[JURIST] US Sen. Patrick Leahy (D-VT) [official website] on Thursday asked [press release; PDF text] Department of Justice Inspector General Glenn Fine to investigate potentially misleading or dishonest testimony given in previous hearings by Attorney General Alberto Gonzales [official profile] before the Senate Judiciary Committee. Specifically, Leahy urged Fine to investigate:

whether [Gonzales] engaged in any misconduct, engaged in conduct inappropriate for a cabinet officer and the nation's chief law enforcement officer, or violated any duty – including the duty set out in federal regulations for government officials to avoid any conduct which gives the appearance of a violation of law or of ethical standard, regardless of whether there is an actual violation of law.

[JURIST] A former Marine sergeant has been charged with two counts of voluntary manslaughter for killing two Iraqi insurgents during the Multinational National Force-Iraq's November 2004 offensive in Fallujah [GlobalSecurity backgrounder], his lawyers said Thursday. Jose Nazario will be arraigned at the US District Court for the Central District of California [official website]. According to the charges, Nazario, who was squad leader of his platoon, shot two detained insurgents while troops searched a house nearby. Nazario was arrested on the charges earlier this month and taken into custody by the Naval Criminal Investigative Service (NCIS) [official website], but was released on the promise that he would appear in court Thursday.

The NCIS has been investigating [JURIST report] as many as 10 Marines for the Fallujah killings. The latest allegations came after former Marine Corporal Ryan Weemer admitted the incident during a polygraphed job interview with the US Secret Service. Military journalist Nathaniel Helms has allegedly corroborated the account, reporting that he saw the Marines execute subdued Iraqi prisoners, whose bodies were later buried under rubble from an air strike. The Fallujah investigation stems from a separate NCIS probe into killings of Iraqi civilians by Marines in Haditha [USMC timeline; JURIST news archive] in November 2005. AP has more.

[JURIST] Personal notes [PDF text] by FBI Director Robert Mueller released Thursday reveal that former US Attorney General John Ashcroft [official profile] was "feeble, barely articulate, [and] clearly stressed" when current Attorney General and then-White House counsel Alberto Gonzales confronted him in his hospital room in March 2004 to obtain reauthorization of the warrantless domestic surveillance program [JURIST news archive]. The notes also disclose that Gonzales "barred [Ashcroft] from obtaining advice he needed on the program." Mueller turned over his personal account of the Ashcroft-Gonzales meeting to the House Judiciary Committee to aid in their investigation of the legality of the controversial Department of Justice [official websites] wiretapping program.

Mueller's notes contradict previous statements made by Gonzales [JURIST report] before the Senate Judiciary Committee testifying that he and then-White House Chief of Staff Andrew Card [official profile] visited the bed-ridden Ashcroft to inform him of congressional positions on the program and would have only sought to obtain Ashcroft's authorization if he had been "fully competent to make that decision." In May, former US Deputy Attorney General James Comey testified [JURIST report] that Gonzales and Card responded to Comey's reservations about re-certifying the program by pressuring the bed-ridden Ashcroft in March 2004. Comey, who was acting attorney general because of Ashcroft's hospitalization, said that Ashcroft refused to authorize the program because he was without the powers of the attorney general and referred White House officials to Comey. The Washington Post has more.

[JURIST] A federal jury found Jose Padilla [JURIST news archive] and his two co-defendants guilty Thursday on all charges against them. Padilla, Adham Amin Hassoun, and Kifah Wael Jayyousi [GlobalSecurity profiles] were convicted of conspiracy to commit illegal violent acts outside the US, conspiracy to provide material support to terrorists, and providing material support to terrorists. They face a maximum penalty of life imprisonment.

Padilla, a US citizen, was arrested in 2002 at Chicago's O'Hare International Airport and subsequently detained as an "enemy combatant" [JURIST news archive] at a Navy military brig in Charleston, South Carolina. Initially accused of planning to set off a "dirty bomb" in the United States, Padilla went from enemy combatant to criminal defendant when he was finally charged with other offenses in November 2005. Padilla was transferred to civilian custody [JURIST report] in January 2006 and has pleaded not guilty [JURIST report] to the charges. AP has more.

