Judge Gladys Kessler of the District of Columbia orders the US government to release the names of all people detained during the anti-terrorism investigation in the United States. It is the role of the judiciary "to ensure that our government always operates within the statutory and constitutional constraints which distinguish a democracy from a dictatorship," she writes.

 

President Bush signs into law the American Servicemembers Protection Act, legislation directed against the International Criminal Court that authorizes withholding military aid from some countries that sign up to the court, and the use of force to free US personnel from the court.

 

US threatens to withhold military aid if countries do not sign Article 98 agreements agreeing not to surrender US citizens to the International Criminal Court.

 

Judge Robert G. Doumar of Virginia orders the US government to provide evidence to support their designation of the US-born Yaser Esam Hamdi as an unlawful enemy combatant. Hamdi had been picked up by US forces in Afghanistan, and is being held in a navy brig in Virginia.

 

A federal appeals court in Cincinnati rules that deportation hearings for people detained during the anti-terrorism investigation must be open to the public.

 

Newsweek publishes a detailed report alleging that Northern Alliance forces allied to the United States killed several hundred prisoners after their surrender at Kunduz in November 2001. The report (based on an initial investigation by Physicians for Human Rights) says the prisoners suffocated while being transported in airless containers.

 

German Federal Prosecutor Kay Nehm discusses the charges against Mounir El Motassadeq, August 29, 2002.
© AP Photo/Frank Rumpenhorst
German prosecutors charge Moroccan-born Mounir el-Motassadeq with supporting the work of the al-Qaeda cell in Hamburg that planned the September 11 attacks. Prosecutors claim that Motassadeq managed the bank accounts of some of the al Qaeda members taking flight school lessons in the United States.