Search Results for: 2013-05-24

The Parliament of Kyrgyzstan passed a bill modeled after Russia’s “foreign agents” law on Thursday, increasing the government’s oversight of non-governmental organizations (NGOs). The law will require anyone receiving foreign donations to label themselves a “foreign representative” and follow tighter guidelines when documenting their activities. The bill specifically targets NGOs receiving foreign funding, and it requires [...]

The Associated Press (AP) released an exclusive report Thursday revealing a secret US Drug Enforcement Administration (DEA) spying program that targeted top Venezuelan officials, including Venezuelan President Nicolás Maduro, despite the program’s potential illegality under international law. According to AP, the program, internally referred to as Operation Money Badger, has been ongoing since at least [...]

“For by Wise Counsel, Thou Shalt Make Thy War.” Proverbs 24,6 Israel’s nuclear posture remains closely held. On its face, this “ambiguous” stance appears perfectly reasonable. But a critically core question should now be raised: Is unmodified deliberate nuclear ambiguity (the “bomb in the basement”) still in the long-term survival interests of the beleaguered state. [...]

A human rights group Sunday filed a criminal complaint with the attorney general of Singapore, accusing former Sri Lankan President Nandasena Gotabaya Rajapaksa of perpetrating war crimes and human rights violations during the country’s civil war. Rajapaksa fled to Singapore earlier this month as Sri Lankans gathered in protest over alleged government corruption and economic [...]

Amnesty International on Monday called on the United Arab Emirates (UAE) to immediately release a group of dissidents who have been behind bars beyond the end of their prison sentences. The “UAE-94” case concerns a mass trial conducted by UAE authorities against dissidents and members of the al-Islah political movement in 2012–2013, which Amnesty called [...]

The Netherlands Public Prosecution Service Tuesday arrested a 34-year-old Syrian man accused of crimes against humanity and war crimes during in the Syrian Civil War. The unnamed suspect is reported to have served in the state-aligned Liwa al-Quds militia during the ongoing conflict. According to prosecutors, the suspect, along with other members of the militia, [...]

In his epochal, controversial and highly polarizing essay, “The Social Responsibility of Business Is To Increase Its Profits,” published in the New York Times Magazine some 70 years ago, Nobel Prize-winning economist Milton Friedman argued against the social responsibility of businesses, and explicitly declared that “the business of business is business.” The shareholder value theory of the [...]

Picture a swarm of drones entering a village programmed to fly without a human operator with instructions to shoot or immobilize anyone it deems to be holding a weapon. While this might sound like a scene from Lana Wachowski’s latest Matrix film, the technology to build these killer robots is already here. Unless states act [...]

Abstract: Following US withdrawal from Afghanistan, America’s security focus will turn more expressly to Iran. The core problem with America’s Afghanistan withdrawal was not one of timing or tactics, but of original misconception. In essence, the “Afghanistan Problem” stemmed from an initially underestimated and misunderstood military operation. Looking ahead, Afghanistan’s incoherent conclusion means, inter alia, [...]

America faces unprecedented and existential threats to voting rights, free and fair elections, and the very future of our democracy. Congress must take urgent action now — well within its constitutional powers — to stop these threats in their tracks. All it would take is a simple one-page bill. I have proposed a draft here.  [...]