Speech – Legal Issues in the War on Terrorism

2007 ◽  
Vol 8 (7) ◽  
pp. 735-746 ◽  
Author(s):  
John B. Bellinger
Keyword(s):  
United States ◽  
The United States ◽  
Legal Framework ◽  
September 11Th ◽  
War On Terrorism ◽  
Government Officials ◽  
The Past ◽  
Laws And Policies ◽  
The Military ◽  
Ongoing Dialogue

During the past year, I have had an intensive and ongoing dialogue with European government officials about U.S. counterterrorism laws and policies, especially those relating to the detention, questioning, and transfer of members of al Qaida and the Taliban. During this same period, the U.S. legal framework governing the detention and treatment of detainees has evolved significantly, through the passage of the Detainee Treatment Act last December, the Supreme Court's decision in the Hamdan case in June, the transfer of 14 al Qaida leaders to Guantanamo in September, the announcement of new DOD detention policies in September, and the enactment of the Military Commissions Act earlier this month. It has been vexing that so many myths and misunderstandings about United States policies have proliferated. My dialogue with EU governments during the past year has helped to clear up some of these myths and to address issues that are troubling to Europeans. Tonight, I want to provide a comprehensive public explanation of our legal views and policy decisions with respect to the detention and treatment of terrorists, as these have evolved in the United States since September 11th.

scholarly journals Two Roads Diverged: A Comparative Analysis of Indigenous Rights in a North American Constitutional Context

2013 ◽  
Vol 58 (3) ◽  
pp. 607-662 ◽  
Author(s):  
Peter Scott Vicaire
Keyword(s):  
United States ◽  
Comparative Analysis ◽  
Indigenous Rights ◽  
The United States ◽  
Aboriginal Peoples ◽  
Government Officials ◽  
Indian Act ◽  
Indian Tribes ◽  
Laws And Policies ◽  
Substantial Change

Fuelled by contrasting political backdrops, indigenous tribes on opposite sides of what has become the Canadian-American border have travelled upon very different trajectories, receiving dissimilar treatment from the respective governments that have laid claim to their lands. Indian tribes in the United States have sometimes had progressive legislators and high-ranking government officials enact bold laws and policies that were instrumental in creating positive change. Inversely, Aboriginal peoples in Canada have generally had to muddle through decade after decade of middling, indifferent, or occasionally even malicious bureaucrats who have continued to be too sheepish or backward-thinking to make any significant improvements. Further, the Canadian Parliament has yet to offer any substantive legislation in the vein and magnitude of that which was vital in making positive changes for American Indian tribes, even though numerous independent sources have pointed to such an approach. Rather, decades of piecemeal legislation have served only as a half-hearted attempt to counter the more odious effects of the archaic Indian Act, while those laudable governmental voices that have called for bold, substantial change have been largely ignored.

Legal and Policy Pathways of Climate Change Adaptation: Comparative Analysis of the Adaptation Practices in the United States, Australia and China

2018 ◽  
Vol 7 (2) ◽  
pp. 347-373 ◽  
Author(s):  
Xiangbai He
Keyword(s):  
Climate Change ◽  
United States ◽  
Climate Change Impacts ◽  
The United States ◽  
Legal Framework ◽  
Climate Politics ◽  
The Status ◽  
Executive Action ◽  
State And Local ◽  
Laws And Policies

AbstractTo successfully respond to climate change impacts, it is imperative that governments structure adaptation laws and policies around their country’s existing legal framework. The United States (US), China, and Australia have all made adaptation attempts through legislative, executive, and judicial action. However, because the systems of law and governance of the three countries differ, the ways in which adaptation issues are managed vary. State and local adaptation planning functions as the leading adaptation pathway in the US, whereas in Australia judicial intervention is more influential than executive action. By contrast, China relies primarily on policy to manage adaptation issues. This article argues that the differences in adaptation responses are the result of a complex combination of factors, which include climate politics and awareness of adaptation, the status of environmental principles, and the role of the judiciary. This analysis helps in identifying the opportunities and barriers associated with different adaptation solutions, and also contributes to cross-jurisdictional learning.

scholarly journals Introduction to the Symposium Edition of the Texas A&M Journal of Property Law and The United States Defense Industry

2018 ◽  
Vol 5 (1) ◽  
pp. 1-4
Author(s):  
Lisa A. Rich
Keyword(s):  
United States ◽  
National Security ◽  
The United States ◽  
Defense Industry ◽  
Legal Framework ◽  
Property Law ◽  
Acquisition Process ◽  
Joint Force ◽  
Private And Public ◽  
The Military

On February 23, 2018, the Texas A&M Journal of Property Law held an innovative and informative symposium on the United States Defense Industry focused on the acquisition process from conception to deployment and the scientific, budgetary, political, and legal framework through which the United States joint force is forged. The symposium brought together stakeholders from academia, private and public sectors, and the military to explain, analyze, and assess the labyrinthine weapons acquisition system and its role-and impact-on national security.

