[JURIST] Vice President Dick Cheney Thursday met accusations from Senate Judiciary Chairman Arlen Specter (R-PA) that he had interfered with Specter's proposal to have his committee subpoena three phone companies accused of allegedly providing records to the National Security Administration by saying [letter, PDF] that he often makes contact with senators regarding upcoming committee actions, and that the Bush administration was concerned that the Committee intended to compel the phone companies to release classified information. Specter complained of the Vice President's actions in a letter [PDF] Wednesday. He dropped his push for the subpoenas [JURIST report] after learning of a deal with the Bush administration brokered by Committee member Orrin Hatch (R-UT) without Specter's knowledge that would put White House support behind Specter's other NSA bill in exchange for not issuing the subpoenas.

In his letter, Specter said:

I was surprised, to say the least, that you sought to influence, really determine, the action of the Committee without calling me first, or at least calling me at some point. This was especially perplexing since we both attended the Republican Senators caucus lunch yesterday...

It has been my hope that there could be an accommodation between Congress's Article I authority on oversight and the President's constitutional authority under Article II. There is no doubt that the NSA program violates the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act which sets forth the exclusive procedure for domestic wiretaps which requires the approval of the FISA court. It may be that the President has inherent authority under Article II to trump that statute but the President does not have a blank check and the determination on whether the President has such Article II power calls for a balancing test which requires knowing what the surveillance program constitutes.

If an accommodation cannot be reached with the Administration, the Judiciary Committee will consider confronting the issue with subpoenas and enforcement of that compulsory process if it appears that a majority vote will be forthcoming. The Committee would obviously have a much easier time making our case for enforcement of subpoenas against the telephone companies which do not have the plea of executive privilege.

[JURIST] Supporters of repealing the federal estate tax failed Wednesday to get enough votes to begin floor debate on the Death Tax Repeal Permanency Act of 2005 [HR 8 text], which would allow wealthy families to avoid the estate tax, which can be as high as 46%, on the portion of their estate worth more than $2 million at death. Due to an earlier Democratic filibuster on the bill, Republicans needed 60 Senate votes to approve a motion to proceed with floor debate, which they narrowly missed in Thursday's 57-41 vote [roll call]. The same bill was approved by the House [JURIST report] last April. The US Treasury Department estimates that an estate tax repeal would cost the government over $65.8 billon per year in lost revenue.

An alternative to HR 8 [S 7 text], sponsored by Sen. Jon Kyl (R-AZ), would tax the portions of estates that are valued at more than $10 million at rates between 15 and 30 percent. Democratic leaders point to more pressing issues before Congress than repealing a tax estimated to affect only 1% of Americans, while the Bush administration has announced its support for HR 8, saying the bill would provide tax relief for small business owners and farmers. AP has more.

[JURIST] The first commissioned US military officer to publicly refuse to join the war in Iraq did so Wednesday, calling the war "unlawful" in a taped statement [recorded video] played at a press conference in Tacoma, Washington, near the US Army base at Ft. Lewis [official website]. First Lt. Ehren Watada [advocacy website; interview transcript] said he will not apply for conscientious objector status because he only opposes the war in Iraq, adding that he would go to Afghanistan, but still risks facing a court-martial for refusing to report for duty. In Wednesday’s press statement, Watada said [prepared statement]:

The war in Iraq violates our democratic system of checks and balances. It usurps international treaties and conventions that by virtue of the Constitution become American law. The wholesale slaughter and mistreatment of the Iraqi people with only limited accountability is not only a terrible moral injustice, but a contradiction to the Army’s own Law of Land Warfare. My participation would make me party to war crimes.

Normally, those in the military have allowed others to speak for them and act on their behalf. That time has come to an end. I have appealed to my commanders to see the larger issues of our actions. But justice has not been forthcoming. My oath of office is to protect and defend America’s laws and its people. By refusing unlawful orders for an illegal war, I fulfill that oath today.

[JURIST] Wednesday's Council of Europe (COE) [official website] report [PDF text; JURIST report] accusing 14 European countries of taking an active or passive role in a "global spider's web" of secret CIA prisons [COE materials] and rendition flights [JURIST news archive] has drawn sharp rebukes from the US, the UK, and Poland, all of which were targets of criticism. The United States Wednesday called the report by Swiss legislator Dick Marty a "rehash" of previous allegations. State Department spokesman Sean McCormack said in a press briefing [transcript]: "I think that in the report they talk about the fact that they have a number of these suspicions, a number of these allegations, but don't have any solid facts to underpin it," and added that the tone of the report reflected negatively on general intelligence activities.

