Canadian Government memos, obtained under the Access to Information Act, show that CIA planes carrying detainees to other countries, including those that practice torture, made 74 landings in Canada.

Internal government briefing notes revealed senior intelligence officials from six government agencies, including the Security Intelligence Service, met in late November to discuss the flights.

One memo dated Nov. 28 instructed officials to tell the media that there was ``no credible information to suggest that these planes were used to ferry suspected terrorists to and from Canada, or that illegal activity took place.''

While the U.S. hasn't responded to the reports,

U.S. intelligence officials have said in the past that the planes are more likely to be carrying staff, supplies or Director Porter Goss on his way to a foreign visit.

Right. Tell that to Maher Arar and the others who were secreted away on Ghost Air and taken to countries where they were subjected to torture. [Via Raw Story.]

Now we know. Leaks of classified information for political purposes are okay for Bush and Cheney, but not for others.

Murray Waas tonight writes about a letter Sen. Jay Rockefeller, Vice Chair of the Senate Intelligence Committee sent to John Negroponte, Director of National Intelligence.

by TChris

Almost unbelievable. Almost.

Secret Service agents guarding Vice President Dick Cheney when he shot Texas lawyer Harry Whittington on a hunting outing two weeks ago say Cheney was "clearly inebriated" at the time of the shooting.

Agents observed several members of the hunting party, including the Vice President, consuming alcohol before and during the hunting expedition, the report notes, and Cheney exhibited "visible signs" of impairment, including slurred speech and erratic actions.

Capitol Hill Blue responds here to claims that it "made the whole thing up."

[Comments now closed due to deterioration into personal attacks. Several have been deleted.]

NORML has a new report on the effects of marijuana on the brain. The report is available here.

Whereas prohibitionist claims that pot use damages the brain continue to litter the debate regarding marijuana and health, scientific research now suggests what many cannabis enthusiasts have speculated all along: ganja is good for you.

In ways many of us could have never previously imagined, research now indicates that cannabinoids can promote the growth of neurons (nerve cells), protect the brain from trauma and cancer, and perhaps slow the progression of certain neurodegenerative diseases, such as Multiple Sclerosis, Parkinson's disease, Alzheimer's, and Lou Gehrig's Disease. At the same time, clinical investigations have also put to rest the "stoner stupid" stereotype, finding that cannabis even when used long-term has little

The ACLU today released more torture documents obtained from the Government. The new documents are available here. From the press release:

The American Civil Liberties Union today released newly obtained documents showing that senior Defense Department officials approved aggressive interrogation techniques that Federal Bureau of Investigation agents deemed abusive, ineffective and unlawful.

"We now possess overwhelming evidence that political and military leaders endorsed interrogation methods that violate both domestic and international law," said Jameel Jaffer, an attorney with the ACLU. "It is entirely unacceptable that no senior official has been held accountable." ...Today's documents come in response to a Freedom of Information Act request filed by the ACLU, the Center for Constitutional Rights, Physicians for Human Rights, Veterans for Common Sense and Veterans for Peace. The New York Civil Liberties Union is co-counsel in the case.

Check out the May 30 memorandum by FBI personnel, containing "a detailed discussion of tensions between FBI and Defense Department personnel stationed at Guantánamo in late 2002."

by TChris

Do Rep. Bob Ney's constituents read the newspapers?

"He is well liked in the district. He enjoys broad-based support from labor unions and business. My own personal feeling is, until he is led off the floor of Congress in handcuffs, he'll be tough to defeat," state Rep. John Boccieri said.

If Ney's constituents read TalkLeft, they'd know that handcuffs may soon be adorning Ney's wrists. Ney must think so, given his decision to set up a legal defense fund.

by TChris

The winner of the 2006 American Judicature Society's Herbert Harley Award is Bryan Stevenson.

John Carroll, dean of the Cumberland School of Law, nominated Stevenson for the award. "His efforts have brought reform in the case law, reforms in the criminal justice system in this state and have saved countless lives," he said in a press release. He said Stevenson and his colleagues have helped get 20 Alabama prisoners off death row.

by TChris

Thanks to Adam Liptak for calling attention to an underreported story and an underappreciated problem.

