A military judge has demanded that the CIA release its torture accounts after rejecting the U.S. government’s attempts to keep them secret.

The Guardian was given details of a currently sealed court ruling at Guantanamo Bay in which Judge James Pohl upheld his earlier decision that the CIA must release details of the detention and interrogation of detainee Abd al-Rahim al-Nashiri. Nashiri was charged in connection with the deaths of 17 sailors in the 2000 bombing of the USS Cole.

After his capture in 2002, Nashiri was held by the CIA at so-called “black sites” before being transferred to Guantanamo in 2006. Judge Pohl’s ruling will force the CIA to give the location of the “black sites” and provide details of what happened there. According to Nashiri’s lawyer, interrogators revved a power drill near his head, waterboarded him and threatened him with a gun.

Although the government’s options for keeping the torture accounts secret are now severely limited due to the ruling, there is still a possibility that they can remain private. One lawyer said the government could “derail the whole Nashiri case” if it continues to appeal the decision, effectively dragging the case on for years. Even if the government’s appeals are denied, Nashiri’s lawyers will be the only one’s able to view the accounts. They will never be released to the public.

James Connell is a lawyer for a defendant in the 9/11 trial, and has been watching Nashiri’s trial closely. “The exact same issue of CIA torture is presented in the 9/11 case,” he said. His client, Anmar al-Baluchi, claimed similar instances of torture by the CIA. Pohl is also the judge for that case, and Connell is hopeful that there will be a similar ruling.

The CIA is also facing a case with the Senate Intelligence Committee, which intends to release portions of an investigation into reports of torture by the agency. Nashiri’s lawyers may be able to review the classified version of the investigation before its release, which would only add fuel to their case.

The CIA has yet to comment on Pohl’s ruling.
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CIA ordered to release torture accounts

A military judge's ruling forces the agency to provide details and locations of so-called black sites.
Alleged power drill incident

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JUDGES STRIKE DOWN GAY MARRIAGE BANS IN INDIANA AND UTAH

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DENVER (AP) — The first ruling by a federal appeals court that states cannot prevent gay couples from marrying makes it more likely the Supreme Court will ultimately have to make a decision it has so far avoided — do states have the ability to prohibit same-sex marriage?

The court danced around that question precisely one year ago when it issued a pair of rulings on gay marriage. At the time, Justices Ruth Bader Ginsburg and Stephen Breyer warned about the high court trying to enforce societal changes through judicial fiat, with Ginsburg citing the lingering abortion rights battle ever since the court legalized the practice in Roe v. Wade.

The high court's caution was evident in its rulings: It upheld a decision striking down California's gay marriage ban but relied on technicalities rather than finding a national right for same sex couples to marry. Then it struck down parts of the federal Defense of Marriage Act, finding same-sex marriages from states where the practice was legal must be recognized.

That decision triggered an avalanche of 17 straight court decisions upholding the rights of gays to marry, including Wednesday's 2-1 ruling from the 10th Circuit Court of Appeals in Denver, the highest court to weigh in since the Supreme Court. Utah, whose gay marriage ban was struck down in the decision, is considering an appeal to the Supreme Court.

"This tees it up for possible Supreme Court review," said William Eskridge, a law professor at Yale University. "When a federal appeals court strikes down a major state law, there is a lot more pressure for the justices to take that."

There is no guarantee that the Utah case will be the one that makes it to the top court. Five other appellate courts are considering similar cases, and any of those could be the one taken. The soonest a case could be decided is 2015, but often the Supreme Court waits for a split in appellate courts before considering an issue.

"I don't know if the Supreme Court is going to wait for a circuit split as long as it usually does," said Nancy Leong, a law professor at the University of Denver, noting that the recent judicial unanimity on the issue could make that a long wait. Meanwhile, she said, countless gay couples are eager to marry and less and less willing for the slow pace of the courts.

That was on display in Colorado on Wednesday afternoon, when the county clerk in the liberal city of Boulder announced she would issue same-sex marriage licenses even though the 10th Circuit — which along with Colorado and Utah includes, Kansas, New Mexico, Oklahoma and Wyoming — stayed its decision pending appeal. The state's attorney general declared the licenses invalid because Colorado's gay marriage prohibition is still the law, but Clerk and Recorder Hillary Hall said she would continue to issue them until stopped by a court.

