Author: Alejandro

In what was expected to be a near automatic confirmation for attorney general nominee Mike Mukasey, is now becoming less clear as some Senators are becoming concerned over his lack of explicit denunciation of torture interrogations currently used by the Bush administration: Attorney General Pick Facing New Resistance (New York Times) As Ankara rejects Iraqi…

“The president has asserted the power to designate any organization or individual he chooses, here or abroad, without formal charges, a trial or hearing of any kind; without a statement of reasons; and on the basis of secret evidence. While full-scale criminal protections are not necessary, surely groups should be afforded a meaningful opportunity to…

Federal prosecutors fail to convict members of Palestinian charity Holy Land Foundation because, in the words of one juror, the case “was strung together with macaroni noodles. There was so little evidence.” Mistrial Declared in Islamic Charity Case (Washington Post) Members of Congress slam the White House for allowing Intelligence Committee members to see crucial…

Ankara braces itself for the possibility of a large cross-border raid after as 12 Turkish soldiers are killed and an unknown number are taken hostage along the Turkish/Iraqi Kurdish border in retaliation for an earlier raid killed at least 32 Kurdish militants: Turkey To Strike Back After 12 Slain (Los Angeles Times) DespitIn the face…

After years of unethical and ineffective torture interrogations by the CIA against 9/11 mastermind Khalid Sheikh Mohammed and other Al-Qaeda operatives, the FBI is slowly building its own cases against the militants because the CIA’s interrogations would be inadmissible in a US court: FBI Working to Bolster Al Qaeda Cases (Los Angeles Times) The New…

In a dramatic turn of events at the Attorney General nomination hearing, Mike Mukasey suggested the NSA warrantless spying and waterboarding torture might be acceptable under the Constitution; meanwhile the US government offers its first detailed legal defense of how it treated Jose Padilla under its custody: Senators Clash With Nominee About Torture (New York…

Bush Administration scores major victory in Senate against Americans’ right to privacy, reaching an important “consensus” agreement with members of Congress to grant immunity to telecoms while providing little oversight: Senate and Bush Agree On Terms of Spying Bill (Washington Post) Amid a very cordial tone, members of Congress throw softball questions at Attorney General…

The Department of Justice’s shift away from normal crime fighting toward a national security and counterterrorism focus correlates with an overall rise in national street crime, while a recent study from New York University shows the DoJ’s reprioritization is not met by the actual threat, as very few cases billed as “terrorism-related” end up prosecuted…

Verizon, believing its role is not to “second-guess the legitimacy of emergency government requests” disclosed its collusion with Big Brother in a letter to congressional investigators saying that it provided telephone and Internet user data on an emergency basis without court orders 720 times: Verizon Says It Turned Over Data Without Court Orders (Washington Post)…

The US government looks at possibly redoing status hearings for detainees in order to avoid a recent court ruling that determined the first round of hearings were not legal and delay other challenges from defense lawyers, while a lawyer for detainee Majid Khan decries the lack of court transparency, alleging that secrecy has been abused…