Monthly Archives: November 2003

Guardian: Richard Perle Admits Iraq Invasion Was Illegal Under International Law

Posted on November 20, 2003 by Michael Froomkin

War critics astonished as US hawk admits invasion was illegal

International lawyers and anti-war campaigners reacted with astonishment yesterday after the influential Pentagon hawk Richard Perle conceded that the invasion of Iraq had been illegal.

In a startling break with the official White House and Downing Street lines, Mr Perle told an audience in London: “I think in this case international law stood in the way of doing the right thing.”

President George Bush has consistently argued that the war was legal either because of existing UN security council resolutions on Iraq – also the British government's publicly stated view – or as an act of self-defence permitted by international law.

But Mr Perle, a key member of the defence policy board, which advises the US defence secretary, Donald Rumsfeld, said that “international law … would have required us to leave Saddam Hussein alone”, and this would have been morally unacceptable.

French intransigence, he added, meant there had been “no practical mechanism consistent with the rules of the UN for dealing with Saddam Hussein”…

This 'the ends justified the means' argument is internally consistent, but it's weird in the extreme to have all the former critics of humanitarian intervention reborn as bleeding hearts. Or would be if we believed they meant a word of the humanitarian stuff (postwar planning? us?)….

Posted in Law: International Law | Comments Off on Guardian: Richard Perle Admits Iraq Invasion Was Illegal Under International Law

Maher Arar Affair: What is the Pluperfect of ‘Cynic’?

Posted on November 20, 2003 by Michael Froomkin

The Maher Arar case is very disturbing, although the callous cynicism of Team Bush that it appears to reveal can hardly be a surprise at this point.

The key allegations are:

  • Arar, a dual Syrian-Canadian national, was transiting through a US airport on his way to Canada when he was stopped by US officials who believed him to be a terrorist, or in cahoots with terrorists.
  • The US government held him virtually incommunicado for days. Then it let him meet the Canadian consul — once. And a lawyer — once, for thirty minutes.
  • At some point before or after those meetings, one or more hearings relating to where Arar would be sent were held without giving Arar or his lawyer notice or an opportunity to be heard.
  • Acting AG Larry Thompson sent Arar to Syria, over his expressed desire to be sent to Canada, in circumstances where Thompson knew or should have known that Arar would be tortured.
  • And Arar was tortured by Syrian intelligence for more than ten months.

In short, the claim is that the US arranged for Arar to be tortured via an extraordinary rendition. Presumably because the Ba'athist Syrian intelligence has been very cooperative in the war on (religious) terror.

But you see, that claim is really very unfair. The US didn't arrange for the Syrians to torture anyone. No, no, a thousand times no. In fact, the US got the Syrians to promise that they wouldn't torture Arar. And the Justice Department not only believed those assurances then, they believe them today! The Syrians would never torture a suspected al Queda member when they had promised us they wouldn't. Or, at least, it was certainly reasonable of the good, honest, acting Attorney General to rely on the Syrians' assurances, for we well know that they are a nation firmly committed to the Rule of Law.

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Posted in Civil Liberties | 1 Comment

Domain Names and the FTAA: A Bad Mix

Posted on November 19, 2003 by Michael Froomkin

[HTMLized version of document presented to today's conference on Negotiating Intellectual Property Provisions in Free Trade Agreements]

FTAA

Intellectual Property Rights Chapter, Part II, Section 1
Article 13 — Domain names on the Internet

[13.1. Each Party shall participate in the Government Advisory Committee (GAC) of the Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers (ICANN) to promote appropriate country code Top Level Domain (ccTLD) administration and delegation practices and appropriate contractual relationships for the administration of the ccTLDs in the Hemisphere. Each Party shall have its domestic Network Information Centers (NICs) participate in the ICANN Uniform Dispute Resolution Procedure (UDRP) to address the problem of cyber-piracy of trademarks.]

[13.1. Each Party shall make efforts, to the extent possible, to promote an adequate administration of domain names.]

Summary

The first paragraph is highly objectionable. The second is acceptable, although it is vague.

Nations should not be required to impose the ICANN Uniform Dispute Resolution Procedure (UDRP) by law on their citizens because:

  • Governments should not be subordinate to the decisions of a private corporation, ICANN;
  • Nor should the legal rights of citizens be decided by a private corporation;
  • The UDRP is subject to change, and governments should remain free to opt-out if its provisions become unacceptable;
  • As it stands, the UDRP fails to guarantee basic due process to consumers;
  • Serious questions have been raised about the even-handedness of some of the arbitration service providers who supply the arbitrators for the UDRP.

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    Posted in Law: Trademark Law | 2 Comments

    How School Vouchers (Don’t) Work In Florida

    Posted on November 19, 2003 by Michael Froomkin

    As Congressional Republicans plan to violate Washington DC's home rule, and force a school voucher system on the city, I think it's useful to review how vouchers are working here in Florida.

    I'll support almost anything reasonably calculated to improve the access of poor people — and rich people too! — to quality schooling for kids. Abstractly, vouchers look like they might do that, subject to a small host of caveats about the effect on kids with serious problems who might end up being treated like the 'lemons' of a primarily for-profit system, or dumped into the vestigial remains of an underfunded public system.

    Given the Florida experience, however, one has to ask whether vouchers in practice are in fact reasonably calculated to be helpful on balance. As usual, the Florida Blog is on top of this one, with links to:

    Talk about waste, fraud and abuse! Not to mention special interest lobbying, hogs at the trough, and every other cliche too.

    Posted in Florida | Comments Off on How School Vouchers (Don’t) Work In Florida

    Compare and Contrast

    Posted on November 19, 2003 by Michael Froomkin

    In one corner, William Safire, being tactical. In the other corner Joshua Marshall being reasonable. (And, in the background, the Defence Dept. disowning the report Safire is relying on.) You gotta wonder about prundits when they rely on stuff that's already been disowned and refuted. Or just turn to your Daily Howler for a very jaundiced view of the pundit class.

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    Posted in Readings | Comments Off on Compare and Contrast

    Alcee Hastings Picks a Presidential Candidate: Lieberman

    Posted on November 19, 2003 by Michael Froomkin

    I didn't see this one coming. Lieberman to pick up endorsement of Florida Rep. Hastings

    I have no idea how much of this is tactical, and how much is something else like personal friendship. Alcee Hastings is running for Senate in Florida. In a crowded field he'd have a shot at the nomination, but how endorsing Lieberman helps him get that nomination I fail to see. Peter Deutsch will probably get most of the Jewish vote. And the odds of anyone being fooled into thinking Rep. Hastings is a conservative Democrat are pretty low, although he's less predictable and more interesting than most Representatives. I suppose there's some reason to think Lieberman will run strong in Florida, if his campaign has any juice left by the time we have our primary.

    It could well be that Hastings just likes Lieberman for some reason. But it's hard to see what that reason could be other than something personal. Lieberman is my least favorite of the major Democratic candiates because of his disgraceful reaction to the courageous decision by Illinois Governor George Ryan to commute the sentences of 167 death row prisoners

    “Governor Ryan's action was shockingly wrong,” Mr. Lieberman said … “It did terrible damage to the credibility of our system of justice, and particularly for the victims. It was obviously not a case-by-case review, and that's what our system is all about.”

    Sorry, that decision of Governor Ryan's was shockingly right.

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    Posted in Florida | 1 Comment