Russia high court blacklists north Africa al Qaeda group News
Russia high court blacklists north Africa al Qaeda group

[JURIST] The Russian Supreme Court [official site, in Russian] classified northern Africa group Al Qaeda in the Islamic Maghreb (AQIM) [CFR backgrounder] as a terrorist organization in a ruling [press release, in Russian] Thursday, prohibiting the organization from conducting activities in Russia. The court ruled after the Russian Prosecutor General [official website] asked the court to ban the organization and put it on a national blacklist of terrorist groups [RFE/RL backgrounder]. RIA Novosti has more.

AQIM, previously called the Salafist Group for Preaching and Combat (GSPC), is located in Algeria and has claimed responsibility [AP report] for bomb attacks that killed six people in Algeria last year as well as for multiple suicide bombings [Deutsche Welle report] this year.

THIS DAY @ LAW

28 countries unite against Axis Powers

On January 2, 1942, twenty-eight countries formally agreed not to make peace with the Axis Powers separately. At the time, all twenty-eight were fighting against the Axis as Allies in World War II. The agreement was part of the Declaration by the United Nations, signed the previous day. In December of 1941, U.S. President Franklin D. Roosevelt referred to this group of allies as the "United Nations."

US government agents arrested thousands in Palmer raids

On January 2, 1920, over 500 government agents acting on the direction of US Attorney General Mitchell Palmer carried out a massive counter-terror operation in 33 US cities, arresting between six and ten thousand aliens suspected of Communism, radicalism and anarchism. The "Palmer Raids" and the detentions and deportation proceedings that followed them were denounced by a number of prominent lawyers and judges who later established the American Civil Liberties Union. Read an excerpt from Attorney General Palmer's 1920 article, The Case Against the 'Reds' and learn more about the Palmer Raids and the Red Scare of 1919-20.