Update: DOJ announcement here. A sixth defendant, Jeremy Ridgeway pleaded guilty to these charges (pdf) brought by Information rather than Indictment. The factual basis for his plea is here (pdf).

Five Blackwater guards charged in federal court in Washington with manslaughter and use of a machine gun a crime of violence -- the killing of Iraqis -- surrendered today in Utah.

Seventeen Iraqis were killed in the September 2007 shooting. Witnesses said the heavily armed U.S. contractors opened fire unprovoked, killing innocent motorists and children at a crowded intersection. Blackwater, the largest security contractor in Iraq, says its guards were ambushed by insurgents while responding to a car bombing.

Why Utah? For one thing, Paul Cassell, who lives in Utah is on the defense team. [More...]

Update: AP article here. They made their decision based on Obama's election to the Presidency. My translation: They don't want to be moved to federal court where they would be more likely to get life in a Supermax prison than the death penalty, and if they got the death penalty, face years in prison before it was carried out.

***

Khalid Sheikh Mohammed and four other detainees facing the death penalty in military commission trials decided today to plead guilty. Human Rights Watch responds:

"What should have been a major victory in holding the 9/11 defendants accountable for terrible crimes has been tainted by torture and an unfair military commissions process," said Jennifer Daskal, senior counterterrorism counsel at Human Rights Watch. "These five men are known to have been mistreated and tortured during their years in CIA custody, including the acknowledged waterboarding of Khalid Sheikh Mohammed."

More....

To protesters who assembled outside the capitol in Washington state, freedom of religion apparently does not include freedom to hold beliefs that differ from the protesters' Christian viewpoint. They are "outraged" that a display promoting atheism stands next to a nativity scene in the state capitol.

The Establishment Clause prohibits the state from endorsing any particular religious viewpoint. Making the capitol available to competing ideas promotes the free exercise of religion without violating the Establishment Clause. Why do the protesters hate the concept of religious freedom?

The most interesting protest sign features a picture of Bill O’Reilly punching Gov. Christine Gregoire. Why O'Reilly, you ask? [more ...]

U.S. News and World Reports writes that President-Elect Barack Obama may keep Michael Hayden as head of the CIA.

I don't see Obama keeping Hayden. I hope the US News Report is just a rumor being floated for reaction.

Keeping Hayden would be unfortunate. It would represent the wrong kind of change for Obama who voted against Hayden's confirmation. Here's Obama's 2006 speech on why he opposed Hayden for CIA director. [More...]

The NYTimes Editorial Board writes today:

Mr. Arar’s ordeal began in 2002, when he was seized by federal agents as he tried to change planes on his way home to Canada from a family vacation. After being held incommunicado in solitary confinement and subjected to harsh interrogation without proper access to a lawyer, he was “rendered” to Syria, where he was tortured. He was locked up for almost a year in a dank underground cell the size of a grave before he was finally let go.

Writing about the the "in the tank for John Brennan" reporting in the Media, Glenn Greenwald writes:

Radley Balko at Reason has a story you won't want to miss.

KopBusters rented a house in Odessa, Texas and began growing two small Christmas trees under a grow light similar to those used for growing marijuana. When faced with a suspected marijuana grow, the police usually use illegal FLIR cameras and/or lie on the search warrant affidavit claiming they have probable cause to raid the house. Instead of conducting a proper investigation which usually leads to no probable cause, the Kops lie on the affidavit claiming a confidential informant saw the plants and/or the police could smell marijuana coming from the suspected house.

[More...]

It's official - Florida v. Oklahoma for the college football national championship. I am happy for the Gators but I still hate the system. There is no reason - none - that there is not a college football playoff.

Do I think Florida and Oklahoma are the best two teams? Yes, I do. But who cares what I think or you think or the polls think or the computers think? (BTW, when people tell you 5 of 6 polls preferred Texas over Florida - they are not telling you the truth - the imposed BCS computer system - that ignores margin of victory - had Texas ahead - but the true computer systems have Florida as the best team - see Jeff Sagarin on this.)

A playoff is the only way to really crown a champion. 8 teams - Florida, Oklahoma, Texas, USC, Penn State, Virginia Tech, Cincinnati and Utah. They are playing in the 4 big bowls (Alabama and Ohio State are the other 2 teams in the BCS.) All we need is 3 more games - 2 semis - then a TRUE championship game.

In any event, Go Gators!! Speaking for me only

The Los Angeles Times takes a look at the Maryland State Trooper who, working undercover, "infiltrated" progressive groups and attended progressive events that she perceived as terrorism-related. TalkLeft last discussed the Maryland surveillance program here.

Maryland officials now concede that, based on information gathered by "Lucy" and others, state police wrongly listed at least 53 Americans as terrorists in a criminal intelligence database -- and shared some information about them with half a dozen state and federal agencies, including the National Security Agency.

Among those labeled as terrorists: two Catholic nuns, a former Democratic congressional candidate, a lifelong pacifist and a registered lobbyist. One suspect's file warned that she was "involved in puppet making and allows anarchists to utilize her property for meetings." ...

Puppet makers being well known terrorists. Right, Osama bin Geppetto? [more ...]

In today's New York Times, Seth Lipsky defends President Clinton's decision to pardon Marc Rich (an issue receiving fresh scrutiny in light of Eric Holder's involvement). His central argument -- that using RICO to prosecute accusations of tax evasion is an abuse of RICO that the Justice Department ended six years after Rich's indictment -- echoes (and relies upon) Bill Clinton's explanation for the pardon.

Lipsky's reasoning is sound if not fully persuasive. The aggressive expansion of RICO to prosecute persons who were not part of a criminal organization (as opposed to a business organization that committed tax crimes) stretched the law beyond the uses that Congress envisioned. The question is why Rich (who departed the country before his indictment) received the benefit of that merciful reasoning while other RICO defendants who were similarly situated did not. There is more to that story than Lipsky reveals.

[more ...]

67 years ago today, the Japanese Empire carried out a surprise attack on the US military installations at Pearl Harbor. The next day, President Franklin Delano Rooosevelt delivered an address to Congress, asking for a declaration of war against Japan.

This is an Open Thread.

Indicted longterm LA Congressman William Jefferson has been defeated. The winner of the House seat for the district which includes New Orleans is Republican lawyer Anh Cao.

Cao emigrated from Vietnam when he was 8, after the fall of Saigon. This is his first elected office and he will be the first Vietnamese-American in Congress.

Turnout in Saturday's election, which was postponed due to Hurricane Gustav, was not high. While Jefferson's corruption charges are thought to have increased turnout in the white community and largely contributed to his defeat, and turnout among blacks was lower than usual, this is also interesting: [More...]

Ross Douthat is right that the Republican Party did not, strictly speaking, get wiped out because of their anti-choice stance. That is just a constant albatross around GOP necks with women voters. And of course the reactionary image the Republicans have earned is a part of the overall image problem that it has. But that does not explain the 2008 election - 8 years of the George W. Bush Presidency explains it. But when Douthat decided to discuss privacy/choice jurisprudence (Roe and Casey, he seems to have no awareness of Carhart), he began the familiar nonsense: