[JURIST] US Rep. Charles Rangel (D-NY) [official website] said Sunday he plans to introduce legislation in the next session of Congress to reinstate the military draft in the United States. Interviewed on CBS TV program Face the Nation [program website; interview video], he said that military conscription would prompt lawmakers to think differently about deploying US troops abroad: "There's no question in my mind that this president and this administration would never have invaded Iraq, especially on the flimsy evidence that was presented to the Congress, if indeed we had a draft and members of Congress and the administration thought that their kids from their communities would be placed in harm's way." He also pointed to low troop levels as antithetical to long-term US interests: "If we're going to challenge Iran and challenge North Korea and then, as some people have asked, to send more troops to Iraq, we can't do that without a draft." Rangel, the incoming chairman of the House Ways and Means Committee [official website], nonetheless added that his bill would only require "a couple of years in service to this great republic, whether it's our seaports, our airports, in schools, in hospitals" and would not necessarily entail combat service for all draftees.

Rangel, a Korean War veteran, has been an outspoken critic of the Iraq war from its inception. He has repeatedly pointed to the disparity of the burden of military service, as the armed forces are largely comprised of lower-income citizens. In 2004, he sponsored HR 163 [text], which would have required every US citizen and resident between the ages of 18 and 26, including women, to perform a two-year period of national service. The bill was roundly defeated in the House. Polls suggest that up to 70 percent of Americans oppose a reinstatement of the draft. AP has more.

[JURIST] The United States and Russia signed a landmark trade agreement [press release] Sunday bringing Russia one step closer in its 13-year drive for membership in the World Trade Organization (WTO) [official website; JURIST news archive]. Under the agreement, Russia [JURIST news archive] will lower import tariffs on American goods while the US pledged to improve its trade relations with Russian companies. The agreement signals an improvement in the recently rocky relations between the US and Russia but the countries still have a way to go before normal trade relations [Moscow Times report] are established between Washington and Moscow.

Before the WTO will vote on Russia's membership, Russia must complete bilateral trade negotiations [Washington Post report] with Costa Rica, Moldavia, and Georgia. Russia is the largest economy currently outside of the 149 member WTO. Critics have suggested the US may be using the agreement to gain Russian support for a sanctions package against Iran for nuclear activity. AP has more.

[JURIST] Iran's parliament [official website, in Persian] passed a bill Sunday instituting mandatory fingerprinting of all visiting US citizens. The predominantly conservative Majlis passed the bill by a margin of 135 to 26, and will next hand it to the Guardian Council [official website, in Persian] for review before it is written into law. The legislation won approval despite the efforts of Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad [official profile; BBC profile], who spoke out against the bill [JURIST report] in October, emphasizing that Americans are welcome in Iran as Iran only opposes US policy, not US citizens.

The bill was proposed as a reaction to US regulations, implemented in 2002, requiring every Iranian to be fingerprinted upon arrival in the US. The Iranian proposal reads in part, "the government is obliged to fingerprint all American citizens, in order to reciprocate behavior of American officials towards Iranian citizens." Iranian Vice President for legal and parliamentary affairs Seyyed Ahmad Mousavi said Sunday that Iran's government is still opposed to the measure [IRNA report]. Reuters has more.

[JURIST] Former Mexican Presidents Gustavo Diaz Ordaz (1964-1970) [Wikipedia backgrounder], Luis Echeverria (1970-1976) [JURIST news archive], and Jose Lopez Portillo (1976-1982) [Wikipedia backgrounder] were responsible for "crimes against humanity" in connection with the massacres and tortures of hundreds of leftist activists during the 1960s and 1970s, according to an official report [PDF] released Saturday by the Mexican government [official website]. The report reflects five years of investigations [JURIST report] by special prosecutor Ignacio Carrillo into Mexico's "dirty war" [National Security Archive backgrounder] and found that government under the three presidents took part in "massacres, forced disappearances, systematic torture and genocide to try to destroy a sector of society that it considered ideologically to be its enemy."

