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Military tribunals are quite different from civilian courts, yes. But the pertinent question here is whether most of the inmates at Guantanamo are entitled to a civilian trial, or fall within the jurisdiction of a military tribunal, such as a POW would...

That quote was from Amnesty International, and should not, in my opinion, be taken as gospel. They would certainly like to see the inmates at Guantanamo be tried in civilian courts as civilian suspects, something I'm not sure the laws of war entitle them to. As I understand, the main contention...

I understand military trials of the inmates is an ongoing process, though? They seem to have been temporarily halted a few years back, but appear to be continuing.

A few questions, if you don't mind. Drone strikes: What would you propose as an alternative method to drone strikes to accomplish objectives? Or do you want the drone strikes to be made 'better'? Or do you see an effective solution to attain objectives that does not require the use of military...

Yeah, pretty much. If the scale of an emergency is big enough to overwhelm local resources, then the military is the only place where large amounts of manpower can be mobilised on short notice. Aren't the National Guard also prominently deployed in the US when there is some natural disaster...

So no-one wanting to influence law enforcement officers would ever stoop so low as to threaten them or their families? edit: The deterrence being, if you go after cops or their families, then the consequences for you is not a matter of what can be proven beyond reasonable doubt in a court of law.

I think we're mostly in agreement, in the sense that the law can give authorisation for people to have extraordinary rights over other people (such as parents vs children, police vs civilians). To note, I feel all that to be quite right and just. However, if we go by the idea that law is...

Good point. Though I think I did mention previously that, if the officers intentionally set fire to the cabin to kill Dorner, then they were operating outside the bounds of the law. I can grant you that, legally speaking, it is not the how that is important, but whether the person who does it...

Perhaps the principles might be the same, given that deterrence is a general concept with applications in many fields, including perfectly peaceful and law-abiding ones. For instance, deterrence is a significant factor in legal punishments, where a sentence for a crime is intended, in part, to...

I don't know, I can sort of understand why the chase might have ended this way. While it would be an exaggeration to say that getting shot at is an occupational hazard for police officers, they should realise that there is a distinct possibility of it happening, and be prepared for it. But...

They have an indigenous supply. The process and equipment (gas centrifuges) is dual use, and can be used to produce civilian nuclear fuel or weapons grade materials. Hence non-proliferation efforts tend to target this enrichment capacity. That's what the hubbub was about with iranian nuclear...

So I guess this makes him ex-Benedict?

So it would seem. Some sceptics are calling this one a fake or a failure, though, with yields measuring 6-7kt when the smallest design they were (alledgedly) sold was 12kt. We'll have to wait and see. Regardless, if the North Koreans kept at it, they were/are bound to get it right eventually.

When I drink anything out of a glass or other such liquid container, that glass needs to be oriented in the proper way. I can drink from any part of the glass, but I feel mildly uncomfortable doing so. The proper orientation is as follows, in decreasing order of priority. 1. If the glass has...

Yes, as I said, some police departments might have some things they need to look into once this is over. But it is quite possible to go overboard in the other direction due to outside pressure as well, as may often happen when mistakes are made in high-publicity cases. The mistakes made in this...

Regardless of how things may be in the LAPD, this guy didn't go after bad cops. He killed a woman and her fiance, just because she was the daughter of a cop he apparently had beef with. To my mind, purposefully shooting people who had nothing to do with anything eliminates even the flimsy excuse...

It's possible that I misunderstood your point as well. But my basic position is that co-operation, at least as far as individuals are concerned, is more important in smaller groups that are more widely dispersed, whereas with larger groups in closer proximity an individual might be more...

At the 0:23 mark, you can see the plane wobbling as the pilot moves inside the cockpit. In other news, the chief architect of the US drone strike program, White House counterterrorism adviser and President Obama's nominee for CIA director John Brennan is to appear before a Senate confirmation...

Sounds convincing. But I believe an argument to the contrary can also be made. When humans were still spread very thin on the ground, in stone age tribes consisting of a couple of hundred or so individuals at most, the survival of any single individual was contingent upon the support and...