dkf
dkf's JournalNew International Standards for war crimes...
@emptywheel: I must say, I'm actually excited about this new standard, CinC's being responsible for all war crimes committed by their subordinates.
Cameron backs down on urgent Syria strikes
David Cameron backed down and agreed to delay a military attack on Syria following a growing revolt over the UK's rushed response to the crisis on Wednesday night.
The Prime Minister has now said he will wait for a report by United Nations weapons inspectors before seeking the approval of MPs for “direct British involvement” in the Syrian intervention.
Downing Street said the decision to wait for the UN was based on the “deep concerns” the country still harbours over the Iraq War.
MPs had been recalled to vote on a motion on Thursday expected to sanction military action. Instead, after a Labour intervention, they will debate a broader motion calling for a “humanitarian response”.
A second vote would be required before any British military involvement. This could now take place next week.
In a statement on Wednesday night Downing Street said that it only wanted to proceed on a “consensual basis” and was now wary about becoming embroiled in another divisive conflict in the Middle East in the wake of Iraq.
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/worldnews/middleeast/syria/10272555/Cameron-backs-down-on-urgent-Syria-strikes.html
Jury reached 8-4 impasse in favor of acquitting federal agent
A Circuit Court jury reached an impasse at 8-4 in favor of acquitting State Department special agent Christopher Deedy of murdering Kollin Elderts in the 2011 shooting at a Waikiki McDonald’s restaurant, the foreman of the jury said today.
The panel was split 6-6 when the five days of deliberations began Aug. 15, shifted to 7-4 for acquittal with one abstention last week and ended with the 8-4 deadlock, foreman Justin Odagiri said.
The foreman said he wasn’t sure if the jury could have reached a verdict if the jurors had the option of returning a conviction on the lesser offense of manslaughter.
“It’s hard to say in hindsight,” Odagiri said. “It’s hard to go back and think about that.”
http://www.staradvertiser.com/news/breaking/221437411.html?id=221437411&src=em&mobile=true
So to make the point that using chemical weapons is morally wrong we are going to bomb and kill?
Who are these people who will suffer and die and are they directly responsible for the use of chemical weapons?
The mind boggles.
Arab League Rejects Attack Against Syria
CAIRO — The leaders of the Arab world on Tuesday blamed the Syrian government for a chemical weapons attack that killed hundreds of people last week, but declined to back a retaliatory military strike, leaving President Obama without the broad regional support he had for his last military intervention in the Middle East, in Libya in 2011.
While the Obama administration has robust European backing and more muted Arab support for a strike on Syria, the position of the Arab League and the unlikelihood of securing authorization from the United Nations Security Council complicate the legal and diplomatic case for the White House.
The White House said Tuesday that there was “no doubt” that President Bashar al-Assad’s government was responsible for the chemical weapons attack — an assessment shared by Britain, France and other allies — but it has yet to make clear if it has any intelligence directly linking Mr. Assad to the attack. The administration said it planned to provide intelligence on the attack later this week.
As Mr. Obama sought to shore up international support for military action, telephoning Prime Minister David Cameron of Britain, administration officials said they did not regard the lack of an imprimatur from the Security Council or the Arab League as insurmountable hurdles, given the carnage last week.
Administration officials said the United States did not seek an endorsement of military action from the Arab League. It sought condemnation of the use of chemical weapons and a clear assignment of responsibility for the attack to the Assad government, both of which the officials said they were satisfied they got.
http://news.nytco.com/2013/08/28/world/middleeast/arab-league-rejects-attack-against-syria.html?smid=tw-nytimes
Russian President, Saudi Spy Chief Discussed Syria, Egypt
A diplomatic report about the “stormy meeting” in July between Russian President Vladimir Putin and Saudi intelligence chief Prince Bandar bin Sultan concluded that the region stretching from North Africa to Chechnya and from Iran to Syria — in other words, the entire Middle East — has come under the influence of an open US-Russian face-off and that “it is not unlikely that things [will] take a dramatic turn in Lebanon, in both the political and security senses, in light of the major Saudi decision to respond to Hezbollah’s involvement in the Syrian Crisis".
The report starts by presenting the conditions under which the Russian-Saudi meeting was convened. It states that Prince Bandar, in coordination with the Americans and some European partners, proposed to Saudi King Abdullah bin Abdul Aziz that Bandar visit Moscow and employ the carrot-and-stick approach, which is used in most negotiators, and offer the Russian leadership political, economic, military and security enticements in return for concessions on several regional issues, in particular Syria and Iran.
King Abdullah agreed with the proposal and contacted President Putin on July 30. In a conversation that lasted only a few minutes, they agreed to Bandar’s visit and to keep it under wraps. Bandar arrived in Moscow. The visit was secret. The Saudi Embassy did not follow the usual protocol for Saudi officials visiting Russia.
In Moscow, a preliminary session was held at Russian military intelligence headquarters between Bandar and the director of Russian Military Intelligence, Gen. Igor Sergon. The meeting focused on security cooperation between the two countries. Bandar then visited Putin’s house on the outskirts of the Russian capital, where they held a closed-door bilateral meeting that lasted four hours. They discussed the agenda, which consisted of bilateral issues and a number of regional and international matters in which the two countries share interest.
