[JURIST] Nominee for director of the Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) [official website] Leon Panetta [profile] testified [testimony, PDF; materials] Thursday before the US Senate Intelligence Committee [official website] that he would perform his duties according to the law while upholding the Constitution. Panetta said:

I believe the Director should be responsible for shaping the role of CIA in the twenty-first century to protect this nation, to provide credible and accurate intelligence to policy makers, to undertake those missions that will enhance our security, and to always perform our responsibilities according to the law and our Constitution.

[JURIST] Nominee for Deputy Attorney General David Ogden [professional profile] Thursday defended his representation of parties opposing anti-pornography and pre-abortion parental notification laws during testimony [prepared statement; webcast] before the Senate Judiciary Committee [committee website]. Ogden, who is presently in private practice at the law firm WilmerHale [firm website], has come under attack from conservative groups, including Focus on the Family and the American Family Association (AFA) [advocacy websites], for his representation of clients including Playboy [Focus on the Family commentary], and his legal arguments against social issues [AFA commentary] such as prior parental notifications of abortions. Ogden is expected to be approved by the Judiciary Committee and then confirmed by the Senate. Ogden served as Assistant Attorney General, Civil Division, under former president Bill Clinton.

President Obama announced his appointment of Ogden [JURIST report] to the position of Deputy Attorney General last month. Ogden's future boss, Attorney General Eric Holder [official profile] was confirmed in a Senate vote on Monday [JURIST report]. Holder is the first African-American to lead the Justice Department. Last month, Holder told the committee [JURIST report] in confirmation hearings [materials; transcript] that he believes waterboarding [JURIST news archive] constitutes torture. Then-President-elect Barack Obama officially announced his nomination of Holder [JURIST report] in December. Holder served as Deputy US Attorney General [archive materials] during the Clinton administration. Republicans have criticized [JURIST report] Holder for his role in the 2001 pardon of fugitive financier Marc Rich [Time backgrounder].

[JURIST] US Supreme Court Associate Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg [official biography, PDF] underwent surgery [press release] Thursday in New York for pancreatic cancer [Mayo Clinic backgrounder]. Ginsburg, 75, is expected to remain at the Memorial Sloan-Kettering Cancer Center [official website] in New York, where the surgery was performed, for seven to 10 days before being released. According to the Supreme Court, Ginsburg had no symptoms of the disease before it was discovered during a routine physical examination in late January. Pancreatic cancer has a low survival rate upon diagnosis, but early discovery and treatment of the condition can improve the patient's prognosis. Ginsburg was diagnosed and treated with radiation and chemotherapy for rectal cancer [AP report] in 1999.

News of Ginsburg's illness comes during a period of heightened speculation over the future ideological direction of the Supreme Court during the administration of President Barack Obama [official profile]. In a recent column for the website Slate, senior editor Dahlia Lithwick called for [Slate op-ed] the appointment of a liberal justice in the mold of conservative Associate Justice Antonin Scalia [official biography, PDF]. In a recent article, Adam Liptak of the New York Times discussed the possible decisions [NYT report] facing Obama with respect to the aging so-called "liberal wing" of the Supreme Court, including Ginsburg, Associate Justice John Paul Stevens, and Associate Justice Stephen Breyer [official profiles, PDF].

[JURIST] The sister-in-law of embattled former Taiwanese President Chen Shui-bian [BBC profile, JURIST news archive] on Thursday entered a guilty plea at the Taipei District Court on charges of money laundering related to a corruption scandal surrounding the former leader and his associates. Chen Chun-ying admitted she had forged documents and transferred money to bank accounts upon orders from Chen Shui-bian and his wife, claiming that she did not know the money was illegally obtained and did not profit from the transfer. Businessman Kuo Chuan-ching also pleaded guilty to paying $2.7 million in kickbacks in exchange for a building contract. Kuo is expected to serve as a witness for the prosecution [Taiwan News report]. Prosecutors reportedly rejected Chen Chun-ying's request to plea bargain due to ongoing investigations in the scandal.

Chen Chun-ying is the fourth family member to enter guilty pleas for their roles in the scandal. The former president was indicted [JURIST report] last year by Taiwanese prosecutors on charges including embezzlement, receiving bribes, forgery, and money laundering. His wife, his son and daughter-in-law, three former presidential aides, and eight other associates and family members have also been indicted. Chen Shui-bian has been detained since his November arrest [JURIST report] on suspicion of embezzling money from the state affairs fund. Last month, Taiwan's High Court [official website] rejected [JURIST report] Shui-bian's appeal protesting the court's previous decision to detain him [JURIST report] while he awaits trial on corruption charges.

[JURIST] The US Senate [official website] amended the "Buy American" clause of the latest economic stimulus package [HR 1 materials] Wednesday to clarify that the provision will be applied consistent with US obligations under international trade agreements. The revised language was proposed by Sen. Byron Dorgan (D-ND) [official website]. The Senate also voted [materials] 31-65 to reject an amendment proposed by Sen. John McCain (R-AZ) [official website] that would have stripped the provision from the bill entirely. The previous version of the provision required that all goods used in a construction project, particularly iron and steel, be manufactured in the US in order to receive stimulus funding. Many countries, including Canada, are pleased [Reuters report] with the Senate's move to amend the provision, but the European steel confederation Eurofer [official website] believes the move does not go far enough [press release].

