As hundreds of thousands of Egyptians thronged into the streets of the country’s major cities demanding an end to the 30-year rule of their aging, repressive, authoritarian President Hosni Murarak, the world’s commentariat was earning a living wrestling with questions like: “How did this thing start?” and “Who’s in charge?” Was the world watching an [...]
The outcome of the popular uprisings in Egypt and Yemen is yet to be determined but it is not too early to offer a few thoughts. We are seeing the demonstration effect not the domino effect as suggested by the BBC. The uprisings in Yemen and Egypt are the result of people in those two [...]
During his presidential campaign, then-Senator Obama emphasized negotiations rather than military action. The Republicans ridiculed his focus on diplomacy as naïve, “Strong countries and strong presidents meet and talk with our adversaries,” Obama said during an August 19 debate. “We shouldn’t be afraid to do so. We’ve tried the other way. It didn’t work.” Candidate [...]
For those of us seeking a grown-up debate about Guantánamo in the two years since President Obama came into office, the most troubling development has been the retrenchment of Republican opposition to the closure of the prison, backed up by alarming support for the pro-Guantánamo position by members of the President’s own party. Like a [...]
Rep. Pete King, the impresario of Capitol Kabuki, is very busy these days getting ready for his debut as the new chairman of the House Committee on Homeland Security. And for his opening act, some time next month, the congressman is planning a hearing on the radicalization of young Muslims by local religious leaders. The [...]
A Florida congressman is hoping to drive the last nail into the coffin of the U.S. justice system for Guantanamo detainees. Republican Representative Tom Rooney, a former military prosecutor, this week introduced a bill mandating that the detention facility at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba, “remains open indefinitely” and requiring that “individuals detained at the facility be [...]
Chinese President Hu Jintao’s visit to the United States this past week has been met by both praise and political posturing. Hu, an intellectual with a strong sense of culture, hopes he is leading what he wishes to be “a Harmonious Society” with peaceful development. To that end, Hu said his government was prepared to [...]
For those seeking accountability for the senior Bush administration officials and lawyers who established a global torture program in the “War on Terror,” involving extraordinary rendition and torture in a variety of secret prisons, the news that the Polish Prosecutor has today accepted the claims of Abu Zubaydah, a former CIA “ghost prisoner,” that he [...]
A year of transitions began with Doris Leuthard becoming the President of the Swiss Confederation on New Year’s Day and ended with the swearing in of Willi Tevali as Prime Minister of Tuvalu on December 24, 2010. Between those two events another twenty-six executive transitions occurred around the world.[i] Where did these changes take place? [...]
The report in Wednesday’s New York Times stating that the Obama Administration is preparing to resurrect Military Commissions to try Guantanamo detainees probably sounds the death knell for the kind of justice meted out by Federal civilian courts in the U.S. for more than two centuries. Instead, according to some of the nation’s most respected [...]
