World Briefs September 9, 2010
Appeals court lets government halt torture lawsuit
SAN FRANCISCO - A sharply divided federal appeals court on Wednesday threw out a lawsuit challenging a controversial post-Sept. 11 CIA program that flew terrorism suspects to secret prisons.
The complaint was filed by five terrorism suspects who were arrested shortly after 9/11 and say they were flown by a Boeing Co. subsidiary to prisons around the world where they were tortured. The 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals cited national security risks when it dismissed the men's case in a 6-5 ruling Wednesday.
The case could have broad repercussions on the national security debate as it makes its way toward the Supreme Court, and it casts a spotlight on the controversial "extraordinary rendition" program the Bush administration used after 9/11.
The appeals court reinforced the broad powers of the president to invoke the so-called "state secrets privilege" to stop lawsuits involving national security almost as soon as they are filed.
Minister: Death threats won't deter Quran burn
GAINESVILLE, Fla. - A top general, the secretary of state, the White House and political and religious leaders from around the world have decried a plan by the leader of a small Florida church to burn copies of Islam's holiest text to mark the 9/11 attacks. The Rev. Terry Jones is not backing down.
Despite the mounting pressure to call off Saturday's bonfire, Jones said Wednesday he also has received much encouragement, with supporters mailing copies of the Quran to his Dove Outreach Center.
"As of right now, we are not convinced that backing down is the right thing," said Jones, 58.
Obama won't yield on tax hike for wealthiest
CLEVELAND - Politically weakened but refusing to bend, President Barack Obama insisted Wednesday that Bush-era tax cuts be cut off for the wealthiest Americans, joining battle with Republicans - and some fellow Democrats - just two months before bruising midterm elections.
Singling out House GOP leader John Boehner in his home state, Obama delivered a searing attack on Republicans for advocating "the same philosophy that led to this mess in the first place: cut more taxes for millionaires and cut more rules for corporations."
Obama rolled out a trio of new plans to help spur job growth and invigorate the sluggish national economic recovery. They would expand and permanently extend a research and development tax credit that lapsed in 2009, allow businesses to write off 100 percent of their investments in equipment and plants through 2011 and pump $50 billion into highway, rail, airport and other infrastructure projects.
- The Associated Press