Australian Mamdouh Habib was seized in Pakistan in 2001 and during the next four years, shuttled between Egypt, Pakistan, Afghanistan and Guantanamo Bay. He was released in January, 2005. He claimed then he was tortured while in Egypt, and sued the U.S. in federal court to block it from sending him back to Egypt. He reiterated his claims of torture to the BBC today.

Mr Habib told the BBC's World Service that, after his "kidnap" in Pakistan in 2001, he was moved between Egypt, Pakistan, Afghanistan and Guantanamo Bay until his release at the beginning of 2005. He says he does not know who was holding him, but "I saw Americans.. Australians.. Pakistanis.. and Egyptians.... I was beaten, electric shock... no sleep, injections, brainwashed - unbelievable stuff," he said."

The New York Times reported in February:

The 14th Amendment says:

"all persons born or naturalized in the United States and subject to the jurisdiction thereof, are citizens of the United States."

Colorado Congressman Tom Tancredo now wants Congress to pass a bill denying citizenship to children of undocumented residents. He and like-minded Republicans want to tack the ban on to an immigration bill scheduled to be considered by the House next week.

Apparently, Tancredo believes that the Amendment doesn't apply to children with undocumented parents because although they are born in the U.S., they are not subject to its jurisdictions. Complete nonsense.

Democratic Congressman Charlie Gonzales has this appropriate response:

To change the way we establish citizenship is such an extreme measure, and it makes you really question what is motivating people to come up with those ideas.

Defense lawyers and prosecutors in Stanley Tookie Williams' case got 30 minutes to argue their case for and against clemency to Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger today. He is not expected to decide today.

Clemency is an act of grace and mercy, provided to the executive branch. It is a process by which the Governor can consider information not available to the court or jury at the time it determined guilt and sentence.

Newsweek today examines the Governor's dilemna. TalkLeft's position is here and here.

Check out the holiday gift guide from Saturday Night Magazine. If you scroll down, you will see they feature the TalkLeft 4th Amendment Subway Tote and Wonkette's tee-shirt.

You can get your tote here. (Click here for larger version). Let the 4th Amendment speak for you as you hand your bag over for a search by a subway or airline security guard. It's a silent protest and reminder to authorities that you consider searches without reasonable suspicion or probable cause to be an infringement of your privacy rights. They make great gifts.

Crashing the Gate by bloggers Markos Moulitsas Zuniga of Daily Kos and Jerome Armstrong of My DD is now available to pre-order.

Crashing the Gate is a shot across the bow at the political establishment in Washington DC and a call to re-democratize politics in America.

This book lays bare, with passion and precision, how ineffective, incompetent, and antiquated the Democratic Party establishment has become, and how it has failed to adapt and respond to new realities and challenges. The authors save their sharpest knives to go for the jugular in their critique of Republican ideologues who are now running—and ruining—our country.

Only 10,000 copies are being printed, so get your's now. Markos reports that as of 10 am this morning, 1472 copies have already been sold. Why order now? So the book can debut on the bestseller list, which in turn will help it reach more people.

Via Atrios, Adam Kidan, currently charged with lobbyist Jack Abramoff in federal court in Miami, has made a deal to flip on Abramoff:

If the deal goes through, Kidan, who was looking at up to 30 years in prison, could now face a maximum of 10 years. That sentence could be reduced depending upon the extent of his cooperation as a witness, not only against his co-defendant -- embattled super lobbyist Jack Abramoff -- but also in the prosecution of three men charged in the Feb. 6, 2001, slaying of Boulis, the sources said.

Kidan would plead to two five year counts, and get a sentencing reduction for his cooperation. As Atrios says, now it's Jack's turn.

Bump and Update: AP article on the compromise is here.

A bipartisan group of Senators is also slamming the compromise. From Senators Durbin, Feingold, Salazar, Sununu, Craig and Murkowski (via e-mail):

“We are gravely disappointed that the conference committee made so few changes to the Patriot Act reauthorization package that was circulated before the Thanksgiving recess. As we said then, we cannot support a conference report that does not contain modest but critical improvements, similar to those in the Senate-passed bill, to the most controversial provisions of the Patriot Act. We indicated before Thanksgiving that we would oppose a conference report like the one filed in the House today, and we believe many of our colleagues will join us.

