Sharon Bradford Franklin : "On September 23, 2009, Attorney General Eric Holder announced that the executive branch has adopted a new policy on invocation of the state secrets privilege – a doctrine which protects against disclosure of national security secrets in litigation. The new policy tightens the standards for when executive agencies may assert the [...]

The US Department of Justice (DOJ) announced Thursday that suspected terrorist Najibullah Zazi has been charged with conspiracy to use weapons of mass destruction. A federal jury in the Eastern District of New York returned the one-count indictment Wednesday, alleging that Zazi conspired to bomb targets in the US. In a memorandum in support of [...]

The UK Home Office has released a top terrorism suspect from a control order that subjected him to virtual house arrest because it did not want to reveal secret evidence, according to media reports Thursday. Home Secretary Alan Johnson sent letters to lawyers for the man, known only as AE, notifying them that the decision [...]

Protesters took to Pittsburgh's streets Thursday in peaceful demonstrations calling attention to a range of global human rights issues on the first day of the Group of 20 (G-20) Summit . A group of Tibetan protesters from across the US held a march to call Chinese President Hu Jintao's attention to recent human rights abuses [...]

The US House of Representatives Financial Services Committee heard testimony Wednesday from banking industry regulators, but dismissed their prior efforts as ineffective. Comptroller of the Currency John Dugan, Director of the Office of Thrift Supervision John Bowman, and Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation chairman Sheila Blair defended their past efforts, making a case for their continued [...]

A US Department of Justice (DOJ) official told the Senate Judiciary Committee Wednesday that the Obama administration supports the reauthorization of three provisions of the USA Patriot Act set to expire at the end of the year. Assistant Attorney General for National Security David Kris said that the administration supports renewing portions of the act [...]

The Obama administration will not push Congress for legislation to authorize the indefinite detention of terror suspects, the Washington Post reported Wednesday. Instead, administration officials said they will rely on the authority granted through two resolutions passed in the wake of the 9/11 attacks: Senate Joint Resolution 23 and House Joint Resolution 64 . Those [...]

A US military judge on Wednesday granted a government request to further postpone hearings for Saudi Guantanamo Bay detainee Ahmed Mohammed Ahmed Haza al Darbi . Chief judge for military commissions Colonel James Pohl set a January 11, 2010 date for a hearing on which statements would be admissible at trial. Darbi claims that statements [...]

The Canadian Federal Court has ruled that the Military Police Complaints Commission (MPCC) lacked the authority to investigate complaints that Canadian forces illegally transferred detainees to Afghan custody with the Canadian government's knowledge. Noting that the MPCC is limited to complaints regarding "the conduct of a member of the Military Police in the performance of [...]

UK Director of Public Prosecutions Keir Starmer published an interim policy on assisted suicide Wednesday that takes several factors into consideration in deciding whether to prosecute such cases. While the new policy does not legalize assisted suicide, it introduces public interest considerations that are to be weighed including compassion, age of the dying, the relation [...]