[JURIST] New York-based human rights Human Rights Watch warned Friday that the McCain Amendment [JURIST document] prohibiting the cruel and inhumane treatment of US-held detainees that was finally endorsed [JURIST report] Thursday by a reluctant Bush administration could yet be undercut by another amendment included in the same defense spending bill that would limit the recourse of Guantanamo detainees to the US federal courts in the event of abuse, rendering the McCain provision potentially unenforceable. A spokeman for Human Rights Watch said that the so-called Graham-Levin Amendment [JURIST document] approved by the US Senate in early November as a compromise in preference to an even stricter earlier version [JURIST document] that completely deprived detainees of habeas corpus remedies leaves Guantánamo detainees no legal recourse if they are, in fact, tortured or mistreated: "the treatment of Guantánamo Bay detainees will be shrouded in secrecy, placing detainees at risk for future abuse". HRW further alleged that the amendment "implicitly authorizes the Department of Defense to consider evidence obtained through torture or other inhumane treatment in assessing the status of detainees held in Guantánamo Bay". Read the full HRW press release.

[JURIST] Canadian-born media tycoon Conrad Black [CBC profile], former chairman of publishing giant Hollinger International, pleaded not guilty in Chicago Friday to an additional four felony counts [US DOJ press release, PDF] that include racketeering and obstruction of justice. Black, a member of the UK House of Lords who gave up his Canadian citizenship, was originally indicted on criminal fraud charges [JURIST report] for the alleged $84 million defrauding of the company in connection with the sale of several hundred of its newspapers in Canada and the US; he now stands accused of violating court orders when he carried boxes filled with documents out of his office after-hours in May. Black and his co-defendents, two former Hollinger lawyers and an accountant, are currently free on bond after denying the multiple counts of fraud. In September Black's former deputy David Radler agreed to a guilty plea [JURIST report] on lesser charges in exchange for his testimony against his former co-workers. After Black's not guilty plea Friday the presiding judge The Guardian has more.

Editor's note: An earlier version of this story erroneously reported that Black had pleaded guilty to the new charges. JURIST regrets the error.

5:25 PM ET - US District Judge Amy St. Eve [official profile] has scheduled Black's trial for March 5, 2007; she rejected a September 2006 date suggested by prosecutors because she is already slated to preside over a terrorism trial in the fall. If convicted, Black faces up to 95 years in prison and a $7 million fine in addition to possible forfeiture of his allegedly ill-gotten gains. AP has more.

Previously in JURIST's Paper Chase...

• Ex-Hollinger president pleads guilty to fraud charges
• Former Hollinger executives indicted on fraud charges
• New misconduct lawsuit filed against former Hollinger CEO
• Federal prosecutors confirm criminal investigation against Black, Hollinger
• SEC to file civil fraud charges against former Hollinger CEO, president

[JURIST] Sixteen key sections [CRS backgrounder, PDF] of the Patriot Act [JURIST news archive] came closer to year-end expiration Friday as the Republican leadership in the US Senate failed [Senate roll call] to get the votes of three-fifths of the chamber's membership necessary to invoke cloture [Senate backgrounder] on a proposed conference compromise [report text; text of HR 3199, PDF] that would have renewed and in most cases permanently entrenched them in law, leaving open the possibility of a Democratic filibuster. Prior to the cloture vote, Senators rejected an alternative proposal introduced by Minority Leader Harry Reid that would have extended the controversial Act for only a further three months [Sen. Leahy floor statement] pending a revised agreement on extension. Supporters of the conference compromise stressed that it provides not merely for extension, but for new safeguards protecting civil liberties. Critics insisted that it still presented too much of a threat to privacy and rights to be sustained in current form. AP has more.

1:30 PM ET - Following the vote, Senate Judiciary Committee ranking Democrat Patrick Leahy said at a news conference that he regretted the lack of true consensus on the conference compromise and suggested that progress towards renewal of the expiring Patriot Act provisions might still be made before the Senate adjourns for the holidays next week:

Checks and balances, judicial review and congressional oversight are vital ingredients in ensuring that new powers given to government are used, and never abused. It is all the more understandable why the American people have increasingly seen it this way too, when you pick up the paper on a day like today and read about eavesdropping on Americans without court approval.