Wednesday's ruling stressed the urgency of overturning gay marriage bans rather than waiting for new laws to be written by elected officials. "Plaintiffs in this case have convinced us that Amendment 3 violates their fundamental right to marry," Judge Carlos Lucero wrote for the majority. "We may not deny them relief based on a mere preference that their arguments be settled elsewhere."

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From left, plaintiffs Moudi Sbeity and Derek Kitchen, Kate Call, Laurie Wood and Kody Partridge, fiv …

But Judge Paul Kelly argued in his dissent that the 10th Circuit overstepped its authority and that states should be able to decide who can marry.

"We should resist the temptation to become philosopher-kings, imposing our views under the guise of the 14th Amendment," Kelly wrote.

The ruling came down just minutes after a federal judge threw out that Indiana's same-sex marriage ban in a decision that immediately allows gay couples to wed. But the legal significance of the 10th Circuit ruling is far greater because it is one level higher on the legal food chain.

In 2012, an appellate court struck down California's gay marriage ban but said it was only ruling on that law, not the broader constitutional questions. There were no such caveats in Wednesday's 65-page decision.

Evan Wolfson, president of Freedom to Marry, said Utah's legal victory was sweeter because of where it originated — a conservative, deeply religious state in the heart of the mountain West.

"What is so powerful here is that we have the first federal appellate court and ... it's a case coming out of Utah affirming in the strongest, clearest, boldest terms that the Constitution guarantees the freedom to marry and equal protection for all Americans and all means all, including gay couples," he said.

The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, based in Salt Lake City, said it maintains marriage should be between a man and a woman, but believes "all people should be treated with respect."

Tony Perkins, president of the Family Research Council, issued a statement saying judges were treading on dangerous ground by moving so fast.

"The courts, for all their power, can't overturn natural law. What they can do is incite a movement of indignant Americans, who are tired of seeing the foundations of a free and just society destroyed by a handful of black-robed tyrants," Perkins said.

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Online:

Ruling from 10th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals, https://www.ca10.uscourts.gov/opinions/13/13-4178.pdf

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McCombs reported from Salt Lake City. Associated Press writers Mark Sherman in Washington, Michelle Price in Salt Lake City, Lisa Leff in San Francisco and Kristi Eaton in Oklahoma City contributed to this report.

Follow Nicholas Riccardi on Twitter at https://twitter.com/NickRiccardi and Brady McCombs at https://twitter.com/BradyMcCombs .

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Gay marriage moves closer to Supreme Court

A federal appeals court's ruling on Utah's gay marriage ban is putting pressure on the nation's highest court.
'This tees it up'

BAGHDAD (AP) — Iraq's vice president called on parliament Thursday to convene next week, taking the first step toward forming a new government to present a united front against a rapidly advancing Sunni insurgency as a bombing killed 12 people in a Baghdad Shiite neighborhood and police found eight more bullet-riddled bodies south of the capital.

Britain's top diplomat, visiting Iraq, urged its leaders to put aside their differences for the good of the nation. And in Paris, Secretary of State John Kerry met with the United States' top Sunni state allies in the Mideast to consider how to confront the growing turmoil.

Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki's Shiite-led political bloc won the most seats in April 30 elections — with 92 seats out of the 328 — but he needs support from other parties for a majority that would give him the right to govern. An increasing number of critics, both in Iraq and abroad, now want him to step down, saying his failure to promote national reconciliation fueled the insurgency by needlessly angering minority Sunnis.

Iraq's powerful Shiite cleric Muqtada al-Sadr made a televised statement late Wednesday in which he called for a national unity government of "new faces" representing all groups.

Al-Sadr, whose followers fought fiercely against both U.S. forces and Sunni extremists during the height of the war nearly a decade ago, also vowed to "shake the ground" under the feet of the al-Qaida breakaway group that has threatened to advance toward Baghdad and holy Shiite cities in the south.

Some Iraqi politicians favor forming an interim government that could provide leadership until a more permanent solution can be found. Al-Maliki, however, has insisted the constitutional process must be allowed to proceed.

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Iraqi federal policemen stand guard at a checkpoint in the town of Taji, about 12 miles (20 kilomete …

In a statement, Vice President Khudeir al-Khuzaie ordered the new parliament to hold its first session on Tuesday, to be chaired by the eldest member.

