Items filed under "international law"

Children Carry Guns for a U.S. Ally, Somalia - NYTimes.com

Mike — Mon, 14 Jun 2010 08:27:41 -0400

Somali government officials concede that they have not done the proper vetting. Officials also revealed that the United States government was helping pay their soldiers, an arrangement American officials confirmed, raising the possibility that the wages for some of these child combatants may have come from American taxpayers.

Accounts, videos of flotilla assault continue to conflict

Mike — Wed, 02 Jun 2010 09:02:42 -0400

Under a moonlit sky, Huwaida Arraf, a graduate of American University's law school, watched from a small ship early Monday as Israeli commando boats pulled up to the Mavi Marmara, a vessel filled with about 600 activists hoping to breach an Israeli blockade of Gaza.

Israel's flotilla raid revives questions of international law

Mike — Wed, 02 Jun 2010 09:01:19 -0400

UNITED NATIONS -- In the two days following its commando raid on an aid flotilla to the Gaza Strip, Israel has been accused by Turkey and several other governments of behaving like an outlaw state, and engaging in acts of piracy and banditry on the high seas.

The Price of Assassination - Opinionator Blog - NYTimes.com

Mike — Wed, 14 Apr 2010 21:35:18 -0400

Students of the law might raise a couple of questions: 1) Doesn’t it violate international law to fire missiles into Pakistan (especially on a roughly weekly basis) when the Pakistani government has given no formal authorization? 2) Wouldn’t firing a missile at al-Awlaki in Yemen compound the international-law question with a constitutional question — namely whether giving the death penalty to an American without judicially establishing his guilt deprives him of due process?

A duty to uphold the law, even in war

Mike — Thu, 08 Apr 2010 08:36:19 -0400

The Nuremberg trials held that warmaking in violation of international law was no longer a national right but had become an international crime for which responsible leaders could be held accountable. Law had to apply equally to all. My supreme commander in World War II, Dwight D. Eisenhower, warned when he became president: "The world no longer has a choice between force and law. If civilization is to survive, it must choose the rule of law."

With Arms Pact, Disarmament Challenge Remains - NYTimes.com

Mike — Thu, 08 Apr 2010 08:35:35 -0400

Under the so-called New Start treaty, the two powers will pare their arsenals but still deploy 1,550 warheads each, on top of thousands of others not covered by the pact. All of which raises this question: Nearly two decades after the end of the cold war, with terrorists, rather than Soviet despots, the main threat, why does the world still need so many weapons?

Obama Administration Takes a New Approach to Biological Weapons - NYTimes.com

Mike — Thu, 10 Dec 2009 07:34:58 -0500

WASHINGTON — The Obama administration plans to announce a new policy on Wednesday to curb the spread of biological weapons, but it will reaffirm the Bush administration’s opposition to an international regimen for verifying stockpiles of anthrax, smallpox and other agents.

President won’t sign treaty to ban land mines - The Boston Globe

Mike — Wed, 25 Nov 2009 07:55:07 -0500

More than 150 countries have agreed to the Mine Ban Treaty’s provisions to end the production, use, stockpiling, and trade in mines. Besides the United States, holdouts include China, India, Pakistan, Myanmar, and Russia.

Human rights groups had expressed hopes that the Obama administration would sign the treaty.

23 Americans convicted in Italy in CIA kidnap case - The Boston Globe

Mike — Thu, 05 Nov 2009 07:15:45 -0500

Human rights groups hailed the decision and pressed President Obama to repudiate the Bush administration’s practice of abducting terror suspects and transferring them to countries where torture was permitted. The American Civil Liberties Union said the verdicts were the first convictions stemming from the rendition program.

Clinton and Indian Minister Face Off Over Reducing Emissions - washingtonpost.com

Mike — Mon, 20 Jul 2009 08:44:10 -0400

Ramesh replied that India's position on per capita emissions is "not a debating strategy" because it is enshrined in international agreements. "We look upon you suspiciously because you have not fulfilled what [developed countries] pledged to fulfill," he jabbed, calling it a "crisis of credibility."