Our goal has been to mend the PATRIOT Act, not to end it. The best solution is to just fix the bill. We can do that before we adjourn next week, if they’ll let us. I am ready at this moment, and as long as it takes, to work to make this a better bill, and a consensus bill.

[JURIST] The French Senate [official website] has approved a slightly amended version of a new anti-terror law [text as amended, in French] providing for increased public video surveillance, more access by authorities to communications records and passenger information, and new police powers to stop vehicles. The legislation introduced by hardline French Interior Minister Nicholas Sarkozy [official profile] passed Thursday by a vote of 203-122, with the ruling center-right coalition outpolling socialist and communist opposition members. The French lower house, the National Assembly, approved a version of the law [JURIST report] in late November; both houses will have to pass the bill again before it can become law. Critics of the bill argue that it is too heavy-handed and effectively puts terrorists, delinquents and immigrants in the same basket while, in the words of a former socialist culture minister, "sowing the seeds of xenophobia and racism." AFP has more.

[JURIST] The British government has announced that it will appeal a High Court ruling [JURIST report] earlier this week that found Australian Guantanamo detainee David Hicks [JURIST news archive; advocacy website] eligible for British citizenship. Hicks, whose mother is British and who lived in London for a time as a boy, sought British citizenship in hopes that the British government would be willing and able to persuade US authorities to release him from detention like other UK citizens already released [JURIST report]. The appeal has not yet been lodged, but its preparation could take months. The Pentagon meanwhile said Thursday that it was continuing its preparations to resume Hicks' trial on a range of charges [US DOD chargesheet, PDF] despite a stay on the proceeding [JURIST report] pending a US Supreme Court decision in the as-yet-unargued case of Hamdan v. Rumsfeld {JURIST report] on the constitutionality of US military tribunals trying Guantanamo detainees. ABC Australia has more.

[JURIST] The trial of Turkish novelist Orhan Pamuk [TIME profile] for slander against the state was adjourned Friday until February 7, 2006 to give Turkey's Justice Ministry time to decide if the case is in line with judicial procedures after a prosecutorial request. Under Turkish law, individual rights can be restricted to preserve the "integrity of the state" and Pamuk was accused after making unfavorable remarks to a Swiss newspaper about Turkey's stance related to the mass killings of Armenians. Pamuk is charged under article 301 [Amnesty backgrounder] of the revised Turkish penal code [JURIST report] but his remarks were made before the new code became law. He could be sentenced to three years in jail. The case has raised concern among European Union [official website] members, and on Thursday, European Parliament member Camil Eurlins said that if Turkey wants to become part of the EU, it will need to incorporate freedom of expression into its laws. The EU has previously warned [JURIST report; EU report] Turkey that its pending membership in the EU is dependent on it ending torture [JURIST report] and stabilizing its human rights situation. Recently Turkish Foreign Minister Abdullah Gul [official website, English version] criticized the case [JURIST report] as a "public denigration of Turkish identity" arguing that the trial does not seek to extend greater individual rights to citizens, including freedom of religion and expression. Reuters has more.

[JURIST] Austria Thursday mailed notifications to the first survivors of the Holocaust [JURIST news archive] eligible for payments in its 2001 General Settlement Fund [text; backgrounder] which compensates victims robbed of businesses, property, bank accounts and insurance policies under the Nazis. So far, 100 of the 19, 300 survivors who have applied for restitution have been notified [press release]. The letters detail how much compensation the victims will receive and on a form that must be signed and returned seek a promise not to sue Austria or Austrian companies that benefited from the stolen property. The first payments are expected to be made within 10 days of receipt of the forms according to the Fund General Secretary Hannah Lessing [official profile]. Andreas Kohl, chairman of the fund's board and Austria's parliament speaker said he will sign another 1,300 letters Monday. Payment distribution had been frozen pending a US class-action lawsuit against Australia but last month, the case was thrown out [JURIST report] by the US Second Circuit Court of Appeals. AP has more.

