MIGRATION-US: Broken System Costing Billions

As the administration of U.S. President Barack Obama and Congressional lawmakers prepare to tackle comprehensive immigration reform, a leading immigration advocate says government inaction has "cost the country billions of dollars, while doing little to impede the flow of unauthorised immigrants."

Q&A: “Military Commissions Are a Second-Class Justice System”

David Frakt is a professor at the Western State University College of Law and a lieutenant colonel in the U.S. Air Force Reserve JAG Corps.

U.S.: CIA Briefed Congress on Renditions

The U.S. Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) briefed members of Congress from both political parties numerous times about the agency's interrogation and detention programmes, several prominent human rights groups said Monday.

POLITICS-US: Sotomayor Sworn In Following Senate PR

With Sonia Sotomayor's swearing in over the weekend as an Associate Justice of the U.S. Supreme Court, legal experts are aggressively debating what was learned from her four days of gruelling testimony before the Senate Judiciary Committee - and whether these hearings are instructive or merely Capital Hill's version of Kabuki Theatre.

Q&A: Military Losing GI Hearts and Minds

The continuing occupation or Iraq and the growing war in Afghanistan are leaving permanent physical and emotional scars on a whole generation of U.S. soldiers. Not since Vietnam have so many GIs objected to a war, and never have military families spoken out so strongly for withdrawal.

POLITICS-US: Obama’s Right Turn

Human rights and open government advocates were heartened by President Barack Obama's pledge during his first week in office to create "an unprecedented level of openness in government" and "establish a system of transparency, public participation, and collaboration".

POLITICS-US: Pelosi-CIA Contretemps May Spark Wider Probe

Congressional Democrats and many Washington journalists are predicting that House Speaker Nancy Pelosi's current dispute with the Central Intelligence Agency may ultimately hasten the push toward the last thing Republicans want - a comprehensive investigation of prisoner detention and interrogation during the administration of former President George W. Bush.

RIGHTS-US: Obama Faces Spate of “Terror War” Lawsuits

Human rights lawyers are proving to be a major headache for the new administration of President Barack Obama, stepping up court challenges on issues of prisoner abuse to test the reality of the president's pledge to create a "an unprecedented level of openness" in government.

POLITICS-US: Democrats Divided Over "Reckoning" for Bush

With growing public support for a public investigation of crimes that may have been committed by the administration of former president George W. Bush in waging its "global war on terror", policy makers and legal experts are deeply divided on how to proceed - and President Barack Obama seems ambivalent about whether to proceed at all.

Q&A: "U.S. Must Take Seriously What the World Thinks"

John Brown, a Foreign Service officer with the U.S. State Department for more than 20 years, resigned in 2003 to protest the U.S. invasion of Iraq. He now teaches at Georgetown University.

US-AFGHANISTAN: Bagram, Worse Than Guantanamo?

While millions know that the administration of George W. Bush has left Barack Obama with the job of closing the U.S. prison at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba, relatively few are aware that the new president will also face a similar but far larger dilemma 7,000 miles away.