CORRESPONDENTS

Marisa Taylor

Military crime lab evidence tossed from double murder trial

Work by the military's premier crime lab is being questioned again — this time by the presiding judge in a double murder case. In the latest example of troubled testimony by the lab's analysts, a judge overseeing the trial of Army Sgt. Joseph Bozicevich told jurors to disregard testimony from a fingerprint analyst. | 05/25/11 19:04:00 By - Marisa Taylor

Justice Department is pushed to release phone records memo

The Justice Department should publicly release its legal opinion that allows the FBI to obtain telephone records of international calls made from the U.S. without any formal legal process, a watchdog group asserts. The nonprofit Electronic Frontier Foundation alleges DOJ violated federal open-records laws. | 05/19/11 18:53:00 By - Marisa Taylor

More errors surface at military crime lab as Senate seeks inquiry

The military's premier crime lab has botched more of its evidence testing than has been previously known, raising broader questions about the quality of the forensic work relied on to convict soldiers, sailors, airmen and Marines. Now, the Supreme Court could weigh in, while two senators want the Pentagon to open a full-blown investigation. If they start looking, Pentagon officials will find that the crime lab's problems extend beyond one discredited analyst. | 05/15/11 14:00:00 By - Marisa Taylor and Michael Doyle

Following bin Laden's death, terrorism tips rise across U.S.

As a result of a more alert, or perhaps more anxious American public, counterterrorism tips have spiked in the days following the death of Osama bin Laden, law enforcement officials say. | 05/08/11 14:12:00 By - Marisa Taylor

Is it time to revisit scope and cost of war on terror?

From buying nuclear radiation detectors to putting droves of air marshals on passenger flights, the U.S. government has spent hundreds of billions of dollars since the Sept. 11 attacks to build defenses around every major target of terrorism. The death of Osama bin Laden doesn't end those threats. | 05/03/11 18:40:00 By - Greg Gordon and Marisa Taylor

WikiLeaks files on Guantanamo unlikely to help those jailed on flawed evidence

Newly released Wikileaks documents detail how the U.S. government held many Guantanamo detainees based on shaky evidence. Even so, the revelations are unlikely to dramatically change their fates. | 04/27/11 18:50:00 By - Marisa Taylor and Chris Adams

Independent probe of troubled military crime lab sought

A U.S. senator has called for an independent investigation of the military's premier crime lab to ensure that innocent people weren't wrongfully convicted based on work by a discredited analyst. | 03/30/11 18:43:00 By - Marisa Taylor and Michael Doyle

Discredited Army analyst built his career around crime lab

The career of military lab analyst Phillip Mills started unraveling the day a colleague made a discovery that would rattle military justice. | 03/20/11 00:01:00 By - Michael Doyle and Marisa Taylor

Army slow to act as crime-lab worker falsified, botched tests

A McClatchy investigation reveals that mistakes by an analyst at the U.S. Army Criminal Investigation Laboratory, near Atlanta, undermined hundreds of criminal cases brought against military personnel. Officials appeared intent on containing the scandal that threatened to discredit the military's most important forensics facility, which handles more than 3,000 criminal cases a year. | 03/20/11 00:01:00 By - Marisa Taylor and Michael Doyle

Crime-lab worker's errors cast doubt on military verdicts

Life-and-death questions shadow misconduct at the U.S. Army Criminal Investigation Laboratory, where investigators discovered that a lab analyst cut corners and falsified reports: Were the innocent convicted, and did the guilty go free? | 03/20/11 00:01:00 By - Michael Doyle and Marisa Taylor

Obama to resume military tribunals for Guantanamo terror suspects

The Obama administration on Monday announced that it will resume using military tribunals to try suspected terrorists held at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba, but officials said they're not giving up on trials in civilian courts and are still considering their options for trying 9/11 mastermind Khalid Sheikh Mohammed and four other accused 9/11 plotters. | 03/08/11 06:32:32 By - Margaret Talev and Marisa Taylor

Obama to stop defending federal gay marriage ban

In a significant change of course, President Barack Obama has decided that a federal law against gay marriage is unconstitutional and will no longer defend it in court, the White House announced Wednesday. | 02/23/11 13:03:35 By - Steven Thomma

U.S. gave firm low rating for Afghan work — and more business

A U.S. contractor who's continued to receive government contracts despite criticism of its work in Afghanistan got low ratings for its performance on two more high-profile projects in the war-torn country than had been disclosed previously. McClatchy has learned that the U.S. government criticized Black & Veatch for poor oversight and delays on a Kabul power plant project and for a study of the viability of developing a natural gas field in the Sheberghan region in northern Afghanistan. | 02/14/11 09:30:00 By - Marisa Taylor

Obama assertion: FBI can get phone records without oversight

The Obama administration's Justice Department has asserted that the FBI can obtain telephone records of international calls made from the U.S. without any formal legal process or court oversight, according to a document obtained by McClatchy. | 02/11/11 16:58:00 By - Marisa Taylor

Watchdog faults Obama's Afghan security strategy

The Obama administration's $11.4 billion plan to bolster Afghanistan's security forces is "at risk" because of poor planning, a government watchdog agency concluded in a report released Wednesday. | 01/26/11 14:37:00 By - Marisa Taylor

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