Constitutionally the next step would be to elect a speaker and two deputies, then within 30 days to choose a new president who then has 15 days to ask the largest bloc to choose a prime minister and form the new government. The prime minister-designate has 30 days to present his cabinet to the parliament.

British Foreign Secretary William Hague, meeting with al-Maliki in Baghdad, told a news conference that "we believe the urgent priority must be to form an inclusive government ... that can command the support of all Iraqis and work to stop terrorists and their terrible crimes."

Hague's trip follows a visit by Kerry, who earlier this week delivered a similar message and warned that Washington is prepared to take military action even if Baghdad delays political reforms.

The intense diplomatic push underscores the growing international concern over the gains by fighters led by the Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant, the Sunni extremist group that has seized large swaths of Iraq and seeks to carve out a purist Islamic enclave across both sides of the Syria-Iraq border.

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Iraqi Shi'ite radical leader Muqtada al-Sadr delivers a sermon to worshippers during Friday pray …

In Paris, Kerry said the threat posed by the Islamic State reaches beyond the two countries — Iraq and Syria — where it is currently based.

"The move of ISIL concerns every single country here," Kerry said at the start of the meeting held at the U.S. ambassador's residence. He said his talks with foreign ministers from Jordan, Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates also would touch on a "number of critical issues."

The Arab diplomats did not commit to sending any military assistance to Baghdad to fight the Sunni insurgency, as the U.S. is doing. In Washington, the Pentagon said Thursday that four teams of Army special forces have arrived in Baghdad, bringing the number of American troops there to 90.

The U.S. special forces will be advising and assisting Iraqi counterterrorism forces to repel the insurgency. U.S. officials said they will be in operations centers in Baghdad and northern Iraq.

The Obama administration hopes that Iraq's Sunni neighbors — notably Jordan and Saudi Arabia — will use their cross-border tribal networks to bolster the Sunni militias helping to fight ISIL with financing or weapons. But it's not clear that Washington would even support that privately. The U.S. probably would want to vet the tribes before they received any money or arms, even from other nations, to ensure that the aid does not get passed along to ISIL or other extremist groups.

Kerry, French Counterpart Talk Iraq, UkrainePlay Video

In Iraq, the discovery in recent weeks of bullet-riddled bodies dumped on the streets also has raised the specter of a return to all-out sectarian warfare.

On Thursday, authorities found eight men believed to be in their 30s and 40s who had been shot to death in Mahmoudiya, about 30 kilometers (20 miles) south of Bagdad, police and hospital officials said, speaking on condition of anonymity because they weren't authorized to release the information. The men had no ID cards with them, reminiscent of the past when Shiite and Sunni extremists would take the identification to dehumanize those killed or to use as trophies.

Shortly before sunset, a bomb exploded near a clothing shop in Baghdad's northern Shiite neighborhood of Khazimiyah, killing 12 people and wounding 32, said police and hospital officials.

In northern Iraq, an insurgent artillery offensive against Christian villages on Wednesday sent thousands of people fleeing from their homes, seeking sanctuary in the Kurdish enclave. The shelling of the cluster of villages happened in an area known as Hamdaniya, 45 miles (75 kilometers) from the frontier of the self-ruled Kurdish region.

While many villagers appeared to have been granted access by daybreak, hundreds of Shiite refugees were still hoping to be let in but were facing delays at a checkpoint because they lacked sponsors on the other side.

One of the refugees, who gave only her nickname of Umm Alaa, fearing retribution, said she and hundreds of others left their village of Quba and a nearby hamlet during the militants' initial assault on June 10 to seek shelter in communities that were then attacked Wednesday.

Another, who agreed to be identified only as Huda, tried to calm her 10-year-old son Mohammed, who was thirsty and crying.

"They will kill every Shiite man, and they will burn every Shiite house," Huda said. "Nobody has stayed in Quba. Every single Shiite has left."

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Hadid reported from Irbil, Iraq. Associated Press reporters Hamza Hendawi, Qassim Abdul-Zahra and Sameer N. Yacoub in Baghdad, Lara Jakes in Paris, and Lolita C. Baldor in Washington contributed to this report.

