US defense department head bars public disclosure of detainee abuse photos

[JURIST] US Defense Secretary Robert Gates on Friday invoked his authority to bar public disclosure of about 40 photos depicting the abuse of Afghan and Iraqi detainees by US soldiers. The move was followed by a notification and request by the Obama administration asking the US Supreme Court  to set aside the decision of the [...]

Blackwater accused of trying to buy its way out of accountability

On November 11th, 2009, the New York Times reported that in December 2007, top executives at Blackwater (currently known as Xe) authorized cash payments up to $1 million to Iraqi officials with the intent to buy silence and support from the Iraqi government over the Nisour Square shootings on September 16th, 2007, in which 17 [...]

Iran and Saudi Arabia clash in Yemen proxy war?

Fighting continued for a sixth day on Monday between the Saudi military and Yemeni rebels on their countries’ border, with the rebels releasing a videotape of what they said was one of several captured Saudi soldiers. Saudi Arabia hammered the rebels with airstrikes and artillery fire, and captured about 280 rebel fighters, said a Saudi [...]

Tensions with Kurds in Iraq

The policies and tactics of Kurdish authorities could expose minority groups in northern Iraq to “another full-blown human rights catastrophe” unless the minorities receive better protection, according to a report released Tuesday by Human Rights Watch.The report describes how the Kurdish government has sought to repress minorities, subsume the identity of Shabaks and Yazidis into [...]

British Journal of Criminology Special Issue on Criminology and the war on terror

Read them here:

The Transformation of Violence in Iraq British Journal of Criminology Advance Access published on May 28, 2009 Br J Criminol 2009 49: 609-627; doi:10.1093/bjc/azp022 [Abstract]
 
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    Jude McCulloch and Sharon Pickering

Pre-Crime and Counter-Terrorism: Imagining Future Crime in the ‘War on Terror’ British Journal of Criminology [...]

Iraq renews call for UN inquiry after recent bombings

[JURIST] Iraqi Foreign Minister Hoshiyar Zebari on Monday renewed calls for a formal UN inquiry to investigate those responsible for bombings in the country following twin suicide bombings in Baghdad Sunday, which are believed to have killed more than 150. Zebari asked the UN General Assembly and the Security Council to appoint a special envoy [...]

Syrian terrorism in Iraq

Al-Sharq Al-Awsat reports that Iraq will submit to a U.N. envoy, who is to investigate the terrorist bombings in Baghdad last August, multiple types of evidence, including phone intercepts and aerial photography of terrorist training camps in Syria.
MP Sami Al-’Askari, who has close ties to the Iraqi prime minister, said that evidence collected by the [...]

Interesting articles

Beth van Schaack – International Criminal Law & its Enforcement
This chapter, to appear in the 2nd edition of Beth Van Schaack & Ron Slye’s International Criminal Law & Its Enforcement (Foundation Press 2010), covers the crime of torture under international criminal law. It begins with a doctrinal discussion of the elements of torture as elucidated [...]

Iraq Inquiry asks the public to provide information

Anyone with information which might support the UK Iraq Inquiry’s work should get in touch as soon as possible, says Inquiry chairman Sir John Chilcot.

Sir John made his request ahead of the much-anticipated public evidence sessions, the first round of which are due to start in late autumn. He and the rest [...]

R (Al-Sweady and others) v Secretary of State for Defence (No 2)

In any judicial review proceedings relating to a case which involved crucial, “hard-edged” questions of fact in light of which it was necessary for the court to allow cross-examination of makers of witness statements on those “hard-edged” questions of fact, it was vital for full disclosure to occur to enable effective and proper cross-examination to [...]