US defense department head bars public disclosure of detainee abuse photos

[JURIST] US Defense Secretary Robert Gates on Friday invoked his authority to bar public disclosure of about 40 photos depicting the abuse of Afghan and Iraqi detainees by US soldiers. The move was followed by a notification and request by the Obama administration asking the US Supreme Court  to set aside the decision of the [...]

Federal Court denies CSIS request to get clarity on secrecy issues

Canada’s Federal Court ruled that key questions about what Canada’s spy service must reveal in court do not deserve another look. Federal lawyers last month chose to walk away from a key case – that of Adil Charkaoui, a Moroccan living in Montreal – rather than divulge information that they said could compromise national security. [...]

Suppression of torture photos continues

The House passed a homeland security appropriations bill today with an amendment that would grant the Department of Defense (DOD) the authority to continue suppressing photos depicting the abuse of prisoners in U.S. custody overseas. The amendment, added by Senator Joseph Lieberman (I-CT), would allow DOD to exempt the photos from the Freedom of Information [...]

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 [...]

R (Al-Sweady and others) v Secretary of State for Defence (No 2)

In any judicial review proceedings relating to a case which involved crucial, “hard-edged” questions of fact in light of which it was necessary for the court to allow cross-examination of makers of witness statements on those “hard-edged” questions of fact, it was vital for full disclosure to occur to enable effective and proper cross-examination to [...]

Intelligence community legal reference book

The US Office of the Director of National Intelligence has declassified its Intelligence Community Legal Reference Book from which the US intelligence community ‘draws much of its authority and guidance’. Download the 949 pages here.

Rights Groups: New Administration Abuses ‘National Security’ Defense

In response to the CIA’s refusal to confirm or deny the existence of torture documents, three human rights groups called on President Obama to hold true to his promise of a new and transparent era.A statement by Amnesty International USA (AIUSA), the Center for Constitutional Rights (CCR), and the Center for Human Rights and Global [...]

Al Hayat: Secret CIA prison in South Baghdad was run by the CIA until end of 2008

Former Iraqi detainees claimed in daily pan-arabic newspaper Al Hayat that they spent about a month in a secret CIA-run detention facility in Musayib, 40 miles south of Baghdad, which was allegedly open untill the end of 2008. An ex-detainee says he was charged with belonging to the Mahdi Army, a paramilitary force created by [...]

US ‘new’ internal state secrecy policy offers no judicial review

On the 23d of September the Department of Justice released its long-awaited “new” policy on the state secrets privilege, which the government uses in litigation to withhold evidence when it believes that disclosure would harm national security. This policy came out of the order from Attorney General Holder that the Department of Justice review all [...]

Current wiretapping discussions in the US: the Patriot Act extensions, the Justice Bill and Leahy’s proposal

A US Department of Justice (DOJ) official told the Senate Judiciary Committee Wednesday that the Obama administration supports the reauthorization of two provisions of the USA Patriot Act and one provision of the Intelligence Reform and Terrorism Prevention Act of 2004 set to expire at the end of the year. Assistant Attorney General for National [...]