[JURIST] The American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU) [advocacy website] on Thursday filed a Freedom of Information Act request [text, PDF] demanding that the US Department of Defense publicly release its files about the deaths of 24 Iraqi civilians [JURIST report] last November in Haditha [JURIST news archive], Iraq. ACLU attorney Jameel Jaffer said in a press release [text] that the request was meant to "encourage an investigation that is credible and comprehensive." A DOD spokesman declined to comment on the request.

Meanwhile Thursday, the Los Angeles Times published parts of a report [JURIST report] concluding that although senior military officers missed several "red flags" that should have alerted them to inaccuracies in the original account of the civilian deaths in Haditha, there was no deliberate cover-up of the incident. The full report by Army Maj. Gen. Eldon Bargewell [Wikipedia profile] has not been made public yet. Reuters has more.

[JURIST] The US House of Representatives voted 247-172 [roll call] Thursday to pass the Legislative Line-Item Veto Act of 2006 [text, PDF; summary, PDF]. The bill, which President Bush proposed [JURIST report; White House press release] in March, allows the President to strip special spending and earmarks out of a bill, and then send those provisions back to Congress for an up or down majority vote, rather than requiring them to be sustained by a two-thirds supermajority. The line-item power would expire six years after the bill is enacted. The bill is weaker than the 1996 line-item veto legislation [text, PDF] that the US Supreme Court struck down [decision text; CNN report] as violating the constitutional separation of powers.

The bill was initially approved [JURIST report] by the House Budget Committee [official website] last week by a vote of 24-9, with four Democrats voting in favor. Read a 2004 Congressional Research Service analysis [PDF] of various line-item veto proposals. AP has more.

[JURIST] Led by Republicans willing to delay a push to abolish the estate tax completely, the US House of Representatives [official website] voted Thursday to end taxation for single estates up to $5 million and married couples' estates up to $10 million, beginning in 2011. The bill [HR 5638 summary] would reduce tax rates on even larger estates as well, costing the federal government a total of $283 billion in revenue over 10 years. Though most Republicans supported the cuts, Democrats argued that they mainly benefit the rich and lamented that poor workers were recently denied an increase of the minimum wage.

The measure now goes to the Senate, where supporters of repealing the estate tax last week failed to get enough votes to begin floor debate on the Death Tax Repeal Permanency Act of 2005 [HR 8 summary], which would have allowed some wealthy families, farmers, and small-business owners to avoid the estate tax entirely. That bill was approved by the House [JURIST report] last year. AP has more.

[JURIST] UN High Commissioner for Human Rights Louise Arbour [official profile; JURIST news archive] Thursday announced [press release] the entry into force of an Optional Protocol [text] to the Convention against Torture and Other Cruel, Inhuman or Degrading Treatment or Punishment [text] on detention visitations. The Optional Protocol, adopted in December 2002 by the UN General Assembly, was signed in May by Honduras and Bolivia, and will now bind the 20 signatory nations - most prominently the United Kingdom - to stronger protections against torture and degrading treatment of detainees. According to a UN press release the Protocol

...strengthens the Convention against Torture by establishing an international Subcommittee on the Prevention of Torture with a mandate to visit places of detention in States parties. The Protocol also requires States parties to set up national preventive mechanisms, which are also to be provided with access to places of detention and prisoners held there. Following these visits, the Sub-Committee and the national preventive mechanisms will make recommendations for improvements in the treatment and the conditions of persons deprived of their liberty, and work with relevant authorities to ensure the implementation of the recommendations.

[JURIST] Thailand's Election Commission (EC) [official website] has determined that the ruling Thai Rak Thai [political party website] political party broke two election laws [materials] by paying groups to run candidates in the annulled April parliamentary elections [JURIST report] in order to meet election requirements after the main opposition parties boycotted the vote, an Attorney General spokesperson told AFP Thursday. The EC ruled that Thai Rak Thai "acted against democratic rule," and that the party's financing of fringe opposition candidates is a threat to national security. The Attorney General's office will decide by Friday whether to bring the charges before Thailand's Constitutional Court [official website], which has the power to disband Thai Rak Thai and prevent its leaders from participating in politics for five years. Party leader and Prime Minister Thaksin Shinawatra [official website; BBC profile], who survived an impeachment attempt [JURIST report] before the elections, could therefore face expulsion from office. Thailand's Cabinet in May approved October 15 as the date for new parliamentary elections, after the three principal courts initially rejected October 22 [JURIST reports].

