Lawyers Wrangle Over Bin Laden Video

Defense lawyers for Jose Padilla have asked a judge to bar a videotaped interview of Osama bin Laden from the trial of their client. Prosecutors counter that the Cable News Network video helps show the intent of Padilla and two co-defendants, accused of supporting al-Qaida in a conspiracy. They say…

Jun 20, 2007 7:25 PM CDT

Gitmo Detainees Turn Poetic

A Guantanamo defense lawyer with a Ph.D. in English has compiled poems written by detainees that will be published in an 84-page book. Marc Falkoff, who represents 17 Yemeni prisoners, began the project after two of his clients mailed him poems, the Wall Street Journal (sub. req.) reports. Falkoff asked…

Jun 20, 2007 3:44 PM CDT

CIA Lawyer Nominee Avoids Details

No bombshells were dropped as the nominee to become the Central Intelligence Agency’s top lawyer appeared before a Senate committee yesterday. John Rizzo has been nominated to be the agency’s general counsel after serving in an acting capacity for much of the last six years. Speculation abounded that his nomination…

Jun 20, 2007 2:21 PM CDT

Interrogation Likely Focus of Hearing

The man nominated to become the general counsel of the Central Intelligence Agency is likely to face questions about interrogation techniques when he goes before a Senate committee today. John Rizzo, who was acting general counsel of the CIA for most of the last six years, has been nominated for…

Jun 19, 2007 2:25 PM CDT

Judge Delays Trial of CIA Case

An Italian judge has suspended the trial of 26 Americans accused of participating in a CIA kidnapping of an accused terrorist. The judge suspended the case until the highest court in Italy rules on the Italian government’s request for dismissal of the indictments, Associated Press reports. The government contends the…

Jun 18, 2007 3:52 PM CDT

Translator: Padilla Feeling Charitable

As the ongoing terrorism support trial of Jose Padilla ended its fifth week in Miami, even the government’s own witness had to concede in cross-examination that the defense had a point. The lead investigator for the Federal Bureau of Investigation testified that a translator said Padilla might have been thought…

Jun 16, 2007 2:51 AM CDT

Judge to FBI: Release Spying Records

According to a party, a federal judge in a FOIA case today ordered the FBI to release on an expedited basis records of the agency’s domestic spying on Americans under a controversial National Security Letters program that allows warrantless surveillance. “The reports we’ve seen so far about NSL abuse are…

Jun 16, 2007 1:55 AM CDT

Evidence May Go Online in Fort Dix Trial

The federal judge overseeing the trial of six men accused of plotting to storm Fort Dix said he would try to post evidence online as it is presented at trial. U.S. District Judge Robert B. Kugler spoke after the defendants’ arraignment. He said the case would be tried by year’s…

Jun 15, 2007 4:14 PM CDT

Muslim’s Suit for Harsh Detention Allowed

A federal appeals court has refused to dismiss a lawsuit challenging harsh prison conditions filed by a Muslim detained as a person of interest after the Sept. 11 attacks. The suit names as defendants former Attorney General John Ashcroft, FBI Director Robert Mueller and other government officials. The case is…

Jun 15, 2007 3:08 PM CDT

Va. Tech Gets Gunman’s Mental File

Frustrated by federal privacy law that protects student mental health records from disclosure even after the subject’s death, a Virginia Tech advisory panel reviewing the on-campus massacre of more than 30 people won permission from the family of the student gunman to get his records. Seung-Hui Cho, who shot himself…

Jun 14, 2007 9:11 PM CDT

FBI Errs in Security Probes

The FBI may have violated laws or FBI regulations more than 1,000 times when collecting national security data about domestic phone calls, e-mail and financial transactions, an internal audit found. Most violations occurred when phone companies or Internet providers gave agents more information than requested. But in two dozen cases,…

Jun 14, 2007 2:50 PM CDT

Terrorists in a Different Legal Category

The Bush administration is claiming that the old legal categories don’t work for suspected terrorists. There are civilians, who can be prosecuted in ordinary courts, and soldiers, who can’t be prosecuted for fighting the enemy. But the administration proposed a new category in 2001, that of “unlawful enemy combatant,” according…

Jun 13, 2007 3:29 PM CDT

Courts Reject Bush Tactical Decision

President Bush’s legal approach to fighting terrorism may not outlast his presidency. That’s the conclusion of a Wall Street Journal analysis (sub. req.) of court rulings that blocked government actions against terrorism suspects here and at Guantanamo Bay. The setbacks stem from a tactical decision to assert the president had…

Jun 13, 2007 2:21 PM CDT

Rehearing Sought in ‘Sleeper Agent’ Case

The U.S. Justice Department says it will ask a federal appeals court for an en banc rehearing of a three-judge panel’s ruling yesterday that the military could not hold a civilian indefinitely.

The 4th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals in a 2-1 ruling said Ali Saleh Kahlah al-Marri could be charged with a crime, deported or held as a material witness. But he has a right to habeas corpus and must be released from military detention, the Richmond, Va.-based court said.

A Justice Department statement said al-Marri trained at Osama bin Laden’s terrorist training camp in Afghanistan and was an al-Qaida sleeper agent sent here to explore methods of disrupting the U.S. financial system.

Jun 12, 2007 1:21 PM CDT

Nuremberg Attorney: Gitmo Trials Unfair

An 88-year-old American lawyer who helped try war criminals at Nuremberg, Germany, after World War II says today’s Guantanamo Bay cases fly in the face of the prosecutorial precedent he helped set there. “I think Robert Jackson, who’s the architect of Nuremberg, would turn over in his grave if he…

Jun 12, 2007 12:27 AM CDT