At the request of the Obama administration, a US Court of Appeals agrees to reconsider a decision allowing a case over the alleged involvement of a Boeing unit in the "extraordinary rendition" of terrorist suspects.
Five terror suspect detainees allege that the company, Jeppesen Dataplan of San Jose, participated in the CIA's extraordinary rendition program that led to their brutal interrogation at foreign or CIA prisons.
Washington, however, argues that should the case be heard, it would jeopardize US 'state secrets'.
Three Judges at the Ninth US Circuit Court of Appeals in San Francisco had rejected arguments by the administrations of former president George W. Bush and incumbent Barack Obama in April.
However, the court said that an eleven-judge panel would rehear the case.
"The sum and substance of the United States' position in this litigation is that the government may engage in kidnapping and torture, declare those activities 'state secrets,' and by virtue of that designation alone avoid any judicial inquiry," the plaintiffs wrote in their filing, AFP reported.
"Permitting torture victims to seek justice in our courts will not endanger the nation."
The American Civil Liberties Union, which represents the five detainees, said it was disappointed by the court's ruling to rehear the case, but it expressed hope for the case to go forward.
"We are disappointed by the court's decision to re-hear this case, but we hope and expect that the court's historic decision to allow the lawsuit to go forward will stand," Ben Wizner, a lawyer at the American Civil Liberties Union, said in an e-mailed statement.
While Obama has criticized "extraordinary renditions", he has fallen short of disavowing them, pledging only that no prisoners would be tortured.
Extraordinary rendition is the practice of abducting suspected terrorists and criminals from foreign soil without any extradition or legal proceedings, and taking them to other countries or CIA prisons for interrogation.
UK army 'providing' Taliban with air transport October 17, 2009 presstv.ir
A British Air Force Chinook helicopter
The British army has been relocating Taliban insurgents from southern Afghanistan to the north by providing transportation means, diplomats say.
The diplomats, who spoke on condition of anonymity, said insurgents are being airlifted from the southern province of Helmand to the north amid increasing violence in the northern parts of the country.
The aircraft used for the transfer have been identified as British Chinook helicopters.
The officials said Sultan Munadi, an Afghan interpreter who was kidnapped along with his employer, New York Times reporter Stephen Farrell, was killed by a “British sniper” as commandos executed a rescue operation to free Farrell.
They said Munadi was targeted for possessing documents and pictures pointing at the British military's involvement in the transfer operation.
The Afghan journalist also had evidence of the involvement of the foreign forces in Afghanistan in the tensions that rocked China's Xinjiang autonomous region in July, the diplomats said.
American forces have also invigorated the insurgency in the war-ravaged country by outfitting the Taliban with Russian-made weaponry used during the 1979-89 Soviet invasion of Afghanistan, which was fought against by the Afghan Mujahedeen, the diplomats said.
The US forces are assumed to have gathered the armaments during a campaign to "collect weapons from irresponsible people," after the 2001 invasion.
Diplomats said Afghan Interior Minister Mohammad Hanif Atmar, a Pashtun who has received his higher education in the UK, was still operating under the British guidance.
The Interior Ministry is accused of enabling the provision of arms and ammunition for the north-based militants by the Pashtun police force.
Earlier in the week, Afghan President Hamid Karzai was quoted by the BBC Persian as having ordered an investigation into reports of 'unknown' army helicopters carrying gunmen to the north.
The Afghan president said based on unconfirmed reports, the helicopters have been taking gunmen to Baghlan, Kunduz and Samangan provinces overnight for about five months now.
In early 2008, Karzai expelled two British diplomats for allegedly planning to “turn” senior Taliban commanders. According to the Times Online, the British officials had sought to persuade militant chief Mullah Mansoor Dadullah to cooperate with the UK.
Afghanistan is currently witnessing the highest level of violence since the invasion, despite the presence of more than 100,000 foreign troops.
Afghan president's brother on CIA payroll October 28, 2009 presstv.ir
A US soldier in opium field in Afghanistan
An influential brother of the embattled Afghan President has been receiving regular payments from CIA agents since the US invasion of the country in 2001.
The US Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) has been paying Ahmed Wali Karzai, a suspected drug trafficker, for a variety of services, reports the prominent US daily, The New York Times, in its Wednesday edition.
Based on the report, the brother of Afghan President Hamid Karzai is a suspected player in the country's booming illegal opium trade and has fielded recruits for an Afghan paramilitary force operating at the CIA's direction in and around his home city of Kandahar.
The report also notes that Wali Karzai assists CIA contacts in the country and sometimes meets with Taliban leaders.