Thailand's Supreme Court in May rejected two nominees for empty EC seats [JURIST report] as part of their efforts to force the entire EC to resign. Thailand's three major courts have repeatedly called the EC's resignation [JURIST report], saying the public does not trust the commission because they usually favor the ruling Thai Rak Thai party. AFP has more.

[JURIST] If allowed to proceed, a lawsuit filed by an Oregon nonprofit organization challenging the NSA domestic surveillance program [JURIST news archive] would impermissibly reveal state secrets, lawyers for the US Department of Justice (DOJ) argued at a Wednesday hearing in federal court. The DOJ filed a notice [UPI report] Monday with the Judicial Panel on Multidistrict Litigation (JPML) [official website] seeking to consolidate the case with almost two dozen other lawsuits against Verizon corporation and the government [JURIST report] challenging the NSA program. If the motion to consolidate is granted by the JPML, the DOJ is expected to rely on the state secrets doctrine to support a motion to dismiss the consolidated lawsuit.

The Oregon lawsuit, filed by the defunct Al-Haramain Islamic Foundation [Wikipedia backgrounder], claims that the NSA had illegally wiretapping several conversations between the charity and its attorneys. The complaint alleges that the NSA failed to get a court order authorizing electronic surveillance, thereby failing to follow procedures required by the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act (FISA) [official materials], and seeks relief in the form of "an order that would require defendants and their agents to halt an illegal and unconstitutional program of electronic surveillance of United States citizens and entities." Lawyers for Al-Haramain submitted a sealed document to the court which they say proves illegal eavesdropping, but DOJ attorneys have argued that the classified document was mistakenly turned over during discovery and should be returned.

The state secrets doctrine has been revived from relative obscurity by the Bush administration in recent years. The US Supreme Court established the state secrets privilege in the 1953 case United States v. Reynolds [opinion text]. The government invoked the privilege [News Media & The Law commentary] in only four cases between 1953 and 1976, but it has been invoked more than 20 times since the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks and at least five times in the past year. The Oregonian has local coverage.

[JURIST] The US Senate Indian Affairs Committee [official website] led by Sen. John McCain (R-AZ) [official website] released its final report [PDF text; additional materials] Thursday, saying that the connections between former lobbyist Jack Abramoff [JURIST news archive] and former Tom Delay aide Michael Scanlon [Wikipedia backgrounder] in a scandal collecting millions of dollars from Indian tribes were "astonishing." The report added that tribes should beef up their own election laws and contracting rules to prevent further exploitation, but concluded that existing laws will be sufficient to deal with the fraud allegations against the two.

The Senate report brings to a close a two-year investigation into Abramoff's lobbying practices, and evidence gathered by the panel contributed to Abramoff and Scanlon [JURIST reports] both pleading guilty in a massive fraud probe. Abramoff and Scanlon took over $60 million from tribes over three years while they claimed to help the tribes protect their casino interests. AP has more.

[JURIST] UN Special Rapporteur on Torture Manfred Nowak [official website] told an Austrian radio station Thursday that European countries could help bring about the closing of the Guantanamo Bay detention center [JURIST news archive] by accepting some detainees into their judicial and penitentiary systems. Nowak has previously called on the US to close Guantanamo Bay [JURIST report] due to documented human rights violations [OHCHR report] and the denial of due process to most detainees held there.

Three detainees committed suicide [JURIST report] at the prison early in June, prompting renewed calls by the UN [JURIST report] and international rights groups to shut it down. European nations have nonetheless been wary of committing resources to detain and try the detainees themselves. An EU lawmaker last week proposed an international criminal tribunal to try Guantanamo Bay detainees [JURIST report], a proposal supported by the majority of European Parliament members.

During the EU-US Summit in Vienna Wednesday, President Bush suggested that US courts could begin trying Guantanamo Bay detainees [JURIST report] as soon as the Supreme Court rules on the legality of military tribunals for detainees in Hamdan v. Rumsfeld [Duke case backgrounder; JURIST report]. The Court is expected to release the Hamdan opinion next week. The Guantanamo Bay prison facility currently houses an estimated 450 prisoners; only 10 have been formally charged. AP has more.

