[JURIST] The White House said Saturday it would cooperate with the US Senate Judiciary Committee in choosing an independent consultant to recover lost administration emails wanted to the Senate's US Attorney firing probe. On Wednesday, US Senate Judiciary Committee Chairman Sen. Patrick Leahy (D-VT) [official website] blasted the White House [JURIST report] for failing to turn over all documents, including emails, requested by the Committee in its investigation into the US Attorney firing scandal [JURIST news archive], and suggested that White House reports that certain emails had been lost were untrue.

On Tuesday, a White House spokesperson said that several emails appear to be lost [ABC report] that fall within the Committee's document requests. At least 21 staffers used Republican National Committee (RNC) email accounts while at work to avoid liability under the Hatch Act [backgrounder], which prohibits the use of government resources for political purposes. Other laws, however, prohibit staffers from failing to preserve presidential records. AP has more.

[JURIST] Russian police Saturday arrested about 200 activists, including former chess great and liberal United Civil Front [party website, in Russian] leader Garry Kasparov [official website, in Russian], for participating in an anti-Putin protest in central Moscow. More than 9,000 police agents were dispatched to prevent the protest there. After the arrests Saturday, law enforcement authorities warned others not to participate or risk detention.

This is not the first time Kasparov has been involved in a Moscow protest against President Vladimir Putin's alleged infringements of rights and constitutional freedoms in the country. He participated in a December protest [JURIST report] where several dozen activists were arrested. The rights activist has accused Putin of instituting a police state and creating a puppet judiciary [JURIST report] to persecute opposition leaders. BBC News has more. RIA Novosti has local coverage.

[JURIST] UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon [official profile] announced [statement] Friday that he is dispatching UN Under-Secretary-General for Legal Affairs Nicholas Michel [official profile] to assist the Lebanese government and "the country's other political leaders to end their political impasse and set up a special tribunal as soon as possible" to bring the suspected plotters behind the high-profile assassination of former Lebanese Prime Minister Rafik Hariri [JURIST news archive]. In February, the UN and Lebanon reached an agreement to establish the international Hariri tribunal [JURIST news archive], however, its implementation has been delayed in Lebanon's deeply fragmented parliament. Lebanon's pro-Syrian parliamentary speaker Nabih Berri [official profile] of the mostly Shi'a Amal Movement [party website, in Arabic] has refused to convene parliament, preventing the ratification of the agreement.

Lebanese Prime Minister Fouad Siniora [BBC profile] and the anti-Syrian majority in the Lebanese parliament have urged the UN to establish a tribunal [JURIST report] over the objections of the country's pro-Syrian opposition, which also includes Lebanese President Emile Lahoud [official profile]. Ban has stated that it is too soon to establish a tribunal by a UN Security Council mandate, but that he hopes to construct a consensus within the Lebanese government. Hariri's assassination provoked an uproar in Lebanon and amongst the international community against the Syrian presence in Lebanon. The populist response, often referred to as the Cedar Revolution [Wikipedia backgrounder], crossed Lebanon's traditional sectarian lines and culminated in the withdrawal of Syrian troops from the country. AP has more. UN News Service has additional coverage.

[JURIST] An Afghanistan Independent Human Rights Commission (AIHRC) [official website] report [text, PDF] released Saturday concludes that a US Marine Corps Special Forces unit under the command of the United States Special Operations Command (USSOCOM) [official website] violated international humanitarian law by using indiscriminate and excessive force in its response to a March 4 suicide bombing against the unit's convoy in Nangahar province. The report found that following the initial attack, the Marines unit indiscriminately and "repeatedly used forced, shooting at vehicles and pedestrians" at the immediate site of the attack, but also in "several different locations along the next [10 miles] of the road" killing at least 12 people and injuring another 35. The report also details a possible cover-up, as journalists were "hindered from accessing the site and some were expressly threatened and forced to delete all pictures and videos they had taken." The AIHRC urged the United States to "ensure that the victims of the incident and their families receive an apology and are effectively compensated for their injures."

Earlier this week a US military commander referred the incident to the Naval Criminal Investigative Service (NCIS) [official website] after his own investigation revealed that the Marines may have indiscriminately fired upon Afghan civilians [JURIST report] following the initial attack. The Marines Special Forces unit belonged to the 26th Marine Expeditionary Unit [official website] and had been only deployed to Afghanistan in January of 2007. The unit, numbering about 120, has since been ordered out of Afghanistan. AP has more.

[JURIST] Former US vice-presidential aide I. Lewis "Scooter" Libby [defense website; JURIST news archive], convicted in March of perjury and obstruction of justice [JURIST report], will be appealing the verdict according to documents filed in court Friday. Libby's defense team had previously planned to request a new trial, bids for which are rarely granted. Libby's appeal may focus on a decision by US District Judge Reggie B. Walton [official profile] to allow prosecutors to present evidence to the jury that Libby's defense viewed as being prejudicial, such as White House briefing room videos [JURIST report] which US Special Prosecutor Patrick Fitzgerald [official profile] played to show Libby's eagerness to publicly conceal conversations he had with reporters about CIA official Valerie Plame.

Libby was convicted by a federal jury after 10 days of deliberation in a case that began [JURIST report] January 23. Libby was convicted of two counts of perjury, one count of lying to the FBI and one count of obstruction of justice. He was acquitted on one count of lying to the FBI. Libby's sentencing is scheduled for June 5. AP has more.

[JURIST] The Bush administration Friday officially proposed amendments [JURIST report] to the 1978 Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act (FISA) [text; JURIST news archive] that would subject more people to electronic surveillance within the United States. The proposed legislation, submitted a week before a Senate Intelligence Committee [official website] hearing on government surveillance slated for April 17, would allow US intelligence agencies to monitor foreign nationals - including those with US permanent residence status - without approval from the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Court (FISC) [FJC backgrounder]. The proposed amendments also seek to extend the life of warrants issued by the FISC from 120-days to one-year.

Earlier this week, US Director of National Intelligence John M. "Mike" McConnell [official profile] informally circulated copies of the amendments as part of a White House response to what it considers FISA's inflexibility and inability to meet the threat of terrorism. Reuters has more.