Military, DOJ officials defend Gitmo practices at Senate hearing on detainees News
Military, DOJ officials defend Gitmo practices at Senate hearing on detainees

[JURIST] Senior US military and Justice Department officials defended Guantanamo prison and US policy towards terror detainees Wednesday at a Senate Judiciary Committee [official website] hearing. Citing continued uncertainty about their status, Committee Chairman Arlen Specter (R-PA) urged Congress to define the legal rights [AP report] of the detainees, complaining that legislation he introduced in 2002 on the matter went nowhere. Senator Joseph Biden (D-DE), who previously called for the government to close Guantanamo [JURIST report], challenged Deputy Associate Attorney General J. Michael Wiggins with concerns that the government would hold prisoners there indefinitely. No representatives of the rights groups which have repeatedly deplored US detention practices at the facility testified in today's proceeding. The Senate has complete testimony transcripts. Reuters has more.

THIS DAY @ LAW

UN Security Council called for Israeli withdrawal from territories occupied in Six Days' War

On November 22, 1967, the UN Security Council called for Israeli withdrawal from territories occupied during the Six Days' War, and for respect of the right of all States in the area to "live in peace within secure and recognized boundaries." Read Resolution 242, which remains a cornerstone of efforts to achieve peace in the Middle East.

President Kennedy assassinated, VP Lyndon Johnson sworn inin

On November 22, 1963, President John F. Kennedy was assassinated in Dallas, Texas. Later that day, Vice-President Lyndon Johnson was sworn in as the 36th President of the United States. Earl Warren, the Chief Justice of the Supreme Court, was later tasked with leading a commission to investigate the assassination. President Johnson received the final report of the Warren Commission on September 24, 1964. Read the Warren Commission Report.