The militants have launched a bloody campaign against the NATO forces since the US-led invasion of the country began eight years ago.
The report observes that the close working relationship between the US spy agency and Karzai raises significant questions about America's war strategy in the war-torn country where the insurgency has skyrocketed over the past months.
The CIA declined to comment on the latest report, which has caused an uproar among the Afghan populace.
A report by the UN Office on Drugs and Crime has said that Afghanistan produces 92 percent of the world's opium with devastating global consequences.
Although opium is known to be the major source of funding for the Taliban, it has been widely reported that opium production in Afghanistan has grown steadily and significantly since the US-led invasion of the country eight years ago.
Occupiers involved in drug trade: Afghan minister
November 1, 2009 presstv.ir
The Afghan minister of counter narcotics says foreign troops are earning money from drug production in Afghanistan.
General Khodaidad Khodaidad said the majority of drugs are stockpiled in two provinces controlled by troops from the US, the UK, and Canada, IRNA reported on Saturday.
He went on to say that NATO forces are taxing the production of opium in the regions under their control.
Afghanistan is the world's biggest supplier of opium.
Drug production in the Central Asian country has increased dramatically since the US-led invasion eight years ago.
A recent report by the United Nations states that Afghan opium is having a devastating impact on the world, killing thousands in consumer countries.
Meanwhile, The New York Times reported on Wednesday that Ahmad Wali Karzai, a brother of the Afghan president, is involved in the opium trade, meets with Taliban leaders, and is also a CIA operative.
The opium trade is the major source of Taliban financing.
Pakistan condemns US for abandoning Afghan checkpoints
American military leaders have been accused of undermining Pakistan's offensive against the Taliban by abandoning Afghan border checkpoints.
By Emal Khan in Peshawar and Saeed Shah in Dera Ismail Khan October 20, 2009 telegraph.co.ukl
Islamabad fears the move will allow Taliban fighters to cross into South Waziristan to fight against them.
Gen Ashfaq Kayani, Pakistan's chief of army staff, complained about the lack of co-operation when he met General David Petraeus, the United States' chief of Central Command on Monday it has emerged.
His concern is focused on the removal of eight American checkpoints, four of which border South Waziristan including Zambali and Nurkha.
The closure was ordered after Gen Stanley McChrystal, the head of Nato forces in Afghanistan, completed a strategy review in which he said Western forces should focus on protecting towns and cities rather than remote outposts.
Colonel Wayne Shanks, a spokesman for Nato-led forces in Afghanistan, insisted there was no gap in security.
"Re-positioning of forces doesn't mean we are pulling out of an area. You wouldn't see a huge gap in security capability."
He said Nato forces were liaising with Afghan army and police in the area and "watching the situation extremely carefully."
The Pakistani objections came as militants fighters fought a fierce rearguard to retain control of Kotkai, the home of Hakimullah Mehsud, their Pakistani leader.
In heavy fighting, seven soldiers were killed, including a major and a further seven were injured. Taliban spokesman Azam Tariq claimed up to 45 soldiers had been killed in the battle. "We gave them a really tough time in Kotkai," he said.
The army got as far as Torghundai, a mountainous spot which lies inside the Kotkai district, when it met heavy resistance and aerial support was called in.
Last night Army troops surrounding Kotkai were being held at bay by an estimated 70 Taliban fighters despite an army pledge to take the town by nightfall. The deadline passed with Taliban militants holding the troops at just over quarter of a mile from the town with rounds of AK47 fire and volleys of rocket propelled grenades.
The ferocity of the Taliban's fightback surprised Pakistan's army chiefs who fear the impact reinforcements from Afghanistan might have.
As armed forces continued their push into the heart of South Waziristan, from the west, east and south, their chiefs launched a propaganda offensive to persuade the local Mehsud tribes that the invasion was to free them from Taliban dictatorship.
Thousands of letters written by Gen Kayani were scattered over Mehsud villages and towns by aircraft. Military chiefs are anxious to avoid stoking resentment among the 110,000 Mehsuds who have been forced to flee their homes to escape the fighting.
They were designed to persuade Mehsud leaders to set up new tribal "lashkars" or militia to fill the power vacuum they hope will emerge when the defeat the Taliban.
In his letter he urged them to "rise collectively" against militants in their midst.
"The ongoing operation by the Pakistani army is not aimed at the patriotic Mehsud tribes," he wrote. "Instead the target is for the good-riddance of the Mehsud tribes from the cruel clutches of terrorist elements who have ruined the law and order and peace of this area."
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