[JURIST] FBI documents released Wednesday by the ACLU following a Freedom of Information Act request show repeated FBI concern over and disapproval of military interrogation techniques at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba, but also indicate that FBI investigation of the practices was scaled back after July 2004 for reasons as yet unclear. The documents were released one day before the beginning of confirmation hearings for Bush Attorney General nominee Alberto Gonzales, who as White House counsel was instrumental in crafting the Bush administration's initial legal policy on military interrogations and the limited application of the Geneva Conventions. As previously reported in JURIST's Paper Chase, US Southern Command has ordered an internal investigation of the FBI claims. The ACLU press release on the latest documents and their connection with the Gonzales nomination is here. A log of the latest documents, with links of their full texts, is here. AFP has more.

[JURIST] UN officials have begun working with Indonesian government authorities to set up a child registration system that will help prevent and forestall illegal child trafficking in the wake of last week's South Asia tsunami that is now estimated to have killed 150,000, leaving tens of thousands of children homeless across the region. A UNICEF spokeman said Wednesday that the first center had already been set up in Banda Aceh and that twenty more registration centers were being established across the northern Sumatra province. Australian Federal Police have also volunteered to assist in the fight against chilf trafficking in tsuami-affected areas. Thursday's Australian has more. UNICEF offers a brief backgrounder on the global problem of child trafficking.

[JURIST] A draft of Attorney General nominee Alberto Gonzales' prepared statement to the Senate Judiciary Committee intended for delivery at his confirmation hearing Thursday and obtained late Wednesday notably makes no mention of torture, prisoners, detainees, Guantanamo, Iraq or the Geneva Conventions, taking a speak-no-evil approach to a wide range of issues on which Gonzales is likely to face close questioning by Democratic senators. In the draft Gonzales instead insists that even in the midst of a war on terror against enemies who do not abide by the law of war, he is committed to the rule of law and observance of American treaty obligations, generalities that have been construed favorably by the mainstream press but which may not satisfy critics looking for a specific promise to eschew by name past policies many legal observers have criticized as wrong-headed and even dangerous:

Wherever we pursue justice – from the war on terror to corporate fraud to civil rights – we must always be faithful to the rule of law. I want to make very clear that I am deeply committed to the rule of law. I have a deep and abiding commitment to the fundamental American principle that we are a nation of laws, and not of men. That commitment is the core principle that has guided all of my professional endeavors.

Our Government’s most basic obligation is to protect its citizens from enemies who would destroy their lives and our nation’s way of life. The Department of Justice’s top priority is to prevent terror attacks against our nation.

As we fight the War on Terror, we must always honor and observe the principles that make our society so unique and worthy of protection. We must be committed to preserving civil rights and civil liberties....

After the attacks of 9/11, our government had fundamental decisions to make concerning how to apply treaties and U.S. law to an enemy that does not wear a uniform, owes no allegiance to any country, is not a party to any treaties, and – most importantly – does not fight according to the laws of war.

As we have debated these questions, the President has made clear that he is prepared to protect and defend the United States and its citizens, and will do so vigorously, but always in a manner consistent with our nation’s values and applicable law, including our treaty obligations. I pledge that, if I am confirmed as Attorney General, I will abide by those commitments.

In the former, I have been privileged to advise the President and his staff. In the latter, I would have a far broader responsibility: to pursue justice for all the people of our great nation; to see that the laws are enforced in a fair and impartial manner for all Americans.

[JURIST] A US military spokesman said Wednesday that US Southern Command has opened an investigation into allegations of Iraqi prisoner abuse made by FBI personnel at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba, and made public last month (see this report in JURIST's Paper Chase) after a Freedom of Information Act request by the ACLU. Read a Southern Command press release here [PDF]. Review the FBI documents in JURIST's Gazette here. AFP has more.

[JURIST] TV Azteca, Mexico's second largest broadcaster, said Wednesday that civil fraud charges announced against it and its top executives yesterday by the US Securities and Exchange Commission were false and alleged that the SEC was pursuing it to distract attention from its own failing in policing corporate fraud in the US. The SEC says the broadcaster, its chairman and two former directors conspired to conceal profits made on a debt transaction between an Azteca subsidiary and Canadian telecommunications company Nortel Networks. Read the SEC press release here. Reuters has more on the original charges; the Financial Times has more on TV Azteca's allegations.

[JURIST] The driver of two French journalists who were captured in Iraq by Islamic militants and held for five months until their release in late December is suing the US military for mistreatment and torture, according to the office of maverick French advocate Jacques Verges. Muhamed al-Jundi, a Syrian, was captured along with the journalists but was later found in a house in Fallujah on November 12 during the American assault on the city. Verges says that his client was beaten, tortured with electric shocks, subjected to mock executions by the US soldiers and held incommunicado for a week before being released along with other Iraqis. A member of Saddam Hussein's Baath party, al-Jundi is now seeking political asylum in France. He says he did not make his claims public earlier because of concern for the lives of the French journalists who were still being held. From Paris, Nouvel Observateur has local coverage in French. AP has more.

