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June 28, 2005

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utterly OT: someone is trying to build a hotel on land currently owned by Justice Souter. guess how they want to get that land ?

If true, this is going to stoke the debate and raise the level of acrimony even more:

The UN has learned of "very, very serious" allegations that the United States is secretly detaining terrorism suspects in various locations around the world, notably aboard prison ships, the UN's special rapporteur on terrorism said.

While the accusations were rumours, rapporteur Manfred Nowak said the situation was sufficiently serious to merit an official inquiry.

The use of prison ships would allow investigators to interrogate people secretly and in international waters out of the reach of US law, British security expert Francis Tusa said.

"This opens the door to very tough interrogations on key prisoners before it even has been revealed that they have been captured," said Tusa, an editor for the British magazine Jane's Intelligence Review."

Just another version of "ghost prisoners."

And US law would apply anyway to this US activity on these ships (and perhpas even the law of the flagged ship if not a US ship).

There were rumors about the Diego Garcia at one point, which they seemed to deny vehemently enough that people believed them. But we already know there are secret CIA facilities that are much further beyond the reach of law than Guantanamo; why does it matter if they're on land or sea?

But we already know there are secret CIA facilities that are much further beyond the reach of law than Guantanamo; why does it matter if they're on land or sea?

I'm guessing because they can be moved, because (I don't think) there are any laws that specify jurisdiction in international waters (or the ones that exist are based on man o wars and pirates of the Barbary Coast) Furthermore, there is no problems like when a Karimov decides to shoot down protestors, leading to sticky questions. You don't want you torture cell geting shut down, you don't put it where someone can shut it down. US law does apply on US flagged ships, but who is going to enforce it? What if the ship is leased and is under a Panamaian flag?

As I said, I'm guessing on all this, but I've always been struck by the story told in _The Voyage of the Damned_ of the SS St Louis, and the Jewish refugees on board. This is just a guess, but I don't believe that the laws of the sea have been modified extensively, especially given the questions over offshore gambling.

So those in our government who ordered and executed this are literal outlaws.

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