International Criminal Court

(MULTILATERAL GOVERNMENT) International court created in 2002 to try criminal cases (as opposed to civil cases) in international law. Criminal charges may include: genocide, crimes against humanity, and war crimes. Ultimately, the ICC is supposed to be able to try crimes against the peace (or aggression), something it presently cannot do.

The three basic categories of international crimes were defined in the Nuremberg Trials of Nazi officials. However, because the Nuremberg Tribunals only tried citizens of Axis nations for crimes against Allied or neutral states, their moral authority was greatly weakened.

The ICC complements the International Court of Justice (ICJ), which tries civil cases.

Even before the International Criminal Court commenced operations in 2002, it was critically weakened by the vociferous opposition of China, the USA, Israel, Iraq (then under the rule of Saddam Hussein), and Libya. These countries went so far as to vote against the Treaty of Rome (1998). The US government subsequently signed the treaty (December 2000), but "unsigned" it in May 2002.

One other country to do this has been Sudan.

India, Indonesia, Pakistan, and China have never signed the treaty; Russia, Egypt, and Israel have signed it, but not ratified it.

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BOEMRE

(US GOVERNMENT) Bureau of Ocean Energy Management, Regulation and Enforcement; agency formerly known as the Minerals Management Service (MMS). Some minor reorganization supposed to reduce incentives for corruption.

The original MMS was created in 1982 to manage offshore drilling and other forms of mineral exploitation of the ocean coastal shelf (OCS). It had every incentive to take the money of corporations and give them license to do what they wanted. In 2010, due to scandals from gross corruption and lax oversight, the White House reacted by...changing the agency's name.

The BOEMRE had to change its name from the "Minerals Management Service" because its reputation was utterly ruined by constant corruption scandals.

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Macondo

(US HISTORY) sector of the Gulf of Mexico seabed in which the Deepwwater Horizon was drilling. The name, assigned long before the platform was erected, is an example of dramatic irony. On 20 April 2010, the Deepwater Horizon blew out*, killing eleven crew members; over the next 12 weeks the wreckage spewed some 4 million bbls of crude oil into the ecologically sensitive region off the coast of Louisiana and Mississippi.

Properly known as the Macondo Prospect, or MC 252 (for "Mississippi Canyon"). Name comes from the fact that major rivers have large, deep underwater canyons on the ocean floor beyond their deltas. Macondo Prospect is formally owned by the Federal Bureau of Land Management (US BLM), and leased to British Petroleum by the {former} Minerals Management Service.

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* "blew out" = past tense of "blow out"; rupture of an oil well, particularly at the well head.

The name Macondo is the same name as the fictitious cursed town in the novel *One Hundred Years of Solitude* by Colombian ... writer Gabriel Garcia Marquez. Oil companies routinely assign code names to offshore prospects early in the exploration effort. This practice helps ensure secrecy during the confidential pre-sale phase, and later provides convenient names for casual reference

Wikipedia entry, "Macondo Prospect"

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Immigration and Naturalization Service

(US GOVERNMENT) Former agency of the US government responsible for the enforcement of immigration law, and the processing of visa/permit requests. After the attacks of 11 September 2001, Congress passed a bill creating the Department of Homeland Security (DHS); the INS was split up into its enforcement functions (which became part of Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) and its processing functions (Citizenship and Immigration Services, or CIS).

Prior to its dissolution in 2003, the INS was part of the Department of Justice. The CIS and ICE are both part of the DHS.

Because of its extraordinary power over the lives of millions of US nationals and residents, the Immigration and Naturalization Service gained lasting notoriety. Seven years after it was superseded by the CIS, most people associated visa regulations with the INS.

"Brother from Another Planet" was a brilliant parody of INS agent behavior.

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International Tribunal for the Law of the Sea

(MULTILATERAL GOVERNMENT) United Nations entity created in 1982 (entered operation 1994); arbitrates disputes related to the oceans, seas, and minerals underneath. It is based in Hamburg, Germany.

The International Tribune for the Law of the Sea has jurisdiction over those areas of the ocean floor that are not clearly delineated national waters. It was created by the UN Convention on the Law of the Sea.

The International Tribunal for the Law of the Sea is in the news a lot these days because of growing controversy over possible mineral rights to the Arctic Ocean.

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coup d'etat

(GOVERNMENT) seizure of power by an armed entity, usually the army but sometimes the police.

Usually coups are perpetrated in countries with very weak governments, such as in West Africa, Bolivia, or Southwest Asia. They get progressively worse (i.e., more violent, more prolonged, and more repressive) until eventually some junta builds up protection against against the next coup. This is what happened in Iraq after 1979; it happened in Syria in 1973; it also happened in Japan in 1607. In other cases, the coup accomplishes its goals (Chile 1973) and retires as a PR move.

After a coup occurs, the military leadership is known as a junta.

Military coups are usually motivated by the personal ambition of the perpetrator; the central figure is usually very personally corrupt, as well.

Military coups are difficult to pull off and usually are nipped in the bud. Even with foreign assistance, they are hard, because they are a form of high-speed civil war.

Inter-class violence often comes with a coup d'etat.

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Giai phong

(VIETNAMESE HISTORY) Vietnamese word for "liberation"; refers to 31 April 1975, when Saigon (Ho Chi Minh City) was captured by the PAVN, ending the Second Indochina War.

The "g" is pronounced like a "y."

For both the Vietnamese and Usonians, Giai Phong was a massive turning point in history. For the Vietnamese, it meant that the huge sacrifices made for independence were crowned with grinding toil, but new dignity as well. For the Usonians, it meant shame and and denial.

The USA entered a long dark night of the soul from which it has yet to emerge.

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