Confessions of a Misguided Trio

Howard, Rudd and Yoda

Labels: Australian Election, Media, Woot

posted by Carla @ 1:53 AM 0 comments

Bush Aide Condemns Saudi Arabia, and then resigns?

Ok so I probably should be doing things other than reading online news and making links, but the Australian Election is boring, although I will post my thoughts on MP Jackie Kelley's husbands letter drop later today...

Yesterday I was shocked to discover that a gang-rape victim in Saudi Arabia had been sentenced to 200 lashings and a 6 month gaol term. From News.com.au...
The woman was initially ordered to undergo 90 lashes for "being in the car of an unrelated male at the time of the rape," the Arab News reported.

The tougher sentence was handed down after Saudi Arabia's Higher Judicial Council ordered a retrial after an appeal and a court in the eastern town of Al-Qatif more than doubled the number of lashes to 200.

A court source told the paper that the judges had decided to punish the woman further for "her attempt to aggravate and influence the judiciary through the media".

Saudi Arabia enforces a strict form of Sunni Islam known as Wahhabism and forbids unrelated men and women from associating with each other, bans women from driving and requires them to cover head-to-toe in public.

Her assailants, six Saudi men, were initially sentenced to between one and five years in jail for the rape.Their sentences were stiffened to between two and nine years in prison, but they escaped the death penalty.

News.com.au has started a petition which it intends to present to the Saudi Embassy in Canberra demanding that PMJH protest the punishment, I encourage you to sign it here.

One of the more interesting bits that I have stumbled across which may or may not be related to this matter were to comments of a Bush Administration official...

Fran Townsend, President George W. Bush's adviser on domestic security and anti-terrorism, said on CNN television: "The case is absolutely reprehensible."..."I just don't think there's any explaining it or justifying it," she said.
Source: here.

An interesting comment from an official in an Administration that is so "buddy, buddy" with the Saudi's... Then I started checking a students reference in a paper (yes I do check student references in a paper, it's sad I know) at the White house website, and discovered that on November 19, Fran Townsend's resignation was announced by President Bush, where he proclaimed that "We are safer today because of her leadership." (available here.)

You have to wonder if the two stories are related, was Townsend forced to resign? Why all of a sudden would someone who has made us (or at least the US) "safer" for over 4 and a half years, resign?

Labels: George W. Bush, Resignations, Saudi Arabia

posted by Mark @ 2:34 PM 0 comments

Legal news

Two legal stories of note today:

• Prosecutors want drunk driver jailed for life:
  Drunk and eager to get home on Jan. 20, 2006, Raymond Charles Yellowknee, then a 32-year-old repeat impaired driver, made a decision that could trigger a legal precedent in Canada.
  The aboriginal man from Northern Alberta stole a running pickup truck and eventually crashed head-on into a Pontiac Sunfire carrying a young mother and her three daughters near Slave Lake, 250 kilometres north of Edmonton. All four died.
  Crown prosecutors in Alberta are now trying to have him deemed a dangerous offender - a rare legal move that could potentially keep the chronic drunk driver and father of three in jail indefinitely. A court-ordered dangerous offender designation - the Criminal Code's most punitive designation - is usually reserved for people who have committed violent and/or sexual crimes.
• Panel Decries Terrorism Blacklist Process: U.N., E.U. Methods Violate Basic Human Rights Principles, European Committee Says
  The methods used by the United Nations and the European Union for blacklisting terrorism suspects are "totally arbitrary" and "violate the fundamental principles of human rights and rule of law," a European human rights panel said Monday.
  The Council of Europe's legal committee urged an overhaul of international regulations so that individuals and groups being blacklisted -- which imposes a freeze on assets and a ban on traveling -- would have access to evidence against them, rights to a fair trial or impartial review within a reasonable time and compensation for wrongful designation as a terrorist.

Labels: Comparative Law, International Law, Precedent

posted by Carla @ 12:48 AM 0 comments