Human Rights Glance
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.
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.
Omar Khadr sentenced to 40 years, will serve shorter plea-deal sentence
Omar Khar was sentenced today to 40 years in prison for murder, terrorism and spying by a military panel unaware that the confessed Canadian war criminal had agreed to plead guilty in exchange for a sentence capped at eight years and the chance to return to Canada after one more year in Guantanamo.
The shorter, plea-deal sentence will be the one imposed. The panel deliberated for nearly nine hours over two days. Tabitha Speer, widow of the special forces medic murdered by Mr. Khadr, then a 15-year-old, cheered when the 40-year sentence was read to the courtroom by panel’s president.
'US troops beheaded Iraqi detainee'
The troops operated under the command of an unnamed US major, who had been involved in the rape of an Iraqi female, showed one such document posted on the whistleblower website WikiLeaks.
The incident took place after the victim, the brother of the raped female, reportedly killed a military official in reprisal for the indecent assault.
The following is the body of the original document:
Who's to blame for torture? Lawyers probe logs
It has been one of the most bitter legal debates during the so-called war on terror - who's to blame for torture and how many degrees of separation are needed to dodge a lawsuit?
The answer may lie in recently leaked documents, which lawyers and human rights groups hope will be a treasure trove of evidence that could prove U.S. and other coalition forces broke a cardinal rule of international law - handing over terror suspects when they had good reason to believe the detainees would be tortured.
UN envoy demands Israel act against settler attacks
A senior UN official condemned attacks by Jewish "settler extremists" on Palestinians' olive trees in the occupied West Bank and called on Israel to "combat violence and terror by Israelis."
Robert Serry, UN special coordinator for the Middle East peace process, also said he was alarmed that work had started on hundreds of new homes for settlers in the occupied territory since the end of Israel's settlement freeze last month.
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