AOL news reports the passenger killed by air marshals in the jetway of an American Airlines plane in Miami was an 44 year old American citizen. His wife said he was mentally ill and hadn't taken his meds.

A witness said that the man frantically ran down the aisle of the Boeing 757 and that a woman with him said he was mentally ill. The passenger, who indicated there was a bomb in the bag, was confronted by air marshals but ran off the aircraft, Doyle said.

The marshals pursued and ordered the passenger to get on the ground, but the man did not comply and was shot when apparently reaching into the bag, Doyle said. Authorities did not immediately say whether any bomb was found.

CNN reports no bomb was found. Although the plane had arrived from Colombia, it was en route to Orlando. The man boarded in Miami.

• Bin Laden appears, at least as of three months ago, to be alive and well.
• Saddam refused to attend his trial today, which is now adjourned until December 21.
• Tookie Williams' lawyers will be meeting with Gov. Arnold S. tomorrow.
• Patrick Fitzerald was back at the grand jury this week.
• It's the anniversary of the Pearl Harbor attack.

I've got some work to do, so feel free to chat about these or your own topics.

And you can vote once a day in the weblogs awards. TalkLeft is coming in second to Americablog for now, so your votes really count.

The New York Observer analyzes Bob Woodward's relationship with the Washington Post as one of economics - Woodward has become so much of a cash cow for the paper, and so rich himself, that there is no controlling him. Nor, it seems, does the paper have any idea what he's working on. There are some juicy tidbits and quotes. Here are a few, but go read the whole thing.

Publisher Leonard Downie:

Asked to explain why he’d been out of touch, Mr. Downie replied, “Because he’s a rich man, who has an entire floor of his house as his office, and he has a staff of his own working for him. He doesn’t come into the office so much. We have to take the initiative to talk to each other.”

The Chancellor of Germany has told the world what the the Bush Administration has tried to keep secret: The U.S. admitted making a mistake in kidnapping Khaled al-Masri (also spelled el-Masri) and detaining him for five months. The U.S. made the admission to Germany's then interior minister, Otto Schily.

The Germans became aware of his case in May 2004, when the White House dispatched the U.S. ambassador in Germany to pay an unusual visit to the interior minister, Otto Schily. Ambassador Daniel Coats told Schily the CIA had wrongfully imprisoned one of its citizens, al-Masri, for five months and would soon release him, according to several people with knowledge of the conversation.

There was also a request: that the German government not disclose what it had been told even if al-Masri went public. The U.S. officials feared legal challenges and exposure of a covert action program designed to capture terrorism suspects abroad and transfer them among countries.

TalkLeft noted here that it was Condi Rice who ordered the release of al-Masri. As the New York Times said at the time,

The prosecution of Tampa Professor Sami al Sami was not only a failure for the Justice Department, it was a failure of the Patriot Act.

The trial was a crucial test of government power under the USA Patriot Act, which lowered barriers that had prevented intelligence agencies from sharing secretly monitored communications with prosecutors. The case was the first criminal terrorism prosecution to rely mainly on vast amounts of materials gathered under the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act (FISA), whose standards for searches and surveillance are less restrictive than those set by criminal courts.

...Then-U.S. Attorney General John D. Ashcroft hailed al-Arian's 2003 indictment as an early victory for the Patriot Act.

The New York Times reports that the White House and Sen. John Mcain are nearing a compromise on the torture amendment.

The White House is said to be ready to yield to McCain on his insistence that the CIA not be exempted from the Amendment. But, McCain is willing to consider the inclusion of a standard that limits liability of CIA officers:

Mr. McCain is balking at agreeing to any kind of exemption for intelligence officials, members of his staff say. Instead, he has offered to include some language, modeled after military standards, under which soldiers can provide a defense if a "reasonable" person could have concluded that he or she was following a lawful order about how to treat prisoners.

Check out these postage stamps with your favorite liberal bloggers on them. They'd be great to send out your Holiday greeting cards.

