Ginsburg, torture, foreign law and being the only female supreme court justice

Here is a short and interesting article, well worth reading.

Finally some accountability for Rendition?

Here is an interesting article that I found on Al Jazeera's english site a few days ago talking about how the UN is planning on investigating the US practice of extraordinary rendition! This would be great and an important step in learning more about the systems in the US and abroad that have allowed such illegal practices to go for years (since the Clinton administration). Here is also a link to my previous posts on the practice of rendition by the US government.

Backyard garden, White House showing the way

Here is a fabulous article about the garden that Michelle Obama has just helped to plant behind the White House. The article explains well a few of the basic reasons why it is so great to grow food close to home:

"Mrs. Obama stressed that the garden was an easy -- and inexpensive -- way for families to get fruits and vegetables into their diet. She asked the children to guess how much it cost to install the garden...The organic garden, which will supply fruits, vegetables and honey for the first family, White House staff and state dinners, cost about $200 to put in place."

"Weather permitting, Assistant White House Chef Sam Kass said the first crop of lettuce, spinach and herbs will be ready in about two weeks. When asked if the first family would be alerted when produce from the garden ended up on their plates, Kass answered: "They'll know. They'll be able to taste it."

Laila El-Haddad stuck in Egypt

I am writing this post to let you know about a women whose blog I have recomended a few times. Her name is Laila El-Haddad and she is a Palestinian mother and journalist who has been living in the states as her husband has been denied the right to live in Palestine. Laila was traveling to visit her family in Palestine and has been stopped in Egypt. She is being refused entry into Palestine because the Rafa checkpoint is closed. She is traveling with her four year old and her 15 month old baby. What is more, her US visa has expired and she was planning on renewing it after her time in Palestine by going through Beirut. She is really in a tough situation. Please, if there is anyone you know to contact do it now! She could really use our help. Here is a link to her blog and here is a link to her Twitter.

France taking a Guantanamo Prisoner - to put him in jail

Here is a link to the most complete article I found concerning Nicolas Sarkozy's announcement that France would be accepting an prisoner transfered to their territory from Guantanamo Bay. Unfortunately President Sarkozy clarified that Mr Lakhdar Boumediene (for whom the important Bouediene v. Bush case was named) will be going to a French prison! This seems outrageous to me. Boumediene v. Bush is the case that was overturned by the US Supreme Court in June 2008 allowing (finally!) for prisoners at Guantanamo Bay to demand writs of habeas corpus. It was a huge move for the court system and an important step in bringing our legal system into balance after to Bush years of the war on terror.

As you know if you have followed my blogging on this case Mr. Boumediene was captured in Bosnia (where he was living as a legal resident with his family) in 2002 upon suspicion of the US government that he was planning to bomb the US embassy in Sarajevo. After a four month investigation by the Bosnian police he was cleared of all charges put under humanitarian protection so that he would not be taken out of the country. He was then promptly handed over the American forces when the US threatened to break diplomatic ties with Bosnia. He has been held in GB since January of 2002. The US government quickly dropped charges for planning a bombing in Bosnia. However he has not been released.

You can read for yourself the article. I will try to find one in English.

The main point is: Why would he go into prison in France? The US government does not have evidence against him that allows him to be labeled an enemy combatant and he is, for all legal purposes, supposed to be released from prison. The Obama administration has said that they would share all information on the cases of particular detainees moving to European countries with their host countries. There should be no reason for Mr. Boumediene to be sent to prison upon his arrival in France.

I believe that the reason he would be coming to France is because he has Algerian origins (and likely speaks French). However this is only my assumption.

I hope Obama does something about this. We will see. Here is a link to an English version of the story, however they do not mention Sarkozy's final remark about sending Mr. Boumediene to a French prison. I will keep you updated on what I find.

Here is another short but interesting article about previous GB detainees in the French court system - perhaps Sarkozy is thinking that Boumediene's case will be reseen within the French court system?

Taliban, article venant du Monde

Ici ce trouve un article venant du journal Le Monde ce matain. C'est particulièrement intéressant comme l'homme qui est le sujet de l'article est un ancien prisonnier de Guantanamo. C'est un autre point de vu que je n'ai pas beaucoup présenté mais c'est aussi important.