1:32 PM ET - al-Jundi told reporters Wednesday that he was better treated by his militant Iraqi captors than by American troops. AP has more (in French).

[JURIST] British Prime Minister Tony Blair Wednesday defended a controversial law allowing the detention of foreign terror suspects without charge or trial even in the face of a House of Lords ruling that the law is contrary to European human rights laws. The Lords ruled against the detention provisions 8-1 in a highly-publicized decision [PDF] on December 16. Speaking to the BBC, Blair warned against complacency, saying "The fear I have is what happens if the security services are telling us these people are a threat, we allow them to walk the street and then they end up killing large numbers of innocent people." The Blair government has not yet formally indicated what it will do legislatively in the wake of the ruling, although it appears to have rejected the option of releasing prisoners illegally detained. Listen to the full interview with Blair from BBC Radio 4's Today program here. The London Times has more.

[JURIST] White House counsel Alberto Gonzales personally sought a legal ruling on the extent of the president's authority to permit extreme interrogation practices in the name of national security in 2002, current and former administration officials said Tuesday, a revelation that could have serious repercussions in Gonzales confirmation hearings for the post of Attorney General slated for Thursday. Until now, Gonzales's role in the production of the Justice Department's resulting memo was not clear, and Gonzales responded to questions without revealing that the answers given in the memo were answers to his own inquiries. Gonzales's request, the officials said, is unusual in that he bypassed the office of the deputy attorney general, which is usually notified of politically delicate requests for legal opinions by executive branch agencies. The New York Times has more. Previously in JURIST's Paper Chase:

• No White House torture memos for Gonzales confirmation hearing
• New Justice Department memo expands "torture" definition
• Reporters group faults Gonzales for limiting access to government information
• Gonzales nomination met with mixed reaction

[JURIST] Sexual and physical abuse of Iraqi prisoners continued at least three months after news of Abu Ghraib was revealed according to accounts by alleged victims in the most recent issue of Vanity Fair magazine. The report, based on 60 hours of interviews with former detainees, quotes accounts of mistreatment that took place in July, three months after news of Abu Ghraib broke in April. The article quotes the detainees as claiming to have been sexually assaulted by American soldiers or being hooded, beaten, subjected to electric shock and kept in cages or crates. The articles also quotes a US military spokesman for detainee operations in Iraq as dismissing such assertions. Reuters has more. For more on Abu Ghraib and prison abuses from JURIST's Paper Chase, click here.

[JURIST] AP is reporting from Kyiv that losing presidential candidate Viktor Yanukovych, who resigned as Ukrainian Prime Minister last week, has appealed the results from last month's election re-vote to Ukraine's Supreme Court. The high court has already rejected several compliants from the Yanukovych campaign originally filed with the Central Electoral Commission concerning the conduct of the poll which favored opposition leader Viktor Yushchenko.

1:12 PM ET - BBC News has a full story on the appeal here.

[JURIST] A new State Department annual report issued Wednesday under the Global Anti-Semitism Review Act signed by President Bush in October 2004 says that global anti-Semitism is on the rise, particularly because of the number of poor, uneducated Muslims in Western Europe. The report notes that acts of anti-Semitism have increased in Eastern Europe in both number and severity since 2000, and anti-Semitism remains a sizable problem in Russia. The report cites ultra-nationalists, skinheads, and far-right radicals as the main transgressors. The report says that some governments, like France, Belgium and Germany, are taking action against anti-Semitism, but governments like Syria promote anti-Semitic ideals. Read the full text of the report here. AP has more.

[JURIST] Several House Democrats hope to delay President Bush's formal re-election by preventing Congress from counting Ohio's contested and pivotal electoral votes when it counts the final tally of electoral college votes from across the country Thursday. On November 2 Bush appeared to win the national electoral vote over Democrat John Kerry 286 to 252, although in a so-called "faithless elector" incident" a Minnesota elector presumably cast a write-in ballot for Democratic Vice Presidential candidate John Edwards - actually writing "John Ewards" - in a mid-December state college meeting, reducing Kerry's final electoral votes by one. The objectors, led by Rep. John Conyers, D-Mich., do not expect to change any results of the election through their challenge, but hope to draw attention to voting day irregularities. The objection still requires a Senate co-signer, which may be problematic in the delicate politics of Congress. A similar objection was raised after the 2000 election, but did not find a co-signer. AP has more.