Anticipating a non-response, The Daily Beast asked the State Department how the U.S. expects to bring Russia into compliance with the conventions’ ban on indiscriminate attacks if it doesn’t publish or otherwise inform the public of its intelligence findings.

There was no response.

One reason for U.S. silence about Russian violations is that the Obama administration has classified its intelligence findings in order to “protect sources and methods” of collection. Making that information public “would also set a precedent of the U.S. reporting on foreign military activity,” a senior administration official told us earlier this year. “Where do you draw the line?”

But that leaves open the question of whether the U.S. government has raised the issue with Russia and how Russia responded. It also raises the larger question of whether international law as drafted after World War II will be respected when a major power violates the laws of armed conflict with impunity and there’s no public protest from the United States.

Ever since Russia began its bombing campaign Sept. 30, the U.S. response has been largely “hands-off.”