Here is an article that was on writen for Le Monde, one of the most prominent French international newspapers. It is interesting for a number of reasons, one being that the subject of the article is a previous prisoner of Guantanamo. This is a perspective that I have not often posted but still an important one.

Warning!! It's in French. If I find an equivilant article in english I will post it.

follow up on Guantanamo

Here is an article from the NYT today talking about some of the follow up by the Obama administration with Guantanamo Bay prisoners. More to come soon

Food for Thought

Here is a very interesting article, from the Christian Science Monitor, about words that are often used in discourse between Muslims and non-Muslims. I think it is well written and, although it is not a black and white rule book it brings about an interesting reflection on the language we all use.

Sorry for the wait, and some interesting articles for now

First of all, I appologize for my long abscense. Life is busy, what can I say? I am hoping that in the next few weeks I can pick up regular blogging again. In the meantime here are two articles that I found interesting. The first is by David Ignatius written for the Washington Post. It focuses on the interesting and little known tax deductable money going towards Israeli settlements from the US. The second is found on the BBC and briefly talks about a former Guantanamo Bay prisoner who is, in his home country of Spain, considering bringing charges against US officials for torture.

I would also encourage you to continue checking out Helena Cobban's blog Just World News. She never ceases to provide insightful, indepth information and resources to some of the most important questions in Middle East Politics (but not limited to the Middle East either).

Executive Orders - Obama is the man

As you know closing down Guantanamo Bay has been on Obama's list of campaign promises. In the first few days of his presidency Obama has taken quick and hopefully effective measures to abide by his committments. President Obama has issued five executive orders in his five days in office and four of them are linked to undoing the political and legal damage caused by the Bush administration's policies in the war on terror. By the way you can see all of his proclamations and executive orders here on his website.

Obama has addressed interrogation techniques demanding that the all US agencies (including the CIA) be held legally responsible to interrogation methods as layed out in the Army Field Manual and the Geneva conventions. He has catagorically denied the argument that prisoners being held outside of American territory by American forces do not have legal, and humanitrian protection under the AFM and the GC (this was a major argument for the Bush administration).

What is more, Obama has revoked the CIA's right to hold their own detention facilities. THIS IS HUGE. The biggest worry that I have had about closing Guantanamo has been that it is often likened to the tip of the iceburg. Because the CIA hold secret prisons (thought to be in five different countries in Asia and Eastern Europe) we know that they hold prisoners there that are have little to no legal assistance and have no reason to believe they will ever be released. It doen't make sense to talk about closing Guantanamo if you do nothing to curtail the ability of the CIA to keep secret prisons around the world that are basically lawless black holes. So Obama did something about it:

"Sec. 4. Prohibition of Certain Detention Facilities, and Red Cross Access to Detained Individuals.

(a) CIA Detention. The CIA shall close as expeditiously as possible any detention facilities that it currently operates and shall not operate any such detention facility in the future."

These short sentances have HUGE ramifications. It remains to be seen how this is carried out and what the consequences are in the future. I am proud of Obama.

What is more - Obama has invalidated the executive orders of Bush that made access to Presidential records almost impossible for decades to come. About a year back it was reported that Bush had closed his presidential files to the public for 100 years. The short version of what Bush ordered is that any living member of the family of a former president (and sometimes officials within that administration) could ask that any of the presidential papers be kept from public review. Obama has revoked this executive order and written in it's place that when there is a request for presidential documents the former president (if living) is notified and has 30 days to deny the request. If he does this then the request goes to before the attorney general and before the head of the national archives to determine if the denial is valid. Only documents that are concerning current national security are allowed to be kept from public scrutiny.

Obama has shown in his first five days in office wisdom and intention to really be the post transparent administration yet. He has worked out tons of new ways to allow citizens to be a greater part of government. One example: he has agreed to post all non-emergency legislation on the whitehouse website for five days before he signs it so that it is open to public comment and citizen opinions (I'll get you the link asap). Further more for his economic recovery plan he has set up the page recovery.gov that (once the bill is passed) will allow americans to see how their tax money is being used and to comment on it so as to help reduce wasteful spending.

I really encourage you to go to the website and see the other things the Obama administration is doing.