[JURIST] Serge Brammertz [official profile], a Belgian prosecutor who is currently the deputy prosecutor for the International Criminal Court [official website] at The Hague, appears set to replace German prosecutor Detlev Mehlis [UN appointment announcement] as head of the UN inquiry into the assassination of former Lebanese Prime Minister Rafik al-Hariri [JURIST news archive; UN materials], according to UN officials and Lebanese press reports. Although the UN Security Council extended the Hariri probe [JURIST report; UN News report] Thursday for a further six months after its initial reports implicated Syria in the February 2005 bombing which killed Hariri and some 20 others, Mehlis had already indicated that he would step aside after the expiration of his original term. Brammertz's appointment is not yet certain, however, as his nomination may run into objections both from the US, which has traditionally opposed the ICC [US State Department Q/A] and has sought to exempt its own personnel from its jurisdiction, and from African states having a stake in ongoing ICC investigations into crimes in Uganda and the Congo that might be disrupted by a senior staff change. The Washington Post has more.

[JURIST] An Australian court hearing a bail application by Australian Muslims detained in a major November anti-terror sweep [JURIST report] was told by prosecutors Friday that two of the suspects had discussed assassinating Australian Prime Minister John Howard, killing police and attacking families at soccer matches. The 18 suspects arrested in raids in Sydney and Melbourne are charged with membership in a terrorist organization and planning a terrorist attack. The Australian parliament recently passed strict new anti-terrorism legislation [JURIST report], and just prior to the announcement of the Sydney and Melbourne arrests approved an additional law anti-terror rushed through by the Howard government [JURIST report] to facilitate terror prosecutions in the face of a then-unspecified "credible threat". Reuters has more.

[JURIST] A 2002 Presidential order issued in the aftermath of 9/11 authorized the US National Security Agency (NSA) [official website] to secretly monitor the international telephone calls and international e-mail messages of possibly thousands of US residents without warrants over the past three years, according to officials quoted in an extensive New York Times report Friday. The purpose of the order was to track possible so-called "dirty numbers" to al-Qaeda in an attempt to uncover and destroy terrorist plots. Warrants are still required for communications that are solely domestic in nature, but some officials said the domestic surveillance is pushing the limits of the Fourth Amendment, especially since the NSA has traditionally functioned only to spy on overseas communications.

Warrantless wiretaps were the issue of a 2002 case before the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Court of Review. In the first appeal [text; FindLaw commentary] from the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Court (FISC) to the Court of Review since the passage of the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act (FISA) [text; FAS backgrounder], the Government argued [appeal, text] that FISC erred when it partially denied authorization for electronic surveillance under FISA. In a supplemental brief [text] the Government stated:

the Constitution vests in the President inherent authority to conduct warrantless intelligence surveillance (electronic or otherwise) of foreign powers or their agents, and Congress cannot by statute extinguish that constitutional authority.

[JURIST] UK Home Secretary Charles Clarke [official profile] said Thursday that he was dropping a contentious provision in proposed new UK anti-terrorism legislation [text] introduced in the wake of the July London bombings [JURIST news archive] that would have permited authorities to close British mosques suspected of connections with extremists. The provision [Home Office consultation paper] was withdrawn after opposition [responses to consultation paper] from British Muslim groups and other religious leaders and a statement from the Association of Chief Police Officers [official website] that the provision was not "desirable or enforceable" as presently framed. Critics of the proposal said that it would unduly confine freedome of expression and could drive extermism underground where would it would even harder to combat. In a comprehensive progress report [text] to the House of Commons on counter-terrorism the Clarke said that he would consult on an unspecified "new power to order closure of a place of worship which is used as a centre for fomenting extremism", but that he would not legislate on the subject at this time. AP has more. From London, the Independent has local coverage.