Archive - Jun 3, 2010

• UN official urges US to stop CIA drone killing program
  (click here for web only version)
• Gulf oil disaster set to affect economic system nationwide
• Immigrant advocates protest on Arizona governor’s visit with Obama
• American lawyer detained in Rwanda
• Berkeley officials to discuss controversial plan to privatize public housing

• Israel won’t allow international investigation of flotilla attack
• Activists prepare for a second aid caravan in Oaxaca
• CA Assembly passes plastic bag ban
• UN Report: $70 trillion could be generated from environmental restoration

(extended version)
Today, a senior UN official called on the US to stop the CIA drone attacks in Pakistan, saying that the program lacked transparency and accountability.

The UN Special Rapporteur on extrajudicial, summary or arbitrary executions, Philip Alston, presented the report to the UN Human Rights Council today in Geneva. Alston said the US defense of its CIA drone program was "expansive and open-ended" and comes close to destroying rules of the UN charter.

"Hundreds of people have been killed as a result, including some innocent civilians. Because this program remains shrouded in official secrecy, the international community does not know when and where the CIA is authorized to kill, the criteria for individuals who may be killed, how it ensures killings are legal,  and what follow up there is when civilians are illegally killed. In a situation in which there is no disclosure of who has been killed, for what reason, and whether innocent civilians have died, the legal principle of international accountability is, by definition, comprehensively violated."

Alston did acknowledge targeted killings could be legal when used against combatants and in accordance with international rules, but also warned that the spread of killings, based on current US policy, could encourage other states and lead to chaos.

This report comes as the Obama Administration has vastly expanded unmanned drone attacks and many are raising concern over secrecy and the number of civilians killed. Others, including the ACLU and legal scholars, have also challenged the legality of the drone program.

To learn more, we're joined by Mary Ellen O'Connell, law professor at Notre Dame and an expert in international law and armed conflict.

(click here for web only version)
Today, a senior UN official called on the US to stop the CIA drone attacks in Pakistan, saying that the program lacked transparency and accountability.

The UN Special Rapporteur on extrajudicial, summary or arbitrary executions, Philip Alston, presented the report to the UN Human Rights Council today in Geneva. Alston said the US defense of its CIA drone program was "expansive and open-ended" and comes close to destroying rules of the UN charter.

Bobby Jindal, the Governor of Louisiana, sent a letter to the President asking him to reverse his temporary ban on deepwater offshore oil drilling. Jindal says the ban could cost the state tens of thousands of jobs.  As the Gulf Coast economy continues to suffer, FSRN’s Leigh Ann Caldwell reports on the oil spill’s impact on the rest of the American economy.

President Obama is hearing the same message on immigration from different sides of the debate: the federal government needs to fix the immigration system.  That’s the message Arizona governor Jan Brewer brought to her face-to-face meeting with the President Thursday. And that’s also what a group of immigrant-rights activists outside the White House said as they protested Brewer’s visit. Tanya Snyder reports.

Family members and supporters of an American lawyer arrested in Rwanda are urging his release. Rwandan authorities detained Peter Erlinder in Kigali last Friday. The William Mitchell College of Law Professor was in the country to represent Victoire Ingabire, the leader of the United Democratic Forces, who was arrested on charges of promoting genocide ideology last month. In audio posted to the BBC today, Erlinder's daughter disputed claims by Rwandan officials that he tried to commit suicide.