WASHINGTON (AP) — With the conflicts in Syria and Iraq becoming increasingly intertwined against the same Sunni extremist group, President Barack Obama moved on Thursday to ratchet up U.S. efforts to strengthen more moderate Syrian rebels.

Obama's request to Congress for $500 million in training and arms to the opposition in effect opens a second front in the fight against militants spilling over Syria's border and threatening to overwhelm neighboring Iraq. The train-and-equip mission would be overseen by the Pentagon and would mark a significant expansion of previous covert effort to arm the more moderate rebels who are fighting both the extremists and forces loyal to Syrian President Bashar Assad.

Obama has long been reluctant to arm the opposition, in part because of concerns that weapons may fall into extremist hands. But administration officials say the U.S. has grown increasingly confident in recent months about its ability to distinguish the moderate rebels from the more extremist elements that include the al-Qaida-inspired Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant, or ISIL, which has stormed into Syria and captured much of the northern part of the country.

The risk of U.S. weapons and ammunition falling into the wrong hands appears to have only heightened now that ISIL has strengthened. But Obama's request to Congress on Thursday appeared to indicate that tackling the crumbling security situation in Syria and Iraq trumped those concerns.

White House spokeswoman Caitlin Hayden said the military assistance "marks another step toward helping the Syrian people defend themselves against regime attacks, push back against the growing number of extremists like ISIL who find safe haven in the chaos, and take their future into their own hands by enhancing security and stability at local levels."

The Syria program is part of a broader $65.8 billion overseas operations request that the administration sent to Capitol Hill on Thursday. The package includes $1 billion to help stabilize nations bordering Syria that are struggling with the effects of the civil war. It also formalizes a request for a previously announced $1 billion to strengthen the U.S. military presence in Central and Eastern Europe amid Russia's threatening moves in Ukraine.

The president's cautious approach to Syria has come under increased criticism as the 4-year civil war spills across the border into Iraq, with White House opponents arguing that Obama's reluctance to arm the rebels gave ISIL the space to strengthen.

Like the more moderate Syrian rebels, ISIL is seeking to push Assad from power. The group seeks to carve out a purist Islamic enclave across both sides of the Syria-Iraq border.

Battle for Iraq: Syria, Iran involvement raise fea …Play Video

With ISIL gaining strength, U.S. officials say Assad's forces launched airstrikes on extremist targets inside Iraq on Monday. The U.S. is also weighing targeted strikes against ISIL in Iraq, creating an odd alignment with one of Washington's biggest foes.

Obama has ruled out sending U.S. troops back into combat in Iraq. But he has dispatched nearly 600 U.S. forces in and around Iraq to train local forces and secure the American Embassy in Baghdad and other U.S. interests.

The White House has been hinting for weeks that Obama was preparing to step up assistance to the Syrian rebels. During a May 28 commencement speech at West Point, he said that by helping those fighting for a free Syria, "we also push back against the growing number of extremists who find safe haven in the chaos."

Officials said the administration would coordinate with Congress and regional players on the specific types of training and assistance the U.S. would provide the opposition. One potential option would be to base U.S. personnel in Jordan and conduct the training exercise there.

The Senate Armed Services Committee has already approved a version of the sweeping defense policy bill authorizing the Defense Department to provide "equipment, supplies, training and defense services" to elements of the Syrian opposition that have been screened. The Senate could act on the bill before the August recess.

In addition to the covert train-and-equip mission, the U.S. has also provided nearly $287 million in nonlethal assistance to the moderate opposition.

The military program would be supplemented by $1 billion in assistance to Syria's neighbors — Jordan, Lebanon, Turkey, and Iraq — to help them deal with an influx of refugees and the threat of extremists spilling over their borders.

The instability in Iraq comes as Obama continues to grapple with a crisis in Ukraine, with Russia widely believed to be backing pro-Moscow insurgents in eastern Ukrainian cities. Russia's threats have stoked anxiety among U.S. allies in the region, who are seeking deeper military assistance from the U.S.

The overseas contingency requests includes a $1 billion program that would increase the U.S. military presence in Central and Eastern Europe, boost training exercises with allies and allow the Pentagon to position equipment in the region. Obama announced the program during a trip to Poland earlier this month.