[JURIST] The lead counsel for former Liberian president Charles Taylor [BBC profile; SCSL case materials] Wednesday urged the UN Security Council to lift its travel ban [Resolution 1521, PDF; backgrounder] against individuals [list] deemed to be threats to the peace process in Liberia, saying that the defense team needs to be able to present favorable witnesses before the Special Court for Sierra Leone (SCSL) [official website] to testify on Taylor's behalf. Taylor's new defense team [JURIST report] has also requested additional time to prepare their case, delaying the trial [JURIST report], which was originally scheduled to resume on August 20. Defense lawyers hope the SCSL will postpone the trial until January 7, 2008.

Taylor faces charges [indictment, PDF] of murder, rape, and the recruitment and use of child soldiers during a bloody civil war in Sierra Leone [JURIST news archive]. Taylor has previously complained that his single-court appointed defense lawyer was unfairly outnumbered [JURIST report] by the prosecution. The criticism prompted the SCSL to add four people to his defense team and increase the funding available to Taylor [JURIST report] to approximately $100,00 per month, despite a UN report that concluded Taylor may control millions of dollars [JURIST report]. Reuters has more.

[JURIST] The government of the Netherlands is close to reaching an agreement with the United Nations to host the ad hoc tribunal that will investigate and try suspects involved in the 2005 assassination of former Lebanese Prime Minister Rafik Hariri [JURIST news archive], Dutch Ministry of Foreign Affairs spokesperson Bart Rijs said Thursday. Rijs added that Dutch Foreign Minister Maxime Verhagen [official profile] would like to see a formal commitment by another state to imprison convicted defendants and settle other issues such as funding.

In July, UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon formally asked the Netherlands to host the tribunal [JURIST report], saying that The Hague had valuable experience in hosting international tribunals as it is the site of the International Court of Justice, the International Criminal Court, and the International Criminal Tribunal for the former Yugoslavia [official websites]. The UN International Independent Investigation Commission (IIIC) [authorizing resolution; UN materials] is set to turn its investigation over to the tribunal after the IIIC's mandate expires in December. The tribunal, which was unilaterally established [JURIST report] by the UN Security Council in May, will be known as the Special Tribunal for Lebanon. It will also investigate [JURIST report] and possibly try suspects in 17 other attempted and successful political assassinations in Lebanon. AP has more.

[JURIST] Iraqi Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki and President Jalal Talabani [BBC profiles] announced the formation of a new coalition government Thursday, formally signing an agreement with Supreme Islamic Iraqi Council leader Adil Abdul-Mahdi [CBS profile] and Kurdistan Democratic Party of Iraq leader Massoud Barzani [Wikipedia profile]. The agreement between the Shi'a and Kurdish parties guarantees that the coalition government will maintain a majority in the 275-seat Iraqi Council of Representatives [Wikipedia backgrounder]. It may also allow al-Maliki's government to push through constitutional amendments or legislation seen as essential to the stabilization of Iraq. The leaders urged the Sunni Iraqi Accordance Front [BBC backgrounder] to return to the government, saying that the door remained open despite their refusal to join the coalition.

Last week, five Iraqi Cabinet ministers belonging to the secular and nonsectarian Iraqi National List announced a boycott of government meetings [JURIST report], effectively ending Sunni representation in al-Maliki's government. In early August, the Iraqi Accordance Front left the government [JURIST report] after al-Maliki refused its demands that he pardon uncharged security detainees and let all government-represented groups participate in security matters. Al-Maliki's government has been criticized for sectarian favoritism and its unwillingness to confront Shi'a militias loyal to radical cleric Muqtada al-Sadr [GlobalSecurity backgrounder]. AP has more.

[JURIST] Hamas spokesperson Islam Shahwan said Thursday that Hamas security forces have arrested Palestinian Authority-appointed Attorney General Ahmed al-Mghani after al-Mghani ignored an order of dismissal from the Hamas government in the Gaza Strip [BBC backgrounder]. According to Shahwan, al-Mghani entered the office of the attorney general after he was dismissed so that he could destroy documents. The judiciary in the Gaza Strip has refused to cooperate with the Hamas government and ceased functioning under the orders of Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas [BBC profile] after Hamas [BBC backgrounder] violently took over the territory in June.

