JURIST Special Guest Columnist William Weaver of the University of Texas El Paso Political Science Department says that the lawsuit by five victims of extraordinary rendition against Boeing subsidiary Jeppesen Dataplan has given the federal judiciary another opportunity to consider its own endorsement of the state secrets privilege, under which the US government can prevent [...]
The People v. John Taylor, New York Court of Appeals, October 23, 2007 . Read the full text of the opinion . Reported in JURIST's Paper Chase here.
Terrorist Watch List Screening: Opportunities Exist to Enhance Management Oversight, Reduce Vulnerabilities in Agency Screening Processes, and Expand Use of the List (GAO), October 11, 2007 . Read the full text of the report . Reported in JURIST's Paper Chase here.
US Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice told members of the House Foreign Affairs Committee in testimony on US Middle East policy Wednesday that House members should discontinue an effort to pass a resolution condemning the World War-I era mass killings of Armenians in the Ottoman Empire as genocide . The committee approved the resolution earlier [...]
US State Department security chief Richard Griffin submitted his resignation Wednesday under pressure following September's Blackwater USA shooting of 17 Iraqis, according to AP citing unnamed officials. Griffin is assistant secretary of state for the Bureau of Diplomatic Security, the branch that oversees private security firms; his resignation will be effective November 1. Before becoming [...]
Gary Solis : " Attorney General-nominee Michael Mukasey could not or would not say if he considers waterboarding torture. "If it is torture, it is unconstitutional," he responded when asked. By now, most of us know what the interrogation technique of waterboarding is. It is widely reported and generally understood that the U.S. employs it. [...]
Argentinean federal judge Claudio Bonadio Tuesday charged former president Fernando de la Rua with five counts of manslaughter for failing to prevent the deaths of five demonstrators during 2001 confrontations with police in Buenos Aires. The deaths came during riots sparked by a national economic crisis that caused De la Rua to flee the presidential [...]
US Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice testified Wednesday in front of the House Foreign Affairs Committee that the rendition of Canadian citizen Maher Arar was not "handled as it should have been," but stopped short of apologizing to the 37 year-old Syrian-born engineer. Arar was detained in the US in 2002 after flying to New [...]
The US District Court for the District of Alaska Tuesday ordered ConocoPhillips subsidiary Polar Tankers, Inc. to pay $2.5 million in fines after it pleaded guilty to covering up a 2004 oil spill. In January 2004, crew members of the Polar Discovery failed to report that that tanker had leaked oil sludge into the ocean [...]
The US Senate Wednesday confirmed embattled Mississippi Court of Appeals Justice Leslie H. Southwick to the US Court of Appeals for the Fifth Circuit by a vote of 59-38 , despite broad criticism of the nominee from Democrats and civil rights groups. Southwick, who was unanimously given the highest possible rating of "well qualified" by [...]
