13 EU Countries launch coordinating body for national counterterrorism centres

13 National Terrorism Centres gathered in Paris last week to discuss further cooperation, Le Monde reports. At the meeting countries which have such a body, including Germany, Belgium, Denmark, the Netherlands, the United Kingdom, decide to launch a common structure: the Coordinating Committee of Counterrorism Centres. This network will monitor developments of the terroris threat. [...]

Four EU countries oppose SWIFT bank data deal with US ahead of Lisbon Treaty

Opposition from four member states to a draft agreement between the EU and US allowing the use of banking data in anti-terrorist investigations is likely to delay a decision until after 1 December, drawing the European Parliament into the decision making process. Citing data privacy concerns, Germany, Austria, France and Finland are opposing the text [...]

US and Yemen sign agreement on military cooperation

On the 10th of November Yemen signed an agreement on intelligence and training with Yemen, official news agency SABA reported. The agreement aims to strengthen cooperation between the two countries to eradicate ‘terrorism, piracy and smuggling’. More here.

Pakistan Says U.S. Should Share Information on Rebels

The U.S. and NATO should share intelligence with Pakistan to help “sanitize” the border with Afghanistan, Prime Minister Yousuf Raza Gilani said.
The “flow of weapons, drugs, illicit money and militants” must be prevented along the 2,430-kilometer (1,510-mile) frontier, Gilani told a U.S. congressional delegation visiting Islamabad yesterday, the official Associated Press of Pakistan reported. Improved [...]

Opinion of the EDPS on the access of law enforcement authorities to EURODAC

Read the opinion here.

Obama signs executive order strengthening intelligence oversight panel

[JURIST] US President Barack Obama signed an executive order Wednesday giving the Intelligence Oversight Board (IOB) the authority to report suspected violations of federal law related to intelligence gathering to the US attorney general. The order amends an executive order signed by former president George W. Bush last February, which allowed the IOB to report [...]

CSIS agent describes Khadr extradition vs rendition debate between Pakistan, US and Canada

A CSIS agent testified in the extradition case of Abdullah Khadr, brother of infamous Omar Khadr. The agent said that the Americans wanted to render Khadr to a U.S.-run foreign prison – perhaps Guantanamo Bay or one of the undisclosed “ghost sites” – but that the Canadians and Pakistanis refused to consent to his transfer. [...]

New CRS reports and congressional hearings released

Afghanistan: Post-Taliban Governance, Security, and U.S. Policy (6 Oct. 2009)
Africa Command: U.S. Strategic Interests and the Role of the U.S. Military in Africa (2 Oct 2009)
Removing Aliens from the United States: Judicial Review of Removal Orders (25 September 2009)

The records of several noteworthy congressional hearings that were held in the past two years have been [...]

PM v Khadr

Omar Khadr, a Canadian citizen captured by US forces in Afghanistan at the age of 15 and imprisoned in Guantanamo Bay for 7 years, recently succeeded in convincing the Canadian Court of Appeal to order the Canadian government to request his immediate repatriation by the US  (Khadr v. Prime Minister of Canada 2009 FCA 246). Until [...]

UK High Court orders publication of torture evidence in Binyam Mohamed case

(The Guardian) David Miliband, the foreign secretary, acted in a way that was harmful to the rule of law by suppressing evidence about what the government knew of the illegal treatment of Binyam Mohamed, a British resident who was held in a secret prison in Pakistan, the high court has ruled.
In a devastating judgment, two [...]