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Senators Press Holder to Declassify Key Facts about Patriot Act

Thu, 19 Nov 2009 00:00:00 -0800

Salem-News.com - Nov. 19 (News Report) - We believe that the information we referenced in those paragraphs – specifically about the use of section 215 – is essential to understanding the full scope of the PATRIOT Act, which is about to be debated in Congress. As we said in June, if you have concerns about declassifying the specific language contained in our letter, we ask that you work with us to find language that conveys enough information to allow for an informed public debate on the PATRIOT Act’s reauthorization

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Holder vows Gitmo defendants wouldn't be released in the U.S.

Sat, 14 Nov 2009 00:00:00 -0800

The Hill - By Susan Crabtree - Nov. 14 (News Report) - The attorney general has pledged not to allow the release of dangerous detainees here if they are found not guilty. Read more...

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Feds move to seize 4 mosques, skyscraper

Fri, 13 Nov 2009 00:00:00 -0800

Seattle Times - By Adam Goldman - Nov. 13 (News) - Federal prosecutors took steps Thursday to seize four U.S. mosques and a Fifth Avenue skyscraper owned by a nonprofit Muslim organization long suspected of being secretly controlled by the Iranian government.

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For Holder, much wrestling over decision

Fri, 13 Nov 2009 00:00:00 -0800

Washington Post - By Carrie Johnson - Nov. 13 (News Analysis) - what the nation's chief law enforcement officer did not lay bare for public consumption was the four months of deliberation, lobbying and tug of war inside his own Justice Department that preceded an announcement that will follow him into history.

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Coal ash from U.S. blamed for Dominican town's birth defects

Sat, 07 Nov 2009 00:00:00 -0800

McClatchy - By Frances Robles - Nov. 07 (News Report) - Villagers in the Dominican Republic claim children have been born without limbs and organs because of coal ash from a Virginia power company dumped nearby. Maximiliano Calcano is 2 and was born with no arms.

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We broke the law, admits CIA agent convicted of rendition

Fri, 06 Nov 2009 00:00:00 -0800

The Independent - By David Usborne - Nov. 06 (News Report) - In an interview earlier this year with an Italian newspaper, Mr Lady was candid about the seizure of the cleric. "Of course it was an illegal operation," the newspaper quoted him. "But that's our job. We're at war against terrorism".

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Gay-rights support stops at Cascades

Thu, 05 Nov 2009 00:00:00 -0800

Seattle Times - By Lornet Turnbull - Nov. 05 (News Report) - The lopsided results over expansion of the state's domestic-partnership law, which voters overall were approving, show the challenge supporters of gay rights face in winning over all Washingtonians as they seek full equality.

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Judge OKs Challenge to Human Gene Patents

Tue, 03 Nov 2009 00:00:00 -0800

Wired - Nov. 03 (News Report) - A federal judge ruled Monday that a lawsuit can move forward against the Patent and Trademark Office and a research company awarded exclusive rights to human genes known to detect early signs of breast or ovarian cancer. The first-of-its-kind lawsuit

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Obama administration seeks to block wiretap suit

Sat, 31 Oct 2009 00:00:00 -0700

Associated Press - By Devlin Barrett - Oct. 31 (News Report) - The Justice Department invoked the state secrets privilege Friday to try to stop a lawsuit over Bush-era wiretapping -- the first time the Obama administration has done so under its new policy on such cases. Attorney General Eric Holder announced the decision in a California lawsuit challenging the warrantless wiretapping program begun after the Sept. 11, 2001, terrorist attacks.

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Dallas police chief: Dozens of tickets issued for not speaking English

Fri, 23 Oct 2009 00:00:00 -0700

Dallas Morning News - By Scott Goldstein - Oct. 23 (News Report) - Dallas Police Chief David Kunkle said this afternoon that his officers have written at least 39 citations to people over the past three years for not speaking English

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Northwestern Student Grades Subpoenaed by State for Anthony McKinney Murder Investigation

Tue, 20 Oct 2009 00:00:00 -0700

ABC News - By Emily Friedman - Oct. 20 (Special Report) - A group of Northwestern University journalism students who believe they found proof that exonerates a man held behind bars for 31 years are fighting requests from the Illinois state prosecutor's office that they turn over their grades and course materials as part of its investigation into the possible wrongful conviction, arguing that it would jeopardize future investigations.

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Law change needed to cover climate exiles

Thu, 15 Oct 2009 00:00:00 -0700

Reuters - By Olesya Dmitracova - Oct. 15 (Special Report) - International law is unfit to deal with the millions of people expected to flee their home countries to escape droughts and floods intensified by climate change, a group of lawyers said on Thursday.

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Megrahi papers claim US paid key Lockerbie witness

Fri, 02 Oct 2009 00:00:00 -0700

The Guardian - By Matthew Weaver, Severin Carrell - Oct. 02 (News Report) - Claim refers to concerns raised about safety of Libyan?s conviction for Lockerbie bombing in 1988 The man convicted of the Lockerbie bombing released evidence today claiming to show that a key witness at his trial received payments from the US after giving evidence. The claim is made in documents published online by Abdelbaset al-Megrahi in support of his attempt to clear his name of involvement in the worst terrorist attack on British soil. It refers to concerns raised by the Scottish Criminal Cases Review Commission (SCCRC) about the safety of Megrahi?s conviction for killing 270 people in the Lockerbie bombing on 21 December 1988. The documents would have formed part of an appeal, which Megrahi, who is terminally ill, agreed to ...