Original Post:

From the ACLU this morning (received by e-mail):

by TChris

Terri Schiavo's husband, vilified and demonized by members of the extreme right, is using the political process to fight back. He’s created TerriPAC to raise funds to defeat the politicians who exploited his family’s personal tragedy for their own political purposes.

Among Republicans it is targeting are Senate Majority Leader Bill Frist of Tennessee, Sen. Rick Santorum of Pennsylvania and Rep. Tom DeLay of Texas.

Michael Schiavo’s experience made him realize that his party has been hijacked by extremists.

"I was a lifelong Republican before Republicans pushed the power of government into my private family decisions," Schiavo said in a statement. "And it is not so simple to forget those politicians who shamelessly sought to squeeze political leverage out of my family's most emotional hour."

Say hello to Alito's America, a youth-oriented campaign to stop the nomination of Sam Alito. It's a project of Campus Progress and Center for American Progress. Sample Messages:

President Bush has nominated Samuel Alito, a judge with a long record of judicial extremism, to replace Sandra Day O'Connor, who has been the crucial moderate voice and swing vote on the Supreme Court. If Judge Alito is confirmed, his extreme right-wing ideology would endanger our basic freedoms.

and a sample letter to send to your Senators:

Samuel Alito's America is not my America. I'm opposed to the confirmation of Judge Alito to the Supreme Court. I believe that President Bush should appoint a mainstream judge in the mold of Sandra Day O'Connor.

Watch the video.

by TChris

Two New York police officers have been accused of sexually assaulting three women. In November, the officers approached a woman who was stopped at a red light in Brooklyn.

Investigators said one of the officers leaned into her car and rubbed his hand on her leg and both officers followed her home on the pretext of making sure she arrived safely, but assaulted her once they got there while her child and her brother's two children were sleeping inside.

DNA belonging to one officer was found in the woman’s apartment. A month earlier, the same officers groped two women in their apartment when they responded to a noise complaint, according to complaints the women filed after realizing the same officers had committed other assaults.

Sexual abuse of women by police officers isn’t limited to New York.

25 years ago, on December 8, 1980, John Lennon was shot and killed outside his apartment building on the upper West Side of New York. I heard about it that night from Howard Cossell while in bed watching Monday Night Football. He interrupted the program to announce that "an unspeakable tragedy had occurred in New York City."

I was nine months and three weeks pregnant, and had just returned from the hospital where they tried to induce labor and it failed, so they sent me home. The minute Cossell said John Lennon had been shot, I heard a loud pop. My water finally broke, I rushed to the hospital, and just a few hours later, the TL kid was born. I tell more about the events of that night here, and how for the past 25 years, I have told the TL kid that when John Lennon's spirit left his body, it went straight to his.

John Lennon has been a spiritual member of our family ever since then. From listening to his music, discussing his life, and at least once a year in New York traveling through the sidewalk art shows to pick up memorabilia of John that resonated with one or both of us. It's a heavy day, followed by a day of celebration.

The Washington Post reports that while Robert Luskin, Karl Rove's lawyer, had no comment on yesterday's grand jury proceedings,

"What I can say is, there's been no change in Karl's status since late October," he said. At that time, Fitzgerald told Luskin that Rove remained under investigation but that he would hold off on charging him because of information Luskin had provided late that month.

If, as the Washington Post previously reported, the information Luskin provided at the 11th hour concerned his conversation with Viveca Novak, then she is critical to Fitzgerald's decision. But perhaps she is only critical to Rove's avoiding a perjury charge for his testimony to the grand jury in February, 2004 when he didn't disclose his call with Cooper.

While Viveca may solve that problem for Rove, I don't see how she solves the problem of his failing to tell investigators in October, 2003, before the grand jury was convened, that he spoke to Robert Novak about Joseph Wilson's wife before Novak published his article. It has been reported that lawyers close to the case say that Rove told investigators he first learned of Plame Wilson when he read Novak's article.