EU parliament to launch CIA prisons probe News
EU parliament to launch CIA prisons probe

[JURIST] The European Parliament [official website] agreed Thursday to open an investigation [EP press release] into allegations that the CIA illegally operated secret jails in Romania and Poland and covertly flew detainees through Italy, Germany and Poland. Lawmakers approved the resolution to begin an investigation by an overwhelming majority of 359-127, with 32 abstentions. The EU’s ruling treaties say that any states found guilty of serious human rights violations can lose their voting rights in the EU’s Council of Ministers. Europe’s top human rights watchdog, the Council of Europe [official website], has launched its own investigation into the secret prison allegations. The resolution came on the same day that Amnesty International made new allegations [Reuters report] that Britain allowed the CIA to transport detainees through its territory. Human rights groups have accused the CIA of running several secret prisons [Human Rights Watch backgrounder] throughout eastern Europe and of transporting detainees through rendition flights in a belief that such covert detentions lead to torture. 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.