Documents released Tuesday by the ACLU pursuant to a Freedom of Information Act proceeding say that Defense Intelligence Agency personnel in Iraq who witnessed abuses of prisoners by a US Special Forces team were threatened to prevent them reporting those abuses, had their car keys taken and e-mails monitored, and were warned not to leave [...]

A long-awaited reported to Congress by the US Defense Department Inspector General has concluded that "leadership failures" by multiple Air Force secretaries, military chiefs of staff, legal officers and superintendents of the Air Force Academy in Colorado Springs resulted in a decade of sexual abuse and harassment of female cadets at the elite facilty. Inspector [...]

The US military's Combatant Status Review Tribunal at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba, has decided to retain custody of 33 more detainees as properly-designated "enemy combatants", according to a military spokesman speaking Tuesday. Thusfar panels of the Tribunal have considered at least 466 review hearings and have handed down 194 decisions. Only in one instance has a [...]

A Chilean appeals court judge said Tuesday he would consider a criminal complaint against former Chilean dictator General Augusto Pinochet alleging that some 27,255 people were tortured during the period of his rule as part of the government's repression of the opposition. Santiago Appeals Court Judge Joaquin Billard has asked the Investigative Police, a civilian [...]

Two court-appointed defense lawyers for former Yugoslav President Slobodan Milosevic, on trial at The Hague for war crimes, have been told they cannot withdraw from his case. In a ruling Tuesday, the trials chamber of the International Tribunal for the Former Yugoslavia held that although Milosevic has been allowed to resume the conduct of his [...]

The US Army said Tuesday that it will convene a court-martial for US Captain Rogelio Maynulet, accused of murdering an Iraqi driver who had been injured by US soldiers during a militia sweep in May. Lawyers for Maynulet said that the driver was shot out of mercy because of the victim's severe injuries. They also [...]

Syria released 112 political detainees, the country's official news agency reported Tuesday. President Bashar al-Asad pardoned the prisoners, many of whom are thought to be Kurdish minorities arrested during a riot last March. This year 160 political prisoners have been released so far. Human rights activists speculate that there may still be hundreds of political [...]

Completing a 30-day sentence, former US Army Sergeant Charles Jenkins was released from the US military base at Camp Zama Japan Tuesday, and allowed to travel to the Japanese city of Sado, where he plans to settle down again with his Japanese wife and daughters. He defected from the US military 39-years ago while serving [...]

The Supreme Court heard arguments Tuesday concerning state regulation of interstate wine sales. The controversy centers on the New York and Michigan state laws that allow direct in-state, but not out-of-state, shipments of wine. The Constitution implicitly prohibits states from passing laws that discriminate against businesses of another state. However, the 21st Amendment, which ended [...]

Shubha Ghosh, University at Buffalo Law School: "The Supreme Court will hear oral arguments today in the wine distributor case, Swedenborg. Here are two links to NPR coverage of the case from today and yesterday. At issue in the case is the reconciliation of the 21st Amendment which repealed Prohibition and relegated regulation of alcohol [...]