Military judge approves exhuming body of Iraqi civilian News
Military judge approves exhuming body of Iraqi civilian

[JURIST] A military judge sitting at Fort Hood, Texas, Tuesday approved a request by attorneys for 1st Lt. Jack M. Saville to exhume the body of an Iraqi civilian, 19-year-old Zaidoun Hassoun, who is alleged to have drowned in January 2004 when US troops forced him into the Tigris River. Saville and Sgt. 1st Class Tracy Perkins of the US 4th Infantry Division are facing court-martial, charged with involuntary manslaughter, assault, making false official statements and obstruction of justice in connection with the death. Defense attorneys for the soldiers say that the man pushed into the river is still alive and the individual buried is someone else. Both Saville and Perkins were arraigned in October; see the 4th Infantry press release here. Perkins' court martial is scheduled to begin December 28; Saville's court-martial starts in January. KWTX-TV in Waco has more.

THIS DAY @ LAW

UN General Assembly approves Palestine partition plan

The UN General Assembly approved UN Resolution Resolution 181 (II) on November 29, 1947, recommending that the British Mandate for Palestine be split into a Jewish state, an Arab state, and an international zone for Jerusalem. The vote in the assembly was 33 for to 13 against, with 10 abstentions. The resolution sparked a war between Palestinian Arabs and Jews in 1947 and a wider war after Egypt, Syria, Jordan, Iraq, and Lebanon invaded the new State of Israel in 1948. Read Resolution 181 (II).

UN divided Palestine between Arabs and Jews

On November 29, 1947, the UN General Assembly voted to partition Palestine into Jewish and Arab territories, leading to the establishment of a Jewish state the following year. Read UN General Assembly Resolution 181.

Defense Secretary Robert McNamara resigns during Vietnam Conflict

On November 29, 1967, Secretary of Defense Robert S. McNamara announced that he was resigning from his office to accept an appointment as head of the World Bank. The announcement came as the Vietnam Conflict was becoming increasingly unpopular in the United States and abroad.