[JURIST] No evidence has surfaced to disprove the extraordinary rendition allegations [statement] of the German man who sued the US Central Intelligence Agency, a German prosecutor familiar with the evidence collected by the German government in the case said Thursday. Khalid El-Masri [JURIST news archive; ACLU case materials] has said he was kidnapped in Macedonia in 2003 in an instance of extraordinary rendition [JURIST news archive], held by the CIA in Afghanistan where he was subjected to inhumane conditions and coercive interrogation, and finally released in 2004 and dropped off in Albania without ever being charged. The prosecutor also said that while el-Masri's statement that he was interrogated by a German-speaking captor while on the plane to Afghanistan seems to be credible, the speaker was not necessarily a German agent or official.

The prosecutor was testifying before a parliamentary panel that was established in April [JURIST report] to investigate several allegations of official misconduct. Along with allegations that reports from German intelligence service BND may have contributed to el-Masri's seizure [JURIST report], the panel is investigating BND's role in the 2003 invasion of Iraq, when the country was officially against the war, and reports that German officials interrogated detainees [JURIST report] in Afghanistan. Bloomberg has more.

[JURIST] The Illinois Supreme Court [official website] on Thursday upheld [opinion text] the "fair report" privilege [Communicator backgrounder], a legal protection that allows journalists to report on legal allegations made during official proceedings, even if the allegations are false. Solaia Technology sued Specialty Publishing [corporate websites] for defamation after Specialty's subsidiary Start Magazine (now Start-it Magazine) [media website] ran an article on a patent infringement lawsuit against Solaia, alleging that Start made false and misleading statements. Specialty Publishing, joined by the Illinois Press Association [advocacy website], the Chicago Tribune [media website] and other news organizations, appealed a lower court ruling [text] allowing Start to be sued.

Justice Thomas Fitzgerald determined that journalists need to be free to report on legal allegations and that they cannot be expected "to possess the same skills as lawyers" to understand the complexities of federal antitrust law. The Court did, however, remand the case to the trial court on other defamation claims. AP has more. Start-it Magazine has background on the case.

[JURIST] Human Rights Watch (HRW) [advocacy website] has said that Uzbekistan [JURIST news archive] is cracking down on dissent under the pretext of law, alleging Wednesday that two human rights defenders sentenced to nine years in prison on extortion charges were arrested in a pattern of criminal arrests designed to stifle dissent. Eleven human rights defenders have been convicted so far in 2006, and the latest were convicted without lawyers acting on their behalf. Uzbekistan sentenced [HRW press release] Azam Farmonov and Alisher Karamatov, both members of the Human Rights Society of Uzbekistan (HRSU), to nine years in prison for blackmailing two men last week, but HRW claims that the two men were arrested in an effort to stop their human rights work [RFE/RL report]. Uzbek police dispute HRW's claim, saying that Farmonov and Karamatov, as well as a third HRSU member arrested last week, were not arrested because of their human rights efforts. UPI has more.

In a related development, HRW has filed a legal brief challenging the refusal [HRW press release; RFE/RL report] of German federal prosecutors to open a criminal investigation into former Uzbek Interior Minister Zokir Almatov for his alleged involvement in the May 2005 massacre [BBC backgrounder; JURIST news archive] of unarmed Uzbek civilians at the hands of government troops in Andijan. Former German prosecutor Kay Nehm originally refused to open a criminal investigation, and HRW is hoping that new prosecutor Monika Harms will order an investigation. HRW has more.

[JURIST] US State Department deputy spokesman Adam Ereli [official profile] has said that the trial of Saddam Hussein [JURIST news archive] is fair and legitimate, despite the murder of a third defense lawyer [JURIST report] Wednesday morning. In a press briefing [transcript] Wednesday, Ereli stated:

The trial of Saddam Hussein...an Iraqi-led process and something that the Iraqi Government and Iraqi people have devoted enormous care, attention and legitimacy toward and that had the support of the United States and the international community. So it remains a viable, legitimate, credible and important process.

There are obviously those who want to undermine it for the same reason that they seek to attack various aspects of the Iraqi state and the Iraqi people: Because they want to attack and undermine the rule of law and the values of a democratic pluralistic society. So they go after lawyers, they go after judges, they go after prosecutors, they go after witnesses. And those who support the process and who support the trials have tried to institute protections for the process and for the individuals involved in that process, whether they'd be on the side of the prosecution or on the side of the defense...

