The Coalition Against Terrorism

Latest Statements, Briefings, and Hearings

United States Embassy, Tel Aviv

The American Center, Jerusalem

website: http://israel.usembassy.gov

Tuesday, June 24, 2008.

Here are links to recent web sites and documents relevant to the civil, constitutional, and human rights aspects of the Coalition against Terrorism

Table of Contents

1. Diplomatic Assurances Protecting Individuals against Torture in Other Countries: Statement for the Record

2. U.S. Religious Landscape Survey

3. A New Millennium of Knowledge? The Arab Human Development Report on Building a Knowledge Society, Five Years On

4. The Arab Center: The Promise of Moderation

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1. Diplomatic Assurances Protecting Individuals against Torture in Other Countries: Statement for the Record
By John B. Bellinger, III, Legal Advisor to the Secretary of State
Before the House Foreign Affairs Subcommittee on International Organizations, Human Rights, and Oversight
June 10, 2008

Chairman Delahunt and distinguished members of the Committee, I welcome the opportunity to appear before you today to discuss the United States’ use of diplomatic assurances to protect individuals against torture in other countries.

The use of diplomatic assurances in the practice of the Department of State arises in three different contexts: (1) in the surrender of fugitives by extradition from the United States; (2) in immigration removal proceedings initiated by the Department of Homeland Security, and (3) in the transfer of terrorist combatants from detention at the Department of Defense detention facility at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba.  My testimony today will describe the use of diplomatic assurances in these contexts, and explain the reasons why we believe diplomatic assurances, in appropriate cases, can be an important tool for protecting individuals against torture.

http://foreignaffairs.house.gov/110/bel061008.htm

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2. U.S. Religious Landscape Survey
Pew Forum on Religion and Public Life
June 2008

Alexis de Tocqueville, the well-known, early 19th-century French chronicler of democracy in America, recognized the vital role religion plays in shaping American life. "This civilization is the result … of two quite distinct ingredients, which anywhere else have often ended in war but which Americans have succeeded somehow to meld together in wondrous harmony; namely the spirit of religion and the spirit of liberty."

Almost two centuries after de Tocqueville penned these words, the "spirit of religion" remains a powerful force in shaping the views and values of the American people. To better understand the connections between Americans' religious beliefs and practices and their social and political views, the Pew Research Center's Forum on Religion & Public Life has undertaken an extensive survey on religion in America. The first report from the U.S. Religious Landscape Survey, published in February 2008, details the religious affiliations of the American public and documents the impact of changes in affiliation, immigration and other factors. The report also explores the great diversity of religious traditions and groups in the U.S. and details their demographic characteristics.

The latest release from the Landscape Survey includes a wealth of information on the religious beliefs and practices of the American public, including the importance of religion in people’s lives, belief in God and the afterlife, attitudes toward the authority of sacred writings, frequency of worship attendance and prayer, and participation in religious activities outside of worship services, including the religious education of children. The study also probes the public’s views on religion’s impact on society, conflicts between religion and society, religion and morality, and the links between religion and life satisfaction.

Using the responses to these and other survey questions, the report examines the diversity of opinion that exists on a variety of political and public policy issues among and within the country’s various religious groups, including people who are unaffiliated or are only nominally affiliated with a particular religious tradition. These issues include ideological and partisan orientation; attitudes on abortion, homosexuality, evolution and other social issues; views on helping the needy, the environment, and the size and proper role of government; and opinions on foreign affairs.

http://religions.pewforum.org/ (Introduction)

http://religions.pewforum.org/pdf/report2-religious-landscape-study-full.pdf (276 page full report)

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3. A New Millennium of Knowledge? The Arab Human Development Report on Building a Knowledge Society, Five Years On
Kristin M. Lord, Fellow, Foreign Policy, Saban Center for Middle East Policy, U.S. Relations with the Islamic World
The Brookings Institution, June 16, 2008

Building dynamic, innovative, and flexible economies that add value through the creative application of human initiative is now a central challenge of all societies. The challenge is particularly acute in the Arab world. As a group, these 22 countries lag other regions—and their own potential—in educational achievement, scientific advances, and economic growth. By all accounts, this situation is troubling. Arab countries, as diverse as they are, share a history of remarkable intellectual and scientific achievement. Their societies are brimming with young people who typically adapt easily and willingly to technological change. Yet, under-employment is high and human potential is under-tapped.

