Category: International

Constitutional Law, International, Military, Politics

Increasing Support In Japan For Changing Pacifism Article In Constitution

By Darren Smith, weekend contributor

Flag of JapanJapanese voters are split over changing the country’s pacifist constitution, in order to allow Japan to ease limits on the military, according to a recent poll. About 50 percent of voters want Japan to be able to exercise its right to self-defense in case of an international conflict, while almost 90 percent of lower house lawmakers back the change.

The survey was made by the Asahi newspaper and a University of Tokyo research team. It showed that half of the voters want the revising of the constitution, up from 41 percent in 2009.

Japan’s prime-minister Shinzo Abe made clear he wants to change the constitution in order to give more power to the military. The constitution has never been changed since it was drafted by the United States Occupation forces in 1947, after the World War Two.

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Free Speech, International, Media, Politics

May Third Is World Press Freedom Day

World Press Freedom Day
By Darren Smith, Weekend Contributor

In honor of the day first proclaimed by the United Nations General Assembly in 1993 at the recommendation of UNESCO, and to garner attention to how press freedom fares twenty years later, Deutsche Welle has compiled a series highlighting the issues journalists and the public generally are facing.

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Academia, International, Politics, Society

Biden: I Have Met “Literally Every” World Leader

220px-Nouveau_Dictionnaire_Larousse_page225px-joe_biden_official_photo_portrait_2-croppedFor many, the use of the word “literally” is literally the bane of their existence. People often use it for emphasis when the literal meaning of the sentence could not possibly be true. Take statement of Vice President Joe Biden who loves to use the word and, on Monday, told a crowd that he has met “literally every” world leader at my school, George Washington University. It was funny enough that Carrie Dann of NBC News had to tweet it.

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Congress, International, Military, Politics, Society

“The Most Transparent Administration In History”: Obama Administration Quietly Strips Senate Bill Of Provision Requiring Disclosure Of Annual Drone Kills

220px-MQ-9_Reaper_-_090609-F-0000M-777President_Barack_ObamaThere is yet another victory for the national security state under President Obama. The Obama Administration has succeeded, with the help of Senate Intelligence Committee chair Dianne Feinstein, in quietly removing a provision that would seem unobjectionable to a President who pledged “the most transparent Administration in history.” The provision simply required disclosure of the number of people killed each year by U.S. drone attacks. Not the details mind you. Just the figure. That sent the intelligence community into outrage over having to tell the public how many people have been killed in just this one area. The result was that it was simply stripped out of the Senate bill without a vote or debate.

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Courts, Criminal law, International, Media, Politics, Religion, Society

Head of Iranian Prisons Accused of Covering Up Brutal Human Rights Violations . . . Iranian Government Promotes Him To Top Judicial Position

220px-EvinHouseofDetentionWhile the government continues to arrest those who protest its policies, Iran has been faced with a novel form of protest by citizens who are shaving their heads in solidarity with prisoners being killed and brutalized in the nation’s prison complex. These include political detainees at the infamous Evin Prison who were shown on a recent video being beaten by Revolutionary Guards. At the center of the controversy is Gholam Hossein Esmaili, a true fanatic who went on television to deny all such allegations, say that his guards have been uniformly “polite” to detainees, and that the videotape is a conspiracy of the West to overthrow the government. While most countries would investigate him for possible criminal acts and certainly fire him for abuse, the Islamic Republic promoted him to head Tehran Province’s courts. That’s right, the mullahs felt that he was perfect to be put into the court system. In the meantime, the government shut down the Ebtekar Newspaper , which reported on aspects of the controversy. By the way, Evin Prison (left) under the reign of Mohammad Reza Shah Pahlavi held a reported 1,500 detainees. Under Iran’s Islamic government, it hold a reportedly 15,000. While it holds conventional prisoners, it holds so many dissident intellectuals and professors that it is now nicknamed “Evin University.”

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Constitutional Law, Courts, International, Justice

US Magistrate Judge Rules Search Warrant May Include Email Account Hosted Overseas

By Darren Smith, Weekend Contributor

Microsoft LogoThere is an interesting ruling from U.S. Magistrate Judge James Francis in New York. The case stems from a search warrant sought by the government for the contents of an individual’s e-Mail account that was hosted by Microsoft but stored on a server located in Dublin, Ireland.

