caribbean Sea, resulting in the death of all 73 passengers on board. The anniversary of this terrorist attack “coincides with a critical juncture in the case of Luis Posada Carriles,” the Washington Post explains. Posada is wanted…
Iraq under Saddam Hussein was not, by any means, the first case in which “regime change” was the policy of the U.S. government. Take, for just one example, Cuba under Fidel Castro. When President Eisenhower briefed his successor John F. Kennedy, plans for an invasion of Cuba were sitting on…
On February 15, 1898, a mysterious explosion sank the USS Maine in Havana Harbor, Cuba killing 260 of the men aboard. The event was grasped upon by influential figures as a pretext to intervene in Cuba, where Spain was fighting to prevent the Cubans from gaining their independence. The media…
“What are our global obligations? To give terrorists no support, no sanctuary.” – President Clinton, speaking before the United Nations on terrorism in 1998[1] “We will make no distinction between the terrorists who committed these acts and those who harbor them.” – President Bush, September 11, 2001[2] Ostensibly, the United…
A draft memorandum from the Justice Department’s Office of Legal Counsel dated January 9, 2002, entitled “Application of Treaties and Laws to al Qaeda and Taliban Detainees”, was written to inform the Department of Defense that the U.S. government, in the “war on terrorism”, need not conform to the standards…
Secretary of State Colin Powell wrote a memo to follow-up on the January 25, 2002 State Department memorandum to the George W. Bush, entitled “Decision Re Application of the Geneva Convention on Prisoners of War to the Conflict With al Qaeda and the Taliban”, which contended the Justice Department’s judgment…
On January 25, 2002, the U.S. Justice Department sent a memorandum to the George W. Bush reasserting the judgment that the Geneva Conventions did not apply to prisoners held at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba. Entitled “Decision Re Application of the Geneva Convention on Prisoners of War to the Conflict With al…
On December 18, 2001, The U.S. Department of Justice sent a memorandum to William J. Haynes, II, General Counsel at the Department of Defense. The memo, entitled “Possible habeas jurisdiction over aliens held in Guantanamo Bay, Cuba” and written by Deputy Assistant Attorney Generals Patrick F. Philbin and John C.…
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