Pentagon says Rumsfeld can override new detainee interrogation directive News
Pentagon says Rumsfeld can override new detainee interrogation directive

[JURIST] A Pentagon spokesperson has said that US Secretary of Defense Donald Rumsfeld [official profile] is authorized to override the new Department of Defense Directive [PDF text; JURIST report] released Tuesday requiring all interrogations of detainees to be conducted in a humane manner. The authority to override the directive comes from the text of the new rule, stating

Intelligence interrogations will be conducted in accordance with applicable law, this Directive and implementing plans, policies, orders, directives, and doctrine developed by DoD Components and approved by USD(I), unless otherwise authorized, in writing, by the Secretary of Defense or Deputy Secretary of Defense
The spokesperson maintained that there was nothing unusual about the caveat, since the Secretary of Defense always has the power to override directives. AFP has more.

THIS DAY @ LAW

Tojo and other Japanese WWII leaders executed for war crimes

On December 23, 1948, former Japanese premier Hideki Tojo and six other Japanese war leaders were executed for war crimes in Tokyo.

Learn more about the Tokyo War Crimes Trials.

Terry Nichols convicted for Oklahoma City bombing

On December 23, 1997, Terry Nichols was found guilty of conspiracy and involuntary manslaughter for assisting Timothy McVeigh in bombing the Alfred P. Murrah Federal Building in Oklahoma City. He was later sentenced to life in prison. On April 19, 1995, McVeigh detonated a truck bomb that gutted the building and killed 168 people, making it the deadliest terrorist attack on US. soil until the attacks of September 11, 2001. McVeigh was convicted for his role before Nichols on June 2, 1997. Learn more about the trials of Terry Nichols and Timothy McVeigh.