links I was reading this in the paper the other day and thought I would highlight it on the blog. It's from: US drone strikes in Yemen crucial to prevent terrorist threat, Panetta says by Even MacAskill in The Guardian

But Mary Ellen O'Connell, an international law specialist at Notre Dame university, challenged the legality of the strikes. She expressed unease with what she described as a return to the ugly strategy used by the US in the Vietnam war and in Central America.

O'Connell, who is also vice-president of the American Society of International Law and who has testified to Congress on legal issues, said of the proposed expansion in Yemen: "In other words, the CIA is seeking to escalate an already unlawful campaign of targeted killing at the very time Yemen needs support building the rule of law and ending violence and military conflict. The last time the CIA had this much freedom to kill was in Vietnam. It killed 25,000 people, and the US lost the war."

 She said that the Obama administration had decided that detaining people was causing political difficulties so they are just killing them instead, and governments round the world are quiescent. She noted that Obama is a law professor and expressed surprise that this should be happening on his watch.

 And this article I thought was also worth reading:
 No real justice in Guantanamo: Trying accused terrorists before military commissions won't meet international standards by Reed Brody from the Los Angeles Times