ACLU Sues for Info on Alleged Torture
After filing a request for information early this year, the ACLU is suing the FBI and CIA seeking records regarding Naji Hamdan. Hamdan, an American citizen, says that he was tortured in the United Arab Emirates, where he was then convicted of terrorism. He was arrested there in 2008. He alleges that the U.S., which had questioned him here multiple times since 1999, “orchestrated his arrest and interrogation,” as paraphrased by The Washington Post. The ACLU “is seeking any records on the surveillance of Hamdan in the United States and any documents about his detention and treatment in the U.A.E.,” the Post reports. Hamdan was sentenced to 18 months and is now living in Lebanon.
Alleged Oregon Bank Bombers Hate the Government, Prosecutors Say
During pre-trial arguments in a state court case stemming from a 2008 bombing of an Oregon bank that killed two people, prosecutors said they plan to argue that the defendants bombed the bank out of hatred for the government. They described a witness as saying that one of the two defendants, Bruce Turnidge, cheered when he heard about the Oklahoma City bombing in 1995. Turnidge’s attorney said that didn’t happen. Turnidge’s co-defendant, who is also his son, asked yesterday to be tried separately from his father.
Man Kills Himself After Attacking Police Station in Texas
On Wednesday, Patrick Gray Sharp lit a truck containing ammunition on fire, and tried to ignite a trailer filled with explosives, outside a municipal building in McKinney, Texas. The building includes the local police department. He then began shooting at the building and its workers. He shot himself to death after being shot by a police officer. No motive is known, and nobody else was hurt.
Plane Held at Airport After Fake Hijack Threat
An American Airlines flight about to leave San Francisco for New York was delayed two hours yesterday after someone called a San Francisco area Hampton Inn and said that they were going to hijack the plane. “The FBI later determined that the telephoned threat wasn’t credible,” according to the AP (via The Washington Post). One couple aboard the plane, who said that were told they had been picked at random, was handcuffed but cleared shortly after. Another passenger told the AP that he saw that the couple had Pakistani passports and suspected that they may have been stopped due to racial profiling, but the woman said that the police were “just doing their job.”
Criminal Courts in Pakistan Struggle with Terrorism Cases; U.S. Courts Do Not
Criminal courts in Pakistan have a “dismal” record in prosecuting terrorism cases, according to the AP (via the Seattle Post Intelligencer), which reports that there have been no convictions for largest attacks in the country over the past three years. Among the problems are poorly trained police officers, threats against witnesses, lawyers, and judges, and the fact that the Inter-Services Intelligence agency conducts its own investigations apart from the judicial system. In contrast, the AP notes the 89% percent conviction rate in post-9/11 terrorism cases in the U.S., citing the Center on Law and Security’s Terrorist Trial Report Card.
Supreme Court Justice Anthony Kennedy, speaking at a conference in Hawaii, said that “Article III courts are quite capable of trying these terrorist cases,” and that most should be tried in regular federal courts rather than by military commission, according to the AP. He also said that an “attack on the rule of law has failed” in describing efforts to use military commissions for terrorism trials.
Militant-Affiliated Charities Barred from Pakistan Flood Relief; U.S. Announces Additional Relief Funds
The government of Pakistan has said that charities affiliated with banned militant organization will be prohibited from flood relief efforts, although some say that similar measures have been ineffective in the past. There are signs that public support for the country’s civilian government may be diminishing as a consequence of the floods.
Sen. John Kerry (D-MA) traveled yesterday from Afghanistan to Pakistan, where the floods have affected 2o million people and have left almost 4.6 million people homeless, while Secretary of State Clinton announced that the U.S. will provide $150 million in relief funds – $60 million more than had already been dedicated to the effort.
U.S. Convinces Israel about Iranian Nuclear Timeline
Amid much recent discussion about the possibility of Israel launching an airstrike against nuclear facilities in Iran, the U.S. “has persuaded Israel that it would take roughly a year — and perhaps longer — for Iran to complete what one senior official called a ‘dash’ for a nuclear weapon,” according to The New York Times.
Local Dimension Should Not Be Lost in Park51 Rhetoric
Regardless of their position, New York politicians believe that the debate over Park51 – the mosque and community center proposed to be built two blocks from Ground Zero - has become distorted as it has turned into a focus of national attention. “The heated national debate is unrecognizable from the reality in New York, both politically and spatially,” The Washington Post reports. For their part, Muslims who live in New York do not have a uniform view on the issue, according to The New York Times.
Two Surrender in Yemen
The Yemeni government has announced that two people tied to al Qaeda have turned themselves in, according to CNN. One of them, Hezam Mujali, is an escaped prisoner suspected of helping the attackers of a French tanker ship in 2002, and the other, Jomaan Safian, “harbored dozens of foreign al Qaeda fighters and supplied logistical help to the militants,” CNN reports.
News stories compiled by the staff of the Center on Law and Security
What are we missing? Send a tip, link, or story to CLS@exchange.law.nyu.edu and we’ll credit you in TTN!
