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SATURDAY, NOVEMBER 21, 2009
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NEWS ABOUT: ACLU

ACLU stories: 49 news summaries

1 - 20 of 49 Stories | 1 2 3 Next >>


 First US Citizen 
 Sues Feds 
 for Rendition 

NJ man alleges interrogation, coercion in Somalia, Egypt

(Newser) - A New Jersey man yesterday became the first US citizen to sue the federal government for "rendition," the extrajudicial transfer of terrorism suspects between countries. Arrested in Kenya in 2007, Amir Meshal was secretly flown to Somalia, then to Ethiopia, where he claims US agents repeatedly threatened him... More »

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Somalia Kenya rendition terrorism FBI ACLU Egypt extraordinary rendition Amir Meshal

Boulder Cops Nix Naked Halloween Streak

Wacky local tradition draws big crowds, annoys authorities

(Newser) - Killjoy cops in Boulder, Colo., plan to shut down the town's annual naked Halloween run tonight, dispatching 40 police officers to the four-block course, backed up, believe it or not, by SWAT teams. Tolerated for nearly a decade, the run aroused police ire last year when the ranks of streakers,... More »

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nudity ACLU Halloween public nudity Boulder, Colo.

 Loose FBI Rules 
 Raise Privacy Fears 

People are unfairly targeted, complain Muslim groups

(Newser) - The FBI has been given far too much leeway to gather information on individuals and groups, charge Muslim and civil liberties organizations. Guidelines in a newly disclosed FBI manual allow the bureau to probe people or organizations without any factual evidence against them. Agents are given broad powers to proactively... More »

Taser Tells Cops: Don't
Aim at Chest

Company cites 'extremely low risk' but insists stun gun is safe

(Newser) - Stun gun maker Taser has issued an advisory to police departments suggesting cops not aim at a suspect’s chest because it poses an "extremely low" chance of triggering an "adverse cardiac event." The company insists its product is safe, but if something goes wrong, "it... More »

 Louisiana Judge Won't Marry Interracial Couple

'I'm not a racist. I just don't believe in mixing the races that way.'

(AP) - A justice of the peace in rural Louisiana says he refused to issue a marriage license to an interracial couple out of concern for any children the couple might have. Keith Bardwell says it is his experience that most interracial marriages do not last long. "I'm not a racist.... More »

 CIA Refuses 
 to Hand Over 
 Interrogation 
 Records 

Agency says releasing Bush-era documents will undermine national security

(Newser) - The CIA has refused to hand over any more documents relating to its Bush-era interrogation and detention programs, the New York Times reports. The agency told a federal judge that dozens of documents, including communications from secret prisons and agency assessments of the programs' legality, must remain secret in the... More »

(Newser) - The Justice Department is seeking to determine if military defense attorneys for Guantanamo Bay detainees broke the law protecting classified material by showing prisoners photographs of covert CIA officers and contractors, reports the Washington Post. Three lawyers apparently used the photographs in an attempt to identify potential participants in abuses... More »

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Racial Profiling Still Widespread in US: ACLU

A lot of high-level talk, but no 'concrete action' on issue, report says

(Newser) - Racial profiling remains rampant in the US, with thousands detained yearly due to race, religion, or nationality, even though top federal officials are trying to halt the practice, the American Civil Liberties Union claims in a report to the UN. South Asian and North African immigrants are often targeted as... More »

Nev. Newspaper Defends Commenters' Anonymity

Review-Journal, ACLU fight subpoena for commenters' identities

(Newser) - A tax-evasion trial has sparked a free-speech controversy at the Las Vegas Review-Journal. The paper has declined to honor a federal subpoena demanding the identities of everyone who commented on an article on the trial. Businessman Robert Kahre faces tax-fraud charges for hiding the real value of sales of gold... More »

 Gitmo Prisoners: 
 We Lied to CIA 
 to Stop Torture 

Khalid Mohammed 'made up stories' on bin Laden's whereabouts after torture

(Newser) - Guantanamo prisoners fabricated information to give CIA interrogators after being physically and mentally abused, they told a 2007 military tribunal in transcripts released yesterday under the Freedom of Information act. Khalid Sheikh Mohammed, self-proclaimed mastermind of the 9/11 attacks and one of the prisoners who was repeatedly waterboarded, said he... More »

(Newser) - Jimmy Carter politely disagrees with the current president’s move to block photos depicting prisoner torture in Iraq and Afghanistan from public view. “I don't agree with him,” the former president said of Barack Obama. “But I certainly don't criticize him for making that decision,” he... More »

(Newser) - Retired Army Gen. Antonio Taguba has seen photos of rape at Abu Ghraib, but they aren’t the ones the Obama administration is trying to keep from the public. “The photographs in that lawsuit, I have not seen,” he told Salon. The general says he was not misquoted... More »

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Abu Ghraib ACLU rape Antonio Taguba Iraq war interview torture photos Daily Telegraph

(Newser) - The ACLU is threatening to sue a California school district that restricted access to a 12-year-old’s report on gay-rights activist Harvey Milk, the San Diego Union-Tribune reports. When the school learned of the subject, it delayed the presentation and sent letters to parents requiring permission slips for their children... More »

OPINION

Easy to Find Middle Ground on Gitmo: Klein

Military courts wouldn't allow torture evidence, get civilian review

(Newser) - Lawyers and soldiers are divided on how to deal with enemy combatants, but “it shouldn’t be too hard to find a middle ground,” writes Joe Klein in Time, because both arguments “are being made by unappealing extremists.” It’s unrealistic to try detainees in open... More »

(Newser) - A group of breast cancer and ovarian cancer patients has filed suit against the Patent Office for allowing a company to patent two human genes, the Courthouse News Service reports. The plaintiffs, who also include medical organizations and the ACLU, allege that Myriad Genetics' patents on the BRCA1 and BRCA2... More »

(Newser) - The White House is rethinking its promise to release photos of detainees being abused in US custody, press secretary Robert Gibbs suggested yesterday, saying President Obama has “great concern” about the impact they would have. At issue are 44 photos targeted in a Freedom of Information Act suit by... More »

 Photos of Bush-Era 
 Prisoner Abuse 
 to Be Released 

ACLU request for release of Iraq, Afghanistan photos granted

(Newser) - The Obama administration is releasing dozens of photographs depicting prisoners in Afghanistan and Iraq being abused by Americans, the Los Angeles Times reports. The photos are not believed to be as extreme as the images from the Abu Ghraib probe, but defense officials warn they may provoke an angry backlash... More »

(Newser) - University of Maryland students plan to take in some porn tonight after a heated battle with school officials and state lawmakers, the Baltimore Sun reports. The school slated a screening of Pirates II: Stagnetti’s Revenge—which recently showed at a University of California campus—last week, until... More »

(Newser) - The ACLU and other watchdog groups on both the left and right think President Obama is carrying his crusade against lobbyists too far, Politico reports. Obama's recent directive forbidding government officials from discussing how to spend the stimulus with lobbyists infringes on free speech, they say. The groups plan to... More »

(AP) - The CIA destroyed 92 tapes of terror interrogations, far more than has previously been acknowledged, according to new documents. The revelation came in a letter filed today by government lawyers in New York, where the ACLU has filed a lawsuit seeking more details of terror interrogation programs. More »

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CIA ACLU Zacarias Moussaoui CIA videotapes

1 - 20 of 49 Stories | 1 2 3 Next >>