Terrorism

Torture ‘Bright Line’ Blurs in 2nd Day of AG Hearings

Michael Mukasey clashed with Democrats yesterday in the second day of hearings on his nomination for attorney general. Mukasey refused to agree that an interrogation practice simulating drowning violated U.S. laws against torture and said the president may be able to ignore a law during wartime that requires an intelligence…

Oct 19, 2007 11:41 AM CDT

Gitmo Judge Could Reinstate Charges Against Bin Laden Driver

The driver for Osama bin Laden has had many successes as he battles his detention at Guantanamo Bay, but he faced a setback with a military judge’s ruling yesterday. The ruling could lead to reinstatement of charges against the detainee, Salim Ahmed Hamdan, who had earlier succeeded in getting a…

Oct 18, 2007 5:38 PM CDT

Judge Restricts Evidence in 9/11 Trial

People who received calls from passengers aboard a flight that crashed into the Pentagon on Sept. 11 will not be allowed to testify in a suit by one of the victims. Judge Alvin Hellerstein of New York ruled evidence that is too speculative or sensational should be excluded from next…

Oct 18, 2007 3:29 PM CDT

Gitmo Underwear Probe Closes

An investigation into the culprits who supplied contraband skivvies to detainees at Guantanamo Bay has ended without an answer to the mystery. Capt. Pat McCarthy told reporters the investigation is closed, Reuters reports. The military for a time wondered whether two lawyers for a British human rights group had smuggled…

Oct 18, 2007 3:05 PM CDT

DOJ Switched Focus to Terrorism and Immigration Crimes

The Bush administration’s Justice Department has reallocated its resources, focusing less on mobsters and some white-collar crimes and more on terrorism, weapons offenses and immigration violations. Justice Department prosecutions in terrorism and national security cases increased a whopping 876 percent, reaching a peak of 818 in 2003, the Washington Post…

Oct 17, 2007 11:09 AM CDT

Verizon to Feds: No Warrants, No Problem

One of the nation’s biggest cell phone service providers has been quietly providing another service, too, for the past several years. When asked by the federal government, Verizon Communications has handed over customer telephone records in hundreds of “emergency” cases since 2005, without requiring warrants or attempting to determine the…

Oct 16, 2007 11:43 PM CDT

ABA Urges Adequate Judicial Review of Terrorism Wiretaps

The ABA is urging Congress to ensure that legislation extending the government’s wiretap authority in terrorism investigations contains adequate safeguards. The letter to the chair and vice-chair of the Senate Select Committee on Intelligence says the new law should ensure adequate judicial review and congressional oversight. “Independent judicial review of…

Oct 16, 2007 7:20 PM CDT

American ‘Unlawful Combatants’ Abroad?

As efforts continue to address controversial killings of civilians in Iraq by private American military contractors, some United States officials reportedly are asking whether such conduct could put the U.S. in violation of international treaties. If so, it may be that those responsible for the killings could be characterized as…

Oct 15, 2007 6:46 PM CDT

Gitmo Do-over Weighed

The government is considering granting new hearings for Guantanamo detainees to determine whether they are unlawful enemy combatants who should continue to be held. Detainees have challenged their first round of hearings before Combatant Status Review Tribunals. Their lawyers told the New York Times that a government decision to redo…

Oct 15, 2007 12:43 PM CDT

US Had Spy Program Before Sept. 11, Ex-CEO Says

The former CEO of Qwest Communications claims the company lost hundreds of millions of dollars in government contracts after he refused its request for customer records in a secret surveillance program. Joseph Nacchio says in court documents unsealed last week that his company got the National Security Agency request almost…

Oct 15, 2007 12:17 PM CDT

CIA Investigator Investigated

CIA Director Michael Hayden has ordered an internal review of the agency’s inspector general following the office’s probes of detention and interrogation programs. The review focuses on whether Inspector General John Helgerson has been overzealous in targeting participants in these terrorism programs, the New York Times reports. The lengthy investigations…

Oct 12, 2007 10:24 AM CDT

Law Firm to Clients: Feds Tapped Our Phones

Lawyers at a Vermont firm that represents clients being held in the U.S. military prison at Guantanamo Bay and in Afghanistan believe the federal government may be wiretapping their law office phones. So Gensburg, Atwell & Broderick sent a letter to other clients of the firm on Oct. 2, warning…

Oct 11, 2007 6:48 PM CDT

Human Rights Lawyer: ‘Rendition’ is Reality

Some moviegoers might think Hollywood overstates the horrors of being kidnapped by the CIA and taken to a secret foreign prison to be tortured in Rendition, a new film to be released next week starring Reese Witherspoon, Meryl Streep and Omar Metwally, among others. But, if anything, it understates them,…

Oct 11, 2007 4:56 PM CDT

ABA Prez Denounces Torture

ABA President William H. Neukom is calling on Congress to override government actions “that make torture legal in everything but name.” In an editorial offered for publication, Neukom criticizes two formerly secret Justice Department memos justifying harsh interrogation techniques in terrorism cases and a July 2007 White House executive order…

Oct 11, 2007 3:42 PM CDT

Is State Secrets Doctrine Used for Cover-up?

The aftermath of a 1953 U.S. Supreme Court ruling affirming the state secrets doctrine shows why the decision needs to be revisited, the New York Times says in an editorial. The decision, United States v. Reynolds, cited national security concerns in refusing to allow three widows access to an accident…

Oct 11, 2007 2:01 PM CDT