US government officials disclosed Friday that a German citizen originally detained as a terror suspect was released in May of 2004, on direct orders from then-national security advisor Condoleezza Rice after he had spent five months in an Afghan prison due to an error. The officials said that when Khaled el-Masri was removed from a [...]

Following the recommendation of a 10-member investigative team whose findings clearing four other top officers were preliminarily disclosed Friday , the US Army has relieved Brigadier General Jani Karpinski of her command for dereliction of duty in the Abu Ghraib prisoner abuse scandal. She was previously suspended . The recommendation came after the panel found [...]

District of Columbia v. Beretta, U.S.A., Corp., et al.; Lawson, et al. v. Beretta, U.S.A., Corp., et al., District of Columbia Court of Appeals, Associate Judge Farrell, April 21, 2005 . Excerpt: We reverse the dismissal of the statutory count as to the individual plaintiffs, holding that they may advance to discovery on strict liability [...]

A new Army investigative report has cleared four top US military officers – including former Iraq commander Lt. General Ricardo Sanchez – of wrongdoing in the Iraq prison abuse scandal, according to officials speaking Friday. The as-yet-unreleased report conducted by US Army Inspector General Lt. Gen. Stanley E. Green found that allegations made against the [...]

Zacarias Moussaoui has pleaded guilty to six conspiracy charges connected with the 9/11 attacks that killed more than 3000 people. Upon conviction, he could face the death penalty. Earlier today, Moussaoui's own lawyers had asked the judge to reject a guilty plea, citing mental incompetence. 6:15 PM ET – US Attorney General Alberto Gonzales confirmed [...]

Vice President Dick Cheney said Friday that, if necessary, he would cast the tie-breaking vote to ban Senate filibusters of judicial nominees. Speaking to the Republican National Lawyers Association , Cheney declared that "the decision about how to proceed will be made by the Republican leadership in the Senate. But if the Senate majority decides [...]

Georgia Governor Sonny Perdue Friday signed into law a bill that would require voters to show photo identification before being allowed to cast ballots. Supporters of the measure say that it will crack down on voter fraud, but opponents say that the law unfairly targets the elderly, the poor and minorities, groups most likely not [...]

The District of Columbia Court of Appeals has revived part of a 2000 lawsuit against gun manufacturers seeking to hold the companies liable for shootings carried out with automatic weapons. The entire lawsuit was dismissed in a 2002 DC Superior Court ruling, but on Thursday the full Court of Appeals ruled that DC's Assault Weapon [...]

The UN's independent expert on human rights in Afghanistan, Cherif Bassiouni says he has received reports of torture and other abuses by US and Afghan forces in Afghanistan. In a report of his own released Thursday Bassiouni said he has been told that security agencies in the nation engage in arbitrary arrests and detentions, and [...]

AP is reporting that lawyers for September 11 terror suspect Zacarias Moussaoui have asked the judge in his case to reject his attempt to plead guilty. 1:02 PM ET – Moussaoui's lawyers argued in a late filing made just hours before a public hearing scheduled for Friday at 3:30 PM ET that he is unfit [...]