US Marine paralegal accused of false statement after Guantanamo abuse claim News
US Marine paralegal accused of false statement after Guantanamo abuse claim

[JURIST] Lt. Col. Colby Vokey, the US Marine defense coordinator for the western US, told the Associated Press Friday that his paralegal, Sgt. Heather Cerveny, has been accused of having made a false statement by Army Col. Richard Basset. Bassett was ordered to investigate alleged abuses of detainees [JURIST report] at Guantanamo Bay [JURIST news archive] after Cerveny provided a two-page sworn statement [PDF] last October claiming she conversed with a group of off-duty Marines who bragged of beating and abusing detainees.

Cerveny said the Marines identified themselves as guards, and led her to believe that the mistreatment – including the arbitrary denial of privileges, physically striking detainees, and depriving the detainees of hydration – was common practice and laughed at stories of how prisoners had been handled. Basset submitted his report [AP report] in December but it has not been made public. 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.