I would note that the Iraqi Government and the international community offer every form of protection and assistance to those involved in the trial...And unfortunately in this case and this individual, he refused those protections and refused those offers. But I would say that there is a strong commitment both materially, politically and, in terms of security, to ensure the integrity and security of those involved in this process because there's a recognition of its importance, its value and its legacy for Iraq.

[JURIST] Iran has received nearly universal condemnation for selecting Tehran Prosecutor-General Saeed Mortazavi [Wikipedia profile] to attend the inaugural meeting of the UN Human Rights Council [official website] in Geneva as an observer. Mortazavi is widely suspected of being present in July 2003 when Iranian-Canadian photojournalist Zahra Kazemi [CBC backgrounder] died from a blow to her head while in Mortazai's custody, and of orchestrating a cover-up of the incident. The Iran government has admitted that Kazemi was abused while in custody after taking pictures of a demonstration in Tehran. An Iranian intelligence agent was charged with Kazemi's murder but was acquitted. Last year, an Iranian appeals court upheld the not guilty verdict [JURIST report], but also ordered the case reopened, due to the possibility that others were involved in Kazemi's death.

Canadian Foreign Minister Peter Mackay condemned the Iran government [press release] for sending Mortazavi to the meeting, saying that his presence "in Iran's delegation demonstrates the Government of Iran's complete contempt for internationally recognized principles of human rights." Human Rights Watch similarly criticized Iran for selecting Mortazavi as delegate [press release], accusing Mortazavi of leading a massive government crackdown on dissent in 2000 by ordering the closure of over 100 newspapers and journals as a judge in the Public Court Branch. AFP has more.

[JURIST] Human Rights Watch (HRW) [advocacy website] said Wednesday that insurgents in Iraq have committed serious violations of international humanitarian law and pointed to the kidnapping of two US soldiers last week as another example of the war crimes that are committed in Iraq. The two soldiers were kidnapped south of Baghdad last week and after their bodies were found on Tuesday [UK Times reports] they showed signs of torture. Regarding captured combatants, HRW commented that they "must be treated humanely," adding that "torture and other cruel treatment, as well as summarily executing a capture combatant, are war crimes."

The comments made by HRW come amid allegations that US soldiers have tortured detainees at Abu Ghraib and Guantanamo Bay [JURIST news archives]. The point that insurgents commit war crimes and should be held responsible also come in the middle of investigations into the deaths of 24 Iraqi civilians in Haditha [JURIST report], and one day after seven US Marines and one Navy corpsman were charged with murder [JURIST report] over the April death of an Iraqi man in Hamdania. HRW has more.

[JURIST] The US Supreme Court [official website; JURIST news archive] handed down four decisions Thursday, including Fernandez-Vargas v. Gonzales [Duke Law case backgrounder; JURIST report], where the Court held that a federal immigration law authorizing deportation can be applied to illegal immigrants who entered the country before its enactment. Mexican immigrant Humberto Fernandez-Vargas, who entered the US in the 1970s and after several deportations lived in the US continuously since 1982, was arrested by US immigration officials on a 1981 deportation warrant while he was applying for lawful permanent resident status in 2003. A provision [text] of the Illegal Immigration Reform and Immigrant Responsibility Act of 1996 amended the Immigration and Nationality Act to authorize prior warrants to be reinstated. The Court affirmed the Tenth Circuit's decision [text] and held that the provision "applies to those who reentered the United States before IIRIRA's effective date and does not retroactively affect any right of, or impose any burden on, the continuing violator of the INA now before this Court." Read the Court's 8-1 majority opinion [text] per Justice Souter, along with a dissent [text] from Justice Stevens. AP has more.

In Burlington Northern & Santa Fe Railroad v. White [Duke Law case backgrounder; JURIST report], the Court held that in order to bring an employment retaliation claim under Title VII of the 1964 Civil Rights Act [text; EEOC backgrounder], an employee does not need to have suffered an ultimate employment decision - denial of promotion or termination, for example. Instead, an employee claiming to have suffered retaliation for complaining about discrimination under Title VII can show retaliation by reassignment to a less attractive job or temporary suspension without pay. The Court affirmed the Sixth Circuit's decision [text] in the case and held that a retaliation plaintiff must "show that the challenged action 'well might have "dissuaded a reasonable worker from making or supporting a charge of discrimination."'" Read the Court's opinion [text] per Justice Breyer, along with a concurrence [text] from Justice Alito. AP has more.

