Justice Department

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CIA Manipulated Every Detail of Interrogation Sessions

Top-level approval of interrogation techniques could complicate Justice probe

(Newser) - As the CIA discloses internal reports concerning “enhanced” interrogation techniques on detainees at secret prisons, the ugliest details—threats of execution and harm with a power drill—have grabbed headlines. But the documents also reveal an intriguing level of control that the CIA and Department of Justice maintained over...

Fed Judge Tosses DoMA Suit
 Fed Judge Tosses DoMA Suit 
Aug 25, 2009 5:52 AM CDT

Fed Judge Tosses DoMA Suit

(Newser) - A federal judge in California dismissed a lawsuit challenging the Defense of Marriage Act yesterday, supporting the Obama administration's claim that a gay couple had not suffered "an injury in fact." The Justice Department filed a brief agreeing with the plaintiffs that DoMA is discriminatory, but said it...

Just What Obama Didn't Need: a CIA Probe
 Just What Obama 
 Didn't Need: a CIA Probe 
ANALYSIS
Aug 25, 2009 4:51 AM CDT

Just What Obama Didn't Need: a CIA Probe

(Newser) - The White House was busily waging a do-or-die battle to pass health reform when it was suddenly handed exactly what it wanted to avoid: a polarizing battle about Bush-era tactics that President Obama has already condemned. Obama is attempting to remain above the fray as the administration insists that AG...

Where's the Lefty Outrage Over Outing CIA Ops Now?

(Newser) - During the Valerie Plame scandal, the left acted as if there was no greater sin than disclosing the name of a CIA operative. But there is no such outrage at current initiatives that could potentially disclose the names of several agency officers, writes Bret Stephens in the Wall Street Journal....

Holder Launches Probe Into CIA Torture Allegations

(Newser) - AG Eric Holder today named a special prosecutor to investigate allegations of torture against CIA operatives who interrogated terror suspects during the Bush administration, the Washington Post reports. John Durham, who is currently probing the destruction of interrogation tapes, will look into fewer than 12 cases detailed in a CIA...

Mock Executions Among CIA Torture Tactics

(Newser) - A report long suppressed by Bush administration officials set to be released next week says the CIA used mock executions as part of post-9/11 interrogations, Newsweek reports—though federal law prohibits threatening prisoners with “imminent death,” and the practice wasn’t authorized by the Justice Department, unlike other...

White House Calls Marriage Law Unfair to Gays

...but it's still defending DOMA in court

(Newser) - The Obama administration wants to give the Defense of Marriage Act the boot, the Justice Department said in court filings today, but that won’t stop the department from defending the law in court. The administration believes DOMA, which prevents federal recognition of gay marriage and denies gay federal employees...

US Settles Tax Evasion Suit With UBS, Swiss

(Newser) - Swiss bank UBS AG has agreed to a settlement with the US to resolve a lengthy tax evasion probe, the Wall Street Journal reports. The details are currently under wraps, as the final documents await signatures. UBS will likely hand the IRS the names of  8,000 to 10,000...

Emails Show Rove Knee-Deep in Attorney Firings

(Newser) - Karl Rove was intimately involved in the firing of at least three of the US Attorneys sacked for purportedly political reasons during the Bush administration, emails obtained by the Washington Post show. One note mentions a senator who “asked that we remove the US Atty” and “couldn’t...

Holder Warns of Homegrown Terror Risk

AG: 'American people would be surprised'

(Newser) - The chilling big picture suggests that “the radicalization of Americans” who leave the country and return wanting to do “harm to the American people” is a growing threat, Eric Holder tells ABC News. It’s “something that didn’t loom as large a few months ago as...

Yoo Fights Back on Torture
 Yoo Fights Back on Torture 
Jul 27, 2009 7:13 AM CDT

Yoo Fights Back on Torture

(Newser) - The embattled Bush administration lawyer who drafted memos justifying waterboarding and warrantless wiretaps is fighting back as his role comes under greater scrutiny, the Washington Post reports. John Yoo, now a University of California law professor, has been giving speeches around the country defending the tactics and his view that...

Yoo: Wiretaps Were Legal and Necessary
Yoo: Wiretaps Were Legal and Necessary
OPINION
Jul 16, 2009 7:24 AM CDT

Yoo: Wiretaps Were Legal and Necessary

President had right to violate 'obsolete' FISA, Bush lawyer writes

(Newser) - Last week the inspectors general of the Justice Department, CIA, and other agencies suggested the Bush administration violated the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act, singling out lawyer John Yoo for memos justifying warrantless wiretapping. Yoo defends himself today in a Wall Street Journal op-ed, writing that FISA was "an obsolete...

Feds Probe Shady Market for Derivatives

Banks may have unfair edge in information on credit-default swaps

(Newser) - The Justice Department is probing the market for credit-default swaps, the largely unregulated derivatives that contributed to the financial crisis, Bloomberg reports. Justice is investigating whether big banks have unfair access to price information through their ownership of a private company that provides data to investors. The Obama administration wants...

Feds, Swiss Call Timeout in US Tax Evasion Case

(Newser) - Aiming to avoid an ugly international dispute, the US government, Switzerland, and a Swiss bank are seeking to delay a hearing over private bank accounts, the Wall Street Journal reports. The respite would give government officials and UBS until August to strike a deal over data on some 52,000...

Wiretapping Memos Drafted in 'Inappropriate' Secrecy: Report

Only 3 Justice officials knew of program

(Newser) - The legal justification for the Bush administration’s warrantless wiretapping program was handled with unprecedented secrecy that sidestepped usual Justice Department procedure, the Washington Post reports. Only three Justice officials—John Ashcroft, John Yoo, and staff attorney James Baker—were made aware of the program and participated in drafting memos...

Obama's Environmental Pick Is Tight With the Enemy

(Newser) - President Obama's pick to run the Justice Department's environmental unit has an impressive resume when it comes to lawsuits against giant polluters. Trouble is, say her critics, all that experience has come from working with the bad guys. Ignacia Moreno, currently an attorney for GE, has spent years defending the...

Justice Dept. to Launch Antitrust Review of Telecoms

(Newser) - The Obama administration is looking into the country’s top telecom companies, including AT&T and Verizon, to determine whether they’ve abused their market power with anti-competitive actions, sources tell the Wall Street Journal. The Justice Department is concerned that, among other things, the big players are locking out...

Evidence Tying Cheney to Plame Leak Grows

Obama DoJ renews Bush-era objections to releasing details

(Newser) - The Obama Justice Department is continuing its efforts to maintain the Bush administration's secrecy over Dick Cheney's role in the Valerie Plame CIA leak scandal, the Washington Post reports. A filing this week, intended to bolster the current administration’s case for keeping secret details of the then-VP’s 2004...

Justice Dept. Opposes Effort to Dig Up Geronimo

(Newser) - The Justice Department has asked a federal judge to dismiss a lawsuit seeking to unearth the bones of Geronimo from his Oklahoma tomb and rebury them in his native New Mexico, the BBC reports. The Apache leader’s descendants also name Yale University and the Skull and Bones society, which...

Need a Gun? On the Terrorist Watch List? No Problem

Feds OK sales thanks to controversial law

(Newser) - People placed on Washington's terrorist watch list can be prevented from boarding an airplane or getting a visa, but they can still buy a gun, the New York Times reports. In the last 5 years, people on the list tried to buy guns nearly 1,000 times, and current laws...

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