NEWS
August 7, 2008
The U.S. government got a guilty verdict yesterday in its prosecution of Osama bin Laden's driver in the first war crimes trial since World War II. But it's a hollow victory because the military tribunal system, as shaped by the Bush administration, remains a flawed instrument of the war on terror that contravenes the principles of American justice. A jury of six military officers convicted Salim Hamdan of "material support" for terrorism, the lesser of the two charges against him but one broad enough to easily ensnare a small-time player such as the Yemeni.
NEWS
By Carol J. Williams | August 7, 2008
GUANTANAMO BAY, Cuba - A military jury convicted Osama bin Laden's driver yesterday of providing material support to terrorism but acquitted him of the more serious charge of conspiracy. Salim Hamdan quietly collapsed in tears at the defense table, where he had sat through three weeks of government testimony about his involvement with al-Qaida, mostly gleaned from at least 40 interrogations by U.S. federal agents. The Navy captain presiding over the six-person jury slowly read out the verdict on each of 10 separate counts, announcing first that the 38-year-old Yemeni with a fourth-grade education was not guilty on both counts of conspiracy.
NEWS
July 23, 2008
Some crimes horrify because of their brutality, others because of the sheer number of their victims. The alleged crimes of Radovan Karadzic, the Bosnian Serb leader accused of orchestrating Europe's worst massacre since World War II, were a mad stew of cruelty and mass murder that made the term "ethnic cleansing" synonymous with evil. This week, after a decade-long manhunt, Serbian police finally arrested Mr. Karadzic on charges of genocide and crimes against humanity. His capture, though long delayed, should send a message to tyrants everywhere: You can run, you can hide, but sooner or later you will be found and called to account for your despicable actions.
NEWS
By New York Times News Service | May 21, 2008
WASHINGTON - In 2002, as evidence of prisoner mistreatment at Guantanamo Bay began to mount, FBI agents at the base created a "war crimes file" to document accusations against American military personnel but were eventually ordered to close down the file, a Justice Department report disclosed yesterday. The report, an exhaustive, 437-page review prepared by the Justice Department inspector general, provides the fullest account to date of internal dissent and confusion within the Bush administration over the use of harsh interrogation tactics by the military and the Central Intelligence Agency.
NEWS
By Gary Solis | September 12, 2007
American soldiers and Marines in Iraq are convicted of the homicides of noncombatants but sentenced to no confinement. No officer is held accountable for abuses at Abu Ghraib prison. These are just two disturbing military legal headlines. Why are court-martial convictions seemingly hard to come by? The homicides of 24 Haditha civilians, including women and children, for example, resulted in court-martial charges against eight Marines, including four officers. Almost two years later, however, charges have been dropped against two of the four alleged shooters and one of the four officers, Capt.
NEWS
By Maggie Farley | August 11, 2007
EL FASHER, Sudan -- For a man accused of masterminding massacres, Ahmad Harun seems quite comfortable in the place he is suspected of helping to destroy. He strolls around the grassy compound belonging to the local governor in Sudan's deeply troubled Darfur region, embracing Arab tribal leaders, soldiers and officials who have come to hear the president. Harun, 42, was in charge of the region's security during the height of the attacks on farm villages that sent millions fleeing their homes in 2003 and 2004.
NEWS
By Maggie Farley | March 13, 2007
UNITED NATIONS -- A high-level U.N. mission to Darfur said yesterday that the Sudanese government had orchestrated human rights crimes against its own people and urged that leaders of Sudan's government and militias be charged with war crimes. But Khartoum is blocking United Nations attempts to stem the violence, organizing opposition to the mission's report and stepping back from its agreement to accept a joint U.N.-African peacekeeping force in the region. Sudan's government "has manifestly failed to protect the population of Darfur from large-scale international crimes, and has itself orchestrated and participated in these crimes," according to a report commissioned by the U.N. Human Rights Council.
NEWS
By MATTHEW HAY BROWN | February 16, 2007
WASHINGTON -- A small group of Marylanders staged an antiwar protest in the Capitol Hill office of Sen. Barbara A. Mikulski yesterday to demand that she stop voting to fund the war in Iraq. Mikulski, who voted against giving President Bush authority to use military force in Iraq in 2002 but has voted subsequently to approve spending on the war, did not meet with the protesters. Through an aide, the Maryland Democrat declined to comment on the protest. "We know that Senator Mikulski is against the war, but she has voted to fund it," said Susan Crane, a peace activist from Baltimore.
NEWS
By Paul Miller | January 30, 2007
My smart and ambitious Serbian language teacher in Belgrade last summer spoke for an entire generation of young people in the former Yugoslavia when she unleashed a bitter tirade on the difficulties of obtaining a visa to travel abroad, even to nearby Austria or Italy. "I feel like I'm in a prison," Marija complained, "and I don't even know who to blame!" Not all of Marija's friends are so unsure. Many, she told me, feel the European Union is blackmailing Serbs by requiring their government to arrest Bosnian Serb army chief Ratko Mladic - indicted by the International Criminal Tribunal of the Former Yugoslavia on charges of genocide, war crimes and crimes against humanity - before restarting its "stabilization and association agreement" with Belgrade.
NEWS
September 30, 2006
Sept. 30 1946 An international military tribunal in Nuremberg, Germany, found 22 top Nazi leaders guilty of war crimes.