I've been writing about the DEA's most excellent African Adventures since 2009, particularly the sting cases where people from all over the world are extradited (or kidnapped and forcibly brought) to the U.S. for trial on drug offenses that had nothing or little to do with the U.S. In many, the DEA claimed a terror connection.

Ginger Thompson of Pro Publica (formerly an outstanding New York Times reporter) has been investigating these cases for a long time. She recently traveled to Mali and other far-off places to interview people directly involved. (Days before she left, I spoke to her on the phone about the cases for a very long time.) Two weeks ago she published her findings in an excellent article called The Narco Terror Trap.

The DEA warns that drugs are funding terror. An examination of cases raises questions about whether the agency is stopping threats or staging them.

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The Democratic Debate at Saint Anselm College in Manchester, N.H. begins at 8pm ET. ABC is hosting the debate. Here's a thread to discuss it.

ISIS is probably very happy tonight knowing the candidates all know what's in their videos. If the Government succeeds in taking them down, how will the candidates know what they are sayig?

O'Malley is like Henney Penny "We're Under Attack." He says we don't have enough spying. He wants CIA covert intelligence and diplomatic intelligence. And human intelligence. We need a cabinet member. ISIS is now a "genocidal threat." Even Central America is a threat. [More...]

Here's the complaint Bernie Sanders' campaign filed in federal court against the DNC for suspending its access to public voter data. The case was quickly resolved. What the ruckus was about:

The suit came shortly after campaign manager Jeff Weaver acknowledged at a Washington news conference that Sanders staffers had improperly reviewed information gathered by rival Hillary Clinton earlier in the week. But he accused the DNC of over­reacting to the breach by suspending the Sanders campaign’s ability to access the computer system containing information about Democratic-leaning voters, including data the campaign has gathered about its own supporters.

The Dems will debate tonight in New Hampshire. What should Hillary say about Sanders' data breach and the DNC's response?

Here's the DOJ announcement about Obama's most recent sentence commutations with names and case details.

Here is Obama's statistical record on pardons and commutations, from the Office of the Pardon Attorney, updated through Dec. 4, 2015.

Here is the list of all pardons granted by Obama from 2009 through 2015.

Here is the list of all commutations granted by Obama from 2009 to 2015.

How has he compared to GW Bush? The Bush list of pardons is here, and list of commutations here.

Argue about data theft here.

I've been doing it on twitter - @armandodkos .

Open Thread.

Here's a new open thread, all topics welcome. I may not be back online until sometime next week. Hopefully you find the open threads useful in my absence.

More thread.

Thread.

I like Army +22 versus Navy.

Open Thread

I'll be gone for several days. Here's an open thread. Hopefully BTD can put up a new one if it gets full.

I have had little interest in Planned Parenthood shooting suspect Robert Lewis Dear from the get-go, as it was apparent the main legal issue in his case would be his competency and mental health, while the issue for the media would be gun control.

Today in court Dear declared himself guilty, complained his lawyer (a highly respected, experienced and dedicated public defender who was one of the two main lawyers for Aurora shooter James Holmes) was out to drug him and was conspiring with Planned Parenthood, and called himself a "warrior for babies." Facing 179 criminal counts, he told the judge he wanted more charges, saying more babies had been killed that day by Planned Parenthood.

According to observers in the courtroom, he had about 20 outbursts during the hearing. I thought this one was interesting: [More...]

Time's person of the year is Angela Merkel (no link, autoplay audio/video.) You can read a summary of her career here.

Donald Trump is threatening to run as an Independent if Republicans don't treat him fairly. He cites some poll that says 68% of his Republican followers would vote for him as an Independent. (no link due to auto-playing videos on all links I could find.) [More....]