The England and Wales Court of Appeal on Feb. 10 ruled that the government of the United Kingdom must disclose the seven previously withheld paragraphs outlining the apparent torture of former Guantánamo Bay detainee Binyam Mohamed. Ruling in an appeal of a December High Court decision, the court found that "publication of the redacted paragraphs would not reveal information which would be of interest to a terrorist or criminal or provide any potential material of value to a terrorist or a criminal." The court rejected Foreign Secretary David Miliband's claims—backed by the US government—that disclosure of a seven-paragraph summary of classified CIA information would threaten intelligence cooperation between London and Washington, and therefore endanger Britain's national security.

This week the Barack Obama administration's Defense Department released its first Quadrennial Defense Review (QDR), a congressionally mandated planning and strategy document that every four years provides a framework for the military's structure and budgets. The 2010 QDR abandons the Bush administration's "Long War" doctrine. Significantly, the report states that the US will no longer prepare to fight two major wars at the same.

A jury in the US District Court for the Southern District of New York Feb. 3 convicted Aafia Siddiqui, a Pakistani woman with alleged ties to al-Qaeda, on charges of attempting to murder US personnel at the Afghan facility where she was being held. Prosecutors claimed that while in US custody in Afghanistan, Siddiqui lunged for and grabbed an unsecured M-4 rifle and opened fire on her captors. US personnel returned fire, injuring Siddiqui—who denies both handling the weapon and attacking the personnel. In addition to two counts of attempted murder, the jury found Siddiqui guilty of armed assault against US officers, and using and carrying a firearm in relation to a crime of violence. The jury found that the attempted murders were not premeditated. Neither Siddiqui nor her lawyers have announced whether they will appeal the verdict. Sentencing is scheduled for May. (Jurist, Feb. 4)

The Swiss Federal Council announced Feb. 3 that it would accept two Uighur detainees from Guantánamo Bay. The council decided to admit the detainees for humanitarian reasons, despite the Chinese citizenship of both Uighurs and recent warnings by the Chinese Embassy that Switzerland would jeopardize relations with China by accepting the detainees. After psychological tests and further investigation, the Council concluded that the detainees did not pose a security threat. Authorities from the canton of Jura, where the detainees will be housed, announced that it was prepared to issue a residence permit. The Council has instructed the Federal Migration Office to approve the permits.

US Attorney General Eric Holder Feb. 3 defended his decision to charge suspected "Christmas Day bomber" Umar Farouk Abdulmutallab in US federal court. Holder, who has resisted calls from high-level Republicans to try Abdulmutallab in a military tribunal, said that the civilian criminal justice system was capable of handling his trial. In a letter to Senate minority leader Mitch McConnell (R-KY), Holder cited longstanding policy, first initiated under George W. Bush, that suspects apprehended on US soil are tried in civilian court. Holder also defended his decision to read Abdulmutallab his Miranda warnings as consistent with FBI policy on custodial interrogations.

Canadian citizen Maher Arar on Feb. 1 asked the US Supreme Court to overturn a lower court ruling that he cannot sue the US government for damages based on his detention in the US and his detention, interrogation, and torture in Syria after he was mistakenly "renditioned" as a terrorist. Arar is attempting to challenge the US government's policy of "extraordinary rendition" under the Torture Victim Protection Act and the Fifth Amendment of the US Constitution.

Former US Department of Justice Office of Legal Counsel (OLC) lawyers John Yoo and Jay Bybee have been cleared of allegations of wrongdoing in relation to their memos asserting the legality of "enhanced interrogation techniques," Newsweek reported Jan. 29. The results of the Office of Professional Responsibility (OPR) investigation of the two former OLC attorneys have yet to be officially released, but the probe is reported to have concluded that the pair exercised poor judgment in crafting the 2002 memos—a finding that does not qualify as professional misconduct.

The Supreme Court of Canada ruled Jan. 29 that while the treatment of Canadian Guantánamo Bay detainee Omar Khadr violated his rights, the government does not have to press for his return to Canada. In a unanimous decision, the court ruled that the interrogation of Khadr by Canadian officials while in detention violated section 7 of the Canadian Charter of Rights and Freedoms.