The worst of the crimes against humanity were allegedly committed during Luis Echeverria's "Friendship Operation," when the military tortured and gunned down villagers in the state of Guerrero and set fire to their homes and property. Carrillo's report also focused on the 1968 massacre [backgrounder; BBC report] during a student-led revolt in Mexico City, thought to be organized by Echeverria, who was Interior Minister for then-President Gustavo Diaz Ordaz. The report found that top officials, including the presidents, knew of and authorized these and other crimes against leftist leaders, and did nothing to stop them. AP has more.

In July, a Mexican judge cleared Echeverria [JURIST report] of genocide charges in connection with his role in repressing the 1968 revolt, ruling that the charges could not stand because Mexico's statute of limitations had run. Echeverria is the only one of the three ex-Presidents still living and has denied his involvement in the massacre.

[JURIST] Egyptian President Hosny Mubarak [official website; BBC profile] called for the country's parliament to amend Article 76 of the Egyptian constitution [text] Sunday amid criticism from the opposition that the article effectively protects the ruling party from genuine competition in the 2011 presidential elections. Mubarak made the announcement in a speech [National Democratic Party press release] marking the opening of a new parliamentary session. The current version of Article 76, amended in 2005 [NDP backgrounder, PDF] after a May referendum [JURIST report], prevents political parties with less than five percent representation in the Egyptian parliament from submitting a presidential candidate (the previous version has simply stipulated that Egyptians could vote yes or no on a single presidential candidate). Critics allege that the article was designed to allow Mubarak's ruling National Democratic Party [party website] to nominate Mubarak's youngest son, Gamal Mubarak, as the sole candidate next presidential elections.

Mubarak has won three elections since assuming power in 1981. Egypt has remained under emergency law [JURIST report] through Mubarak's president, giving the government a type of quasi-military control over the population. AP has more.

[JURIST] US Attorney General Alberto Gonzales [official profile; JURIST news archive] attacked critics of President Bush's domestic surveillance program [JURIST news archive; US DOJ fact sheet, PDF] in a speech [transcript] at the Air Force Academy Saturday, saying their views are "shortsighted." Critics of the program, including the American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU) [advocacy website], argue that the program violates both the First and Fourth Amendment because it operates without judicial oversight [ACLU press release]. In Saturday's speech, Gonzales said that a definition of freedom that did not allow for the program is "a grave threat to the liberty and security of the American people." AP has more.

Gonzales' remarks come three months after US District Judge Anna Diggs Taylor ruled [opinion, PDF; JURIST report] that the program is unconstitutional because it violates free speech and privacy rights. The Bush administration has appealed the decision. Last month, the US Court of Appeals for the Sixth Circuit [official website] ruled [text, PDF; JURIST report] that the program could continue to operate pending the appeal process. In a Friday address [JURIST report] to the national convention of the Federalist Society, Vice President Cheney slammed [text] the August ruling as "an indefensible act of judicial overreaching." Earlier this month, President Bush urged lawmakers [JURIST report] to pass White House-supported legislation that would clarify the legality of the program; last week outgoing Senate Judiciary Committee Chairman Arlen Specter introduced a limited bill [JURIST report] to authorize domestic surveillance in a final bid to get a supportive measure passed before the new Congress begins in January.

[JURIST] Humans Right Watch [official website] urged the Chinese government Sunday to be more transparent about its practice of removing transplant organs from executed prisoners after Vice Minister of Health Huang Jiefu [China Vitae profile] admitted for the first time [UPI report] at a medical conference last week that most organs take from cadavers for transplants come from there "apart from a small portion of traffic victims". Nicholas Bequelin, a HRW researcher based in Hong Kong, told the Associated Press that "we call on China to disclose the number of people executed every year and the number of organ transplants that take place." Chinese authorities insist that all organ donations require informed consent [JURIST report] from the prisoners or their families.

In March, the Chinese Ministry of Health [official website, in Chinese] issued a general ban on the sale of human organs [JURIST report] that took effect on July 1. The Ministry also issued new regulations [JURIST report] in August intended to counter unauthorized international trade in organs. The policy changes followed international criticism [JURIST report] that human organs taken from executed prisoners were sold to foreigners. AP has more.