In Dixon v. US [Duke Law case backgrounder; JURIST report], the Court held that jury instructions requiring a criminal defendant to prove a duress defense by a preponderance of the evidence do not violate due process. Dixon was charged with firearms offenses and at trial raised battered woman's syndrome [Wikipedia backgrounder] as a defense. The trial court instructed the jury that Dixon bore the burden of persuasion and the US Court of Appeals for the Fifth Circuit affirmed her conviction [opinion, PDF], ruling that duress is an affirmative defense, and the Court upheld that decision. Read the Court's 7-2 majority opinion [text] per Justice Stevens, along with a concurrence [text] from Justice Kennedy, a second concurrence [text] from Justice Alito, who was joined by Justice Scalia, and a dissent [text] from Justice Breyer, who was joined by Justice Souter. AP has more.

In Woodford v. Ngo [Duke Law case backgrounder], the Court held that the Prison Litigation Reform Act [text; ACLU backgrounder], which requires prisoners to properly exhaust all administrative remedies before filing a complaint in court, bars an inmate who filed an untimely administrative appeal from suing in federal court. A California inmate, Viet Mike Ngo, tried to file a complaint alleging a First Amendment violation with a federal district court after the penal system originally rejected his grievance due to lateness. The Court reversed the Ninth Circuit's decision [PDF text] and ruled that all procedural rules, including filing deadlines, must be satisfied in order for an inmate to exhaust all administrative remedies. Read the Court's 6-3 majority opinion [text] per Justice Alito, along with a concurrence [text] from Justice Breyer and a dissent [text] from Justice Stevens, who was joined by Justices Souter and Ginsburg. AP has more.

Finally, in a one-sentence certiorari ruling, the Court dismissed 5-3 the application for a writ in Laboratory Corp. of America v. Metabolite Laboratories [Duke Law case backgrounder; JURIST report] as "improvidently granted." When the Court heard arguments in the case in March it considered whether a patent on a two-step technique used to measure Vitamin B deficiencies allows its owners to monopolize an unpatentable scientific principle or natural phenomenon. Justice Breyer filed a dissent [PDF text] and was joined by Justices Stevens and Souter. Chief Justice Roberts took no part in the consideration or decision of the case. AP has more.

[JURIST] A federal watchdog charged with overseeing California prison reform has released a report saying that an abrupt reversal in policy by California Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger (R) [official website] prompted two secretaries of the California Department of Corrections and Rehabilitation [official website] to resign earlier this year. The report by John Hagar, a federal court-appointed special master, blamed in particular Schwarzenegger's appointment of Susan Kennedy [press release] as chief of staff. A Democrat who served as Cabinet secretary under former Gov. Gray Davis, Kennedy has allowed the state prison guards union – the California Correctional Peace Officers Association (CCPOA) [union website] – to overrule critical decisions by the corrections secretary, according to the report. Former Corrections Secretary Roderick Hickman resigned suddenly [JURIST report] in February, citing a lack of political support and frustration with the powerful CCPOA. His replacement, Jeanne Woodward, stepped down after just six weeks for similar reasons.

Hagar's report accuses Schwarzenegger of giving too much power to the union as the November gubernatorial election approaches. Union representative Lance Corcoran dismissed Hagar's allegations as "baseless and shocking," noting that Schwarzenegger is campaigning to work with all state unions. US District Judge Thelton Henderson [official profile] appointed Hagar as a special master last year to oversee the California prison health care system [JURIST report]. At the same time, Schwarzenegger handed prison reform over to the Department of Corrections and Rehabilitation. AP has more. The San Francisco Chronicle has local coverage.

[JURIST] Canadian legal observers expressed concern Thursday that a new ruling from the Supreme Court of Canada [official website] will open courts to a flood of divorce litigation revolving around allegations of spousal misconduct, despite the terms of the 1985 "no fault" Divorce Act [Justice Canada materials] which eliminated misconduct as a relevant consideration when determining spousal support. In Leskun v. Leskun [opinion text] Wednesday the court considered the misconduct of the husband in upholding spousal support payments for his ex-wife. Writing for the 7-0 court, Justice Ian Binnie [official profile] distinguished between "the emotional consequences of misconduct and the misconduct itself," saying that the former can determine whether a spouse is capable of self-sufficiency. Sherry Leskun's age, health and limited work experience, combined with her shock over her husband's cheating with another woman, rendered her incapable of self-sufficiency, thus qualifying her for hefty support payments.

