White House officials Saturday blamed former homeland security secretary nominee Bernard Kerik for failing to disclose potential legal problems to administration lawyers. Kerik withdrew his name from consideration late Friday after it was discovered that he had failed to pay taxes on an illegal immigrant he employed in his home. In addition, he reportedly failed [...]

Palestinian sources said Sunday that imprisoned leader Marwan Barghouti has dropped out of the Jan. 9 election to replace Yasser Arafat (see this previous report in JURIST's Paper Chase). Recent polls showed Barghouti, an independent candidate still incarcerated by the Israelis, to be in a virtual tie with Fatah nominee Mahmoud Abbas. AP has more.

The Bush administration has bugged the communications of UN International Atomic Energy Agency chief Mohamed ElBaradei in an effort to find evidence that could be used to oust him from his position and replace him with someone more to Washington's liking, according to three White House officials cited in a story in Sunday's Washington Post. [...]

According to British Foreign & Commonwealth Office documents obtained and published Saturday by the Guardian newspaper, Martin Mubanga, one of four muslim Britons still held at Guantanamo Bay, made new allegations of torture and humiliation endured by him and other detainees during a recent "welfare visit" from an FCO official. Mubanga, 31, claimed that he [...]

Denise K. Woo, a 45 year old former FBI agent, has been indicted on five criminal counts for tipping-off a suspect under investigation and lying to other FBI agents. Woo's indictment revealed that the FBI was conducting a national security probe on a Chinese-American man suspected of collecting information as an employee of a defense [...]

US military officials said Saturday that a US soldier has been sentenced to three years in prison for killing a severely wounded Iraqi. As previously reported in JURIST's Paper Chase, Staff Sgt. Johnny M. Horne Jr., 30, of Winston-Salem, N.C., had pleaded guilty on Friday to unpremeditated murder of the Iraqi teen August 18 during [...]

The White House said late Friday evening that former New York Police Commissioner Bernard Kerik has withdrawn his nomination as homeland security secretary. Kerik said in a statement that "In the course of completing documents required for Senate confirmation, I uncovered information that now leads me to question the immigration status of a person who [...]

Edward Lee, Moritz College of Law, Ohio State University: "The Supreme Court decided to hear the Grokster case, which involves the question whether p2p software distributors can be held secondarily liable for the infringing acts of some users of the software. This is a huge case in the recording industry's strategy to curb music file [...]

Ailing Chief Justice William Rehnquist plans to swear-in George W. Bush to his second term as President at the inauguration ceremony in Washington DC on January 20, the White House and a Supreme Court spokesperson said late Friday. Rehnquist has been undergoing cancer treatment since his hospitalization in late October and has not been seen [...]

The US Army announced Friday that the court-martial for Lynndie England, charged in the Abu Ghraib prisoner abuse scandal, has been moved to Fort Hood, Texas, from Fort Bragg, North Carolina. The Army said in a statement that the move was designed to facilitate consideration of several cases stemming from the prisoner abuse scandal, including [...]