Changes in Cloud-Ceiling Heights and Frequencies over the United States since the Early 1950s

2007 ◽  
Vol 20 (15) ◽  
pp. 3956-3970 ◽  
Author(s):  
Bomin Sun ◽  
Thomas R. Karl ◽  
Dian J. Seidel
Keyword(s):  
United States ◽  
The United States ◽  
Precipitation Frequency ◽  
Surface Warming ◽  
Reporting Practices ◽  
The Past ◽  
Ceiling Height ◽  
Weather Stations ◽  
The Military ◽  
Observing Systems

Abstract U.S. weather stations operated by NOAA’s National Weather Service (NWS) have undergone significant changes in reporting and measuring cloud ceilings. Stations operated by the Department of Defense have maintained more consistent reporting practices. By comparing cloud-ceiling data from 223 NWS first-order stations with those from 117 military stations, and by further comparison with changes in physically related parameters, inhomogeneous records, including all NWS records based only on automated observing systems and the military records prior to the early 1960s, were identified and discarded. Data from the two networks were then used to determine changes in daytime ceiling height (the above-ground height of the lowest sky-cover layer that is more than half opaque) and ceiling occurrence frequency (percentage of total observations that have ceilings) over the contiguous United States since the 1950s. Cloud-ceiling height in the surface–3.6-km layer generally increased during 1951–2003, with more significant changes in the period after the early 1970s and in the surface–2-km layer. These increases were mostly over the western United States and in the coastal regions. No significant change was found in surface–3.6-km ceiling occurrence during 1951–2003, but during the period since the early 1970s, there is a tendency for a decrease in frequency of ceilings with height below 3.6 km. Cloud-ceiling heights above 3.6 km have shown no significant changes in the past 30 yr, but there has been an increase in frequency, consistent with the increase in ceiling height below 3.6 km. For the surface–3.6-km layer, physically consistent changes were identified as related to changes in ceiling height and frequency of occurrence. This included reductions in precipitation frequency related to low ceiling frequency, and surface warming and decreasing relative humidity accompanying increasing ceiling heights during the past 30 yr.

Warren G. Harding and The Dominican Republic U.S. Withdrawal, 1921-1923

1969 ◽  
Vol 11 (3) ◽  
pp. 425-440 ◽  
Author(s):  
Kenneth J. Grieb
Keyword(s):  
United States ◽  
Latin America ◽  
Dominican Republic ◽  
The United States ◽  
Military Interventions ◽  
The Past ◽  
Secretary Of State ◽  
Good Will ◽  
Armed Intervention ◽  
The Military

When it assumed office in 1921 the Harding administration found itself confronted with the problem of arranging the withdrawal of American troops from the Dominican Republic. Terminating the American presence in that country was part of the administration's policy of improving relations with Latin America, and both Warren G. Harding and Charles Evans Hughes were strongly committed to this goal. They believed that abandoning armed intervention in favor of advice and counsel would foster good will in Latin America and ultimately benefit the United States by enabling it to garner the trade and support of the region. The president and secretary of state also contended that such a policy could stabilize the area and thereby render the military interventions of the past unnecessary. Thus withdrawal from the Dominican Republic was part of a larger policy.

Clerics, Exiles, and Academics: Opposition to the Brazilian Military Dictatorship in the United States, 1969–1974

2003 ◽  
Vol 45 (1) ◽  
pp. 87-117
Author(s):  
James N. Green
Keyword(s):  
United States ◽  
Human Rights ◽  
Latin America ◽  
Latin American ◽  
Body Politic ◽  
The United States ◽  
Government Officials ◽  
National Body ◽  
Human Rights Standards ◽  
The Military

AbstractVirtually no one in the United States raised objections to the 1964 military takeover of the Brazilian civilian government. In the early 1970s, however, the Brazilian regime had become associated with torture and the arbitrary rule of law. By the end of that decade, compliance with human rights standards had developed into a yardstick for measuring U.S. foreign policy initiatives in Latin America. This paper argues that between 1969 and 1974, a small group of dedicated church activists, exiled Brazilians, and academics introduced the issue of human rights in Latin America into the U.S. national body politic. A network of concerned activists fashioned a systematic campaign to educate journalists, government officials, and the public about the abuses taking place under the generals' rule. Their activities helped isolate the military regime and laid the groundwork for a broader solidarity movement with Latin American popular struggles in the late 1970s and 1980s.

scholarly journals Does Flagging POTUS’s Tweets Lead to Fewer or More Retweets? Preliminary Evidence from Machine Learning Models

