Photographs of detainee abuse at Abu Ghraib prison that President Barack Obama does not want to release include depictions of rape and sexual assault, according to former Maj. Gen. Antonio Taguba May 27. In an interview with the UK's Daily Telegraph, Taguba supported Obama's decision not to release the photos, maintaining that doing so would endanger US troops.

Former vice president Dick Cheney on May 21 defended the national security policies of the Bush administration. Speaking at the American Enterprise Institute (AEI), Cheney criticized many of the security policies of President Barack Obama and described how the 9-11 attacks affected subsequent decisions. Maintaining that accurate intelligence is necessary to any strategy, Cheney defended the use of force to obtain timely information as being granted by Article II of the US Constitution and the Sept. 18, 2001 Authorization for Use of Military Force.

The US Department of Justice announced May 21 that Guantánamo Bay detainee Ahmed Khalfan Ghailani will be prosecuted in a US federal court for his alleged role in the 1998 bombings of US embassies in Kenya and Tanzania. The announcement follows the ordered review of all Guantánamo detainees pursuant to plans to close the detention facility.

An Italian judge ruled May 20 that the trial of 26 Americans and seven Italians involving the 2003 abduction of Egyptian cleric Osama Moustafa Hassan Nasr by the CIA will proceed despite excluded evidence. Judge Oscar Magi of the Fourth Chamber of the Court of Milan determined that the case will continue despite a ruling by Italy's Constitutional Court that excluded certain evidence on the grounds of national security.

Members of the US Senate on May 19 voted 90-6 to approve an amendment eliminating $80 million from pending legislation intended to fund the closure of the Guantánamo Bay detention facility. Introduced by Senate Appropriations Committee chairman Daniel Inouye (D-HI) and co-sponsored by five Republican senators, the measure prohibits using any funding provided by the Supplemental Appropriations Act of 2009 to "transfer, relocate, or incarcerate Guantanamo Bay detainees to or within the United States."

A US military judge on May 19 granted a government motion to postpone hearings for Saudi Guantánamo Bay detainee Ahmed Mohammed Ahmed Haza al-Darbi. Chief judge for military commissions Col. James Pohl granted the government's motion for a continuance until Sept. 24, reasoning that such a delay will permit the government to implement changes, complete the Detention Policy Review, and finish reviewing individual cases in a way that will serve the interests of justice.

Judge John Bates of the US District Court for the District of Columbia ruled May 19 on the limits of detaining terrorism suspects at Guantánamo Bay who are not actual members of terrorist groups under the 2001 Authorization for Use of Military Force (AUMF), rejecting the Obama administration's "substantial support" standard. The opinion rejected the government's argument that an individual who "substantially supports" a terrorist organization such as the "Taliban, al-Qaeda or an associated force" but is not a member can be detained pursuant to the AUMF.

A coalition of progressive organizations May 18 filed disciplinary complaints with five state bar associations seeking the disbarment of 12 former US government officials associated with the legal rationales behind the Bush administration's use of so-called enhanced interrogation techniques. Complaints filed by the group Velvet Revolution with the bar associations of New York, Pennsylvania, California, Texas, and the District of Columbia allege that former attorneys general John Ashcroft, Alberto Gonzales and Michael Mukasey, former Office of Legal Council lawyers John Yoo and Jay Bybee, former vice presidential chief of staff David Addington, former Pentagon official Douglas Feith, and other government officials violated the Rules of Professional Conduct by advocating the use of torture and should be disbarred as a result.