In July, Hamas announced it was replacing the Palestinian Authority courts [JURIST report] with a judicial counsel consisting of an Islamic legal scholar, a military court lawyer, and a prison warden. Palestinian infighting between the Islamist-Hamas and secular-Fatah Movement [BBC backgrounder] has led to the establishment of two parallel Palestinian governments in the West Bank and Gaza. Hamas, which was elected as the ruling party [JURIST report] of the Palestinian Authority in early 2006, has refused to distance itself from terrorism or to recognize Israel's right to exist as a nation-state, resulting in increased ostracism by the United States, the European Union, and Israel. Reuters has more.

[JURIST] Sen. Ron Wyden (D-OR) [official website] Wednesday announced he would indefinitely block the confirmation process of CIA general counsel nominee John Rizzo [official profile], saying he had reservations due to Rizzo's failure to object to the controversial 2002 "Bybee Memo" [PDF text; PBS backgrounder] and the continued lack of clear legal guidelines for the CIA's detention and interrogation programs. Rizzo, who has been acting CIA general counsel since August 2004, said he did not have any "specific objections" to the memo during a June hearing [committee materials; JURIST report] before the US Senate Select Committee on Intelligence [official website]. President Bush nominated [announcement; White House materials] Rizzo to oversee the CIA's Office of General Counsel [official website] in March 2006. If confirmed, Rizzo will be the first CIA general counsel ever to come up through the ranks.

The Bybee memo, which defined torture as physical pain equivalent in "intensity to the pain accompanying serious physical injury, such as organ failure, impairment of bodily functions, or even death," has been heavily criticized. In 2005, members of the Senate Judiciary Committee delayed the confirmation of then-Attorney General nominee and White House Counsel Alberto Gonzales [JURIST news archive] because of the controversial memo, which was disavowed [JURIST report] by the White House in 2004. AP has more.

[JURIST] The Tennessee Supreme Court ruled [PDF text] Wednesday that the state can execute a defendant who begins to exhibit symptoms comparable with mental retardation after the age of 18. Under Tennessee's criminal code [Sec. 39-13-203 text], mental retardation is defined as a condition where an individual scores 70 or below on an IQ test, demonstrates "deficits in adaptive behavior," and has symptoms first manifest during the "developmental period, or by eighteen years of age." The court ruled that Danny Strode, who was sentenced to death for a beating death during an aggravated robbery, does not suffer from mental retardation because he scored 69 on an IQ test at age 23.

In 2002, the US Supreme Court [official website] ruled in Atkins v. Virginia [text] that the execution of criminals afflicted with mental retardation violated the Eighth Amendment's prohibition of "cruel and unusual" punishment. The US Supreme Court has not yet ruled on whether the execution of individuals afflicted with equivalent symptoms that do not technically qualify as "mental retardation" also violates the Eighth Amendment. The American Psychological Association [official website] defines mental retardation in its Diagnostic and Statistical Manuel of Mental Disorders [DSM-IV-TR backgrounder] as as a childhood-onset condition. AP has more.

[JURIST] The Canadian government under former Prime Minister Paul Martin and current Prime Minister Stephen Harper [BBC profiles] has repeatedly refused asylum requests [JURIST report] from US officials on behalf of Chinese detainees held at detention facilities in Guantanamo Bay [JURIST news archive], according to Canadian government documents obtained Wednesday by the Canadian Press. The 22 detainees, all ethnic Uighurs [Wikipedia backgrounder], were sold to US authorities by Pakistani bounty hunters. They have maintained that they were merely escaping persecution from Chinese authorities and are not a terrorist threat to the United States. Canadian authorities appear apprehensive about establishing a precedent of accepting Guantanamo Bay detainees, which may have "bilateral and multilateral implications" if Canada faces extradition requests from the detainees' home state. Canada is also bound by the Canada-US Safe Third Country Agreement [official backgrounder], which bars refugees from entering Canada through the United States except under specific exceptions. The Albanian government agreed to accept five of the 22 Uighur detainees [JURIST report] in May 2006.

