A new report finds that wiretaps conducted by law enforcement are subject to security breaches from readily available devices:

The technology used for decades by law enforcement agents to wiretap telephones has a security flaw that allows the person being wiretapped to stop the recorder remotely, according to research by computer security experts who studied the system. It is also possible to falsify the numbers dialed, they said.

Someone being wiretapped can easily employ these "devastating countermeasures" with off-the-shelf equipment, said the lead researcher, Matt Blaze, an associate professor of computer and information science at the University of Pennsylvania.

The new finding have some serious legal implications:

Democracy Now Wednesday will feature interviews with Stanley "Tookie" Williams, awaiting a clemency meeting with Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger, and Lori Berenson, imprisoned for ten years in a Peruvian jail. Go here to listen in.

A Conversation with Death Row Prisoner Stanley Tookie Williams

Two weeks from the date of his scheduled execution, Williams speaks from death row with Democracy Now! about his case, his life and his redemption. Williams helped start the Crips street gang. But behind bars he has become a leading advocate for the end of gang violence. He has written nine books and has been nominated several times for the Nobel Peace Prize. He is scheduled to die on Dec. 13.

Rep. Randy Cunningham who resigned in disgrace after his guilty plea to bribery and related charges will cooperate with the feds in investigating others. He was a major Congressional drug warrior - in 1994 he voted for legislation carrying the death penalty for drug kingpins.

Then his son became one. In 1997, Todd Cunningham was arrested and charged in a conspiracy to fly 400 pounds of marijuana into an airport near Boston. He faced a five year mandatory minimum sentence. He cooperated with others in the conspiracy and in 1998, at a hearing that included a "tearful plea" from his father, was only sentenced to two and one half years.

In reporting on his son's sentencing, the AP noted (11/18/98) the elder Cunningham had some other trouble of his own that year:

by TChris

Robin Lovitt will not be the victim of execution 1,000. Doubts about Lovitt's guilt cannot be resolved because the government destroyed the only evidence that could establish his innocence. He was scheduled to die on Wednesday.

Acknowledging the compelling need to "reaffirm public confidence in our justice system," Gov. Mark Warner today granted clemency to Lovitt. While Lovitt will serve a life sentence without parole, he won't be executed.

Thank you, Gov. Warner.

by TChris

This is the system American soldiers are fighting (and dying) to protect?

As the American military pushes the largely Shiite Iraqi security services into a larger role in combating the insurgency, evidence has begun to mount suggesting that the Iraqi forces are carrying out executions in predominantly Sunni neighborhoods.

Hundreds of accounts of killings and abductions have emerged in recent weeks, most of them brought forward by Sunni civilians, who claim that their relatives have been taken away by Iraqi men in uniform without warrant or explanation.

Some Sunni men have been found dead in ditches and fields, with bullet holes in their temples, acid burns on their skin, and holes in their bodies apparently made by electric drills. Many have simply vanished.

by TChris

Having trouble keeping track of all the governors and members of Congress who are dogged by accusations of wrongdoing? Chris Cillizza assembled this handy scandal scorecard as a quick reference.

by TChris

Former Representative Randall "Duke" Cunningham, whose bribery conviction and resignation are discussed here, is rolling over on his coconspirators. Who will he bring down?

Cunningham's 33-page guilty plea Monday says the congressman worked with four coconspirators to take $2.4 million in bribes from defense contractors and others over the past five years. The money went to pay for a San Diego estate, a Virginia condominium, a Rolls-Royce and a litany of other luxury items.

The plea agreement did not name the alleged conspirators, but details such as business addresses and occupations made some of their identities apparent. One was Mitchell Wade, former president of MZM Inc., a Washington, D.C., firm that does classified intelligence work for the military. The documents also suggest that another conspirator was Brent Wilkes, an associate of Wade's who headed a defense contracting company called ADCS Inc., which also provided campaign cash and favors to Cunningham while reaping valuable contracts.

I wish I could spend the day here blogging, but I can't. Here's an open thread so you can have your say.

Update: Tuesday's over, thread closed.

The Justice Department released 470 pages of documents about Judge Sam Alito to reporters Monday on highly techical legal issues -- and gave them three hours to read them

Despite the lack of time to fully digest them, as the New York Times reports, at least one thing was abundantly clear:

In several of the memorandums, however, Mr. Alito makes a series of arguments espousing a broad view of law enforcement authority and a skeptical view of proposals to protect individuals from legal investigations.

The Washington Post reports the memos show Alito was hostile to foreigner's rights:

As a senior lawyer in the Reagan Justice Department, Samuel A. Alito Jr. argued that immigrants who enter the United States illegally and foreigners living outside their countries are not entitled to the constitutional rights afforded to Americans.

Abortion is not the critical issue in Alito's nomination. Freedom and the right to life for the already born is more important.

There's no good news to report about the impending hanging of 25 year old Nguyen Van Tuong for a drug offense in Singaore scheduled for December 2. The Australian Government has given up, and right now the only thing it is requesting is that Nguyen's mother be allowed to hug her son on the way to the gallows.

Singapore's recently fired Chief Hangman Darshan Singh may perform the barbaric act after all. He says Nguyen will suffer less if he does it. Here's how it will go:

Susie at Suburban Guerilla:

Growing student debt, fast-shrinking student aid and few well-paying jobs upon graduation – why are we urging kids to go to college?

Say hello to the new debtor class:

The average student now graduates with three and a half times more debt than ten years ago, but still Washington wants to cut even more student aid.

I wonder if Congress has a stereo system in its chambers. I'd love for someone to put on Grace Slick singing "Feed Your Head."

Miami is taking new steps to keep terrorists off guard...asking Americans to supply ID papers when conducting ordinary activities like entering a bank or hotel or riding a bus or train.

Both uniformed and plainclothes police will ride buses and trains, while others will conduct longer-term surveillance operations. "People are definitely going to notice it," Fernandez said. "We want that shock. We want that awe. But at the same time, we don't want people to feel their rights are being threatened. We need them to be our eyes and ears."

Is this what we've become? Who said the terrorists didn't win the terror war?

[Via Atrios.]

Update: At least in Denver, the authorities are moving slowly in deciding whether to prosecute a woman who refused to show identification while riding a bus to work:

"Passengers aren't required to carry passports or any other identification documents in order to ride to work on a public bus," [ACLU Director Mark Silverstein] said.