In an interview with the Dubai-based Al-Arabiya satellite television station aired Sunday , a half-brother of Osama bin Laden offered to pay for the legal defense of al-Qaida leader in the event of his capture. Yeslam Binladin is one of 54 sons and daughters of the late Saudi construction magnate Mohammed bin Laden , who [...]

Report to the President 2004, Information Security Oversight Office, issued to the President on March 31, 2005 and publicly released July 1, 2005 . Excerpt: This report provides information on the status of the security classification program as required by Executive Order 12958, as amended, "Classified National Security Information." It includes statistics and analysis concerning [...]

A committee of lawyers created for Saddam Hussein's defense team has filed a writ of habeas corpus in the US requesting that he be taken out of Iraq for his upcoming trial, a move anticipated as far back as December . The committee, led by Ziad al-Khasawneh , argues that a proceeding before the Iraqi [...]

US Attorney General Alberto Gonzales made a surprise visit to Iraq Sunday to meet with US soldiers, Justice Department officials currently training Iraqi judges and law enforcement officers, and his counterparts in the Iraqi government. Gonzales commended the country's efforts to secure democracy and the rule of law amidst recent attacks by insurgent forces. He [...]

A new federal Information Security Oversight Office report indicates that 15.6 million documents were classified by the US government in 2004, almost double the number from 2001, leading to a cost to taxpayers of $7.2 billion. At the same time, the declassification process, which makes historical documents available to the public, has slowed from 204 [...]

Iraqi government spokesman Laith Kubba admitted Sunday that Iraqi security forces have commited abuse and torture in fighting the Sunni-led insurgency in Iraq. Kubba said that government ministers are concerned. Mohammed Hamed Qader, a Kurdish Islamic member of parliament, says that he was recently beaten and insulted after being taken into police custody and is [...]

The Washington Post reported Sunday that Republicans are intent on implementing a streamlined schedule to quickly confirm a successor for retiring Supreme Court justice Sandra Day O'Connor and avoid a repeat of the past year's stalled judicial confirmations . A GOP Senate Judiciary Committee planning document urges that President Bush’s nominee be counseled to avoid [...]

The Egyptian judges' syndicate released a report Saturday stating that the results of a nationwide poll on regulations for the upcoming presidential elections were unreliable due to fraud. The group of 8,000 judges pointed to extremely low turnout in polling stations supervised by the judiciary and extremely high turnout in stations run by civil servants [...]

An adviser to outgoing Iranian president Khatami said Saturday that Iranian President-elect Mahmoud Ahmadinejad is not the man in a photograph taken during the 1979 hostage crisis at the US embassy in Tehran . Saeed Hajjarian, a former top secret agent, said that the man in the photograph is actually Taqi Mohammadi, an extremist who [...]

The China National Offshore Oil Company Ltd. (CNOOC) submitted the details of its $18.5 billion bid to purchase Unocal to the Committee on Foreign Investment in the United States Friday. The purchase would mark the largest acquisition of a US corporation by a Chinese company. US leaders have voiced concern over the potential national security [...]