Sen. Ken Salazar gave a speech in the Senate Thursday, backing the immigration reform bill passed by the Senate Judiciary Committee on Monday, including its guest worker provisions.

The theme of the speech was not the guest worker program. It was "broken borders and lawlessness," a phrase he repeated five times. He lauded the many criminal enforcement components of the bill, including those that:

• Double the number of Border Patrol agents--adding 12,000 new agents over the next five years;
• Double interior enforcement-adding 1,000 investigators per year for the next five years;
• Increase resources to expand the ability of federal agents to retrieve aliens detained by local police;
• Increase resources for additional detention facilities;
• Add new electronic surveillance technologies and resources to create a "virtual fence" at the border;
• Provide for reimbursement to states for costs of prosecuting and imprisoning undocumented criminal aliens; and
• Provide for faster deportation process, and enhanced penalties for gang, tunneling, smuggling, and greater resources targeting ID fraud.

by TChris

This can't be good news for Tom DeLay.

A former top aide to Rep. Tom DeLay pleaded guilty Friday to conspiracy and promised to cooperate with a federal investigation of bribery and lobbying fraud that has so far netted three convictions and prompted calls for ethics reform in Congress.

Tony Rudy, DeLay's former deputy chief of staff, admitted to conspiring with convicted lobbyist Jack Abramoff both while Rudy worked for DeLay and after he left the lawmaker's staff to become a lobbyist himself.

Via the San Francisco Chronicle:

U.S. District Judge Jeremy Fogel spent more than 3 1/2 hours at the prison, accompanied by lawyers for the state and for Michael Morales, the condemned murderer from Stockton whose execution was halted by Fogel last month because of questions about the state's lethal-injection methods....the judge asked numerous questions about how the drugs were administered but gave no indication of his views or any areas of concern.

by TChris

Conflict between two elements of the Republican base -- corporate donors to the party who argue that immigrants are needed to fill low wage jobs, and extremists who are hostile to permitting anyone who wasn't born in the country to work here -- has Republicans squirming. Rep. Dana Rohrabacher thinks he has an ideal solution: turn the nation's prisons into forced labor camps.

He said businesses should be more creative in their efforts to find help and suggested that employers turn to the prison population to fill jobs in agriculture and elsewhere. "Let the prisoners pick the fruits," Mr. Rohrabacher said. "We can do it without bringing in millions of foreigners."

Jack Abramoff picking strawberries? Not likely. If Rohrabacher's plan were implemented, how long would it be before agribusiness started lobbying for mandatory minimum sentences to assure the availability of a large, stable workforce?

Congressman James "The Menace" Sensenbrenner is about to strike again -- this time, he's going to urge going topless. Via Law Prof Doug Berman at Sentencing Law and Policy:

I have now heard from two different sources that House Judiciary Chair James Sensenbrenner intends to introduce a bill mandating topless guidelines, and that there will be a hearing concerning the solution to the post-Booker sentencing problems that he identifies sometime in early May. My impression from the House hearing earlier this month was that most of the witnesses did a powerful job urging Congress to leave Booker alone for now, but apparently Sensenbrenner was unconvinced. Needlesss to say, this is a story to watch, and the links below provide plenty of background.

Tranlsation: For federal crimes, the top of the sentencing guidelines will now mean the sky's the limit.

P.S. I tried to make a find a picture of a topless Sensenbrenner for the post, but am not adept enough to create one. If any readers can come up with one, please send it on, anonymously or for credit.

Reporter's Committee for a Free Press has posted the trial exhibits in the Zacarias Moussaoui trial which recently were ordered released. The debriefing of Khalid Sheikh Mohammed(pdf), now in custody in a secret overseas prison, describes not only Moussaoui's non-participation in September 11, but minute details of the planning of 9/11, the participants, the operational theories behind it and the unformed plan for a second wave of attacks. It was introduced into evidence at Moussaoui's trial.

Also among the documents are the many e-mails between FBI agent Harry Samit who believed Moussaoui was an imminent terrorist danger, and other FBI agents who thwarted his attempts for a FISA warrant. Personally, I don't believe the FBI would have connected the dots no matter what, but that's what the jury in the Moussaoui case now is deliberating.

Today's New York Times provides this analysis of the documents.