Magistrate Francis stated that internet service providers such as Microsoft or Google cannot refuse to turn over customer information and emails stored in other countries when issued a valid search warrant from U.S. law enforcement agencies.

In a statement, Microsoft said it challenged the warrant because the U.S. government should not be able to search the content of email held overseas.

“A U.S. prosecutor cannot obtain a U.S. warrant to search someone’s home located in another country, just as another country’s prosecutor cannot obtain a court order in her home country to conduct a search in the United States,” the company said. “We think the same rules should apply in the online world, but the government disagrees.”
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Free Speech, International, Justice, Media, Politics, Society

New Law In Turkey Expands Surveillance State And Cracks Down On Journalists

By Darren Smith, Weekend Contributor

Flag of TurkeyBBC News is reporting legislation is now going into effect that would expand the authority of secret police agencies and offer further immunities to its agents while at the same time proscribing punishments of up to ten years imprisonment for journalists who publish what the government considers secret information.

Opponents to Prime Minister Recep Erdogan charge that the measures were enacted to boost his authority and power and to facilitate his will to stifle evidence of his various acts of corruption.

The new law extends the ability of secret service agents to conduct foreign operations, tap phone conversations and to access data held by private and public institutions

Kemal Kilicdaroglu, leader of the main opposition Republican People’s Party, has said the law has effectively turned Turkey into an “intelligence state”.
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International, Military, Politics

Russian Economy Could Face Strong Shocks In Market Resulting From Actions In The Ukraine

By Darren Smith, Weekend Contributor

Russian FlagFlag of The UkraineThe Group of Seven Nations (G7) agreed to impose new sanctions and move more swiftly against Russia for the state’s actions in The Ukraine. The group accused Moscow of violating the de-escalation measures mutually agreed to during the Geneva Accord designed to reduce tensions in the region.

The powers in North America, Europe, and Japan agreed Saturday to impose new targeted sanctions. In an official statement, the G7 announced:

“Given the urgency of securing the opportunity for a successful and peaceful democratic vote next month in Ukraine’s presidential elections, we have committed to act urgently to intensify targeted sanctions.”

G7 Finance Ministers
G7 Finance Ministers

The market is also beginning to deal blows to Russia’s increasingly perilous economy. Standard and Poors, a benchmark rating service for sovereign debt and other investments, announced that it was cutting the insurance rating due to the risk of Russia defaulting on its debt; lowering its rating to BBB- making it just one step above a junk rating. This is certain to affect large Russian government owned businesses such as Gasprom that supply the nation with hard currency. The reduction of this rating carries an 18% probably of default within the next three years. Russia defaulted on its sovereign domestic debt in 1998 and plunged the nation into a financial chrisis forstering a devaluation of the Rouble and an 84% rise in inflation.

Could Russia later be an example of hard sanctions working as opposed to a much more costly direct action by both sides militarily?
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Criminal law, International, Politics, Religion, Society

Afghan Security Guard Kills Three Doctors At Hospital . . . Other Doctors Then Save Attacker’s Life In Surgery

medical symbol220px-AK-47_type_II_Part_DM-ST-89-01131Two American doctors — a father and a son — were killed by an Afghan security guard at a Kabul hospital this week as well as a third doctor. The guard also wounded two others, including an American nurse. The Taliban and extreme Muslim clerics have called for attacks on foreigners, including those who are in the country to feed and heal Afghan citizens. What is most striking about this story is that, after gunning down innocent doctors and nurses, the life of the guard was then saved in surgery at the very same hospital by doctors that he did not shoot.

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Academia, International

Four Leading Physicists Resign After Academic Critic Is Fired By Putin Appointees For “Truancy”

Mikhail_Kovalchuk225px-Vladimir_Putin_official_portrait Alexander Gorsky from the Institute for Theoretical and Experimental Physics, or ITEP, is one of the world’s leading physicists and a critic of the reorganization of the academy by the Putin Administration. He has now been fired for going to the United States for an academic conference for “truancy.” Four physicists have announced their resignations from the academic council in protest. The Institute has been taken over by a Putin ally, Mikhail Kovalchuk (right).