The stamp created for me is here. (Click on the larger version to see it better.) Thanks to Bozartz for creating them.

Bump and Update: Reuters reports al-Arian was acquitted on most charges and the jury deadlocked on others. Way to go, Bill Moffitt.

In a stinging defeat for prosecutors, a former Florida professor accused of helping lead a terrorist group that has carried out suicide bombings against Israel was acquitted on nearly half the charges against him Tuesday, and the jury deadlocked on the rest.

....After a five-month trial and 13 days of deliberations, the jury acquitted Al-Arian of eight of the 17 counts against him, including a key charge of conspiring to maim and murder people overseas. The jurors deadlocked on the others, including charges he aided terrorists....Two co-defendants, Sameeh Hammoudeh and Ghassan Zayed Ballut, were acquitted of all charges. A third, Hatem Naji Fariz, was found not guilty on 24 counts, and jurors deadlocked on the remaining eight.

Arianna posts this leaked memo from the Hillary Rodham Clinton campaign which, if for real, is enough for me to say "No Hillary" rather than "Go Hillary" in 2008.

But I suspect the memo is a fake, particularly due to the inclusion of this paragraph:

The Sturgis Motorcycle Rally is being held on August 7th, and we expect HRC to be the “Grand Marshall.” HRC has agreed to get three tattoos. Thoughts? Top suggestions so far: “Semper Fi,” “Live Fast Die Young”, and “Senators Do It on the Floor”. Check local chapter of Hell’s Angels for endorsement and temp renaming to “Hillary’s Angels”. Must be sure HRC’s motorcycle lessons are completed by then, and remind her to call her bike her “hog”. Also, what size bustier and leather skirt is HRC?

Update: Arianna intended it as a parody, she wrote the whole thing. In that light, it's very, very funny.

Whether you agree with his politics or not, praise is due Ramsey Clark for risking his life to represent Saddam Hussein. Glenn Greenwald has an excellent post explaining why Clark is a true hero and why the right-wing law bloggers who are bashing him are doing a disservice not only to Clark but to all who support the rule of law.

it is painfully obvious -- or at least it ought be -- that few things are more vitally important than ensuring that Saddam Hussein has a genuine, fair trial before he is convicted and punished. If we simply execute him after some sort of sham show trial, it will be even more difficult than it already is for us to claim that we are building a different, better Iraq -- or that we are there in order to bring democracy and respect for human rights. If we claim the right to simply execute people including Hussein without a fair trial, it's hard to see how we can claim, with a straight face, that we are engaged in something other than pure tyranny.

The ACLU has filed a lawsuit against former CIA Director George Tenet alleging that Khaled El-Masri was illegally kidnapped, detained and tortured.

The American Civil Liberties Union today announced the first ever lawsuit against former CIA director George Tenet challenging the CIA’s abduction of a foreign national for detention and interrogation in a secret overseas prison. The lawsuit was filed on behalf of Khaled El-Masri, an innocent German citizen victimized by the CIA’s policy of “extraordinary rendition.”

“Kidnapping a foreign national for the purpose of detaining and interrogating him outside the law is contrary to American values,” said Anthony D. Romero, Executive Director of the ACLU. “Our government has acted as if it is above the law. We go to court today to reaffirm that the rule of law is central to our identity as a nation.”

When announcing Judge Sam Alito's nomination to the Supreme Court, President Bush said:

I'm sure, as well, that Judge Alito is thinking of his mom, Rose, who will be 91 in December. And I know he's thinking about his late father. Samuel Alito Sr. came to this country as a immigrant from Italy in 1914. And his fine family has realized the great promise of our country.

London Yank at Daily Kos checked out the elder Alito's military records (available online) for WWII.

Samuel Alito of Mercer, New Jersey was born in 1914 in New Jersey. There are codes on the data set for "Nativity" as well as "Citizenship" so there is no possibility of error here - unless Sam Sr. lied when he enlisted in 1938 to serve his country.