7/26 - Neal Katyal

• Stossel Column. John Stossel’s July 19, 2006 column arguing against prohibitions on marriage between cousins is on-line here. According to the website Cousin Couples, most states allow marriage between first cousins, though some only allow such marriage when the couples will not bear children (site on-line here).

• The Word: Democrazy. Iraqi Prime Minister Nuri al-Maliki spoke to Congress on July 26 after a two-day visit with President George W. Bush. An article about the address to Congress is on-line here; transcripts of appearances on July 26 and 27 with Bush are on-line here and here. Some Democrats have criticized Maliki for not condemning Hezbollah, which abducted two Israeli soldiers on July 12, an action sparking Israel’s recent military actions in Lebanon.
  Former Iraqi leader Saddam Hussein recently ended a hunger strike protesting his ongoing trial. Hussein began the hunger strike on July 7 but began receiving food via a tube on July 23.
  As for that meeting between Hussein and Secretary of Defense Donald Rumsfeld, they did meet in the early 1980s, but the context is worth noting. At the time, Rumsfeld was acting as President Ronald Reagan’s Middle East envoy and was visiting Iraq as one of many stops in that time period. His first visit to Iraq was no secret; instead, the New York Times reported at the time that the State Department was hailing it as “an effort to demonstrate to the Arabs the American desire for good relations with them as well as the Israelis.”
  At the time, Iraq was involved in a war with neighboring Iran, a war that Iraq started with an attack in 1980 and that would go on until 1988. The United States was officially neutral in the Iran-Iraq war, but did recognize Iran as more of a threat to U.S. interests. Iranian students had held Americans hostage from December 1979 to January 1981, and Iran had threatened to cut off oil supply routes.
  Iraq’s use of chemical weapons against Iran does appear to have been a concern to the United States at the time. Official documents (on-line here) indicate that the United States did know that Iraq had used chemical weapons against Iran and had warned Iraq against doing so as early as November 1983. According to official documents, Rumsfeld did not raise concerns about chemical weapons in his December 1983 meeting with Saddam Hussein, but did tell Iraqi Foreign Minister Tariq that the United States’ “efforts to assist were inhibited by certain things that made it difficult for us[,] citing the use of chemical weapons, possible escalation in the Gulf, and human rights.”
  The United States then publicly condemned Iraq’s chemical weapons use on March 5, 1984. Rumsfeld visited Iraq again weeks later, and documents indicate that “bilateral relations were sharply set back by our March 5 condemnation of Iraq for CW use, despite our repeated warnings that this issue would emerge sooner or later.”
  Despite Iraq’s continued use of chemical weapons, the United States formally restored diplomatic relations with Iraq in November 1984 (Iraq and all other Arab nations broke ties with the United States in 1967 after Israel’s war defeat of Egypt, Syria and Jordan).

• Stephen’s Sound Advice: What to Do in a Blackout. Panic. Arm yourself. Be prepared. Eliminate perishables. Turn everything on. Get it on.

• Reference to Supreme Court Decision. The United States Supreme Court decided on July 29 that the Bush administration’s order creating the military commissions being used to try detainees at Guantanamo Bay exceeded the limits set by Congress for convening military courts (on-line here). A majority of justices also held that the procedures for the commissions did not satisfy the Geneva Convention’s requirement of a “regularly constituted court affording all the judicial guarantees which are recognized as indispensable by civilized peoples.”

• Superhero Stamps. DC superheroes such as Superman, Batman, Green Arrow and Plastic Man are featured on new 2006 commemorative stamps. Future stamp sets might feature Marvel superheroes such as Captain America and Spider-man. A press release is on-line here and a recent article is on-line here.

posted by Stephen Lee @ 7/27/2006 08:12:00 AM