No criminal charges will be brought against Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) officials for destroying videotapes of controversial interrogations of terror suspects during the Bush administration, a federal prosecutor announced Nov. 9. US Department of Justice special prosecutor John Durham "has concluded that he will not pursue criminal charges for the destruction of the interrogation videotapes," said DoJ spokesperson Matthew Miller.

A three-judge panel for the US Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit on Nov. 5 ordered further review of a lower court decision to release Guantánamo Bay detainee Mohamedou Olud Slahi, allegedly linked to the 9-11 terrorist attacks. The order vacated US District Court Judge James Robertson's decision to release Slahi and remanded the case, instructing the court to conduct further review to see if Slahi has abandoned ties to al-Qaeda, to which he swore an oath of allegiance in the early 1990s.

A panel of seven senior US military officers on Oct. 31 sentenced Canadian Guantánamo Bay detainee Omar Khadr to 40 years in prison, but Khadr will serve no more than eight years under the terms of a guilty plea agreement. Khadr pleaded guilty last week to all five charges against him, including murder, attempted murder, conspiracy, providing material support for terrorism and espionage, agreeing to serve an eight-year sentence. He will serve only one year of his sentence at Guantánamo and will then be able to apply to be transferred to Canada and will be eligible for parole after serving one-third of his sentence. According to a diplomatic note agreement the US and Canada, Khadr's application will be "favorably" considered.

Prosecutors investigating the secret CIA prison in Poland on Oct. 27 gave Saudi terror suspect Abd al-Rahim al-Nashiri victim status, recognizing the validity of his claims that he was mistreated by interrogators. According to ex-CIA officials, al-Nashiri, accused of bombing the USS Cole, was tortured by the agency at the secret prison in Poland. Granting al-Nashiri victim status will grant the detainee more rights and allow his lawyers to participate in the proceedings.

Canadian Guantánamo Bay detainee Omar Khadr on Oct. 25 pleaded guilty to all five charges against him, including conspiracy, murder and aiding the enemy. Under the terms of the agreement, Khadr will serve up to eight more years in prison in addition to the eight he has already spent in detention. At least one of those years will be spent at Guantánamo Bay. One other purported condition of the plea is that the US will support Khadr's eventual application for transfer to Canada, a bargain that has been agreed to by the US and Canada through a series of sealed diplomatic notes. The guilty plea marks a reversal from Khadr's original stance, voiced by one of his attorneys, that he would not accept a plea deal. Khadr's sentence will be determined by a panel of seven senior military officers at a hearing that will begin this week.

A former Guantánamo Bay detainee filed a lawsuit Oct. 6 against the US military alleging that he was subjected to torture. Abdul Rahim Abdul Razak al-Ginco, a Syrian national who prefers the surname Janko, filed suit in the US District Court for the District of Columbia—the same court that ordered his release last year—claiming that US military officials repeatedly tortured him during his nearly seven-and-a-half years at Gitmo. The suit names 26 current or former members of the military who are allegedly responsible for the tortuous acts, such as urinating on Janko, slapping him, threatening him with loss of fingernails, sleep deprivation, extreme cold and stress positions. Janko was released in June 2009 when Judge Richard Leon found that he could no longer be classified as an "enemy combatant" and that the government's argument against him defied common sense. Prior to being detained by the US military, Janko was imprisoned and tortured by al-Qaeda for 18 months over suspicions that he was an American spy.

From Reuters, Sept. 26:

U.S. should be able to shut Internet, former CIA chief says
SAN ANTONIO — Cyberterrorism is such a threat that the U.S. president should have the authority to shut down the Internet in the event of an attack, Former CIA Director Michael Hayden said.

The Obama administration on Sept. 24 filed a brief with the District Court for the District of Columbia, asking the court to dismiss a lawsuit challenging the legality of targeted killings of terrorism suspects. The lawsuit, filed by the father of US citizen Anwar al-Awlaqi, seeks an injunction to prevent the government from killing al-Awlaqi on the basis that it would be an extrajudicial execution. The Obama administration argues that this matter involves "non-justiciable political questions" to be decided by the executive branch and that litigation could divulge state secrets.