21 detainees killed in US custody overseas, ACLU reports News
21 detainees killed in US custody overseas, ACLU reports

[JURIST] At least 21 detainees have been killed while being held in US custody in Iraq and Afghanistan, many during or after interrogations, according to an ACLU analysis [text; press release] of Defense Department data released Monday. According to autopsy reports, at least eight of the 21 homicides resulted from abusive techniques by US military or intelligence officers, such as strangulation leading to asphyxiation, other "blunt force injuries" and smothering. More than 100 prisoners in total have died of natural and violent causes in US custody overseas. There have been more than 400 investigations of reports of detainee abuse and at least 230 military personnel have received a court-martial, nonjudicial punishment or other administrative action in connection with detainee abuse. Details about the detainee abuse and deaths were released by the US Defense Department as part of a Freedom of Information Act [DOJ backgrounder] lawsuit filed by the ACLU. The ACLU provides additional documents obtained during the litigation. AP 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.