The total overseas contingency package is about $21 billion less than the administration said it expected to request when Obama submitted his fiscal year 2015 budget to Congress earlier this year. Officials said the decrease is in part of reflection of Obama's plans to drawdown the U.S. military presence in Afghanistan to about 10,000 forces by the beginning of next year.

Obama is still waiting for the Afghan government to sign a security agreement with the U.S. that would allow those forces to stay.

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Associated Press writers Matthew Lee and Donna Cassata contributed to this report.

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Follow Julie Pace at http://twitter.com/jpaceDC

The White House asks Congress for $500M to train and arm vetted members of the Syrian opposition.
$65.8B overseas request

IZVARYNE, Ukraine (AP) — As a shaky cease-fire in the east entered its final hours Thursday, thousands of Ukrainians in cars stuffed with belongings lined up at the border to cross into Russia, some vowing never to return.

Many said they were most frightened for their children and desperate to take them to safety.

A commander at the rebel-controlled border post outside the city of Luhansk said 5,000 people had left by evening, joining a stream that he said has continued unabated during the weeklong truce that has failed to end the gunfire and shelling.

Russia says tens of thousands of Ukrainians have come in the 2 1/2 months since Ukraine's government began fighting separatists in the east, a heavily industrial region with a large population of ethnic Russians, many of whom feel strong ties to Moscow.

Air strikes and artillery attacks by the Ukrainian military have infuriated many residents, and many crossing the border on Thursday said they were fleeing the fighting, which has killed more than 400 people since mid-April by the United Nations' estimate.

Those who talked to Associated Press journalists, however, said nothing to indicate that they supported the armed separatists, who have seized government buildings, declared independence and asked Russia to annex the region.

Kerry calls on Russia to push Ukraine separatists …Play Video

With the cease-fire set to expire on Friday, Ukrainian President Petro Poroshenko called on Russia to support his peace plan "with deeds, not words." He urged Moscow to stop the flow of fighters from Russia.

German Chancellor Angela Merkel and U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry said they, too, were looking for more action from Moscow ahead of a summit on Friday of European Union leaders, who will be considering a new round of sanctions against Russia.

"It is critical for Russia to show in the next hours, literally, that they're moving to help disarm the separatists, to encourage them to disarm," Kerry said in Paris.

The summit also will see Ukraine sign a sweeping trade agreement with the EU that will bind it more closely to the West.

Russian President Vladimir Putin has urged Poroshenko to extend the truce and hold talks with the separatists in the eastern Donetsk and Luhansk regions.

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Relatives grieve at the coffin of pro-Russian fighter Dmitri Bystriukov, who was killed during a mor …

Poroshenko announced Thursday that representatives of the mutinous regions have agreed to talks with Russian, Ukrainian and European envoys. It will be the second round of talks since Monday in which the rebel leaders have participated.

Russian news agencies quoted Andrei Purgin, a leader of the self-proclaimed Donetsk People's Republic, as saying the next round would be held Friday in Donetsk.

Poroshenko has shown no willingness to extend the cease-fire, and his next step may hinge on the outcome of the talks.

It was unclear how many Ukrainians will end up settling in Russia. Russia's migration service said last week that it had registered the arrival of 90,000 Ukrainians, but few asked for refugee status, which would oblige them to stay in Russia at least six months.

Many of those at the Izvaryne crossing on Thursday were taking household items, including refrigerators. One family from a village near Slovyansk, a separatist stronghold that has come under frequent shelling from the military, said they "hated Ukraine" and would not return.

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Ukrainian President Petro Poroshenko delivers his speech at the Parliamentary Assembly of theCouncil …

The rebel commander, who would give only his first name, Alexander, said the flow of refugees increased whenever there was a spike in hostilities. The day before the cease-fire was announced, the line to cross the border stretched for 5 kilometers (3 miles).

Even though some rebel groups agreed to observe the cease-fire, Poroshenko said 18 government troops have been killed this week. Separatist leaders also have reported deaths among rebel fighters.

Meanwhile, Germany announced that it is easing its immigration restrictions for Jews from Ukraine because of reports of an increase in anti-Semitic incidents since the crisis broke out.

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Nataliya Vasilyeva and Lynn Berry in Moscow, Angela Charlton and Lara Jakes in Paris, Juergen Baetz in Berlin and John-Thor Dahlburg in Brussels contributed to this report.