2020 ◽  
Author(s):  
Wallace Chipidza ◽  
Jie Yan
Keyword(s):  
United States ◽  
Machine Learning ◽  
Social Media ◽  
The United States ◽  
Preliminary Evidence ◽  
Time Of Day ◽  
Word Count ◽  
Government Officials ◽  
The Past ◽  
Social Media Platforms

There is vigorous debate as to whether influential social media platforms like Twitter and Facebook should censor objectionable posts by government officials in the United States and elsewhere. Although these platforms have resisted pressure to censor such posts in the past, Twitter recently flagged five posts by the United States President Donald J. Trump on the rationale that the tweets contained inaccurate or inflammatory content. In this paper, we examine preliminary evidence as to whether these posts were retweeted less or more than expected. We employ 10 machine learning (ML) algorithms to estimate the expected number of retweets based on 8 features of each tweet from historical data since President Trump was elected: number of likes, word count, readability, polarity, subjectivity, presence of link or multimedia content, time of day of posting, and number of days since Trump’s election. Our results indicate agreement from all 10 ML algorithms that the three flagged tweets for which we had retweet data were retweeted at higher rates than expected. These results suggest that flagging tweets by government officials might be counterproductive towards the spread of content deemed objectionable by social media platforms.

New Delhi's Long Nuclear Journey: How Secrecy and Institutional Roadblocks Delayed India's Weaponization

2014 ◽  
Vol 38 (4) ◽  
pp. 79-114 ◽  
Author(s):  
Gaurav Kampani
Keyword(s):  
United States ◽  
Risk Aversion ◽  
Information Sharing ◽  
Nuclear Weapons ◽  
The United States ◽  
Think Tank ◽  
Government Officials ◽  
Political Leaders ◽  
The Military ◽  
New Evidence

In the late 1980s and early 1990s, many academics, think tank analysts, journalists, and government officials came to perceive India as a de facto nuclear weapons power. The consensus among U.S. policymakers was that normative, rather than technical or organizational hurdles, prevented India from transforming its latent nuclear capability into an operational one. New evidence shows, however, that India lacked technical means to deliver nuclear weapons reliably and safely until 1994–95. Further, until the outbreak of the Kargil War in the summer of 1999, political leaders refrained from embedding the weapons within organizational and procedural routines that would have rendered them operational in the military sense of the term. These deficiencies can be traced to a regime of secrecy that prevented information sharing and coordination among the relevant actors. This secrecy stemmed from risk aversion among Indian decisionmakers, who feared international pressures for nuclear rollback, particularly from the United States.

Legal Issues in the War on Terrorism – A Reply to Silja N. U. Vöneky

2007 ◽  
Vol 8 (9) ◽  
pp. 871-878 ◽  
Author(s):  
John B. Bellinger
Keyword(s):  
United States ◽  
Armed Conflict ◽  
Use Of Force ◽  
The United States ◽  
Legal Framework ◽  
War On Terrorism ◽  
Self Defense ◽  
Law Of Armed Conflict ◽  
Terrorist Groups ◽  
Developing Area

I wanted to begin by thanking Dr. Voneky for her thoughtful contribution to this rapidly developing area of international law. One of the purposes of the ongoing dialogue with my European counterparts on the legal framework for the use of force and detention of combatants in an armed conflict with non-state actors is to spur dialogue to arrive at a common approach on these issues. I agree with many things in Dr. Voneky's article. I am pleased that, unlike many critics of the United States, she recognizes that it is possible to use force in self defense from armed attacks not directly linked to the actions of any state, and that the law of armed conflict would govern that use of force. I also appreciate that she notes that actions against terrorist groups outside a state's country are not necessarily simply transnational police actions. I wanted to take this brief opportunity to note three areas where there may be some misunderstandings regarding the views of the United States, and then discuss my thoughts on the way forward.

International Research and Variation in Views of Ethnicity

2012 ◽  
Vol 2 (2) ◽  
pp. 66-72
Author(s):  
Ella Inglebret ◽  
Amy Skinder-Meredith ◽  
Shana Bailey ◽  
Carla Jones ◽  
Ashley France
Keyword(s):  
United States ◽  
Classification System ◽  
International Research ◽  
The United States ◽  
Research Articles ◽  
Journal Articles ◽  
Research Participants ◽  
The Past ◽  
International Scale ◽  
Publication Patterns

The authors in this article first identify the extent to which research articles published in three American Speech-Language-Hearing Association (ASHA) journals included participants, age birth to 18 years, from international backgrounds (i.e., residence outside of the United States), and go on to describe associated publication patterns over the past 12 years. These patterns then provide a context for examining variation in the conceptualization of ethnicity on an international scale. Further, the authors examine terminology and categories used by 11 countries where research participants resided. Each country uses a unique classification system. Thus, it can be expected that descriptions of the ethnic characteristics of international participants involved in research published in ASHA journal articles will widely vary.

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