Iraqi President Jalal Talabani said Wednesday that the execution of two co-defendants of Saddam Hussein should be delayed "to see what the circumstances are," without offering any further explanation. Awad Hamed al-Bandar , former chief judge of Iraq's Saddam Hussein-era Revolutionary Court, and former Iraqi intelligence chief Barzan Ibrahim al-Tikriti were sentenced to death alongside [...]
Moroccan-born Mounir al-Motassadeq on Tuesday appealed the 15-year prison sentence handed down by a German court earlier this week for Motassadeq's role in assisting the men who carried out the Sept. 11 attacks . Lawyers for Motassadeq also said Tuesday that they might take the case to the European Court of Justice . Motassadeq's defense [...]
President Bush has cleared the way for drilling of oil and natural gas in parts of Bristol Bay, Alaska, and the central Gulf of Mexico . In a memorandum to the secretary of interior dated Tuesday, Bush modified a moratorium that President Clinton imposed in 1998, forbidding drilling leases in those areas through 2012. In [...]
JURIST Guest Columnists Lawrence Friedman and Victor Hansen of New England School of Law say that whatever policy intentions the US executive branch may have with regard to a nuclear Iran, its foreign affairs and national security discretion is and must be constitutionally limited by Congress's power of the purse… Vice-President Dick Cheney’s belief in [...]
US Army Spc. Juston R. Graber pleaded guilty Tuesday to aggravated assault with a deadly weapon in connection with the deaths of three Iraqi detainees in Thar Thar, a town near Samarra, some 60 miles north of Baghdad, but pleaded not guilty to more serious charges of attempted premeditated murder and conspiracy to commit premeditated [...]
MedImmune v. Genentech, Supreme Court of the United States, January 9, 2006 . Read the court's opinion per Justice Scalia along with a dissent from Justice Thomas. Reported in JURIST's Paper Chase here.
The US House of Representatives passed its first piece of legislation for the 110th Congress late Tuesday, a bill to implement the recommendations of the 9/11 Commission remaining after the enactment of the Intelligence Reform bill in 2004. The bill provides for additional intelligence oversight and sets out an ambitious screening program for shipping cargo [...]
US District Judge Reggie B. Walton denied a request Tuesday from several news organizations seeking the daily release of audio recordings of arguments and testimony in the upcoming CIA leak trial of former vice presidential aide I. Lewis "Scooter" Libby . Walton ruled that the US District Court for District of Columbia will not follow [...]
Iraqi government officials have discovered the identity of the individual who shouted out the name of Moqtada al-Sadr , a militant Shiite cleric and head of the Mehdi Army militia, during the December 30 execution of Saddam Hussein , according to a government spokesperson speaking Tuesday. Ali al-Dabbagh said the individual has been turned over [...]
Four US federal appeals court nominees requested Tuesday that their names be withdrawn from consideration by the Senate , according to Republican party officials. Each of the nominees, Michael Wallace, William Haynes, William Myers and Terrence Boyle , were opposed by Democrats and failed to gain confirmation before the Senate began its vacation in December. [...]
