RIGHTS-US: Special ‘Terror’ Courts Worry Legal Experts

The administration of President Barack Obama is considering the creation of a national security court to try cases in which there is enough reliable intelligence to hold a foreign terrorism suspect in preventive detention, but not enough to bring a case in federal court or even through military commissions.

PAKISTAN: U.S. to Aid Civilians Fleeing Embattled Swat Valley

U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Clinton announced the provision Tuesday of 110 million dollars in humanitarian aid to assist the mounting number of internally displaced persons (IDPs) in Pakistan.

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.

U.S.: Lawyers, Rights Groups Outraged by Gitmo Decision

Human rights advocates are furious at President Barack Obama’s decision to prosecute some Guantanamo detainees through the same military commissions he criticised during his campaign as a "flawed" system that "has failed to convict anyone of a terrorist act since the 9/11 attacks".

POLITICS-US: Rights Groups Slam Bid to Suppress Abuse Pics

President Barack Obama’s decision Wednesday to object to the planned release of photos showing abuse of prisoners in U.S. custody in Iraq and Afghanistan has drawn quiet praise from the military and some in Congress – and outspoken scorn from human rights advocates, a number of legal scholars and religious leaders, and many on the left of his Democratic Party.

POLITICS: Will U.S. Make a Difference on Human Rights Council?

Will the election of the United States to the 47-member Geneva-based Human Rights Council (HRC) make a significant difference to the cause of human rights worldwide, or will Washington be thwarted by the Council's politically-repressive countries accused of being serial abusers?

RIGHTS-US: Senate Panel Probes Legality of Torture Memos

"An ethical train wreck" was the phrase used by one witness to describe the legal reasoning behind the Justice Department’s recently released memos justifying the use of waterboarding and other forms of "enhanced interrogation techniques".

POLITICS-US: Back to Military Commissions?

Human rights advocates and legal scholars fear that the administration of U.S. President Barack Obama may resurrect the military commissions designed by his predecessor to try Guantanamo detainees after Obama’s 120-day moratorium on proceedings expires on May 20.

U.S.: McChrystal Choice Suggests Special Ops Strikes to Continue

The choice of Lt. Gen. Stanley McChrystal to become the new U.S. commander in Afghanistan has been hailed by Defence Secretary Robert Gates and national news media as ushering in a new unconventional approach to counterinsurgency.

POLITICS-US: Congress Resists Guantanamo Transfers

As lawmakers amped up the outcry against releasing Guantanamo "terrorists in our neighbourhoods", France agreed to accept a "cleared" Guantanamo prisoner and human rights groups continued to press for release of 17 Chinese Uigurs who the U.S. government has declared to be no threat to national security.

RIGHTS-US: Lawmakers Try to Block New Abuse Photos

Civil libertarians are condemning a call by two influential U.S. senators for the White House to block the impending release of photographs showing detainees being abused by U.S. military personnel at the notorious Abu Ghraib prison in Iraq and at other U.S. detention facilities in the Middle East and elsewhere.

RIGHTS-US: Psychologists Under Fire for Role in Interrogations

A leading human rights organisation is charging that an American Psychological Association (APA) task force formed to advise the U.S. military on prisoner interrogations was "stacked with Defence Department and [George W.] Bush Administration officials" and "rushed to conclusions that violated the Geneva Convention."

POLITICS-US: Officials Admit Pakistanis Reject U.S. Priorities

The advances of the Taliban insurgents beyond the Federally Administered Tribal Areas (FATA) in recent weeks and the failure of the Pakistani military to counter them have brought a rare moment of truth for top national security officials of the Barack Obama administration.

POLITICS-US: Unwieldy Terror Watchlist Hits a Million

Hundreds of thousands of people are being wrongly identified because of the government’s wasteful and inefficient management of the nation’s one million-strong terrorist watchlist, according to the American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU).

POLITICS-US: Af-Pak Troubles Coming to a Head

Despite an overhaul of policy toward Afghanistan and Pakistan, it appears that the U.S. strategy there is running into obstacles as varied as the U.S. Congress and the leaders of those countries, who are both visiting Washington this week.

PAKISTAN: Media in the Taliban’s Crosshairs

Till two months back, Shireen Zada of the private television channel Express News would carry a pistol whenever he covered the news in the restive Swat Valley in Pakistan’s North West Frontier Province (NWFP).

RIGHTS-US: Obama Considers Revamping Military Trials

Reports circulating in Washington suggest that President Barack Obama may try to revive the military commission system for prosecuting Guantánamo detainees, which Obama himself criticised during the administration of his predecessor, former President George W. Bush.

RIGHTS: Britain Tries to Block CIA Rendition Case

British High Court judges are expected to rule this week on whether a document by the U.S. Central Intelligence Agency can be publicly disclosed, thus opening the courthouse door to a lawsuit charging that the British government was complicit in facilitating the rendition of a British resident by the CIA, which tortured and secretly imprisoned him at Guantánamo Bay.

POLITICS-US: Obama’s Uighur Problem

The probability that some Guantanamo detainees will soon be released into the U.S. will place the administration of President Barack Obama in the eye of a major political hurricane.

RIGHTS-IRAN: Damaging Forced Confessions

Iranian political refugees living in India say there is an all too familiar ring about the supposed confessions of arrested journalist Roxana Saberi, which they expect to see footage of on television soon.

CAMBODIA: Corruption Allegations Undermine Khmer Rouge Tribunal

The voice of Comrade Duch reverberates daily through the speakers at the 500- seat courtroom in Phnom Penh as he gives testimony in his trial for crimes against humanity.