President Bush says the United States does not torture. He denies that we outsource detainees to countries known for torture. Today, at a military tribunal proceeding at Guantanamo, a detainee, backed by his lawyer, said differently:

Mohammad, as he said he prefers to be called, has proclaimed his innocence and has stated in court documents that he made false confessions after being extrajudicially transferred to a Moroccan prison where he was beaten, strung up by his arms and cut on the chest and penis with scalpels.

"This is four years of interrogation, highly intensive ... torture, and you still don't have the right name," he told the tribunal's presiding officer, Marine Col. Ralph Kohlmann. "The man you are looking for is not here."

The defendant compared Kohlmann to Adolf Hitler and prosecutors to vampire slayers. He calmly criticized the tribunals as "crap" that set a bad example for the world and poked fun at their formal name, commissions. "This is not a commission. It's a con mission. It's a mission to con the world," he said.

Today, key Senators announced a compromise has been reached on immigration reform. More here. If you're just catching up, here's a good primer on the issues from the LA Times today.

Shorter version: Say goodbye to Specter's Chairman's Mark bill that passed the Judiciary committee last week. Say hello to the Frist bill, that includes a compromise called the Hagel-Martinez bill introduced last night.

The Senate Judiciary bill died a filibuster death today when Senators voted against cloture. A vote on the new compromise legislation could come tomorrow. Congress starts a two week Easter recess Monday.

Background here. Key differences between the Chairman's Mark and the Hagel-Martinez include:

Think Progress and Firedoglake report:

According to court documents released in the Scooter Libby case, the former chief of staff to the Vice President received "the specific permission of President Bush" to leak a highly classified intelligence document:

"Defendant testified that the Vice President later advised him that the President had authorized defendant to disclose the relevant portions of the NIE. Defendant testified that he also spoke to David Addington, then Counsel to the Vice President, whom defendant considered to be an expert in national security law, and Mr. Addington opined that Presidential authorization to publicly disclose a document amounted to a declassification of the document."

Murray Waas has a new article with more details and analysis. Tom Maguire and Left Coaster have more. Here's a pdf link to Fitzgerald's pleading. I'll update after I've read the documents and articles.

by TChris

As TalkLeft observed here, it was unfair of undercover officers to base arrests on their use of drug slang while purchasing legal products, like sudafed and charcoal, from Georgia convenience stores staffed by clerks from India who didn't understand that "cook" referred to "manufacturing methamphetamine," not "grilling burgers." The officers' tactics raised questions about the selective targeting of a minority population for a dubious criminal prosecution.

An ACLU investigation produced compelling evidence that the Indian clerks were targeted because they wouldn't understand the officers' drug slang, while white clerks selling the same products were ignored. The ACLU has filed suit on behalf of the clerks.

Documents filed by the A.C.L.U. yesterday include a sworn statement from an informant in the sting, saying that federal investigators sent informants only to Indian-owned stores, "because the Indians' English wasn't good." The informant said investigators ignored the informant's questions about why so many South-Asian-owned stores were visited in the sting.

Duke University, one of the finest in the country, is in a tough spot. The Lacrosse team embroglio seems no closer to being resolved. After Wednesday's suspension of a student and resignation of the team coach, morale is low. Duke is trying to rally and today President Broadband announced separate committees will examine and report back to him as quickly as possible on the following:

• examining the culture of the lacrosse team;

• investigating the Duke administration's response to the sexual assault allegations;

• examining the student judicial process and disciplinary procedures;

• launching a Campus Culture Initiative, a rigorous self-examination "to evaluate and suggest improvements in the ways Duke educates students in the values of personal responsibility."

• creating a presidential council, made up of people from the Durham community, national higher education circles and Duke, that will scrutinize Duke's responses to the lacrosse team incident and advise the president on whether the responses are appropriate and effective.

I spoke tonight with some Duke parents I've known for 25 years whose son is a Freshman at Duke. They are pretty freaked out and their son, who adores Duke, is confused. They said this couldn't come at a worse timing -- acceptance letters go out April 1, and those accepted have until May 1 to make their decision. So it is this four weeks high school seniors have to decide whether to go to Duke. Many of those that get into Duke also get into Harvard, Yale and other Ivy League schools.This Lacrosse incident could cause Duke to lose some of its brightest admission candidates, should they or their parents be scared by the lacrosse incident.

Immigration reform will be a hot topic today. Late Wednesday, Senate Republicans introduced a compromise immigration bill. Sen. Harry Reid said Democrats will consider it, but it appears to be doomed, since many of the objectionable House provisions from H.R. 4437 are in it. Debate is scheduled to resume today on the Democrat's bill that passed the Judiciary Committee last week.

