WASHINGTON (NYTIMES) - The Supreme Court agreed on Monday (April 26) to decide whether the government can block a detainee at Guantánamo Bay from obtaining information from two former CIA contractors involved in torturing him on the grounds that it would expose state secrets. The detainee, known as Abu Zubaydah, sought to subpoena the contractors, James E. Mitchell and Bruce Jessen, in connection with a Polish criminal investigation. The inquiry was prompted by a determination by the European Court of Human Rights that Zubaydah had been tortured in 2002 and 2003 at so-called black sites operated by the CIA, including one in Poland. Zubaydah was the first prisoner held by the CIA after the terrorist attacks on Sept 11, 2001, to undergo so-called enhanced interrogation techniques, which were based on a list of suggestions drawn up for use on him by Mitchell and Jessen, both psychologists. Mitchell has testified that he and Jessen, who had experience with an Air Force programme that taught pilots how to resist torture, were hired by the CIA to consult on the interrogation of Zubaydah. They were ultimately assigned to carry out the techniques on him in the summer of 2002. A
BROOKLYN CENTER: Daunte Wright's family members joined with community leaders Thursday in calling for more serious charges against the white former police officer who fatally shot him, comparing her case to the murder charge brought against a Black officer who killed a white woman in nearby Minneapolis. Former Brooklyn Center police Officer Kim Potter was charged with second-degree manslaughter in Sunday's shooting of Wright, a 20-year-old Black man, during a traffic stop. The former police chief in Brooklyn Center, a majority nonwhite suburb, said Potter mistakenly fired her handgun when she meant to use her Taser. Both the chief and Potter resigned Tuesday. Potter - who was released on $100,000 bond hours after her arrest Wednesday - appeared alongside her attorney, Earl Gray, at her initial appearance Thursday over Zoom, saying little. Gray kept his camera on himself for most of the hearing, swiveling it to show Potter only briefly. Her next court appearance was set for May 17. Wright's death has been followed by protests every night this week outside the city's police station, with some demonstrators hurling objects at officers who have responded at times with gas and rubber bullets before clearing the scene with a riot line.
