John M. "Mike" McConnell , who succeeded John Negroponte as US Director of National Intelligence in February, is reportedly circulating proposed amendments to the 1978 Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act (FISA) to respond to FISA's perceived inflexibility and inability to respond to the threat of terrorism. The proposed amendments, released ahead of a Senate Intelligence Committee [...]
Six Egyptian human rights organizations issued a report Tuesday alleging that only five percent of Egyptian citizens participated in last month's constitutional referendum , far lower than the 27 percent voting rate announced by Egyptian Justice Minister Mamdouh Marei, and that the vote was marred by fraud. Seventy-six percent of those casting ballots voted in [...]
Claims of clergy sex abuse levied against the US Roman Catholic Church decreased for the second year in a row and recent cases involving claimants under age 18 have dropped significantly, according to an annual report released Wednesday by the US Conference of Catholic Bishops . The survey, compiled by the Center for Applied Research [...]
The Washington State House of Representatives on Tuesday approved a domestic partnership bill (SB 5336) by a vote of 63-35 that grants same-sex couples hospital visitation rights, inheritance rights when there is no will, and the power to authorize medical procedures, such as organ donation and autopsies. Although the legislation stops short of allowing same-sex [...]
JURIST Guest Columnist Jordan Paust of the University of Houston Law Center says that amidst the political furor over the role of US Attorney General Alberto Gonzales in the firings of US Attorneys we should also remember his involvement in the development of US policy denying Geneva Conventions protection to prisoners and authorizing "coercive interrogation" [...]
Maryland Governor Martin O'Malley signed off on legislation Tuesday that will award Maryland's ten votes in the US Electoral College to the national popular vote winner in presidential elections, instead of the recipient of the most votes in Maryland. The legislation will only take effect, however, if a majority of the states representing the total [...]
Former US Green Beret Jonathan 'Jack' Idema , the last of three US citizens jailed in 2004 on charges of running a private jail and torturing eight Afghan men, will reportedly be released from an Afghan prison soon. Idema, US journalist Edward Caraballo , and ex-servicemen Brent Bennett entered Afghanistan on a freelance terrorist hunt [...]
Two former administrators at a Texas juvenile prison were arrested Tuesday on 13 charges of improper sexual conduct with six students. Former West Texas State School principal John Paul Hernandez and former assistant superintendent Ray E. Brookins each resigned in 2005 as an investigation by Texas Rangers; the case has only recently moved forward as [...]
The government of Ethiopia admitted in a statement from its Ministry of Foreign Affairs (MFA) Tuesday that it had detained 41 terror suspects and granted foreign investigators access to the detainees for questioning. The admission came after Sweden, Canada, and Eritrea urged the country to reveal details regarding foreign nationals allegedly detained in secret prisons [...]
Europol , the EU law enforcement organization that handles criminal intelligence, presented its EU Terrorism Situation and Trend Report TE-SAT 2007 to the European Parliament Tuesday, providing an overview of terrorism in the 27-member European Union . According to the report, 706 individuals were arrested in 15 member states on suspicion of terrorism offenses in [...]
