Criminal defense lawyer Terry Kindlon (a frequent reader and commenter on TalkLeft) has filed what is believed to be the first motion to dismiss criminal charges against his client due to Bush's warrantless NSA electronic monitoring program.

An FBI sting case that targeted two members of an Albany mosque should be dismissed because the investigation originated from a national spying program that may be illegal, an attorney for one of the defendants said in a motion filed in U.S. District Court. The challenge of the government's case against Yassin Aref and Mohammed Hossain, who are accused of taking part in a plot to sell missile launchers to terrorists, may force federal prosecutors, and a U.S. District judge, to address a national debate unfolding about whether the National Security Agency violated any laws by eavesdropping on U.S. residents.

Terence L. Kindlon, Aref's attorney, filed a nine-page motion late Friday asking for all evidence in the case to be thrown out, and for a dismissal of the indictment. While defense lawyers in the case have been requesting access to classified evidence for more than a year, the new motion specifically targets the NSA program.

....Now, with attorneys for Aref and Hossain confident secret surveillance was the catalyst for the FBI's Albany sting, the stage is set for the NSA program to be challenged on constitutional grounds as part of the local case. The question is whether the government will be compelled, even tacitly, to confirm that Aref was targeted because of information gleaned from the controversial spy program.

It's time for the Tuesday Open Thread. Some things of interest:

• Jane of Firedoglake, Taylor Marsh and Matt Stoller (who often writes at MyDD) have created a blog for comments on Washington Post articles.

• Arianna writes that Hillary is not a lock for the '08 nomination

• Alternet also has a new blog, The Echo Chamber, that will cover how political ideas and issues are communicated and gain traction in the media universe. It aims to spread the word of the progressive community far and wide.

U.S. District Court Judge Jed Rakoff, one of my favorites (for many reasons, including this one) has ordered the Pentagon to release the names of the Guantanamo detainees.

U.S. District Judge Jed S. Rakoff told the government to provide the information in the form of unredacted copies of transcripts and documents related to 558 military hearings in which detainees were permitted to challenge their incarcerations.

AP attorney David A. Schulz said he expected the government to appeal. "The judge has rejected the Defense Department's effort to use the privacy interests of detainees to prevent the public from learning information about the actions taken at Guantanamo Bay," he said.

Bump and Update: (TL) Unbelievable. Chief Warrant Officer Lewis Welshofer, Jr. convicted of manslaughter for killing an Iraq military officer during an interrogation is sentenced to no jail and a reprimand. Soldiers in the courtroom cheered at the sentence. How disgusting, there simply is no other word for it.

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Original Post (Jan 22):

by TChris

In a series of posts (collected here), TalkLeft has followed the military's response to the death of Iraqi military officer Abed Hamed Mowhoush during an abusive interrogation. The trial is over and the verdict is in:

Update: The New York Times on Bush's planned weeklong spin mission for the NSA program.

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Original Post

It's happening again. Everytime the Democrats come close to scoring, they drop the ball. They fall for the Republican rhetoric, try to play the middle and end up sounding like Republican-lites.

Here's what you will see in the next few days. All of the points made over Bush's warrantless NSA electronic monitoring program being illegal are about to go down the drain. Scared off by Karl Rove, and Bush's agenda of talking heads this week, the Democrats are now saying they are in favor of increased surveillance just as much as the Republicans. Their opposition is about to be reduced to accusing Bush of a technical violation they would only have been to happy to fix had he asked.

Congrats to three of my favorite blogs who received finalist nominations today to the 2006 Bloggies for best political blog.

Daily Kos, Crooks and Liars, Firedoglake -- those are my top three.

They are only missing Atrios and Huffington Post.

Go on over and vote for your favorite.

Update: The 2005 Koufax Awards for liberal bloggers are moving to the next phase. The initial nominees for Best New Blog and Blog Deserving of Wider Recognition are up. This is a great way to find new and interesting blogs that you don't come across every day.

President Bush spoke to anti-abortion activists who were protesting the Roe v. Wade decision today, telling them "We Will Prevail."

President George W. Bush on Monday told opponents of abortion their views would eventually prevail and urged them to work to convince more Americans of "the rightness of our cause." On the 33rd anniversary of Roe v. Wade, the landmark Supreme Court decision that established federal abortion rights, Bush addressed activists by telephone from Manhattan, Kansas, and called their goals noble.

"We, of course, seek common ground where possible," he said. "We're working to persuade more of our fellow Americans of the rightness of our cause, and this is a cause that appeals to the conscience of our citizens and is rooted in America's deepest principles -- history tells us that with such a cause, we will prevail."

Democrats, take heed. The writing is on the wall. Do not confirm Judge Sam Alito.

Reporter Jason Leopold has new details of the current focus of Special Counsel Patrick Fitzgerald's investigation into PlameGate, many of which were provided to him by those with personal knowledge of the investigation and who have appeared before the grand jury. He writes that the Niger documents are an issue, as are the activities of the White House Iraq Group and Karl Rove. In other words, a conspiracy investigation is very much underway.

Rove first:

All of the sources interviewed separately for this story said they were told that Karl Rove was the person who first suggested using the media to "turn the tables on Wilson." The officials wouldn't identify the person who told them this. The decision, however, was made during a meeting that took place between the White House Iraq Group.

...Lawyers close to the leak case said Fitzgerald seems to be pursuing conspiracy charges against some of the higher-profile suspects in the leak, such as Rove.

Sen. Russ Feingold (D-WI) sent this letter (pdf) to National Intelligence Director John Negroponte, NSA Director Keith Alexander and Donald Rumsfeld today. A snippet:

"One element of the NSA's domestic spying program that has gotten too little attention is the government's reportedly widespread use of data mining technology to analyze the communications of ordinary Americans. Today I am calling on the Director of National Intelligence, the Defense Secretary and the Director of the NSA to explain whether and how the government is using data mining technology, and what authority it claims for doing so.

Data mining is a new, unproven and intrusive technology in the counterterrorism context, and we need to know how it is being used, how effective it is in finding patterns of terrorist activity, and whether there are sufficient safeguards to protect the privacy of Americans. We can and must fight terrorism aggressively without infringing on the privacy of law-abiding Americans."

There's an excellent op-ed in today's Washington Post by Washington lawyer Robert Litt, who was the principal associate deputy attorney general in the late 90's, on the fake Cisneros scandal. He knows, because he was there. I urge you all to read his article for insights into the independent counsel's collossal waste of $22 million dollars over six years. Litt begins:

An independent counsel has issued a report claiming that officials of the Clinton administration blocked his investigation into allegations of tax violations by former housing secretary Henry Cisneros. Although these sensational charges have been trumpeted by partisans as evidence of Democratic corruption, they are completely false.

After debunking Independent Counsel Robert Barrett's claims, Litt concludes:

Bradblog has the transcript (pdf) of last week's House Judiciary Committee (Democratic) hearing on Bush's warrantless NSA electronic surveillance program. [link fixed]

Thanks to Suburban Guerilla, Mark Crispin Miller and Save the USA for pointing out Section 605 of the House version of the Patriot Act renewal legislation. It calls for the creation of a Federal Police Force. Your imperial presidency at work.

"A permanent police force, to be known as the 'United States Secret Service Uniformed Division,'" empowered to "make arrests without warrant for any offense against the United States committed in their presence" ... "or for any felony cognizable under the laws of the United States if they have reasonable grounds to believe that the person to be arrested has committed or is committing such felony."

Here is the text to Sec. 605, Creation of the Uniformed Division, United States Secret Service. [hat tip Patriot Daily.]