The US government, which is unwilling to offer the detainees domicile in the United States, also refuses to repatriate the ethnic Uighurs to China, as China classifies Uighurs as terrorists and has been known to persecute the group due to their Muslim faith [HRW backgrounder]. Uighurs are often affiliated with secular independence movements or terrorist organizations like the East Turkestan Islamic Movement and the East Turkestan Liberation Organization [MIPT backgrounders] which advocate an Islamic state within China's Xinjiang province. AP has more.

[JURIST] Lawyers representing the American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU) [advocacy website] argued in federal court Wednesday that national security letters (NSL) [CRS backgrounder, PDF; FBI backgrounder] authorized under the USA Patriot Act [JURIST news archive] are unconstitutional because they act as a gag order without any judicial check [press release]. The ACLU, which brought the lawsuit [ACLU materials] on behalf of an anonymous Internet service provider that received an NSL, said that while "secrecy may be necessary in rare cases, the FBI's power to silence the recipients of national security letters should be subject to meaningful judicial oversight." The ACLU argued that the gag order provision violates the First Amendment because the "judicial review it allows is illusory" and that the current NSL provisions, which were amended to allow NSL recipients to challenge gag orders in court, require courts to "defer to the FBI's view that secrecy is necessary."

In September 2004, a federal judge struck down [PDF text] the original NSL gag order provisions, finding that the gag orders violated the First Amendment rights of NSL recipients by barring them from participating in the political debate of the Patriot Act. The provision was amended in the March 2006 renewal of the Patriot Act [JURIST report]. Reuters has more.

[JURIST] Lawyers representing the Bush administration argued for the dismissal of a class action lawsuit [EFF case backgrounder; JURIST report] challenging the legality of the National Security Agency's domestic surveillance program Wednesday, urging the US Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit to give the executive branch's assertion of the state secrets privilege the "utmost deference" because the US is engaged in the so-called "war on terror." The lawsuit, filed by the privacy rights group Electronic Frontier Foundation (EFF) [advocacy website], accuses AT&T of illegally allowing the NSA to monitor its clients' telephone and e-mail communications. Lawyers from the Department of Justice (DOJ) have insisted that even litigation would reveal information that would threaten national security, and have gone as far as to suggest that "whether plaintiffs were subjected to surveillance is a state secret and information tending to confirm or deny that fact is privileged." DOJ and AT&T lawyers have also insisted that the plaintiffs have no standing to sue as they are unable to demonstrate they have been injured by any alleged surveillance.

The DOJ, although not an immediate party to the litigation, is appealing [JURIST report] a lower court order [PDF text; JURIST report] rejecting the DOJ's motion to dismiss [redacted brief in support of the motion, PDF; JURIST report] on the state secrete privilege. Last July, US District Judge Vaughn Walker determined that the broad media coverage of the domestic surveillance program [JURIST news archive] had neutralized any danger of disclosing state secrets. Government lawyers have used the same state secret argument in another lawsuit [JURIST reports] filed by states hoping to obtain more information from the federal government about the surveillance programs. In July, the US Court of Appeals for the Sixth Circuit rejected [JURIST report] a lawsuit brought by the American Civil Liberties Union, ruling that the plaintiffs had no standing to file suit. AFP has more. The New York Times has additional coverage.

[JURIST] Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez [BBC profile; JURIST news archive] proposed comprehensive constitutional reforms Wednesday, asking the National Assembly [official website, in Spanish] to debate measures that will extend the presidential term from six to seven years, eliminate the limit on the number of terms a president may serve, bring the currently independent Central Bank under the control of the government, and give the government greater authority to expropriate private property without court approval. Critics have accused Chavez of seeking to further consolidate his power, while Chavez has defended his proposal as democratic because it will allow the Venezuelan people to keep their president in power as long as they like.

In July, Chavez sought to reassure Venezuelans that the constitutional reforms will protect private property rights [JURIST report], and threatened to expel [AP report; Union Radio report, in Spanish] any foreign nationals who publicly criticized Chavez or his government. Chavez won re-election last December and was granted the power to enact laws by presidential decree [JURIST report] until mid-2008. He has pushed for "revolutionary laws" to nationalize sectors of the economy including mining, telecommunications, utilities, and the petroleum industry. The new proposed constitutional reforms must be approved by the National Assembly and then receive popular backing in a national referendum. AP has more.