Almost every encounter with the criminal justice system these days can give rise to a fee. There are application fees and co-payments for public defenders. Sentences include court costs, restitution and contributions to various funds. In Washington State, people convicted of certain crimes are also charged $100 so their DNA can be put in a database. ...

The sums raised by these ever-mounting fees are intended to help offset some of the enormous costs of operating the criminal justice system. But even relatively small fees -- $40 per session, say, for a court-ordered anger management class or $15 for a drug test -- can have devastating consequences for people who emerge from prison with no money, credit or prospects, and who live in fear of being sent back for failing to pay.

Governments increasingly balance their budgets by imposing "user fees" on the individuals it drags into the court system. Those individuals are disproportionately poor, and it isn't unusual for them to sit jail time in lieu of paying fines and court costs. Liberty should not depend on wealth, and we shouldn't impose hidden taxes on the people who can least afford to pay them.

by TChris

Voting machines were in the news today as state and local governments scramble to prepare for elections. Fox News sounds curiously optimistic even as it reports widespread failures to comply with deadlines mandated by the Help America Vote Act.

Diebold scores in San Joaquin and at least 17 other California counties (more here and here):

"It's horrifying. It's staggeringly inappropriate," said Bev Harris of BlackBoxVoting.org, a Washington state nonprofit group that monitors election processes. "They've certified something that's illegal on its face."

Diebold scores in Florida:

Do you care that the Volusia County Council is being forced, because of illegal acts by the Department of State, to settle for a voting system that computer scientists have called unfit to use in any election?

by TChris

The president had it right before he became president, when (in a debate with Al Gore) he criticized the use of troops "for what's called nation building." Here's what the president's exercise in nation building has wrought (choose your headline):

• Civil War Imminent in Iraq
• Iraq: On the Brink of Civil War?
• Iraq slips towards civil war after attack on Shia shrine
• Shrine Attack Brings Civil War Warning
• Iraq spirals toward civil conflict after Shiite shrine is destroyed

etc.

Juan Cole (not a headline, just a fact): "The threat of terrorism and attacks on Americans just went way up."

[Update: The permalink and comments to this post are off for some reason. Just so you know if you get a blank screen.]

by TChris

Donald Rumsfeld is an expert at disaster creation. Why would the president want to put him in charge of disaster relief?

A White House assessment of the sluggish federal reaction to Hurricane Katrina concludes the Pentagon should oversee future catastrophe responses but does not recommend that Homeland Security Secretary Michael Chertoff be fired, officials said Wednesday. ... [T]he document - which a congressional aide said approaches 200 pages - proposes sweeping changes to federal response plans. These include making the military the lead agency to coordinate immediate relief when state and local resources are overwhelmed, one official said.

FEMA would continue to handle lesser disasters, thus dividing disaster management into two competing turfs. Can you imagine Rumsfeld and Chertoff arguing with each other -- as victims drown -- about which agency should be in charge of the latest hurricane response?

by TChris

As TalkLeft reported here, a videotape captured a police officer's shooting of Elio Carrion as the unarmed Carrion, an Air Force policeman who recently returned from Iraq, tried to comply with the officer's orders. Carl Jeffers writes about the follow up -- or lack thereof -- in cases like Carrion's.

The Carrion family is outraged that Officer Webb himself has not been arrested and criminally prosecuted for his actions. As for the San Bernardino County Sheriff's department, they have accorded Webb the same prerogatives that are always accorded police officers in these situations - and that's the first problem I have with this event. I never agree with any of these prerogatives. Officer Webb has been placed on paid administrative leave, and he was given the standard 48 to sometimes 72 hours to relax, collect himself, and get his story together for his written report. And when there is a video tape involved, the Department spokesmen and top officers immediately hold press conferences to assert that the officer was acting fully within Department guidelines, was responding to an immediate threat, and then warn that what we see on the tape doesn't show the entire picture and cannot be relied on to portray the actual events. BULL! ...