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A former military prosecutor filed a declaration yesterday claiming that the system for handling evidence at Guantanamo Bay is so chaotic that it makes a fair prosecution nearly impossible. In his work on one detainee’s case, Darrel Vandeveld found that evidence was often missing, false, or unreliable. The declaration was made in support of the release of a detainee held at the facility for six years. (Washington Post)

A federal judge has issued an order for the Bush administration to preserve electronic messages. U.S. District Judge Henry Kennedy has ordered that employees of the Executive Office of the President turn over any emails from March 2003 to October 2005. The issue of missing emails arose during the scandal involving the leak of Valerie Plame’s identity as a CIA employee, and this time frame will cover the first two years of the investigation into that affair. The White House has previously claimed to have “lost” emails from this period that could possibly relate to the scandal. (Associated Press)

A federal judge ordered the release of a detainee from Guantanamo Bay yesterday, arguing that the evidence is too weak to warrant further detention. One of the prosecution’s claims, that Mohammed El Gharani was a member of an al Qaeda cell in London in 1998 has come under suspicion, as Gharani was only 11 at the time. (Washington Post)

Sen. Charles Schumer (D-NY) is pushing for an investigation into whether or not a former Justice Department employee lied while testifying before the Senate. Bradley Schlozman, the former head of the department’s civil rights division, allegedly misled Congress when asked about decisions he made while at the department, a new report finds. Shumer has asked that the case be referred to Nora Dannehy, a prosecutor investigating U.S. attorney firings that occurred around the same time. (Associated Press)

The special inspector general for Iraq has released a report on a botched Iraq contract, that was granted to KBR while it was still a Halliburton subsidiary, and was for the rebuilding of Iraq’s oil infrastructure, valued at $722 million. The report finds that task orders for the contract “took longer than planned; were frequently modified, scaled back, and/or terminated; and increased in cost over time.” (Washington Post)

Morgan Stanley’s proposal to merge its brokerage unit with that of Citigroup in a joint venture has upset Democratic lawmakers currently working on bailout regulation. Rep. Barney Frank (D-MA), the chairman of the House Financial Services Committee, has questioned whether Morgan Stanley could have footed the bill for the $2.7 billion deal had it not received $10 billion in bailout money. Restricting acquisition activity of banks receiving TARP funds has long been a proposed regulation and will now likely be cemented with legislation. (New York Times)

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