Bush signs intelligence reform bill into law News
Bush signs intelligence reform bill into law

[JURIST] President Bush signed the Intelligence Reform and Terrorism Prevention Act of 2004 [PDF] into law Friday, implementing a series of intelligence reforms recommended by the 9/11 Commission and authorizing the broadest re-working of the US intelligence structure since President Harry Truman signed the National Security Act in 1947. The new legislation was approved by the House and Senate earlier this month after the two bodies negotiated a conference compromise that allowed the bill to go forward while severing from it highly controversial provisions on immigration, most of which had been originally introduced by Republican House members. Read a transcript of the President's remarks at this morning's bill signing here, and watch recorded video from the White House. Bloomberg has more. Among other pieces of subordinate legislation the intelligence reform package includes the Anti-Atrocity Alien Deportation Act, which gives the Justice Department expanded powers to investigate and deport aliens who took part in war crimes and human rights abuses in their own countries. 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.