Australia to investigate Gitmo detainee abuse allegations News
Australia to investigate Gitmo detainee abuse allegations

[JURIST] A day after lawyers for Australian Guantanamo Bay prisoner David Hicks [BBC profile; advocacy website; JURIST news archive], said they have evidence that Hicks suffered sexual abuse and torture [JURIST report] while in US custody, the Australian government has said it will investigate Hicks' accusations. Hicks' father and a former detainee have said [ABC Australia transcript] that he was taken from a US warship and blindfolded, beaten, spat upon, assaulted and sexually abused in two 10-hour beatings by Americans on the way to Cuba. Australian Foreign Minister Alexander Downer [official profile] said that the Australian Embassy [official website] in Washington will follow up the credibility of these claims after American teams have yet to find any evidence of abuse or torture [JURIST report]. Hicks has been in US military custody at Guantanamo Bay for three-and-a-half years after being captured with Taliban forces in Afghanistan. He is accused of fighting for al Qaeda and has pleaded not guilty to charges of aiding the enemy and conspiring to commit war crimes. Hicks' military commission trial is scheduled to start [JURIST report] on November 18. Reuters 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.