Human Rights Watch (HRW) researcher Rachael Reid responded Friday to media accusations that she received secret information from British officer Lt. Col. Owen McNally, arrested this week on suspicion of leaking secret information regarding civilian casualty figures in Afghanistan. Reid accused the UK Ministry of Defense (MOD) of falsely informing the media that she was [...]
US Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) documents obtained under the Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) show that Bush administration immigration enforcement tactics were both overly-aggressive and ineffective, the Cardozo School of Law's Immigration Justice Clinic said Wednesday. The documents show that in 2006 ICE policy increased arrest quotas from 125 to 1000 per year and eliminated a previous [...]
A Turkish court on Thursday sentenced a Kurdish member of the Grand National Assembly , the Turkish parliament, to 18 months in prison on charges of spreading terrorist propaganda. Aysel Tugluk was convicted in connection with a speech she gave in 2006 during which she explained her party's objection to labeling the outlawed Kurdistan Workers [...]
Nominee for director of the Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) Leon Panetta testified Thursday before the US Senate Intelligence Committee that he would perform his duties according to the law while upholding the Constitution. Panetta said: I believe the Director should be responsible for shaping the role of CIA in the twenty-first century to protect this [...]
Nominee for Deputy Attorney General David Ogden Thursday defended his representation of parties opposing anti-pornography and pre-abortion parental notification laws during testimony before the Senate Judiciary Committee . Ogden, who is presently in private practice at the law firm WilmerHale , has come under attack from conservative groups, including Focus on the Family and the [...]
US Supreme Court Associate Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg underwent surgery Thursday in New York for pancreatic cancer . Ginsburg, 75, is expected to remain at the Memorial Sloan-Kettering Cancer Center in New York, where the surgery was performed, for seven to 10 days before being released. According to the Supreme Court, Ginsburg had no symptoms [...]
The sister-in-law of embattled former Taiwanese President Chen Shui-bian on Thursday entered a guilty plea at the Taipei District Court on charges of money laundering related to a corruption scandal surrounding the former leader and his associates. Chen Chun-ying admitted she had forged documents and transferred money to bank accounts upon orders from Chen Shui-bian [...]
The US Senate amended the "Buy American" clause of the latest economic stimulus package Wednesday to clarify that the provision will be applied consistent with US obligations under international trade agreements. The revised language was proposed by Sen. Byron Dorgan (D-ND) . The Senate also voted 31-65 to reject an amendment proposed by Sen. John [...]
China reiterated its request Thursday that all Chinese Muslims, or Uighurs, held at Guantanamo Bay be returned to China after the prison's closing. Spokesperson for the Chinese Foreign Ministry Jiang Yu said that China objects to other countries accepting any one of the 17 detainees and that international law dictates they be sent back. The [...]
UK Secretary of State for Foreign and Commonwealth Affairs David Miliband told members of Parliament Thursday that the US did not threaten to withhold intelligence if a summary of the alleged torture of Guantanamo Bay detainee Binyam Mohamed was made public. Miliband's statement was in response to a judgment issued by the London High Court [...]
