A former US Navy SEAL testifying Monday in the Article 32 military hearing of a fellow SEAL lieutenant said that on two separate occasions he witnessed SEALs and CIA officials abusing Iraqi prisoners, in one instance punching, choking and poking in the eye a recalcitrant Iraqi detainee who later died. The alleged incidents took place [...]
The US Supreme Court unanimously ruled Tuesday in a decision written by Justice Sandra Day O'Connor that a count of conspiracy to commit money laundering does not require proof of an overt act to further the conspiracy. The full text of the ruling in the consolidated cases of Whitfield v. US and Hall v. US [...]
A former civilian Arabic translator at the Guantanamo Bay detention camp pleaded guilty Monday to charges of mishandling classified information and lying to investigators. Ahmed Fathy Mehalba, a naturalized US citizen of Egyptian origin, has been incarcerated since his arrest at Logan Airport on September 29, 2003 where he was found to be carrying computer [...]
AP is reporting that President Bush has selected US Third Circuit Court of Appeals judge and former Assistant Attorney General Michael Chertoff to be the new secretary of Homeland Security, according to officials speaking Tuesday. The President's previous nominee, former New York police commissioner Bernard Kerik, withdrew his name from consideration after revelations about non-payment [...]
Six individuals, two former AOL executives and four former executives from the now-defunct PurchasePro software company, have been charged in an ongoing investigation into a secret negotiation between the two companies to artificially increase PurchasePro's revenues. Federal prosecutors have already charged six other PurchasePro executives, and all have pleaded guilty to the charges. Kent Wakeford [...]
Michael Newdow {JURIST Newsmaker], the same individual who sued to have the words "under God" removed from the Pledge of Allegiance, has filed a suit to bar the planned recitation of a prayer at the presidential inauguration on January 20. Newdow argues that the use of prayer at a government ceremony is a violation of [...]
Two Iraqis formerly held as detainees at the Abu Ghraib prison in Baghdad are scheduled to testify by videotape today as part of the prosecution of Spc. Charles Graner on multiple charges of mistreating prisoners at the facility. In opening arguments Monday before a military jury at Fort Hood. Texas, Graner attorney Guy Womack downplayed [...]
The US Fifth Circuit Court of Appeals ordered Monday that a Bible had to be removed from a display funded by the private homeless mission Star of Hope outside the courthouse in Harris County, Texas . The County had requested that the display be allowed to remain pending the outcome of an appeal to overturn [...]
British Foreign Secretary Jack Straw has announced in the House of Commons that the last four Britons held by the US at the terror suspect detention camp at Guantanamo Bay will be released in a few weeks. UK Attorney General Lord Goldsmith talked to the BBC this morning about the four – Moazzam Begg from [...]
The Central Election Commission of Ukraine late Monday certified opposition leader Viktor Yushchenko the winner of the December 26 re-vote over former Prime Minister Viktor Yanukoyvch. Under Ukrainian law the certification must now be approved by the Ukrainian Supreme Court and published in two newspapers. Completion of the process is expected to substatively bring to [...]
