by TChris

Have U.S. troops been held accountable for civilian deaths in Iraq?

The majority of U.S. service members charged in the unlawful deaths of Iraqi civilians have been acquitted, found guilty of relatively minor offenses or given administrative punishments without trials, according to a Washington Post review of concluded military cases. Charges against some of the troops were dropped completely.

Though experts estimate that thousands of Iraqi civilians have died at the hands of U.S. forces, only 39 service members were formally accused in connection with the deaths of 20 Iraqis from 2003 to early this year. Twenty-six of the 39 troops were initially charged with murder, negligent homicide or manslaughter; 12 of them ultimately served prison time for any offense.

Is accountability a military goal?

by TChris

Another tangle between state autonomy and federal supermacy is in the making, as Gov. Schwarzenegger decides whether to sign a bill authorizing California farmers to grow industrial hemp.

The rapidly growing plant with a seemingly infinite variety of uses is against federal law to grow because of its association with its evil twin, marijuana. ... But California is the first state that would directly challenge the federal ban, arguing that it does not need a D.E.A. permit, echoing the state's longstanding fight with the federal authorities over its legalization of medicinal marijuana.

You'll recall that California came out on the losing end of the medical marijuana argument. Yet the federal interest in uniformity of drug law enforcement is stronger than its interest in preventing farmers from growing a crop that adds nothing to the supply of illicit drugs.

by TChris

Racism -- or more broadly, intolerance based on characteristics of race, national origin, religion, and sexuality -- remains one of the most compelling challenges confronting the United States. The anniversary of Katrina drives the point home.

To live in the real world is to not be shocked when learning about how relief trucks passed by East Biloxi, a predominantly black community, to get to D'Iberville, a predominantly white middle-class community.

To live in the real world is to understand why the Red Cross station in East Biloxi barely served food, had no mobile health-care unit and was located in a depressing run-down building, while the Red Cross station in D'Iberville was pristine, well-stocked with food and supplies, and a full-service mobile health-care unit.

by TChris

The White House wants voters to believe that the president has played a significant role over the past year to help New Orleans rebuild. Despite all the president's speeches, disapproval of his response to Katrina remains high. As it should.

A year after Katrina, "only half of the New Orleans courthouse's 12 courtrooms have come back into service since judges returned to the flood-damaged building in June." Jail inmates are waiting for trials; many are waiting to meet their public defenders. And they've been waiting for a year. Judge Arthur Hunter is right to think that they shouldn't be kept waiting any longer.

Hunter says that especially given a shortage of public defenders, many indigent prisoners locked up even before the hurricane haven't talked to lawyers or been charged with crimes; he believes their rights have been being violated for too long and that therefore their releases warrant consideration on a case-by-case basis.

The Comair commuter plane that crashed in Kentucky this morning killing 49 people, all but the pilot, reportedly took off on the wrong runway, one too short for commercial planes.

The crash was the country's worst domestic airplane accident in nearly six years.

How tragic. Our condolences go to the families of the victims.

In 2001, Oklahoma condemned murderer Alvie "Jim" Hale's last words were:

"I want to say goodbye to my family and friends. Thanks for being there and supporting me," he said. "Watch what you see here. Remember it, and go tell somebody."

In anticipation of the imminent execution of 24 year old Elijah Page who has ended his appeals and now prepares for death, reporter Jeff Martin of the Argus Leader today remembers an earlier execution he witnessed in Oklahoma, that of Alvie "Jim" Hale in 2001. It's a vivid recollection. The part about the "soundtrack of death" is chilling. But not as much as this:

Good news from Gaza. The two Fox News journalists kidnapped two weeks ago have been freed.

American correspondent Steve Centanni and cameraman Olaf Wiig of New Zealand were dropped off at Gaza City's Beach Hotel...Their captors, a previously unknown group calling itself the Holy Jihad Brigades, had demanded the release of all Muslims imprisoned by the U.S. by midnight Saturday in exchange for freeing the journalists. It was not immediately clear whether the kidnappers received anything in return for freeing the journalists.

The kidnappers' group affiliation is still being debated. The group identified itself as the Holy Jihad Brigades, but:

It also remained unclear whether the kidnappers were local militants, either with ties to Hamas or the rival Fatah movement, or sneaked into Gaza from outside. However, some Palestinian security officials said Sunday there were growing suspicions that the kidnappers were locals.

[hat tip Patriot Daily.]

Update: Here is the journalists' conversion video. Here's a video of Steve Centanni's first statement on release.

Illiniois has begun to see the light and takes a step in the right direction in dealing with juvenile offenders:

Barbed wire is on the way out as the state's new Juvenile Justice Department stresses education and reform to give young offenders a chance to turn around....For more than three decades, the Illinois Department of Corrections had been responsible both for the state's adult convicts and for juveniles serving time here. But this summer, in a swing of the pendulum away from an emphasis on punishment and back toward a focus on reform, Illinois created a new Department of Juvenile Justice.

...."With kids we have to lock up because of their behavior, our goal is to motivate them, not suppress them," said Malcolm Young, executive director of the John Howard Association of Illinois, a prison advocacy group that helped drive creation of the new agency. "We want to stimulate them with textures, colors, softer sounds, brightness and even food they like, not stultify them in a cold, closed, hard, flat uncaring setting."

Let's hope other states will watch and learn.

Newsweek's Michael Isikoff and David Corn's new book, Hubris, names Richard Armitage as the leaker of Valerie Plame Wilson's identity and the source for both Bob Woodward and Bob Novak. Isikoff reports in Newsweek that Armitage realized he was the leaker when he read Novak's October 1, 2003 column describing his source as "no partisan gunslinger." Armitage then reported his suspicion

Within hours, William Howard Taft IV, the State Department's legal adviser, notified a senior Justice official that Armitage had information relevant to the case.a team of FBI agents and Justice prosecutors investigating the leak questioned the deputy secretary. Armitage acknowledged that he had passed along to Novak information contained in a classified State Department memo: that Wilson's wife worked on weapons-of-mass-destruction issues at the CIA. (The memo made no reference to her undercover status.) Armitage had met with Novak in his State Department office on July 8, 2003--just days before Novak published his first piece identifying Plame. Powell, Armitage and Taft, the only three officials at the State Department who knew the story, never breathed a word of it publicly and Armitage's role remained secret.

This doesn't end the discussion. Isikoff has been speculating about Armitage since 2005. As Needlenose, who has followed the case closely writes:

This is one way to make sure the comments are fixed. I'll be working on the site today, so here's a place for you to write what's on your mind.

Update: Comments seem to be fixed.

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I know there's a problem with commenting on TalkLeft today. This time it's my fault. I thought I would try to set up a separate blog for the Jonbenet Ramsey case and in copying templates I screwed something up.

I'm trying to find Mike Ditto to help me recover them. When I realized it last night, I opened up comments, but by this morning there were so many spam comments for ringtones and drugs I had to close them again.

Please be patient. It's not Typekey's fault or the hosting company's. I'll let you know when it's fixed.

How twisted is this? Jesus' General, Defamer and TBogg have more. New York officials want to ban the show.

More news on Segregation Island and Media Matters has more here.

Can you spell b-o-y-c-o-t-t? It's only seven words and it's only common sense. Whenever it airs in your locale, make sure your tv's are on and tuned to a different channel.