UK Prime Minister Tony Blair meanwhile dismissed the report as adding nothing new to already-existing information. UK human rights group Liberty [advocacy website] has called for an independent investigation [press release] into the allegations leveled at the UK, stating that Liberty had warned the government that allowing rendition flights to stop in the UK would violate domestic and international law.

Poland, which along with Romania was accused of allowing the US to maintain secret detention centers near airports servicing the alleged rendition flights, denied the allegations again [JURIST report] and called the report libel. Polish Prime Minister Kazimierz Marcinkiewicz said [Polskie Radio report; audio] "[t]his is a slanderous accusation finding no reflection in reality. We shall not respond to charges which are not based on facts."

Of the 14 European countries Marty accused of participating in rendition flights, or negligently allowing the flights to proceed, Spain and Ireland have categorically denied the allegations, while Germany has not responded. Greece, Cyprus and Portugal have stated that all flights stopping in their countries are in accordance with international law. Macedonia responded by saying there was "no hard evidence" against the country. Though Marty admitted that he based his report largely on circumstantial evidence gathered primarily through flight logs, satellite images and accounts of people who said they had been abducted, thereby providing no direct proof, the report was designed to compel each European country to actively investigate the allegations leveled against it through "serious, transparent investigations." BBC News has more. Deutsche Welle has additional coverage.

[JURIST] Human Rights Watch [advocacy website] accused Sudan's Special Criminal Court on the Events in Darfur [backgrounder] of failing to accomplish its mission of prosecuting war crimes, in a briefing paper [text] released Thursday. In a press release [text], a senior HRW counsel said the court has only prosecuted petty offenses while failing to address the widespread and ongoing human rights abuses taking place in Sudan's Darfur region [JURIST news archive]. The report blames the court's inadequacy on vague Sudanese laws governing war crimes and "command responsibility" of superior officers, other laws that grant immunity to military officers, and on the alleged harassment of victims who complain and failures to investigate such reports. The report further alleges that trials are often held in a single day without the presence of defense counsel or witnesses.

The court was created by Sudan [JURIST report] last June after Sudan opposed sending its citizens abroad to defend against charges brought by the International Criminal Court [official website], which is also investigating alleged human rights abuses in Darfur [ICC materials]. Last month, UN Human Rights Commissioner Louise Arbor pressed the ICC to aggressively prosecute accused Darfur war criminals [JURIST report]. IRIN News has more.

[JURIST] In retaliation for a travel ban imposed on several Belarus leaders by the European Union and the United States [JURIST reports], Belarus Foreign Ministry spokesman Andrei Popov said Thursday that Belarus will impose retaliatory travel bans [press briefing] on foreign officials supporting the travel bans, and also threatened to ban US and Canadian aircraft from flying over the country. Popov said the list will not be made public in accordance with the "norms in effect" in the country.

The US and the EU banned Belarus President Alexander Lukashenko [official website; BBC profile] and other top government officials from entering their jurisdictions in response to the allegations of rampant voting fraud [JURIST report] surrounding the March elections, where Lukashenko returned to a third term in office with over 80 percent of the popular vote. Belarus officials have said they will appeal the travel bans [JURIST report] as violative of the principles of the Helsinki Accords [text] "related to freedom of travel." Interfax has more.

[JURIST] A Russia-based international human rights group claimed Wednesday that it has turned over to authorities documentary proof of the existence of Russian-operated secret prisons in Chechnya [BBC backgrounder] which the group claimed to have discovered in a southern district of Grozny, the capital city. Memorial [advocacy website] said they have submitted to prosecutors photographs and videos of the prison that indicate, through prisoner graffiti, that the detention center may have been used last month, though the prisons should have shut down years before. While one Chechen prosecutor indicated Wednesday that a preliminary investigation has begun into allegations that Russia used the prisons to kidnap and torture separatist Chechens in violation of EU and Russian laws, the Russian government has repeatedly denied torturing Chechens[JURIST report].

In May, the International Helsinki Federation for Human Rights [official website] published a report [text] alleging the existence of the secret Russian prisons [JURIST report]. That report was submitted to Dick Marty, the Chairperson of the Committee on Legal Affairs and Human Rights of the Council of Europe, also heading the investigation into alleged secret CIA detention centers on the continent. AP has more.

