Terrorism-related secrecy

The New York Times today urged Attorney General Eric Holder to release Guantanamo detainees' testimony on their alleged torture while in C.I.A. custody -- details withheld by the Bush administration in the name of national security.

The newspaper editorial also urged the administration to repudiate the gag orders imposed on the attorneys who represent detainees.  

After a years-long battle to withhold images of abuse and torture at U.S.-run military facilities -- a battle lost in court -- the White House is being urged to reverse its position to release them to the public by two U.S. senators who still don't seem to get it.

The U.S. Court of Appeals in San Francisco (9th Cir.) yesterday reinstated a lawsuit brought by former detainees who claim they were tortured as part of the Central Intelligence Agency’s “extraordinary rendition" program.

After years of litigation under the Freedom of Information Act, four secret memos from the Justice Department’s Office of Legal Counsel were finally released Thursday by the Obama administration.

A Manhattan judge considering whether to unseal approximately one million pages of documents related to the Sept. 11, 2001 terrorist attacks said yesterday that he will likely deny requests for public access, Reuters reports.  

A Manhattan federal court will hear oral arguments Wednesday on whether more than a million pages of documents related to the Sept. 11, 2001 terrorist attacks should remain sealed.

Judge Alvin K. Hellerstein of the United States District Court in New York City will hear arguments from The New York Times and the Reporters Committee, as well as victims’ families and attorneys for the aviation industry defendants.

Students at Georgetown University are suing the CIA, FBI and other government agencies for information in the death of Wall Street Journal reporter Daniel Pearl.

The Supreme Court will not review the issue of whether documents provided to the Defense Department by outside contractors related to the creation of military war crimes commissions should be released under the Freedom of Information Act.

A federal appeals court on Monday blocked The Associated Press from accessing Justice Department documents about the American-born Taliban soldier, John Walker Lindh.

The Treasury Department must disclose petitions from individuals and groups who want off a list of suspicious people maintained by the Office of Foreign Assets Control, a federal court ruled last week.

The U.S. District Court for the Northern District of California ordered the release in a Freedom of Information Act lawsuit brought by the Lawyers’ Committee for Civil Rights in San Francisco.