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Criminal law, International, Politics, Society

“Shared Pain” or “Genocide”? Turkey Apologizes For Deaths Of Armenians

260px-MarcharmeniansTurkish Prime Minister Tayyip Erdogan offered what the government described as unprecedented “condolences” for the killing of Armenians in the First World War. The “apology” however is likely to be viewed as manifestly inadequate for those who have long demanded that Turkey acknowledge the killings as “genocide.” There remains a sharp historical debate over the killings though countries like France tried to end that debate by criminalizing arguments that this was not a genocide. The overwhelming world opinion however is that this was genocide and that Turkey continues to offer a revisionist history to its students and citizens. This statement comes as the country approaches the 100th anniversary of the killings next year. Turkey continues to deny that 1.5 million people were killed in 1915.

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Animals, Environment, International

A Royal Bustard: Saudi Prince Allowed To Kill 2,100 Endangered Birds In Pakistan

200px-Coat_of_arms_of_Saudi_Arabia.svg220px-Houbara035We have yet another story of a Saudi prince achieving a new level of debauchery or excess. Prince Fahd bin Sultan bin Abdul Aziz Al Saud reportedly went on a little hunting trip in Pakistan but he did not want to hunt the same game as just anyone. He is a Saudi Prince and needed something that others could not have. So he obtained a permit from the Pakistani government to hunt an internationally protected bird — the houbara bustard. He was given the right to hunt for 2 days and kill up to 100 houbara bustards so he hunted for 21 days and killed some 2,100 of the protected birds. If you are wondering what type of person who relish such destruction, you might want to ask what type of government would issue a permit to such a person. The answer is two of our closest allies.

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Congress, Constitutional Law, Courts, International, Lawyering, Media, Military, Politics

Second Circuit Orders Obama Administration To Release Drone Memos On Killing U.S. Citizens

PresObamaUS-CourtOfAppeals-2ndCircuit-SealWhile President Obama ran on a pledge to be the most transparent presidency in history, critics have charged that — as with promises to protect civil liberties and international law — Obama has done precisely the opposite of what he promised. His Administration has radically expanded the national security state while fighting every effort in court to challenge unchecked executive powers, including his successful effort to get Congress to dismiss dozens of public interest lawsuits over surveillance, torture, etc. The latest effort of the Obama Administration was to refuse to release even redacted version of legal memoranda on Obama’s use of drones to kill U.S. citizens. I have previously written about Obama Kill list policy in columns and blog posts. What is interesting is that the Obama Administration shows utter contempt for the federal courts in first claiming that any release of redacted classified legal arguments would endanger national security and then, after the district court yielded to the government, proceeding to discuss the very same information in public when it suited the Administration. The United States Court of Appeals for the Second Circuit finally said enough. The problem is that the district court did not exercise its authority to reject the clearly excessive claims of the government. It is only because the government contradicted itself — not the facially overboard claims made before the district court. The case is New York Times v. United States Department of Justice, 2014 U.S. App. LEXIS 7387. The case highlights the extreme hostility shown by the Obama Administration to both transparency and the media.

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Academia, Animals, Bizarre, Congress, Constitutional Law, Courts, Criminal law, Environment, Free Speech, International, Justice, Lawyering, Media, Military, Politics, Society, Supreme Court, Torts

21,000,000

We only recently passed the 20,000,000 mark last February but we just hit 21,000,000, according to WordPress. Congratulations everyone. This has been a banner year for the site with a continuing increase in traffic, links on other sites, and new voices on the blog. These milestones are coming faster and they give us a chance to look at the spread of our regular readers and commentators. As always, I want to offer special thanks for our weekend contributors: Mark Esposito, Eliane Magliaro, Mike Appleton, Larry Rafferty, Charlton Stanley and Darren Smith. The increasing traffic on the site is gratifying and reaffirms that there are many people looking for mature and civil debate. Even among the top ten sites, I believe that we offer a unique forum of different views and backgrounds in the discussion of law and politics (and a few quirky items).

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Criminal law, International

Nine-Time Poker Champ Accused Of “Edge Sorting” To Win Millions

220px-Phil_Ivey_Profile220px-Baccara_PaletteThere is an unfolding scandal involving one of the best known gamblers in the world, Phillip Ivey, Jr. who has been accused of card-cheating in baccarat to the tune of $9.6 million. What is striking to me is how such allegations are treated as civil rather than criminal matters, particularly given the allegations by Borgata Hotel Casino & Spa filed in its federal lawsuit against Ivey in using effectively marked cards. The casino reads like a new script for Ocean’s Thirteen with the use of flawed dice created at a Mexican factory. I could find no reference to the lawsuit (or another lawsuit by the Golden Nugget) on Ivey’s website.

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