[JURIST] The Canadian government intends to introduce new anti-terror legislation this fall that would fight money laundering and the financing of terrorism, particularly in the area of diamond sales, the Globe and Mail reported Thursday. The legislation is expected to incorporate the recommendations of a government consultation paper [materials] published last year that suggests that Canadian precious stone and gold dealers should be subject to the Proceeds of Crime (Money Laundering) and Terrorist Financing Act [PDF text]. The new bill could require dealers to report any large or suspicious transactions and would enhance record-keeping and client identification mechanisms, which are already required of real estate brokers, financial lenders, and insurers.

The plan to move on the consultation paper recommendations follows on the heels of Friday's arrests [JURIST report] of seventeen suspects later charged [charge sheet] with a range of terrorism-related offenses relating to alleged plans to attack targets in southern Ontario and Toronto. The Globe and Mail has more.

[JURIST] The US Department of Justice [official website] has said it will seek to dismiss 20 lawsuits accusing telecommunications companies Verizon, AT&T, and BellSouth [corporate websites] of illegally providing customer phone records to the National Security Agency [official website] in conjunction with the NSA's domestic surveillance program [JURIST news archive]. In a filing made in the US District Court for the Northern District of Illinois [official website], where a case [JURIST report] brought by the American Civil Liberties Union [advocacy website] against AT&T on behalf of Illinois residents is pending, the government nonetheless stated that it will wait until all 20 cases filed by the ACLU in various state jurisdictions have been consolidated into one case before formally moving to dismiss on the grounds that continuing the lawsuits may reveal "military and state secrets." The government made the filing in support of AT&T's request to stay the lawsuit pending consolidation of all 20 lawsuits.

In May the ACLU filed nationally coordinated complaints [JURIST report] against the three major phone companies and the attorneys general of 20 states, requesting investigations into the legality of information allegedly provided to the NSA by the phone companies. Several other class action lawsuits have also been filed against the phone companies, unrelated to the ACLU campaign. Advocacy group Electronic Frontier Foundation [advocacy website] filed a class action against AT&T in California, and the Department of Justice has argued [JURIST report] that the case should be dismissed on the same grounds - that the lawsuit may reveal military and state secrets. Both Verizon and BellSouth have denied all allegations [JURIST report] that they illegally provided customer information to the NSA, while AT&T has neither confirmed nor denied the allegations [JURIST report]. Bloomberg has more.

[JURIST] Two British soldiers who were found not guilty [JURIST report] by a military tribunal in the 2003 drowning of a 15-year-old Iraqi boy may resign from service to protest the UK's prosecution of the case. The two soldiers say that "wetting" looters in Basra was standard practice, encouraged by superior officers, and that they were merely following orders by forcing the boy to swim across the canal as punishment for looting. Guardsman Joseph McCleary told the Liverpool Daily Post, "I don't know why the Army went ahead with the prosecution. It was when there were reports about British soldiers mistreating Iraqis and they wanted to look like they were doing something. We were scapegoats."

After a British MP questioned the evidence used against the soldiers at their trial, UK Attorney General Lord Goldsmith defended the prosecution of the case [BBC report], saying some of the UK's most experienced prosecutors recommended the case be pursued, and that the military tribunal judge himself threw out a motion to dismiss based on insufficient evidence. The Telegraph has local coverage.

[JURIST] A prominent British medical ethicist is advocating the legalization of euthanasia, including for patients incapable of consent. Len Doyal [CV, PDF], emeritus professor of medical ethics at Queen Mary, University of London, writes in this month's issue of Clinical Ethics [journal website] that physicians cause some patients to suffer a "slow and distressing death" by withdrawing feeding tubes. Changing the law and professional standards would allow doctors to end such patients' lives "swiftly, humanely and without guilt." A British organization that supports physician-assisted suicide, Dignity in Dying [advocacy website], distanced itself from Doyal on Thursday. In a statement [text], the group's chief executive, Deborah Annetts, said: "We do not agree with Professor Doyal that the law needs to be changed for non-competent patients. Dignity in Dying advocates that end of life medical treatment decisions should be based around the competent wishes of terminally ill people." Belgium [JURIST report] and the Netherlands [government materials] have legalized euthanasia in some circumstances.

Doyal supports the Assisted Dying for the Terminally Ill Bill [text], which is stalled in Parliament, even though it would not allow nonconsensual euthanasia. The bill, which Annetts helped to draft using Oregon's Death With Dignity Act [text, PDF] as a model, would permit assisted suicide for patients with less than six months to live who are experiencing "extreme suffering. The legislation was tabled for six months [JURIST report] by the House of Lords [official website] in May after two physicians groups came out against it [JURIST report]. The British Medical Association [organization website] dropped its opposition to the bill, instead taking a neutral stance. The Guardian has more. BBC News has additional coverage.

