Some good news on the NSA warrantless surveillance issue. I just received this e-mail from Rep. John Conyer's office:

Today, the House Judiciary Committee passed H.Res. 819, calling on the President and the Justice Department to disclose its role in approving massive telephone call databases maintained by the NSA and others. This is the first time a Committee has approved a Resolution of Inquiry demanding information from the Administration this Congress.

The resolution, authored by Representative Robert Wexler (D-FL), requests "all documents in the possession of the President and the Attorney General, including all legal opinions, relating to requests made without a warrant by the National Security Agency or other Federal departments and agencies to telephone service providers, including wireless telephone service providers, for access to telephone communications records of persons in the United States."

Khamis al-Obeidi, one of the main defense lawyers for Saddam Hussein, was kidnapped from home by men in uniforms and killed. He is the third defense lawyer on the team to be killed in 8 months.

Khalil al-Dulaimi, Saddam's chief attorney, blamed the Interior Ministry.

Al-Dulaimi blamed the Interior Ministry, which Sunnis have alleged is infiltrated by so-called Shiite death squads, for the killing. "We strongly condemn this act and we condemn the killings done by the Interior Ministry forces against Iraqis," he said.

The Interior Ministry had no comment on the claim. A photo of al-Obeidi provided by police showed his face, head and shoulders drenched in blood

The Dukesters need a new thread, comments are overflowing at the last one. In today's Duke lacrosse player news:

• Coach breaks silence--Basketball coach Mike Krzyzewski discusses the scandal caused by the rape allegations

• USA Today editorial saying the facts are growing shorter for Nifong, i.e., the case keeps unraveling

• Michael Gaynor in the Post Chronicle tells the accuser to pray and apologize and calls her by her real name in a very nasty opinion piece. I'd still like for commenters not to do that just yet.

I just finished watching "The Road to Guantanamo." It is as good as the reviews say. It opens June 23 in theaters in some cities and you should definitely see it. It's part documentary and part drama. It's very fast-paced and the scenes in Afghanistan and Guantanamo are very real -- and frightening. It also will make you very angry -- and drive home the realization that not all the detainees at Guantanamo can be the "worst of the worst" because many don't belong there at all. And yes, they were mistreated.

The four subjects of the film, Asif Iqbal, Ruhel Ahmed, Shafiq Rasul (pdf), and Monir Ali were British teens of Pakistani descent who went to Pakistan because one was getting married in an arranged marriage. Almost on a whim, they naviely decided to go to Afghanistan. The U.S. started its bombing campaign right afterwards. They get captured by the Northern Alliance and three of them get turned over to the Americans who won't believe they aren't al-Qaeda and send them to Guantanamo where they are held for two years without charges before being returned to England and finally freed. They appear in the film as narrators while actors re-create their ordeal. The fourth, Monir Ali, got separated and has not been heard from again, although he may be in a Pakistani prison.

Don't miss Frontline's The Dark Side about Dick Cheney at 9 pm ET. Here's a thread to discuss it.

Tennessee is gearing itself up to be the country's latest killing machine. It has scheduled five executions for the same day, June 28, and says it is prepared to carry them all out should last minute appeals not delay them.

Prison officials say they just need two to three hours between them so they can get the families of one inmate out and the next one in.

The record goes to Virginia:

The record for single-day executions is believed to be the eight men convicted of rape who were electrocuted on Feb. 2, 1951, in Martinsville City, Va.

Here's why Sedley Hadley and Dennis Reid should not be executed. I haven't found pages for the other three yet.

Via LaShawn Barber, in Indianapolis, 9 former guards at a juvenile detention facility have been charged with having sex with female teenage detainees, ages 13 to 15 over six years. They "wooed the girls with love letters and gifts, including a teddy bear emblazoned with the words "I Love You."

Marion County Prosecutor Carl Brizzi said Monday that authorities know of six teenage detainees -- ages 13 to 15 -- who had sex with male employees at the facility between 2000 and 2005. The ex-employees -- eight guards and one control booth operator -- face counts of child molestation, sexual battery or sexual misconduct with a minor, among other charges.

Kudos to John Wesley Hall, who contributes to TalkLeft as Last Night in Little Rock. He's been silent here for a while, and here's why: He's been defending a man accused of providing material support to terrorists in Arkansas. Yesterday the jury returned a verdict of not guilty on the charge.

Arwah Jaber, a naturalized U.S. citizen born in the West Bank town of Yamoun, was acquitted Monday of providing material support to the recognized terrorist organization, Palestinian Islamic Jihad, but he was convicted on five lesser charges related to immigration and credit card fraud.

Jaber plans to go back home and teach when his legal problems are over. He received his doctorate in chemistry from the University of Arkansas. He said he would like to stay and teach in Arkansas if allowed but realizes that may not be possible.

The Government has moved to revoke his citizenship. But LNIR made some great arguments and the Court has taken it under advisement and allowed Jaber to remain on bond.

Major thanks to TChris for his excellent posts this morning. He's about to go on a two week vacation, so make sure you catch all of them as you'll be stuck with me until his return.

I've been busy writing elsewhere today:

• Altercation, The Torture Edition

• Bloggers, Karl Rove and the Presumption of Guilt (an op-ed in the Washington Examiner)

• Jailing the Undocumented at 5280

Writing is much more labor-intensive than practicing law, I'm glad to be going to work now.

by TChris

You'd think a deputy sheriff would know better than to accept a dare like this one:

According to a criminal complaint, a woman sitting at a table with Ringhofer at the party said Ringhofer exposed himself after she dared him in jest.

Deputy Ringhofer has been charged with sexual misconduct and indecent exposure for accepting the dare at a birthday party held in a bar.

by TChris

Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld found it "strange" to be asked to swear to tell the truth to investigators who wondered "how his department came to nearly squander $30 billion leasing several hundred new tanker aircraft that its own experts had decided were not needed." Rumsfeld is evidently unfamiliar with procedures that require honest responses to questions. No suprise, then, that Rumsfeld responded by citing "poor memory, loose office procedures, and a general distraction with 'the wars' in Iraq and Afghanistan." Typical of Rumsfeld's evasive answers:

"I don't remember approving it. But I certainly don't remember not approving it, if you will."

Meanwhile, the PBS series "Frontline" airs a report tonight that relates the triumph "of Vice President Cheney and Defense Secretary Donald H. Rumsfeld over the administration's internal war skeptics." This review suggests that the report could have been subtitled "How Dick and Don Rolled the CIA and State Department and Got Us Into This Mess."

by TChris

An unconfirmed report from Iraq's Defense Ministry advises that the two U.S. soldiers who were reportedly captured by a group affiliated with al-Qaeda in Iraq have been found dead.

Update:

An Iraqi military official says bodies found showed signs of torture and of being killed in "a barbaric way.'' Mario Vasquez, Menchaca's uncle, said Army officials had told the family early this morning that the bodies of two uniformed soldiers had been found, both of them beheaded. He said the Army would be conducting DNA tests, but the family believes the men were Menchaca and Tucker.

The uncle of one of the fallen soldiers wants to know why the administration had no plan to win peace in Iraq: