Immunity Legal

Members of Iraq's parliament are renewing efforts to strip immunity from a top Sunni Arab lawmaker, a fierce critic of Prime Minister Nouri Maliki who has repeatedly been accused of involvement in incidents of violence. At least 30 lawmakers, most of them non-Sunnis, have signed a petition asking that Adnan Dulaimi be denied protection granted to all parliament members.

A Marine who fired at least 200 machine-gun rounds during a March incident that left as many as 19 Afghans dead will not testify before a special court of inquiry unless he is granted immunity, his civilian lawyer said Thursday. Fellow Marines have testified that, after a car bomb attack on their convoy in eastern Afghanistan, Sgt. Joshua Henderson fired his M240 in response to what U.S. forces believed was enemy small-arms fire. Henderson "has nothing to hide," attorney Charles W.

The long arm of the law reaches only so far, according to a federal appeals court. In a win for consumers, a three-judge panel of the 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals ruled this week that a San Clemente debt collection company could be sued for alleged overly aggressive tactics, even when the company is working on behalf of prosecutors. The appeals court ruled in a lawsuit against American Corrective Counseling Services Inc.

Under pressure to end an impasse over espionage legislation, House Democrats are considering a plan to vote on a bill next week that would give the government broad new eavesdropping authorities but strip out a provision that would protect phone companies from lawsuits.

A federal judge who earlier rejected Bush administration claims that it was exempt from laws governing domestic surveillance was asked Tuesday to strike down an act of Congress that grants retroactive immunity for illegal wiretapping. In a separate challenge of presidential power over national security affairs, lawyers for the now-defunct Al-Haramain Islamic Foundation asked the same judge in San Francisco to allow them to sue for illegal monitoring by the National Security Agency. U.S.

A key figure in Illinois Gov. Rod R. Blagojevich's alleged scheme to sell a U.S. Senate seat has sought immunity from federal authorities in return for his cooperation. Businessman and political fundraiser Raghuveer P. Nayak is Individual D in the federal complaint, sources said. Individual D was being squeezed by the governor for campaign cash, according to prosecutors, in order to appoint Rep. Jesse Jackson Jr. (D-Ill.) to the Senate seat vacated by President-elect Barack Obama.

Military prosecutors are building their case in the killing of two dozen civilians in Haditha, Iraq -- considered the war's most serious abuse incident involving Marines -- by granting immunity to compel testimony. Marine officials announced Tuesday that charges against Sgt. Sanick P. Dela Cruz, 24, of Chicago had been dropped in exchange for his testimony.

President Bush plunged directly into the campaign to save his warrantless wiretapping program, arguing Wednesday that telecommunications firms that cooperated with spy agencies should be granted retroactive immunity from possible prosecution. Bush also urged Congress to pass a permanent revision of legislation that gave the program a six-month lifespan. His comments came as he toured the national Threat Operations Center at the ultra-secret National Security Agency at Ft. Meade, Md.

The Cabinet of Iraqi Prime Minister Nouri Maliki has decided to press for repeal of the law that gives foreign security contractors immunity from legal action in Iraq, a government spokesman said Wednesday. A new measure being drafted by government officials would hold private contractors accountable to Iraqi courts for their actions. Maliki spokesman Ali Dabbagh said the Cabinet would send the proposal to parliament next week.

The State Department promised Blackwater USA bodyguards immunity from prosecution in its investigation of last month's deadly shooting of 17 Iraqi civilians, U.S. officials said. The reported immunity deal has delayed a criminal inquiry into the killings and could undermine any effort to prosecute security contractors for their role in the incident. "Once you give immunity, you can't take it away," said a senior law enforcement official familiar with the investigation.