Terrorism

Latest Terror Plot Suspects Had Checkered Pasts

Yesterday’s arrests were not the first brush with the law for four men accused of plotting to bomb two Bronx synagogues and shoot down military planes. The Associated Press describes the men, who lived in Newburgh, N.Y., “as down-and-out ex-convicts living on the margins in a faded industrial city” while…

May 22, 2009 11:35 AM CDT

1st Civilian Trial of Gitmo Prisoner Will Be Ghailani’s in N.Y.

Countering critics’ claims that it is too dangerous to transport terrorism suspects to the United States for trial in civilian courts, Attorney General Eric Holder announced today that the first such trial of a detainee at the Guantanamo Bay military base in Cuba will be held in New York. Ahmed…

May 22, 2009 12:00 AM CDT

Four NY Men Charged with Plotting Attacks on Synagogues, Military Planes

Four men from New York state have been arrested in an alleged plot to bomb two Bronx synagogues and shoot down military planes with Stinger missiles. The men were arrested after they left what they believed to be bombs in vehicles outside the synagogues, the Riverdale Temple and the nearby…

May 21, 2009 11:52 AM CDT

Seattle Courthouse Gang Brawl Complexifies Murder Trial

As a trial began yesterday over an alleged gang slaying, Seattle police knew that a suspect being sought on a warrant was likely to be in the courtroom. So they arrested the unidentified man in a third-floor hallway of the King County Courthouse. Fists were soon flying, however, after rival…

May 20, 2009 12:16 AM CDT

Souter Dissent Backs ‘Little Green Men’ Standard for Inadequate Pleadings

Justice David H. Souter isn’t known for zinger quotes in his opinions. But his dissent yesterday to a decision tossing a jailed Muslim’s complaint against two government officials contained some colorful language about space aliens—little green ones, to be exact. The U.S. Supreme Court majority opinion held that Pakistani citizen…

May 19, 2009 1:36 PM CDT

Liberal Group Files Ethics Complaints Against Three Ex-AGs

A coalition of left-leaning advocacy groups has filed ethics complaints against three former attorneys general and nine other Bush administration lawyers for advocating the use of harsh interrogation techniques against terrorism suspects. The coalition calling itself the Velvet Revolution says the lawyers violated ethics rules by advocating methods that amounted…

May 18, 2009 6:39 PM CDT

High Court Rules Pakistani Held After 9-11 Can’t Sue Ex-AG on ‘Conclusory’ Claims

A cable TV installer who says his detention after the Sept. 11 attacks was motivated by racial, religious and national origin bias has failed to allege specific facts allowing him to sue the former attorney general and the ex-director of the FBI, the U.S. Supreme Court has ruled. The court…

May 18, 2009 2:48 PM CDT

Ex-Deputy AG Pushed for Supreme Court Consideration

Some White House officials are pushing a new name for inclusion on President Obama’s U.S. Supreme Court short list: James Comey, a former deputy attorney general who opposed the Bush administration’s legal tactics in the war on terrorism. Comey, who was deputy attorney general from 2003 to 2005, has law-and-order…

May 15, 2009 6:03 PM CDT

Obama Will Retain Military Commissions, But Revise the Rules

President Obama is expected to announce today that he will retain military commissions to try some Guantanamo detainees while providing additional due process rights for the accused. The rule changes would bar evidence obtained through “cruel, inhuman or degrading” interrogations, a change likely to ban evidence obtained through waterboarding, the…

May 15, 2009 11:39 AM CDT

CIA Rejects Request By Cheney to Declassify Two Interrogation Documents

Citing pending litigation under the Freedom of Information Act, the CIA has declined a request by Richard Cheney to declassify two documents that the former vice president contends would show that controversial interrogation methods used by the CIA after the Sept. 11, 2001 terrorist attacks did elicit useful information. Critics…

May 14, 2009 8:19 PM CDT

Bybee a No-Show at ‘Circus’ Hearing on Interrogation Memos

Sen. Lindsey Graham, R-S.C., says he doesn’t blame U.S. Appeals Judge Jay Bybee for being a no-show at a congressional hearing yesterday on Justice Department memos approving harsh interrogation techniques for suspected terrorists. Graham questioned why Bybee would want to appear in front of the Senate Judiciary Committee “circus,” the…

May 14, 2009 12:59 PM CDT

In a Reversal, White House Will Seek to Withhold Photos of Detainee Abuse

The Obama administration has reversed course and decided it will oppose releasing photos of claimed prisoner abuses at U.S. prisons in Iraq and Afghanistan. Anonymous officials told several publications that President Obama met with his legal team last week and said he feared that U.S. troops would be endangered by…

May 13, 2009 5:32 PM CDT

Jury Convicts 5 of 6 Defendants in Alleged Plot to Attack Sears Tower

The third time was the charm, from the government’s standpoint, in the trial of the so-called Liberty City Six. Five of the six defendants were convicted today by a federal jury in Miami, reports the Associated Press. It was their third trial concerning their alleged Florida-based plot to join with…

May 12, 2009 7:50 PM CDT

John Yoo Hired as Monthly Columnist for the Philadelphia Inquirer

John Yoo, under fire for writing legal memos approving harsh interrogation techniques for terrorism suspects, will now try his hand at writing on a regular basis for the Philadelphia Inquirer. Yoo was hired as a monthly Inquirer columnist late last year, the Philadelphia Daily News reports. The Inquirer’s editorial page…

May 12, 2009 6:45 PM CDT

4th Circuit Nixes Attorney Fee Award to Defendant in Terrorism Tort Case

In an unusual award of attorney fees to a prevailing defendant in a civil rights case, a federal court said a Muslim family whose Virginia home was lawfully searched had to pay about $41,000 to an individual they accused of conspiring with federal agents to fabricate evidence supporting the search.…

May 7, 2009 5:43 PM CDT