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.

The US Supreme Court on May 18 ruled 5-4 in Ashcroft v. Iqbal that a complaint filed against former Attorney General John Ashcroft, FBI director Robert Mueller and other officials failed to demonstrate an intentional pattern of discrimination. Pakistani national Javaid Iqbal, detained on an immigration violation in the wake of the 9-11 attacks, alleged mistreatment by the FBI based on religious and ethnic bias during his detention in a Brooklyn maximum security federal prison, and that Ashcroft and Meuller became complicit in the discrimination when they approved the policy that resulted in his detention.

From The Independent, May 16, links added:

A single American Special Forces group was behind at least three of Afghanistan's worst civilian casualty incidents, The Independent has learnt, raising fundamental questions about their ongoing role in the conflict.

Venezuela's government "temporarily" seized a pasta factory owned by US food giant Cargill May 15 in the coastal state of Vargas. Flanked by soldiers at the plant, Vice-Minister of Food Rafael Coronado said the government will run the factory for at least 90 days, having found it guilty of violating price controls. The move further increases President Hugo Chávez's hold on the economy, after a series of recent take-overs of private and foreign-owned businesses—including a Cargill rice plant. (La Reforma, Mexico, Radio Netherlands, May 16; BBC News, May 15)

Apparent US missile strikes killed four militants in a Pakistani tribal area near the Afghan border May 16. AFP said the compound was located in Khaisur village, 30 kilometers east of Miranshah, the main town in North Waziristan tribal region. AP put the attack in Mir Ali village. Security officials said they are digging through the rubble of destroyed houses for more victims. (AFP, AP, May 16)

US President Barack Obama announced May 15 that he is reinstating the controversial military commission system to try some Guantánamo Bay detainees. Obama said that there will be changes to the system to increase defendants' rights, including barring statements obtained under harsh interrogation methods and making it more difficult to introduce hearsay evidence. The administration will also seek a 90-day continuance of pending proceedings to implement the new rules, ask Congress to make changes to the Military Commissions Act of 2006 to give defendants expanded rights.

Human Rights Watch (HRW) on May 13 called on the US government to make "fundamental changes to reduce civilian casualties" in Afghanistan after attacks last week reportedly left more than 140 civilians dead. HRW said that a review announced by chief of the US Central Command General David Petraeus must result in "measures that genuinely minimize civilian loss of life." HRW called on the US to heed international laws of war, under which attacks cannot be indiscriminate or cause disproportionate civilian loss.

The US Court of Appeals for the Fourth Circuit in Richmond, VA, ruled May 13 that the insurance company for defense contractor CACI International has no duty to defend or indemnify CACI against claims of torture at Iraq prisons such as Abu Ghraib. CACI conceded that its insurance policy from St. Paul Fire & Marine Insurance Co. generally covered the intelligence contractor only in the US, Canada, and Puerto Rico but argued that its policy covered some claims involving CACI employees who were abroad for a "short time" on business.