NFL, Others, Immune from Terror-Related Lawsuits

Remember the 1977 thriller Black Sunday, about a terrorist plot at the Super Bowl? If not, the film is out on DVD, and it does show up on TV occasionally--although it's certainly not in heavy rotation. Fortunately, homeland security officers do a great job in locking down the real Super Bowl venue each year, but in the highly unlikely event that such a horrible thing occurs during a pro football game, the lawyers would have a field day suing everyone from the hotdog vendor on up. Well, not exactly:

The National Football League and dozens of other companies and organizations have won exemption from lawsuits under a post-9/11 law that prohibits them from being sued if terrorists attack a site they are protecting.

The law, called the SAFETY Act (Support Anti-terrorism by Fostering Effective Technologies), aims to help security providers by guaranteeing they will not pay any claims that terror victims might file after an attack.

Qualifying for the legal protection against liability lawsuits (i.e., legal "immunity") requires Department of Homeland Security approval of the effectiveness of the organization's anti-terrorism measures.

Gitmo Alumni in Afghanistan

Another former detainee re-emerges according to the AP:

The Taliban's new top operations officer in southern Afghanistan had been a prisoner at the Guantanamo Bay detention center, the latest example of a freed detainee who took a militant leadership role and a potential complication for the Obama administration's efforts to close the prison. U.S. authorities handed over the detainee to the Afghan government, which in turn released him, according to Pentagon and CIA officials.