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A Cold War Man, a Hot War and a Legal Gray Area

Wed, 30 Sep 2009 00:00:00 -0700

Washington Post - By http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2009/09/29/AR2009092903840.html?hpid=topnews - Sep. 30 (News Report) - The government of Sudan, eager to curry favor with a U.S. government that accused it of genocide, sought help last fall from an unlikely source: a former Reagan administration official known for his role in the Iran-contra scandal. The approach by Sudanese officials led to a $1.3 million contract for former national security adviser Robert "Bud" McFarlane, who went on to meet with two of the Obama administration's top policymakers on Sudan and its strife-torn Darfur region, according to documents and interviews.

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Obama to Set Higher Bar For Keeping State Secrets

Wed, 23 Sep 2009 00:00:00 -0700

Washington Post - By Carrie Johnson - Sep. 23 (News Report) - The Obama administration will announce a new policy Wednesday making it much more difficult for the government to claim that it is protecting state secrets when it hides details of sensitive national security strategies such as rendition and warrantless eavesdropping, according to two senior Justice Department officials.

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Inquiry Into CIA Practices Narrows

Sat, 19 Sep 2009 00:00:00 -0700

Washington Post - By Carrie Johnson, Jerry Markon, Julie Tate - Sep. 19 (News Report) - On Friday, seven former CIA directors urged President Obama to end the inquiry, arguing that it would inhibit intelligence operations in the future and demoralize agency employees who believed they had been cleared by previous investigators. "Attorney

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Are Obama's judges really liberals?

Wed, 16 Sep 2009 00:00:00 -0700

New Yorker - By Jeffrey Toobin - Sep. 16 (Special Report) - The Obama Administration wanted to send a message with the President’s first nomination to a federal court. “There was a real conscious decision to use that first appointment to say, ‘This is a new way of doing things. This is a post-partisan choice,’ ”

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US Court Dismisses Iraqi Contractor Torture Case

Wed, 16 Sep 2009 00:00:00 -0700

Reuters - By James Vicini - Sep. 16 (News Report) - A federal appeals court on Friday dismissed a lawsuit against two U.S. defense contractors by Iraqi torture victims, saying the companies had immunity as government contractors. The lawsuit was filed in 2004 on behalf of Iraqi nationals who say they or their relatives had been tortured or mistreated while detained by the U.S. military at the Abu Ghraib prison.

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Malpractice reform is a small price to pay for health care reform

Thu, 10 Sep 2009 00:00:00 -0700

Slate - By Timothy Noah - Sep. 10 (News Analysis) - the evidence is weak that there's a malpractice crisis in America. One Harvard study found that doctors injured 4 percent of their patients, and only 4 percent of them bothered to sue. Real average jury awards have remained flat. Malpractice premiums are not the burden doctors claim they are: In inflation-adjusted dollars, they were lower in 2000 than they were in 1986.

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Drug War Facts - Statistics if Drugs Were Legal

Sat, 05 Sep 2009 00:00:00 -0700

Esquire - By John H. Richardson - Sep. 05 (Special Report) - "You have to take the money out of it. Many people talk about legalization and decriminalize — it's still illegal, but you're just not sending as many people to jail, especially for the nonviolent offenses. However, the money is still being made in the illegal sales, so you still have the drug wars. It's prohibition that's killing our people. That's why people are dying." Read more: http://www.esquire.com/the-side/richardson-report/drug-war-facts-090109#ixzz0QG8QtJYQ

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Appeals court rules against Ashcroft in 9/11 case

Fri, 04 Sep 2009 00:00:00 -0700

Associated Press - Sep. 04 (News Report) - A federal appeals court delivered a stinging rebuke Friday to the Bush administration's post-Sept. 11 detention policies, ruling that former Attorney General John Ashcroft can be held liable for people who were wrongfully detained as material witnesses after 9/11. A three-judge panel of the 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals said the government's improper use of material witnesses after Sept. 11 was "repugnant to the Constitution and a painful reminder of some of the most ignominious chapters of our national history

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Cameron Todd Willingham, Texas, and the death penalty

Thu, 03 Sep 2009 00:00:00 -0700

New Yorker - By David Grann - Sep. 03 (Special Report) - The fire moved quickly through the house, a one-story wood-frame structure in a working-class neighborhood of Corsicana, in northeast Texas. Flames spread along the walls, bursting through doorways, blistering paint and tiles and furniture. Smoke pressed against the ceiling, then banked downward, seeping into each room and . . .

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As a Foreclosure Judge, Arthur Schack Tosses Out Cases, Brooklyn Style

Mon, 31 Aug 2009 00:00:00 -0700

New York Times - By Michael Powell - Aug. 31 (News Report) - Justice Arthur M. Schack has won a national reputation as Don Quixote tilting at the bankers and lawyers who file foreclosure motions by the bale.

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How a Detainee Became An Asset

Sun, 30 Aug 2009 00:00:00 -0700

Washington Post - Aug. 30 (Special Report) - After enduring agency's harshest interrogation methods, self-described mastermind of 2001 terror plot becomes "preeminent source" on al-Qaeda.

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Abuse Issue Puts the C.I.A. and Justice Dept. at Odds

Fri, 28 Aug 2009 00:00:00 -0700

New York Times - By Peter Baker, David Johnston, Mark Mazzetti - Aug. 28 (News Report) - With the appointment of a prosecutor to investigate detainee abuses, conflicts between the two agencies burst into view, threatening relations between two players on President Obama’s national security team.

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