Sen. Dick Durbin says if a bill does not pass the Senate this week, there is unlikely to be any immigration reform legislation this year.

My view (and that of many pro-immigrants rights groups): Both proposals are unacceptable due to the punitive enforcement provisions. We need both an easier path to legalization, protections and benefits for workers and fewer enforcement provisions.

So, better no bill than a bad bill? Probably, unless the Democrat's version that strips some of the most egregious enforcement provisions prevails. But, for those who are wanting to review the differences between the Senate Judiciary version and what is reported to be in the new Republican version, see below:

I just got off the phone with Seton Hall Law School Professor Mark Denbeaux (who spearheaded these two (pdf) Guantanamo reports.) He is very excited to announce that on October 5 there will be a national Guantanamo Teach-in. About 40 law schools have already signed up but they'd like to get 300 to 600. If you are a law student, or a law prof, please help spread the word.

On October 5th, academic institutions across the United States will join together in the first national effort to study the unprecedented action of our Government in indefinitely detaining at least 517 individuals claimed to be "enemy combatants" but not "prisoners of war." The Constitution, the Rule of Law and the Role of Lawyers will explore, in Teach-In format, the legal, political, and moral implications of the Detention Center at the United States Naval Base in Guantanamo Bay, Cuba.

Details are here. Here's what's needed to participate. Some of the topics to be covered are here. You can e-mail for more information.

Also, a Guantanamo Bar Association of lawyers has been formed. More than 300 lawyers to date have joined.

Noah at Defense Tech has his first article up on Slate today:

Most of you have probably heard about the FBI's technology problems: The field offices that still aren't connected to the 'Net. The 8,000 employees who don't have fbi.gov e-mail addresses. The case management database that's straight out of the leisure suit era. But what's not as widely known is why the bureau is so behind the times. The big culprit is FBI culture, it turns out. Until very recently, being computer-savvy hasn't been considered much of an asset in the FBI, and clues were something you kept to yourself.

Update: Ryan McFadyen, the lacrosse player who lived in the dorm who wrote the email described below has been suspended from Duke.

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Original post

The coach of the Duke lacrosse team has resigned. The Dean cancelled the team games for the rest of the season. This is on the heels of new developments in the lacrosse players' alleged rape case. The Court unsealed and Smoking Gun has published the search warrant affidavit and search warrant return for the dorm room and vehicle that was searched by police on March 27.

Less than an hour after a woman said she was raped at a Duke University lacrosse party, authorities say one of the team's players sent an e-mail message in which he talked about hiring strippers and killing them.

A lawyer representing one of the team's members said the e-mail, while in bad taste, does not show that a crime happened at the house, and in fact could help show what team members have said -- that no assault happened.

Another defense attorney agrees:

Joe Cheshire, a lawyer representing one of the team captains, said the e-mail helps support the team's story. Team members told police, according to Cheshire, that they hired women to dance and those women left the party early.

A new GAO report (pdf) finds that federal agencies that buy personal data on Americans from data collectors and sellers and resellers like Choice Point and Lexis Nexis are not complying with privacy rules to protect the information.

[The federal]agencies often do not limit the collection and use of information about law-abiding citizens, as required by the Privacy Act of 1974 and other laws. The agencies also don't ensure the accuracy of the information they are buying, according to the GAO report. That's in part because of a lack of clear guidance from the agencies and the Office of Management and Budget on guidelines known as "fair information practices," the report said.

The report was requested after last year's revelation of security breaches at the companies. From the report:

Homeland Security Deputy Press Director Brian Doyle appeared in court today.

No bail was set, and he only spoke to answer routine questions, such as verifying his name. He was joined at the hearing by a woman that his attorney, Barry Hefland, identified at Doyle's life partner of 15 years.

Helfand said he hopes that at a bond review hearing, Doyle will be given bond so he can turn himself in to authorities in Florida without the need for extradition.

I'm sure people want to comment on HSA Deputy Press Director Brian Doyle and the underage sting. I've been waiting for a few more facts before commenting on it. The main question for me is whether the internet profile of the sheriff's deputy posing as a 14 year old stated she was 14, or whether there are email, phone or chat conversations in which she tells him she is 14.

How could he be stupid enough to have given a 14 year old he met in an AOL chat room his real name, office and cell phone numbers, to tell her he worked for Homeland Security and to send her regular, non-sexy photos of himself?

Why would he think a 14 year old would be interested in a 55 year old man?

Or, did he believe she was over 18, even though he knew she lived with her mother? Turns out she wasn't a 14 year old girl, but a Sheriff's deputy posing as one on the internet, so in fact she was over 18.