A three-judge panel of the US Court of Appeals for the Second Circuit in New York City affirmed the conviction of civil rights lawyer Lynne Stewart Nov. 17, and ordered her to begin her prison sentence. Stewart, along with Mohammed Yousry and Ahmed Abdel Sattar, were convicted of various crimes based on association with convicted terrorist Omar Abdel-Rahman. As part of his conviction, Rahman is subject to Special Administrative Measures (SAMs), which limit his ability to communicate with individuals outside the prison. The court found that despite being a lawyer, Stewart was bound by the SAMs but knowingly and willfully lied about her intentions to comply. The court also found that Stewart provided and concealed material support to a conspiracy to murder persons in a foreign country.

Illinois Gov. Pat Quinn (D) and US Senator Dick Durbin (D-IL) expressed support Nov. 15 for the Obama administration's proposal to move Guantánamo Bay detainees to a facility in northwestern Illinois. The Obama administration is reportedly evaluating the Thomson Correctional Facility, a maximum security prison located about 150 miles west of Chicago, as a possible location to house accused terrorists. Quinn and Durbin requested that the administration conduct a preliminary economic impact analysis on the purchase of the facility for use by the federal Bureau of Prisons. They pointed to the addition of an estimated 3,000 new jobs to the community and an estimated $790 million to $1.09 billion impact over four years as reasons to support the proposal. Durbin said the sale is a "once-in-a-lifetime opportunity" to inject a much-needed economic boost to a struggling region.

US Attorney General Eric Holder on Nov. 13 announced that the government will pursue federal charges against five men accused of conspiring to commit the 9-11 terrorist attacks. Khalid Sheikh Mohammed, Ramzi Bin Al Shibh, Walid Bin Attash, Ali Abdul-Aziz Ali, and Mustafa Ahmed Al Hawsawi—all currently detained at Guantánamo Bay—will be tried in a Manhattan district court by prosecutors from the Southern District of New York and the Eastern District of Virginia. Holder said that he recommended that the men be tried in civilian court after a case-by-case review conducted by the Department of Justice and the Department of Defense according to a new protocol announced in July. Addressing concerns that the civilian court system would be unable to prosecute high-level terrorism cases, Holder said he is "confident in the ability of our courts to provide these defendants a fair trial, just as they have for over 200 years."

The American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU) filed suit Nov. 10 on behalf of US citizen Amir Meshal, alleging that FBI agents were involved in his interrogation and rendition in Somalia, Kenya, and Ethiopia in 2007. The suit, filed in the US District Court for the District of Columbia, alleges that agents repeatedly threatened Meshal with torture, disappearance, and execution in order to force him to acknowledge ties with al-Qaeda. Meshal was originally detained in Kenya while fleeing fighting in Somalia. After being held in Kenya, Meshal was returned to Somalia and eventually taken to Ethiopia where he was held until his release in May of 2007. No charges were ever filed against Meshal. (Jurist, Nov. 11)

Lawyers for four Chinese Muslim Uighurs detained at Guantánamo Bay filed a petition with the US Supreme Court Nov. 10, raising issues with the policy for transferring detainees from the facility. The case, known as Kiyemba II, is an appeal from an April ruling by the US District Court for the District of Columbia, and is separate from a case that the Court agreed to hear last month, known now as Kiyemba I. A critical issue raised in the appeal is whether a federal court can require the government to give 30 days notice before detainees can be transferred out of Guantánamo. This period would give the detainees time to bring any claims such as persecution or torture in US courts before they are transferred to locations outside of federal court jurisdiction. (Jurist, Nov. 11)

Maj. Nidal Malik Hasan, the presumed gunman in the deadly Fort Hood shootings, worshipped at Dar al-Hijrah mosque in Great Falls, VA, led by a radical imam said to be a "spiritual adviser" to three of the apparent 9-11 hijackers—two of whom attended the mosque at the same time as Hasan, the UK's Sunday Telegraph reported Nov. 7. The funeral of Hasan's mother was held there in May of the same year, 2001. The preacher at the time was Anwar al-Awlaki, an American-born Yemeni scholar who was banned from addressing a meeting in London by video link this August because he is accused of supporting attacks on British troops and backing terrorist organizations.

Judge Oscar Magi of the Fourth Chamber of the Court of Milan Nov. 4 convicted 23 former CIA agents for the 2003 kidnapping and rendition of Egyptian terror suspect Osama Moustafa Hassan Nasr. The nearly three-year trial, which was delayed many times, is the first in the world involving the CIA's extraordinary rendition flights. Former Milan CIA station chief Robert Seldon Lady was sentenced to eight years in prison, while 22 other Americans were sentenced to five years. Magi acquitted three other Americans, finding diplomatic immunity, and five Italian operatives, due to Italy's withholding of evidence because of national security issues.

The federal government has agreed to pay $1.2 million to settle the cases of five Muslim immigrants were among hundreds detained without charge in Brooklyn's Metropolitan Detention Center for months after 9-11. The plaintiffs—whose names were cleared but were still deported—accepted the payout after seven years of court cases. A larger suit filed by other detainees, Turkmen v. Ashcroft, is ongoing. The government admits no liability or fault under the terms of the settlements.