To me, the most fascinating document is the summary of debriefing of Khalid Sheikh Mohammed, the alleged mastermind of the 9/11 attacks. From his overseas secret prison where he has been debriefed numerous times, he provided a wealth of information that anyone interested in 9/11, not just Moussaoui, will want to read.

A criminal probe is underway in the Eastern District of Pennsylvania, where Carla Martin was licensed to practice law, pertaining to her unauthorized communications with FAA witnesses in the Zacarias Moussaoui trial:

Meanwhile, federal prosecutors in Philadelphia are investigating a government lawyer who nearly derailed Moussaoui's sentencing trial by coaching witnesses and lying to his defense attorneys. The criminal investigation of Transportation Security Administration lawyer Carla J. Martin was revealed in the recently unsealed transcript of a closed March 21 hearing in the Moussaoui case.

At that hearing, Brinkema disclosed that she had been "advised by the U.S. Attorney's office that there may very well be a prosecution of her, at least they're looking at the possibility." Rob Spencer, the lead prosecutor in Moussaoui's case, said the matter was referred to the Eastern District of Pennsylvania, where Martin is a member of the bar. Prosecutors in Alexandria decided to take no part in the investigation.

Update: Cryptome has the transcript of the March 14 hearing (html) where Martin was present and the Judge said it was one of the most egregious violations she had seen as a judge. There's lots of good stuff in the transcript.

The jury did not reach a verdict today in the Zacarias Moussaoui trial. They did ask for a definition of "weapons of mass destruction" and were told it could include "planes, used as missiles."

The verdict form is now available here. (pdf). In order for Moussaoui to be eligible for the death penalty, it requires the jury to find,

(b) the defendant intentionally participated in an act, i.e. lying to federal agents on August 16-17, 2001

© the defendant participated in the act, i.e. lying to federal agents on August 16-17, 2001, contemplating that the life of a person would be taken or intending that lethal force would be used in connection with a person, other than one of the participants in the offense

d) at least one victim died on September 11, 2001, as a direct result of the defendant's act, i.e. the defendant's lies to federal agents on August 16-17, 2001

This seems to require an affirmative act of lying -- as opposed to concealing information. The jury instructions are not yet online. It will be interesting to see if the word "lying" is defined and if the definition includes or excludes omissions.

The defense had proposed this verdict form:

by TChris

Economic inequality and its relationship to racial inequality was big news for two or three days after Katrina. Perhaps the Urban League's annual report, "State of Black America 2006," will reawaken interest in one of the nation's most pressing problems.

The report, which assessed factors including home ownership, income, unemployment, poverty rates and net worth, said the economic status of blacks in 2006 is 56 percent of that of white Americans, 1 percentage point worse than last year.

by TChris

A couple of months ago, TalkLeft wrote about a lawsuit against R. Lindley DeVecchio, an FBI agent who allegedly ended surveillance of Nicholas Grancio at the request of an informant so that Grancio could be killed by the Colombo crime family. The lawsuit has become the least of DeVecchio's worries.

DeVecchio was indicted today for conspiring with members of organized crime who committed four murders.

"This is the most stunning example of official corruption I have ever seen," [District Attorney Charles J. Hynes of Brooklyn] said in a statement. He said a federal agent whose job is to protect lives instead assisted in murder.

Jill Caroll's been released. William Arkin has a fascinating column on what 9/11 plotter Khalid Sheikh Mohammed had to say about the plans for the 9/11 and future attacks.

The South Carolina Senate has approved the death penalty for pedophiles.

Murray Waas has a new National Journal article on pre-war intelligence.

And an open thread for you.

Here's the story: A police officer may have accidentally shot herself outside a house in Long Beach, California. She was found slumped over the wheel of her car. An "Officer Down" call went out. Then,

Long Beach police said dispatchers received an "officer down" call made from inside the Wrigley neighborhood home about 6 a.m. Moments after finding Rosa wounded in the driveway, officers swarmed the area and conducted house-to-house searches.

The 911 call was placed by the resident of the property where the officer was found. The resident appears to be her partner.

So the police go to the house, find the woman dead on the scene, and on her partner's word they search - the neighbors? House to house searches of a neighborhood without a warrant in this situation sounds quite excessive--and frightening.

[Hat tip to reader Kirk]