New Report Says Syria Responsible for Death, Possible Torture of 11,000
By
David Kailer
http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-middle-east-25836550
The BBC’s report tracks a report released on the eve of the “biggest diplomatic effort yet to end a three-year conflict that has left more than 100,000 dead and millions displaced”. The convention, commonly known as Geneva II, will convene to discuss resolving the worsening situation in Syria.
The report was comprised with the cooperation of a “defected military police photographer” known as “Caesar”, who was in charge of photographing the dead to assist in producing death certificates and to confirm that executions had been completed. “There could be as many as 50 bodies a day to photograph…” Many of the bodies show signs of beating and emaciation, the consistency over the corpses suggesting to Professor Sir Geoffrey Nice “that the scale and consistency of the killings provided strong evidence of government involvement that could support a criminal prosecution”.
The article also tracks a developing argument over the legitimacy of the report, whether the photographs were actually from within Syria, and whether the report was financed by the country of Qatar, which a spokeman for the Syrian Ministry of Information suggested should completely undermine the findings of the report because of Qatar’s interests in the region.
Marie Harf of the U.S. State Department was quoted as saying, “The situation on the ground is so horrific that we need to get a political transition in place, and we need to get the Assad regime out of power.”
Is American or United Nations intervention appropriate? If so, what form should it take? What concerns would you have about America getting involved in another political struggle abroad?
National Security
Clearly Hiding Something: President Obama’s chance to recommend changes to the NSA
Clearly Hiding Something: President Obama’s chance to recommend changes to the NSA
By
David Kailer
http://security.blogs.cnn.com/2014/01/14/obama-ahs-room-to-maneuver-on-nsa-reforms/
Amidst the ongoing controversy surrounding the National Security Agency and the arguable constitutionality of its domestic and international surveillance programs, CNN has reported that President Obama is compiling a list of recommendations to be put to the agency in order to restore confidence in the National Security Agency in light of the leaks by Edward Snowden last year.
After an independent review board looked into the NSA’s practices, their formal recommendation was “that government do a better job of protecting civil liberties”. Whether the Obama administration follows that recommendation, and to what extent they will tighten protections depends on the specific official recommendations the President makes in the coming days and weeks.
Much of the article focused on reminding readers of Obama’s continual claim to improving administrative transparency, capturing the importance of these recommendations for the second-term President’s legacy, and discussing the tension between the need for competent intelligence work and the need to protect the fundamental values of citizen privacy enshrined in the Constitution.
One recommendation the article deemed likely was that the President might order private companies to maintain the data and metadata which the NSA currently collects, and to yield that information only pursuant to a [constitutional] request. Interestingly, the article makes no mention of the significant costs creating such an infrastructure might impose on private companies. There is also no discussion of how disclosure requirements might change where private companies are keeping the records pursuant to a government regulation.
Another potential recommendation discussed included creating an entity or appointing an individual to act in an adversarial role when the government requests such documents, the opposing entity essentially playing devil’s advocate in keeping the records out of government hands. If this is a government-appointed position, that may bring up issues of collaboration by both sides or lip service in performing adversarial functions.
While it is reassuring to see the Obama administration taking the nation’s concerns seriously, it is too early to consider this issue addressed. Personally, I would like to see a vigorous, bona fide adversarial process put in place. This would have the added benefit of protecting civil liberties while not imposing any additional burdens on the intelligence community if they are already complying with the Constitution. Additionally, the President might benefit from making the National Security Agency regularly accountable for their actions, as there have been reports of the NSA refusing to answer inquiries from Congressmen about the scope of the NSA’s intelligence activities.
Do the recommendations listed above solve this issue? What other recommendations would you like to see put in place when the President submits his formal requests?