Home -> Law Blog Directory -> Human Rights Law Blogs -> Never In Our Names

Human Rights Law

: Never In Our Names

Sunday Open Thread and News

By possum

Not all the news is fit to print these days as the world continues to be a frightening place.

The sabre rattling continues day by day as President Bush supports Israeli aggression toward Iran.

President George W Bush has told the Israeli government that he may be prepared to approve a future military strike on Iranian nuclear facilities if negotiations with Tehran break down, according to a senior Pentagon official.

From Iraq comes word the US may be evicted from the fabled Green Zone.

A senior Iraqi government official said this weekend the enclave should revert to Iraqi control by the end of the year. "We think that by the end of 2008 all the zones in Baghdad should be integrated into the city," said Ali Dabbagh, the government's spokesman.

Coming as no surprise to most of us is wordthe behavior of troops before entering the service is an indicator of their future record.

"Criminal history is the best predictor of future behavior," said Shawn Bushway, a criminology professor at the University of Albany, N.Y., School of Criminal Justice. "Any time you lower your standards, you're going to raise the risk. No question about it."

Glen Greenwald offers a discussion of torture and the rule of law.

There are two choices and only two choices for every country -- live under the rule of law or live under the rule of men.

In America it would seem we have chosen the rule of men in allowing our political leaders to choose the course of the nation while ignoring the rule of law.

Larry Chin has a critical review of the recent FISA bill's content.

It is a well-documented fact that the US government's spying capabilities are overwhelming, and that continuous illegal surveillance has always trumped congressional oversight, and the law itself. Obviously, the light reigning-in of criminal covert operations in the post-Watergate 1970s has been completely undone in the decades since.

The conclusions may not suit everyone's politics but the article is worth a read.

And so on and on...

Full post as published by Never In Our Names on July 13, 2008 (boomark / email).