Some legal scholars expressed concern that the court permitted spousal misconduct to play a major role in determining eligibility for spousal support payments while at the same time emphasizing in explicit language its unwillingness to allow value judgments to be made regarding the fault of one spouse or the other. The Globe and Mail has more on the ruling and the reaction.

[JURIST] Members of the US House Committee on Energy and Commerce Subcommittee on Oversight and Investigations [official website] promised to crack down on data brokers who gather private information after hearing testimony Wednesday from a former data broker who told the subcommittee how easily he obtained other people's information. James Rapp, who was forced out of business after he was sued by the Federal Trade Commission [complaint; order; Direct magazine report] and prosecuted for racketeering by Colorado officials, described the technique of "pretexting," or tricking companies into divulging their customers' records. According to his prepared remarks [PDF], Rapp said:

I would teach our employees and clients if they wanted to learn, how to impersonate someone so that the person on the other end of the line would feel either sympathy or pressure, whatever it took for them to release to me the information that I needed. Anyone can impersonate anyone else if they sincerely make an effort, the person or customer service representative on the other end of the line truly wants to help, (most of the time anyway) so I use that to my advantage and convince them that they need to give me certain specific data. This was how I achieved the majority of all my information, for back in the 1980's and early 1990's, the Internet was not that big into personal information.

[JURIST] Human Rights Watch (HRW) [advocacy website] on Thursday demanded [press release] that Afghanistan revoke recent National Security Directorate rules that restrict the freedom of the press and effectively ban journalists from writing about Afghanistan's failing security situation. Afghan journalists have said that the rules are a form of intimidation after major media organizations received a list of restrictions [text, PDF] on June 12, and then journalists received the list at their homes a week later. Afghan President Hamid Karzai [BBC profile], however, claims that the list is simply a request that journalists refrain from reporting such news, and not a government restriction, because there are no penalties for failing to comply.

The NSD list of restrictions includes "reports that aim to represent that the fighting spirit in Afghanistan's armed forces is weak" and "negative propaganda, interviews and reports which are provocative or slanderous" or that oppose the international coalition forces in Afghanistan. HRW called the rules a "blatant intrusion" on Afghanistan's freedom of the press and "an insult to the hard work and personal sacrifice of Afghan journalists who try to get the truth out to the public." A second advocacy group, Reporters Without Borders, criticized the restrictions [press release] as "absolutely outrageous." Radio Free Europe has more.

[JURIST] An investigation into the death of 24 Iraqi civilians [JURIST report] last November in Haditha focusing on whether senior military personnel covered up the deaths reportedly found several failures to follow up by Marine commanders, but no deliberate cover up of the deaths. The report by Army Maj. Gen. Eldon Bargewell [Wikipedia profile], charged with leading the investigation, states that senior military officers missed several "red flags" that should have alerted them to inaccuracies in the original account of the civilian deaths. Bargewell also questioned why officers in the area did not conduct an immediate investigation into the deaths, saying that "virtually no inquiry at any level of command was conducted into the circumstances surrounding the deaths." A preliminary Bargewell report [JURIST report] found that a Marine squad leader falsely told superiors that 15 Iraqis had been killed by the bomb that killed one of the Marines, and that the team of Marines who collected the bodies later should have realized and reported that the Iraqis were killed by gunshots, not by a bomb.

The Bargewell report has not been made public yet, and only pieces of the report have been read to the Los Angeles Times through anonymous military officials. A separate probe by the Naval Criminal Investigative Service (NCIS) is investigating whether Marines on the ground killed unarmed civilians without provocation. Expected to conclude later this summer, the Pentagon's preliminary investigation in February and March found evidence that the killings were not provoked [JURIST report]. The Marine commander of the platoon implicated in the Haditha deaths has said that his unit followed the rules of engagement [JURIST report] and did not purposefully attack civilians. Julian Barnes and Tony Perry of the Los Angeles Times have more.

ALSO ON JURIST  Op-ed: Haditha and My Lai: Lessons from the Law of War