[JURIST] The US House of Representatives has voted 379-35 [roll call] to pass the Broadcast Decency Enforcement Act [S 193 summary], a bill which would increase the maximum indecency [JURIST news archive] fines levied by the Federal Communications Commission [official website] from $32,500 to $325,000 per station for each violation. The House version approved late Wednesday Tuesday is identical to the version passed by the Senate [JURIST report] in May, clearing the way for President Bush's expected signature.

The House passed a different version of the bill last year [JURIST report; PDF text] which would have increased the maximum fine to $500,000 per violation, per station. After the approval of that bill, the National Association of Broadcasters came out against increased indecency penalties, saying in a brief statement [text] that "voluntary industry initiatives are far preferable to government regulation when dealing with programming issues." AP has more.

[JURIST] A federal judge in Oregon allowed a sexual abuse lawsuit against the Catholic Church to move forward Wednesday, rejecting the Vatican's bid to dismiss the suit for lack of jurisdiction. The ruling allows a Seattle-area man to continue with his claim [complaint, PDF] that the Holy See [official website] is liable for transferring the Rev. Andrew Ronan from Ireland to Chicago to Portland, even though the church knew Ronan had a history of sexual abuse. The lawsuit, filed in 2002 [AP report] in the US District Court for the District of Oregon [official website], alleges the Vatican, the Archdiocese of Portland and the archbishop of Chicago conspired to protect Ronan by transferring him from city to city. District Judge Michael Mosman [official profile] ruled that Ronan was an employee of the Vatican under Oregon law and noted that there are exceptions to the Foreign Sovereign Immunities Act [text], which typically grants the Vatican and other foreign states immunity in US courts. The 1976 act does not shield states when engaged in commercial or certain harmful activities in the United States. The judge added that the Holy See offered no evidence contradicting its involvement in transferring Ronan to protect him.

No one has successfully sued the Vatican over allegations of sexual abuse by priests [JURIST news archive], although individual dioceses have been sued and agreed to large settlements [JURIST report]. Last year, a US district judge in Kentucky ruled [JURIST report] that the Holy See is a foreign state subject to immunity protections under the Foreign Sovereign Immunities Act, rejecting the plaintiff's argument that the Vatican is an international religious organization. A federal judge in Texas later ruled that Pope Benedict XVI [official profile] enjoys immunity as the head of the Vatican [JURIST report], dismissing a civil suit alleging that the pontiff conspired to conceal clergy sex abuse. AP has more.

[JURIST] Iraqi Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki [BBC profile] announced Thursday that Iraq's parliament has approved his nominee for the country's controversial Interior Ministry, ending a three-week stalemate between Shiite and Sunni political blocs. Nominees for the defense and national security ministries were also approved, completing the formation of Maliki's new government. The new Interior Minister taking charge of the police and special forces is Jawad al-Bolani, a Shia Muslim and former air force engineer. At one point during prelimiary negotiations in May Shiite leaders indicated that that they were willing to give up control [JURIST report] of the Ministry, beleaguered in recent months by allegations of prisoner abuse [JURIST report] and death squads [JURIST report] as an alleged instrument of Shiite retribution against Sunnis. Later, however, they backed away [JURIST report] from that position. The new ministers pledged not to have ties to sectarian political groups - something that crippled the term of former Prime Minister Ibrahim al-Jaafari.

Announcement of the approved appointments came after Maliki announced [Iraq MFA press release] the death of Iraqi al Qaeda leader Abu Musab al-Zarqawi [BBC profile] in a targeted US air strike [Bush statement]. Reuters has more.

[JURIST] Carla Del Ponte [official profile], chief prosecutor for the International Criminal Tribunal for the former Yugoslavia [official website] has said that she will ask the UN Security Council [official website] to grant the ICTY power to apprehend former Bosnian Serb leader Radovan Karadzic [ICTY case backgrounder; BBC profile] and his military commander Ratko Mladic [ICTY case backgrounder; JURIST news archive]. Speaking Wednesday at a Security Council meeting, Del Ponte expressed concern and frustration [transcript; press release] that no country is actively looking for either of the war crimes suspects:

Speeding up the proceedings is a top priority of my Office. Obtaining the arrest and transfer of the remaining indictees at large is another one. It has been said a thousand times: it is inconceivable that the ICTY closes its doors with Radovan Karadzic and Ratko Mladic at large. I want to stress again before the Council that impunity for these two most serious architects of the crimes committed in Bosnia and Herzegovina, both accused of genocide, would represent a terrible blow not only to the success or failure of the Tribunal, but to the future of international justice as a whole. ...

