The office responsible for oversight of federal spending on Afghanistan’s reconstruction has not established the required policies and procedures to conduct its investigations, according to a recent audit (pdf, 385kb). The review of the Special Inspector General for Afghanistan Reconstruction (SIGAR) said the policies that did exist were mostly verbatim …
The International Criminal Court (ICC) has issued a warrant for the arrest of Sudanese president Omar al Bashir on charges of genocide. The Court’s warrant (pdf, 497kb) cited “reasonable grounds to believe that Omar Al Bashir acted with dolus specialis/specific intent to destroy in part the Fur, Masalit and Zaghawa …
Report warns of ‘Playstation’ mentality in CIA drone attacks States which employ “targeted killings†of alleged terrorists or combatants have not done enough to establish accountability and demonstrate they are acting within the boundaries of international humanitarian law (IHL), according to a UN official. In a 29-page report (pdf, 31kb), …
An unclassified Central Intelligence Agency report (pdf, 1.5mb) said that in 2009 Iran continued work on a number of projects that could be applied to the production of nuclear weapons. “We continue to assess Iran is keeping open the option to develop nuclear weapons though we do not know whether …
The decade from 2000 to 2009 was the warmest on record, according to preliminary data reported by the weather monitoring agency of the United Nations. The World Meteorological Organization (WMO) announced the finding in a press release in advance of the publication of its annual survey of global weather and …
Under stress from a rapid buildup of civilian staff and the weight of a raft of new responsibilities, the United States Embassy in Kabul “faces serious challenges in meeting the Administration’s deadline for ‘success’ in Afghanistan,†a State Department inspection found. The report (pdf, 21.5mb) by the State Department’s inspector …
Cuts to funding for public housing have affected the maintenance and supply of affordable housing units, and contributed to the subprime mortgage crisis and a “new face of homelessness†in the United States, according to the report (pdf, 139kb) of a United Nations fact-finding mission. In the fall of 2009, …
The International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) aired concerns that Iran might be working on a nuclear weapon in a February 18 report (pdf, 60kb). Marked for “restricted distribution,†the report became widely available, including via the website of the Institute for Science and International Security (ISIS). The report asserted that …
The five-member Appeals Chamber of the International Criminal Court ruled unanimously that a Pre-Trial Chamber had applied “an erroneous standard of proof†when it stopped short of bringing genocide charges against Sudanese president Omar al Bashir, and must therefore reconsider the prosecutor’s evidence. On March 4, 2009, the ICC charged …
Public corruption trumped insecurity and unemployment among the most urgent concerns of Afghan citizens in a survey conducted by the United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime (UNODC). The survey found that “it is almost impossible to obtain a public service in Afghanistan without greasing a palm: bribing authorities is …