Holder Slams Rendition, Tribunals

(NEWSER) - AG Eric Holder today named a special prosecutor to investigate allegations of torture against CIA operatives who interrogated terror suspects during the Bush administration, the Washington Post reports. John Durham, who is currently probing the destruction of interrogation tapes, will look into fewer than 12 cases detailed in a CIA report released today and determine if a full-scale investigation is warranted. The Bush-era Justice Department investigated and dismissed the cases. More»

Obama turns back on pledge to try Khalid Sheikh Mohammad in civilian court

(NEWSER) - Khalid Sheikh Mohammad will be tried by a military commission at Guantanamo Bay, rather than the civilian court President Obama has long advocated, sources tell CBS News . Eric Holder will announce this new plan soon. Previously, Holder had put forward a plan to try the confessed 9/11 mastermind in New York City, but that idea was abandoned after a political backlash. More»

Even conservatives say attack on Justice Dept. goes too far

(NEWSER) - The new attack ad launched by Liz Cheney’s Keep America Safe group is so nasty that even her fellow conservatives are attacking it, and some are invoking McCarthyism. The ad brands Department of Justice officials who once represented Guantanamo inmates the “Al Qaeda 7,” and implies that they, and by extension AG Eric Holder, share terrorist values. A writer for the conservative Power Line blog called the attacks “vicious” and “unfounded.” More»

Task force says 110 can be released

(NEWSER) - A task force spearheaded by the Justice Department recommends that 50 of the 196 detainees at Guantanamo Bay be held indefinitely without trial. The group, providing a specific breakdown for the first time, determined that the 50 prisoners were too dangerous to release and that any trial would expose state secrets. Of the rest of the detainees, it recommends that 35 stand military or federal trial, and around 110 be released. More»

New York trial represents proper US tradition, AG says

(NEWSER) - Confessed 9/11 mastermind Khalid Sheik Mohammed and his four co-defendants will face the death penalty, Eric Holder confirmed today, and the AG leapt to defend the decision to try them in a civilian court in New York. They will “answer for their alleged crimes in a courthouse just blocks away from where the Twin Towers once stood,” Holder said. “I fully expect to direct prosecutors to seek the death penalty against each of the alleged 9/11 conspirators.” More»