War Crimes

SAN JUAN, Puerto Rico (AP) ‚ A military judge on Friday postponed the first war crimes tribunal at Guantanamo Bay, saying he wants to wait until the Supreme Court makes its highly anticipated ruling on the right of detainees to challenge their confinement in civil courts.Navy Capt. Keith Allred ruled the trial for Osama bin […]

The chief judge for the U.S. war crimes tribunal at the naval detention facility in Guantanamo Bay, Cuba, set a June 5 court date for the self-professed mastermind of the Sept. 11 attacks, Khalid Sheik Mohammed, and four other suspected co-conspirators.  Marine Col. Ralph Kohlmann, who presided over the earlier trial of Australian David Hicks, […]

Secretary-General Ban Ki Moon spoke on Darfur today, arguing that the joint UN/African Union peacekeeping mission is seriously hampered by a variety of logistical problems. In Sudan, rebels reached Omdurman, a suburb of Khartoum, this weekend. AP reports 200 people died in the attack. Sudan blames Chad, and has cut diplomatic ties. The rebel movement […]

Judge Susan Crawford, the prosecutorial authority for the U.S. military tribunal at the naval detention facility at Guantanamo Bay, Tuesday refused charges filed by prosecutors against Mohammed al-Qahtani, an alleged Sept. 11 conspirator. Crawford accepted charges filed against five other high-profile suspects, including alleged Sept. 11 mastermind Khalid Sheik Mohammad and Ramzi bin al-Shieb.  The […]

Lyle Denniston has this summary of pending Supreme Court litigation dealing with the Combatant Status Review Tribunal process. In brief, the high Court will issue a decision in the next month – in the Boumediene and Al-Odah cases – which will address the CSRT's. In both, the court will be asked to determine whether Guantanamo […]

Marjorie Cohn, a legal critic of the Bush administration, testified before the Subcommittee on the Constitution, Civil Rights, and Civil Liberties House Judiciary Committee Tuesday on the justification of the use of harsh interrogation tactics by intelligence officers.  Cohn points to the U.S. War Crimes Act of 1991 that makes the use of torture or […]

Here we go again.  The top prosecutor with the United Nations said Sunday four war crimes suspects, including Ratko Mladic, are within reach of Serbian officials.  Serbia in its bidding to ascend to the European Union faces pressure to hand over war crimes fugitives suspected of atrocities during the 1990s, including the massacre of 5,000 […]

A Canadian-born citizen captured in Afghanistan during the U.S.-led counterterrorism effort there at the age of 15 can be tried for murder, a judge said.  U.S. Army Col. Peter Brownback denied an argument presented by lawyers for Omar Khadr, now 21, the he was illegally conscripted to fight for al-Qaida militants in Afghanistan and should […]

In what can only be seen as a move by Pentagon lawyers to get ahead of the issue before the Supreme Court weighs in this summer, the war crimes tribunal  at Guantanamo Bay gave permission to the former driver for Osama bin Laden to communicate with his fellow inmates asking them to describe the nature […]

Former Iraqi Deputy Prime Minister Tariq Aziz  faced the Iraqi High Tribunal Tuesday on war crimes charges for the execution of 42 business men who protested rising food prices in the wake of U.N. sanctions on the former regime. Aziz, widely recognized by his coke-bottle glasses and bombastic English, surrendered to U.S. forces shortly after […]

Sunday marked the two year anniversary since the International Criminal Court issued its first arrest warrants against Sudanese officials suspected of war crimes in Darfur.  To mark the occasion, Facebook (yes, Facebook) launched “Wanted for War Crimes Watch List” application to its users.  The point of the project is to generate public awareness along the […]

Iran's Press TV reports “Chemical Ali” suffered a heart attack and was presumably returned to U.S. custody? Or am I reading into this.  Says he was returned to a U.S. detention facility, but reading between the lines would lead you to believe he was NOT in a U.S. detention facility when he had the heart […]