Bandar told Putin, “There are many common values and goals that bring us together, most notably the fight against terrorism and extremism all over the world. Russia, the US, the EU and the Saudis agree on promoting and consolidating international peace and security. The terrorist threat is growing in light of the phenomena spawned by the Arab Spring. We have lost some regimes. And what we got in return were terrorist experiences, as evidenced by the experience of the Muslim Brotherhood in Egypt and the extremist groups in Libya. ... As an example, I can give you a guarantee to protect the Winter Olympics in the city of Sochi on the Black Sea next year. The Chechen groups that threaten the security of the games are controlled by us, and they will not move in the Syrian territory’s direction without coordinating with us. These groups do not scare us. We use them in the face of the Syrian regime but they will have no role or influence in Syria’s political future.”
Putin thanked King Abdullah for his greetings and Bandar for his exposition, but then he said to Bandar, “We know that you have supported the Chechen terrorist groups for a decade. And that support, which you have frankly talked about just now, is completely incompatible with the common objectives of fighting global terrorism that you mentioned. We are interested in developing friendly relations according to clear and strong principles.”
Read more: http://www.al-monitor.com/pulse/politics/2013/08/saudi-russia-putin-bandar-meeting-syria-egypt.html#ixzz2dEViluIJ
Iranian Official: Israel to Be ‘First Victim’ of U.S. Attack on Syria
Iranian Official: Israel to Be ‘First Victim’ of U.S. Attack on Syria
Claims U.S. does not have ability to strike Assad
A senior Iranian lawmaker said Israel would be the first casualty of any U.S.-led strike on Syria, according to regional media reports.
Hossein Sheikholeslam, the director general of the Iranian parliament’s International Affairs bureau, claimed the United States would not dare attack Syria but said that if it does, “the Zionist regime will be the first victim.”
“No military attack will be waged against Syria,” Sheikholeslam was quoted as saying on Monday by Iran’s state run Fars News Agency.
“Yet, if such an incident takes place, which is impossible, the Zionist regime will be the first victim of a military attack on Syria,” Sheikholeslam said in an apparent response to the Obama administration’s increasingly stern rhetoric against Syria.
Iran has been one of embattled Syrian President Bashar al-Assad’s chief allies. It has sent Hezbollah reinforcements to battle rebel forces and acted as Assad’s chief defender in the Middle East.
http://freebeacon.com/iranian-official-israel-to-be-first-victim-of-u-s-attack-on-syria/
What happens to the chemical weapons if Assad does fall? Do we need ground troops to get it all?
They certainly can't let it fall into the hands of Al Qaeda can they? Or the delivery system?
Just what are we getting ourselves in to?
Will this be the ZLB/repo/collateral-scarcity solution we’ve been waiting for?
If implemented, it has the potential to alter the way future monetary policy is conducted; change the fundamental structure of short-term lending markets; alleviate the collateral scarcity in these markets and others; reinforce the push for simpler bank capital regulation; and approximate a Fed backstop for big swaths of US money markets.
Or it could be no big deal.
According to the little-noticed second paragraph in the FOMC minutes to the July meeting, Simon Potter of the New York Fed discussed with the committee a possible addition to the Fed’s set of tools for tightening policy when the time comes — a “fixed-rate, full-allotment overnight reverse repurchase agreement facility”.
Hang around, it’s more exciting than it sounds.
What follows is a discussion of what it could mean but, first, credit where due: Carolyn Cui of the Wall Street Journal did spot the paragraph, offering a nice general overview. The finance blogosphere’s Chief Repo Watcher, Scott Skyrm, has a more detailed analysis, and see also the excellent David Schawel.
http://ftalphaville.ft.com/2013/08/27/1612763/will-this-be-the-zlbrepocollateral-scarcity-solution-weve-been-waiting-for/
http://scottskyrm.com/2013/08/the-feds-fixed-rate-repo-facility/
http://blogs.cfainstitute.org/insideinvesting/2013/08/26/the-proposed-reverse-repo-facility-the-feds-new-policy-tool/
BREAKING: Judge declares mistrial in Deedy murder case
Weeks after the high profile murder trial of a U.S. State Department special agent began in Honolulu, jurors told Circuit Court Judge Karen Ahn they were unable to come to a unanimous verdict and a mistrial has been declared in the case.
Special Agent Christopher Deedy, 29, was charged with second-degree murder for the shooting death of 23-year-old Kollin Elderts during a scuffle in a Waikiki McDonald's on Nov. 5, 2011. Deedy, who was in Honolulu for the A.P.E.C. meetings, claimed he shot the Kailua man in self defense.
Prosecutor Janice Futa argued that Deedy was drunk the night of the shooting and instigated the confrontation.
Having eliminated a potential manslaughter conviction from consideration, Judge Ahn said jurors in the case were unable to unanimously reach a guilty or not guilty verdict for Deedy's second-degree murder charge.
A hung jury means that Deedy can be retried on the murder charge, potentially some time in May or June of 2014.
http://www.hawaiinewsnow.com/story/23261467/breaking-judge-declares-mistrial-in-christopher-deedy-murder-case-story-at-hawaiinewsnowcom
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