Daniel Pines, an assistant general counsel at the CIA, has asserted in a law journal that the abduction of terrorism suspects abroad is legal under U.S. law, even when the suspect is turned over to countries notorious for torture. “There are virtually no legal restrictions on these types of operations,” Pines asserts in the current edition of the Loyola University Chicago Law Journal.
“Indeed, U.S. law does not even preclude the United States from rendering individuals to a third country in instances where the third country may subject the rendered individual to torture. The only restrictions that do exist under U.S. law preclude U.S. officials from themselves torturing or inflicting cruel and unusual punishment on individuals during rendition operations, or rendering individuals from a place of actual armed conflict or occupation -- all of which prove to be narrow limitations indeed,” Pines writes.
CIA lawyer: U.S. law does not forbid rendition
Segregation of Jews and Arabs in 2010 Israel is almost absolute
Under the guise of the deceptively mundane name "Amendment to the Cooperative Associations Bill," the Knesset's Constitution, Law and Justice Committee this week finalized a bill intended to bypass previous rulings of the High Court of Justice. If indeed this legislation is approved by the Knesset plenum, it will not be possible to describe it as anything other than an apartheid law.
Ten years ago, the High Court of Justice ordered the town of Katzir to accept the family of Adel and Iman Kaadan, Arab citizens of Israel, as members of the community. Seven years later, the court issued a similar ruling against the Galilee village of Rakefet, which, like Katzir, is Jewish. Now, however, the legislature has come up with a proper "Zionist" response to the justices: If it becomes law, the amendment will give acceptance committees of communal villages the authority to limit residence in their towns exclusively to Jews.
BP Embraces Deepwater Risk as Dudley Rebuilds After $40 Billion Gulf Spill
BP Plc Chief Executive Officer Robert Dudley expects to drill in the U.S. Gulf for 20 years as the company exploits its experience searching for oil miles below the sea.
“Companies like BP, one of the roles they play in the industry is working in riskier areas,” Dudley, 55, said in an interview at BP’s worldwide London headquarters yesterday. BP “is now going to become incredibly focused on managing the risks, for example, of deep-water. It’s not going to shy away from the risk, it’s going to get even better at it.”
Randy Quaid blows whistle on celebrity Targeted Individuals
In a Vancouver press conference, actor Randy Quaid described part of the typical plight of a Targeted Individual, naming eight close Hollywood associates he believes were targeted and killed. The targeting system is highly organized; involves people at all levels of society including in banks, the Department of Justice, and even family members who are are often co-opted to help destroy the target, as Quaid has learned first-hand.
Both Randy Quaid and his wife Evi have sought refuge from the targeting in Canada, as though the criminal cabal is not transnational. In Canada, the couple was jailed and then released, possibly part of the typical harassment treatment targets get from officials.
Rights Groups: Israel Abused Palestinian Detainees
Shin Bet prisoners are often incarcerated and interrogated under unsatisfactory conditions, according to a report to be released on Tuesday by the rights groups B'Tselem and Hamoked.
The report - based on interviews with 121 Palestinians detained in the security service's Petah Tikva detention facility last year - indicates that 645 detainees had filed complaints over the nature of their incarceration and/or interrogation, but that none had led to the opening of a criminal investigation.
CIA releases report into 2001 Peru plane shootdown
ABC News has obtained some incredibly dramatic footage [scroll down for video] of an incident from nine years ago in which the CIA watched as a Peruvian air force fighter jets shot down a plane carrying American missionaries even as the pilot screamed for help.
The tape was shot from a CIA plane which was on assignment in Peru as part of anti-smuggling operations undertaken in coordination with the Peruvian air force. As ABC's Brian Ross notes, it has taken this long for the CIA to acknowledge its responsibility in the matter.
Experts: Alcohol More Harmful Than Crack or Heroin
Alcohol abuse is more harmful than crack or heroin abuse, according to a new study by a former British government drug advisor and other experts.
Neuropharmacologist David Nutt, MD, of Imperial College London, and colleagues rated 20 different drugs on a scale that takes into account the various harms caused by a drug. Drugs are rated on nine harms a drug causes an individual and seven harms a drug causes society.
Roberts Court rulings on campaign finance reveal shifting makeup, forceful role
Sometimes, it takes years to see the impact of a Supreme Court decision on American life, and sometimes a ruling lands with an explosion. The Roberts Court's game-changing decisions on campaign finance reform have been both.
Almost from the moment Chief Justice John G. Roberts Jr. joined the bench five years ago, the court's conservatives have acted systematically on their deep skepticism of campaign spending restrictions. They have repeatedly questioned the ability of Congress to regulate the role of wealth and special interest involvement in elections without offending the First Amendment guarantee of unfettered political speech.
Police Block Sex Abuse Survivors Near Vatican
Italian paramilitary police blocked a boulevard leading to the Vatican to prevent a march Sunday by some 100 survivors of clergy sex abuse from reaching St. Peter's Square, but later allowed two protesters to leave letters from the abused at the Holy See's doorstep.
The two also left a dozen stones near the obelisk in St. Peter's square to mark a symbolic path so other survivors might know they have company in their suffering.
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