I explained at length in my last report why Karadzic and Mladic are still at large more than 10 years after they were first indicted. My assessment remains the same today. Serbia has to do much more to arrest and transfer Ratko Mladic. The arrest of Radovan Karadzic is a shared responsibility of Serbia, Republika Srpska, NATO and EUFOR. It is pathetic that today, nobody is searching actively for Karadzic. The planned downsizing of EUFOR will further aggravate the situation. Since no one else seems to have the political will to locate and arrest Karadzic and Mladic, I will have no choice but to seek from the Council the powers to arrest fugitives where ever they are and to allocate to my Office the necessary resources for this. Ultimately, I do not see any other way for the ICTY to fulfil its mandate and satisfy the legitimate expectations the victims placed into the United Nations.

[JURIST] Gen. Michael Hagee [official profile], commandant of the US Marine Corps, has said he will not resign amid investigations into whether Marines killed Iraqi civilians in unprovoked attacks, adding that he is responsible for the training of his troops and will ensure those involved are held accountable if the allegations are true. In a Pentagon briefing [transcript; recorded video] on Wednesday, Hagee said:

While Marines are proud of our high standards, they also know that if they violate these tenets, they will be held accountable. Without accountability, standards would be nothing more than goals. Where compliance with our standards is in question, we use well-established processes to determine as accurately and expeditiously as possible what happened and why. But make no mistake; a Marine who has been found to have violated our standards will be held accountable. It is an important part of who we are, and all Marines expect it. High standards and accountability define Marines.

Discipline, accountability, and adherence to legal principles governing armed conflict are fundamental to every professional military organization. They underscore the primacy of law and exemplify ethical conduct in operations, both of which are central to our campaign against insurgents and terrorists in Iraq. Rules of engagement are concise guidance on lawful and proportionate use of force during all operations. These rules ensure that our forces can accomplish their assigned mission while safeguarding noncombatants, and while exercising the inherent right of self-defense.

[JURIST] A Guantanamo Bay [JURIST news archive] detainee from Yemen involved in a clash with guards [JURIST report] in May told his defense lawyer that guards had instigated the incident when they tried to handle Korans owned by detainees, the defense lawyer said Wednesday. The Yemen detainee's account contradicts reports given by Guantanamo guards and Navy Cmdr. Robert Durand, spokesman for Joint Task Force Guantanamo [official website; GlobalSecurity.org backgrounder], who maintains that a group of detainees lured the guards into a cell by staging a suicide attempt and then attacked them with makeshift weapons [press release, PDF]. The Yemeni denies that he and other detainees lured guards into their cell, contending instead that the guards ordered the detainees to turn over their Korans so the holy books could be searched for hoarded medicine. Earlier in the day, two other detainees attempted suicide by overdosing on prescription medications that they had stockpiled. Guards used pepper spray and fired a 12-gauge shotgun loaded with rubber balls to stop the fight, which lasted four to five minutes. Military personnel treated six prisoners for minor injuries and moved the inmates to a maximum-security facility.

Durand, calling the allegations from the Yemeni detainee false, said detainees make allegations involving the Koran to gain media attention, incite violence and rally other detainees within the Guantanamo detention center. Last year, allegations of Koran desecration at Guantanamo, sparked by a Newsweek report that was later retracted [JURIST report], prompted deadly anti-US rioting [JURIST report] in Afghanistan. Durand added that Guantanamo guards treat the Koran with the utmost respect, "in deference to the detainees' religious beliefs and to affirm our respect for Islam." AP has more.

[JURIST] A military court in Syria [JURIST news archive] has sentenced writer Mohammad Ghanem to six months in prison for "insulting the Syrian president, discrediting the Syrian government and fomenting sectarian unrest," a human rights group said Wednesday. The charges stem from Ghanem's articles published on a website he edits, Surion [in Arabic], that call on the Baathist ruling party to end the repression of Syrian Kurds. Under Syrian Legislative Decree No. 6 of 1965, Ghanem faced up to 15 years in prison for his writings, though the court commuted his sentence from one year to six months. The legislative decree [Article 19 report, PDF] prohibits, in part:

3(a) [A]cts which are considered contrary to the implementation of the socialist system in the state, whether they take place by action, speaking or writing or by any other means of expression or publication. ...

3(e) [O]pposition to the realisation of unity among Arab countries, or opposition to or obstruction of any of the aims of the revolution by taking part in or inciting demonstrations, assemblies or riots, or by publication of false information with the intention of creating a state of chaos and shaking the confidence of the masses in the aims of the revolution.