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Charles O. Blaha

Charles O. Blaha , a senior adviser to Democracy in the Arab World Now (DAWN) was Director of the State Department’s Office of Security and Human Rights from 2016 until he retired in 2023. Among other duties, that office is responsible for implementing Leahy vetting worldwide and for ensuring that human rights and international humanitarian law considerations are taken into account in decisions on security assistance and arms transfers. Mr. Blaha joined the State Department in 1991, serving as both a Foreign Service Officer and a Civil Servant. His overseas assignments included Panama, Cuba, Turkey, Iraq, the Czech Republic, and the U.S. Mission to International Organizations in Geneva, where he focused primarily on issues in the U.N. Human Rights Council. Mr. Blaha holds a B.A., magna cum laude, from Duke University, and a J.D. from the University of Virginia School of Law. He speaks Spanish and Turkish.

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Except for Israel: US Military Aid forbidden to Human Rights Violators by the Leahy Law

Except for Israel: US Military Aid forbidden to Human Rights Violators by the Leahy Law

Charles O. Blaha

Ann Arbor (Special to Informed Comment; Feature) – On December 17, 2024, a group of Palestinian and Palestinian-Americans filed a complaint against the State Department with one simple ask:  That the Department obey the Leahy law with regard to Israel. The Leahy law prohibits U.S. assistance to foreign security force units credibly implicated in gross […]

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