The previous version of the bill raised global concerns [JURIST report] about protectionism. President Barack Obama [official website] has already separated himself from the "Buy American" provision, saying in an interview [transcript] earlier this week: "That is a potential source of trade wars that we can't afford at a time when trade is sinking all across the globe."

[JURIST] China reiterated its request Thursday that all Chinese Muslims, or Uighurs, held at Guantanamo Bay [JURIST news archive] be returned to China [press release, in Mandarin] after the prison's closing. Spokesperson for the Chinese Foreign Ministry [official website, in Mandarin] Jiang Yu [official profile] said that China objects to other countries accepting any one of the 17 detainees and that international law dictates they be sent back. The statement comes just two days after three Uighurs sought refugee status in Canada [JURIST report], but it is not clear whether they will be accepted [Reuters report]. China maintains the detainees should be brought back to face charges that they are members of the East Turkestan Islamic Movement (ETIM) [GlobalSecurity backgrounder], a militant group calling for separation from China and designated a terrorist group by the United States for suspected ties to al Qaeda. The US government has been hesitant to release the Uighurs back to China, fearing they will tortured upon their return.

In July, China reportedly executed two Uighurs [JURIST report] alleged to be members of the ETIM. Thirteen other Uighurs were given jail terms ranging from ten years to life imprisonment. In 2006, China criticized the US for releasing five Uighurs to Albania [JURIST reports], where officials reviewed their applications for asylum. In 2005, a US district judge ruled [JURIST report] that two Uighurs at Guantanamo Bay could be detained indefinitely even though their imprisonment was unlawful because they could face death or torture in China. The US State Department has said the Uighurs are among detainees who will be released [JURIST report] once the US receives assurances that they will not be persecuted in their home countries or finds other countries willing to accept them.

[JURIST] UK Secretary of State for Foreign and Commonwealth Affairs David Miliband [official profile] told members of Parliament Thursday that the US did not threaten to withhold intelligence [FCO press release] if a summary of the alleged torture of Guantanamo Bay [JURIST news archive] detainee Binyam Mohamed [Reprieve profile; JURIST news archive] was made public. Miliband's statement was in response to a judgment [text, PDF; JURIST report] issued by the London High Court Wednesday, in which Lord Justice Thomas and Mr. Justice Lloyd Jones wrote that the US threatened to reconsider or end intelligence-sharing with the UK. Miliband said:

It therefore was – and remains – my judgment that the disclosure of the intelligence documents at issue by order of our courts against the wishes of the US authorities would indeed cause real and significant damage to the national security and international relations of this country. For the record, the United States authorities did not threaten to "break off" intelligence cooperation with the UK. What the United States said, and it appears in the open, public documents of this case, is that the disclosure of these documents by order of our Courts would be "likely to result in serious damage to US national security and could harm existing intelligence information-sharing between our two governments." That’s a simple affirmation of the facts of intelligence cooperation.

[JURIST] The US Court of Military Commission Review (USCMCR) [official website] on Wednesday granted [order, PDF] a government request [motion, PDF] for a 120-day continuance on an intermediate appeal in its case against Guantanamo Bay [JURIST news archive] detainee Mohammed Jawad [DOD materials; JURIST news archive]. The government asked the court to grant the continuance in light of an executive order [JURIST report] by President Barack Obama [official website] requiring a review of the military commission [JURIST news archive] system, arguing that proceeding with the case would be futile until the review is complete. Lawyers for Jawad opposed [text, PDF] the continuance, arguing that the USCMCR lacked authority to grant the motion, and that any likely changes to the military commission system would not favor the government's position. Siding with the government, the court reasoned that it ought to grant deference to the government given national security and foreign policy concerns:

[T]he reason for the delay is to allow the Department of Defense to participate in an Interagency review, not only of the military commission process, but also the status of those apprehended and presently detained at Guantanamo Bay - including the Appellee - their conditions, and the factual and legal bases for their apprehension and detention, all in the context of the national security and foreign policy interests of the United States.

[JURIST] US military contractor Don Ayala pleaded guilty [press release] Tuesday to voluntary manslaughter for the 2008 shooting of an Afghan detainee. Ayala had been charged with second-degree murder for shooting and killing [affidavit, PDF] detainee Abdul Salam in retaliation for Salam's earlier attack on Ayala's fellow contractor Paula Lloyd [HTS in memoriam profile]. At the time of the incident, Ayala was stationed in Afghanistan as a contractor for Strategic Analysis [corporate website] as part of the US Army's Human Terrain System [official website] program. Ayala was prosecuted under Section 3261 of the Military Extraterritorial Jurisdiction Act (MEJA) [text], which allows criminal charges to be brought against military contractors overseas. He made his plea before the US District Court for the Eastern District of Virginia [official website].

In December, the US Department of Justice [official website] unsealed indictments [JURIST report] for five Blackwater USA [corporate website] guards allegedly involved in the September 2007 killings of 17 Iraqi civilians, determined by the FBI to be unjustified [JURIST reports]. Crimes committed by military contractors abroad are considered to be the impetus behind provisions in the US-Iraq Status of Forces Agreement [PDF text; JURIST report] that gives Iraqi courts limited jurisdiction over contractors working there.