In the Nation
Delays granted in 2 detainee cases
SAN JUAN, Puerto Rico - Military judges at Guantanamo Bay granted requests yesterday for further continuances in two war-crimes cases as the Obama administration evaluates how to proceed with detainee prosecutions.The prosecutors' requests were approved after separate hearings at the U.S. Navy base in Cuba for Noor Uthman Muhammed and Ibrahim al-Qosi, two Sudanese detainees accused of aiding al-Qaeda, according to Joseph DellaVedova, a spokesman for the Pentagon's Office of Military Commissions.
The rulings mean that six pending Guantanamo cases have been delayed until Nov. 16, the government's self-imposed deadline for deciding how and where they might continue. Trials could eventually be held in U.S. civilian courts or a modified version of the Bush administration's military commissions. - AP
Official steps aside after Stevens case
WASHINGTON - The lead lawyer who oversaw the botched prosecution of former Sen. Ted Stevens (R., Alaska) will step down from his role as the head of the Justice Department's public integrity section, the department confirmed yesterday.William Welch will remain with the Justice Department but will move to a role in Massachusetts, said his lawyer, William Taylor.
Welch, who did not have direct day-to-day involvement in the Stevens case, remains under two investigations for the botched government role that he and other prosecutors had in the case. Stevens' indictment was part of a sweeping investigation into corruption in Alaska politics that began unraveling when defense attorneys questioned the way prosecutors and the FBI handled witnesses and evidence in his case and others. - McClatchy Newspapers
Woman recants '07 torture claims
COLUMBUS, Ohio - An attorney for Megan Williams, a black woman who in 2007 told authorities she had been tortured for days by a white group in West Virginia, said yesterday that his client fabricated the story to get back at a boyfriend who had beaten her up.The attorney, Byron Potts, said at a news conference that Williams came forward because she no longer wanted to live a lie. Potts encouraged West Virginia authorities to reevaluate the case.
Williams told authorities she had been beaten, raped, forced to eat animal feces, and taunted with racial slurs. She now lives in Columbus.
Seven white men and women were convicted in the case and most are serving long prison terms. Prosecutors in West Virginia have dismissed Williams' new claim, and lawyers for the defendants are not discussing their plans. - AP
Elsewhere:
A square, 32.01-carat emerald-cut diamond that billionaire philanthropist Leonore Annenberg bought for her 90th birthday sold for $7.7 million at auction yesterday at Christie's in New York to an unidentified buyer. The ring was offered for sale by Annenberg's estate. She died in March.
Diego Montoya Sanchez, 48, a top Colombian kingpin who shipped billions of dollars' worth of cocaine to the United States and ran a private army, was sentenced in Miami yesterday to 45 years in prison.