In 2003, the United Nations Development Programme published a widely read and controversial study that examined the region’s progress in developing the knowledge, skills, and institutions rewarded in today’s global economy. The study, entitled the Arab Human Development Report 2003: Building a Knowledge Society, presented a comprehensive explanation for the “knowledge deficit” and equally comprehensive prescriptions for reform. These reforms, the report emphasized, must be driven by Arabs. But openness and deeper engagement with the world is essential.

This study assesses what has happened in the five years since the 2003 report was published, what successes towards building a knowledge society have been achieved, what work remains, and what has failed. It analyzes what has occurred in the last five years in terms of governance, education, science and technology, knowledge-based industry, and building a knowledge culture. Drawing on the insights of a distinguished group of experts, it then recommends tangible steps toward achieving the vision of a knowledge society in the coming five years.

http://www.brookings.edu/papers/2008/04_arab_human_development_lord.aspx (Executive Summary of the report)

http://www.brookings.edu/~/media/Files/rc/papers/2008/04_arab_human_development_lord/04_arab_human_development_lord.pdf (78 page full report)

http://www.brookings.edu/~/media/Files/events/2008/0616_knowledge/20080616_knowledge.pdf (68-page transcript of a Brookings discussion of the report)

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4. The Arab Center: The Promise of Moderation
The Brookings Institution, Saban Center for Middle East Policy, June 16, 2008

MARWAN MUASHER:  To be a moderate in the Arab world can be described as an act of courage, a leap of faith, or maybe just plan suicidal. But there has never been a time in our region where moderation is more needed or where moderates need to speak out even more forcefully. This is a book about Arab moderation, the successes and the failures of Arab moderates, and a book that tries to explain where these successes have come about and why, and more importantly, why did the Arab center also fail in so many areas.

I argue of course in the book that first of all there is an Arab center. To most in the West an Arab center does not exist, Arab moderates are not there, and this is a region with a bunch of fanatics and where moderation does not rule. I try to argue on the peace process there has been not just Arab moderation, but in fact a very proactive moderate center that has put forward all the initiatives, let me say all the major initiatives, of this decade on the peace process has come from the Arab center, whether it is through the Arab peace initiative of 2002 where the whole Arab world committed itself collectively to a peace treaty with Israel, to security guarantees for all states in the region including Israel, to the end to the conflict, and to an agreed solution to the refugee problem. Then the Middle East Road Map that provided a road that would take us to the end of the occupation, a two-state solution, but would also implement among other things the terms of the Arab Peace Initiative and again commit the whole Arab world to a collective peace treaty with Israel.

. . . most important of all, this book talks about why the Arab center today is losing credibility at a very fast rate in the Arab world and it is doing so because that center has chosen to focus on only one aspect of moderation, which is the peace process and, indeed, as it has as I said made valiant efforts to solve the Arab-Israeli conflict, but that core center has not been a center on other issues of importance to Arab society, political reform, good governance, economic wellbeing, and cultural diversity. In being selectively moderate and not solving what it has promised people it would solve which is the Arab-Israeli conflict, it has been painted successfully by its opponents as a compromiser of Arab rights, as an apologist for the West, as a center that has not delivered on anything; it did not deliver on peace, and it did not deliver on reform. I argue that for that center to regain its credibility and not only survive but thrive in the future, it must address all these issues. It must address issues of reform in the same way and with the same vigor that it addresses issues of peace.

http://www.brookings.edu/~/media/Files/events/2008/0616_arab_center/20080616_moderation.pdf (47 pages)

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