Civil rights groups Jan. 4 opposed stricter screening procedures for passengers entering the US from 14 countries, calling the measures unconstitutional. The American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU) called on the US government to "adhere to longstanding standards of individualized suspicion and enact security measures that are the least threatening to civil liberties and are proven to be effective."

The US Court of Appeals for the Fourth Circuit Jan. 4 upheld the conviction and life sentence of accused 9-11 conspirator Zacarias Moussaoui. Moussaoui's lawyers had requested that his guilty plea and be withdrawn and a new trial be granted, arguing that his plea was involuntary due to Fifth and Sixth Amendment violations. They also argued that his unawareness of the charges against him violated Rule 11 of the Federal Rules of Criminal Procedure and that his trial counsel did not have access to statements made by al-Qaeda members denying Moussaoui's involvement in the 9-11 conspiracy. The appeals court rejected all of those arguments and "affirm[ed] Moussaoui's convictions and sentences in their entirety."

Israeli officials said Jan. 5 that a military delegation had canceled a trip to the UK over fears that they would be arrested on war crimes charges for their involvement in last year's Operation Cast Lead in the Gaza Strip. Israeli Deputy Minister of Foreign Affairs Danny Ayalon that day in Jerusalem with UK Attorney General Patricia Janet Scotland to challenge several British arrest warrants for Israeli politicians and military officials, stating that the warrants are straining Israeli-British foreign relations. The arrest warrants are the result of Palestinian plaintiffs working with British lawyers to bring charges against Israeli officials. Scotland, who also gave a speech Jan. 5 at the Hebrew University of Jerusalem, told Ayalon that UK officials were working to resolve the issue and protect senior officials traveling to the UK. (Jurist, Jan. 5)

On Dec. 29, President Barack Obama issued Executive Order 13526, setting new standards for how "national security" information is to be kept secret by federal government agencies. The Obama order replaces Executive Order 12958, issued by President Clinton in 1995 and amended by President Bush in 2003. Obama's order makes several significant changes to the policies of the two previous presidents, most notably in the treatment of historical materials more than 25 years old.

A White House spokesman said Jan. 5 that the US government will suspend transfers of Guantánamo Bay detainees to Yemen. White House press secretary Robert Gibbs made the announcement at his daily briefing amid increasing political pressure not to transfer any more detainees to Yemen after it was revealed that the man who attempted to detonate an explosive device on Northwest Airlines Flight 253 last month received al-Qaeda training in Yemen.

The special commission appointed last year to investigate last June's deadly confrontation between National Police and indigenous protesters at Bagua in the Peruvian Amazon handed in a final report over the New Year holiday, endorsed by the presidential appointees on the panel—but disavowed by those members representing indigenous communities. Speaking on the stalemate, President Alan García assailed his critics in the opposition Nationalist bloc in Peru's Congress for defending the "assassins" of 24 police agents. He made no reference to the at least 10 indigenous activists killed at Bagua.

On Jan. 3 a five-member panel of the Peruvian Supreme Court unanimously upheld a 25-year prison sentence for former president Alberto Fujimori (1990-2000) for deaths and serious injuries caused by a paramilitary unit during his administration; Supreme Court justice César San Martín Castro had handed down the sentence on April 7, 2009. The panel also voted 4-1 to confirm Fujimori's conviction for two kidnappings. The ex-president, 71, could remain in prison until 2032; the two years since he was arrested in Chile in 2007 count as time served. He would be eligible for parole in 2025.

According to local media, on Dec. 10 a Guatemalan court issued arrest warrants for the brothers Francisco José and José Estuardo Valdez Paiz in the May 10, 2009 murder of attorney Rodrigo Rosenberg Marzano. The Valdez brothers, who own pharmaceutical businesses and are reportedly distant relations of Rosenberg, are charged as the "intellectual authors" of the crime. Three of 11 people arrested in the case told the authorities that the brothers had contracted them to kill an alleged extortionist, who turned out to be Rosenberg. The suspects are thought to be out of the country.