Human Rights First's U.S. Law and Security Digest is a weekly report to help keep you up to date about developments in U.S. national security law and policy that have an impact on civil liberties and human rights.

SUPREME COURT REJECTS HABEAS CASE APPEAL
The Supreme Court declined Monday to hear the cases of two groups of detainees at Guantanamo Bay who argue that their prolonged indefinite detentions violate the constitutional provision of habeas corpus. None of the detainees has been charged with any crime. Three justices said they would have heard Al Odah v. Bush and Boumediene v. Bush, which seek to challenge the Military Commission Act's claim that it strips judges of their authority to hear cases brought by Guantanamo detainees. And two of the justices who declined to take the cases said in a separate statement the cases would be subject to review if the government unreasonably delayed proceedings or otherwise injured the detainees. "The delay is disappointing," Hina Shamsi, deputy director of Human Rights First's Law and Security program, said, but noted that "a total of five justices sent the message that they will be watching to see how and with what speed the government proceeds in the detainees' challenges to their imprisonment." The ruling sends the cases to the Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia, before they can be appealed again to the Supreme Court. Read more.

U.S. OFFICIALS QUESTION TERROR SUSPECTS HELD IN SECRET ETHIOPIAN PRISONS
CIA and FBI officials have been interrogating detainees among a group of terrorism suspects captured mostly in Kenya and Somalia and held in secret Ethiopian prisons without charge or access to lawyers or their families. Experts have raised concerns that the detainees could suffer mistreatment in custody in Ethiopia, which is known to engage in torture. The detainees include women, children, and at least one American citizen. An FBI spokesman acknowledged the agency had questioned the detainees but said that they were never in U.S. custody. He added that the FBI would not support or facilitate any illegal arrests. Many of the detainees were captured by Ethiopian troops as the troops drove out Somalia's Islamist government last year. Others were caught in Kenya, which has provided a refuge to many fleeing the violence in Somalia. Canada, Eritrea, Sweden, and other governments have been pressing for information about their citizens detained in the Ethiopian prisons. Read more.

SUSPECTED AL QAEDA OPERATIVE SAYS HIS CONFESSION CAME AFTER TORTURE BY CIA
A Saudi national who confessed to participating in terrorist acts in the Middle East said at a hearing at Guantanamo Bay he only claimed involvement because he was tortured into the confession, according to recently released transcripts. Abd al-Rahim al-Nashiri, who was held for four years in secret CIA prisons, complained of torture in recent Combatant Status Review Tribunal (CSRT) hearings. The proceedings are meant to determine whether detainees are enemy combatants and therefore subject to indefinite detention and trial by military commission, but they suffer from a lack of standard legal safeguards. Another detainee formerly held in secret prisons, alleged Sept. 11 mastermind Khalid Sheik Mohammed, also complained of mistreatment in U.S. custody. Intelligence officials believe al-Nashiri was involved in the 1998 bombings of the U.S. embassies in East Africa and that he organized the bombing of the USS Cole in Yemen in 2000.
Meanwhile on Thursday the president of the International Committee of the Red Cross said the United States lacks adequate procedures to protect the human rights of detainees held at Guantanamo and called for a means for detainees to challenge their indefinite detentions. Read more.

HICKS TO RETURN TO AUSTRALIA TO SERVE NINE-MONTH PRISON SENTENCE
Australian citizen David Hicks, the first Guantanamo Bay detainee to be sentenced by military commission, received a nine-month sentence last week as part of a plea bargain in which he agreed not to discuss the mistreatment he said he suffered in U.S. custody. Hicks, one of many Guantanamo detainees who have spent more than five years at the prison, is the only one so far to face formal charges under new military commission rules. The military commission initially sentenced Hicks to seven years in prison, but that term was reduced to less than a year after the military commissions convening authority, Susan J. Crawford, arranged a plea deal with the defense. Hina Shamsi, deputy director of Human Rights First's Law and Security Program, who blogged from Guantanamo Bay, noted that Hicks was originally charged with attempted murder, but ultimately pleaded guilty to the lesser charge of lending material support to terrorists. Authorities could have prosecuted Hicks in a federal criminal court for those charges, Shamsi said, instead of holding him for five years at Guantanamo without a trial. Read more.

DUTCH TROOPS IN AFGHANISTAN PROMOTE COUNTERTERRORISM THROUGH INSTITUTION-BUILDING
Dutch forces in Afghanistan have adopted tactics known among counterterrorism experts as the "oil spot" approach, focusing on fighting terrorism through reconstruction and diplomacy rather than by taking on the Taliban through force. By concentrating on improving the lives of Afghans in less hostile areas, the troops hope these non-violent areas will slowly expand, like an oil stain on cloth. But some American military officers have expressed concerns that the restrained approach could give free rein to the Taliban to strengthen and expand their insurgency. In recent years, Dutch soldiers, with support from American soldiers and contractors, have helped coordinate Afghan security, built police posts, and worked on other development projects with village leaders, such as schools and mosques. The soldiers said they hope the projects will encourage leaders in other provinces to cooperate with the Afghan government. Read more.

APRIL 9: DISCUSSION ON PRESIDENTIAL POWER
The Brennan Center for Justice at New York University's School of Law will hold a public conversation on presidential powers in a time of terrorism. The discussion will be held from 6:30 to 8:30 p.m. in the Joseph Pulitzer World Room at the Columbia University Graduate School of Journalism, 116th Street & Broadway, New York City. More information.

APRIL 12: CONFERENCE ON SECRECY AND THE GOVERNMENT
The Center on Law and Security at New York University's School of Law will host a conference addressing government secrecy, counterterrorism, and national security. It will be held from 9 a.m. to 4 pm. at Lipton Hall, 108 W. 3rd Street, between Sullivan and Macdougal, New York City. More information.

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