Via Newsweek and several other media sites: ISIS is offering to return the body of James Foley for $1 million. The family has not confirmed the report.

Also today, a news station disclosed the identity of Shami Witness, one of ISIS most ardent supporters on Twitter. He was followed by 17,000 people (including 2/3 of foreign fighters) with 2 million views of his tweets each month. The station did not disclose his full name, but they said he goes by the name Mehdi and "he is an executive in Bangalore working for an Indian conglomerate." Here's an article on him. I've used this article he wrote a few times in my posts on ISIS.

The judge in the Oscar Pistorius trial has ruled the state can appeal her judgment of culpable homicide and dismissal of the murder charge against Pistorius. She ruled that she can't say it's a remote possibility that the appeals court might rule differently on the legal issue of whether dolus eventualis applies.

She refused to allow the state to appeal Oscar's sentence for culpable homicide. She said that's a factual ruling and she made it based on the evidence presented. So if the appeals court upholds the judge's ruling dismissing the murder charge, his sentence cannot be increased.

Based on the cases she cited in her original ruling dismissing the murder charge, and some related cases in South Africa I looked at, I think the judge was correct in her legal ruling. I don't think the state proved Oscar had the necessary intent for a murder conviction. Dolus eventualis exists when an accused foresees that his conduct poses a risk that an unlawful killing might occur, reconciles himself to the risk, and decides to proceed anyway. There was no evidence Oscar contemplated that risk. He was operating under a mistaken assumption of fact. That his assumption was wrong does not translate to intent. Intent is a subjective test. [More...]

Dick Cheney, former CIA officials Michael Hayden and Jose Rodriguez, and even the $80 million contract psychologists claim details in the newly released Senate Torture Report are "hooey" and "a bunch of crap" or they didn't know about the use of the techniques like "rectal feeding" and the program worked.

Their protestations are pointless. This report is the latest, but certainly not the only report containing many of the same details they dispute.

Just one example: Take a look at the 2013 extensively sourced report by the Open Society Justice Initiative, Globalizing Torture: CIA Secret Detention and Extraordinary Rendition. (Interestingly, it accounts for 136 detainees who were subjected to CIA secret detention and/or extraordinary rendition operations, while the Senate Report lists only 119.)

I'll focus on just one of the "mistaken identity" detainees -- Khalid Sheikh al-Masri (also known as Khaled Sheikh el-Masri.) There are many reports about him, as well as court decisions, here and in Europe. [More...]

The U.S. Senate Select Committee's release of the 525 page summary (available here) of its 6,000 page report of the CIA's detention and interrogation program under the Bush Administration finally puts to rest the false claim that the United States does not torture. The report shows the CIA not only tortured, it lied about it.

The report names the 119 detainees held by the CIA in overseas black sites. 26 of them were detained due to mistaken identity or erroneous intelligence. Even today, some Republicans took to the airwaves to defend the CIA's actions.

The world is watching and wondering, where are the prosecutions? The United Nations Special Rapporteur on counter terrorism and human rights, Ben Emmerson, today issued this statement. [More..]

It's a dentist day for me in Boulder. Here's an open thread, all topics welcome.

Time Magazine released its list of the 8 finalists for Person of the Year today. Here's the list (not from Time, because it has an auto play video.) Pretty lackluster. There are some odd choices, like Taylor Swift. And redundant ones, like Vladimir Putin, who was chosen in 2007 and 2012.

It's not a popularity contest. Time writes:

TIME's choices for Person of the Year are often controversial. Editors are asked to choose the person or thing that had the greatest impact on the news, for good or ill — guidelines that leave them no choice but to select a newsworthy — not necessarily praiseworthy — cover subject.

Time named Adolph Hitler "Person of the Year" in 1938 and Joseph Stalin twice, in 1939 and 1942. In 1979, it was Ayatollah Khomeini.

Since groups of persons are now eligible, how did ISIS not make the list?

Tonight is the 34th anniversary of the killing of John Lennon.

Here's one reason his passing has a special meaning for me and my son. I particularly like the post I wrote in 2010. And from my post in 2005

There are millions of people in this world whose lives were enriched by John Lennon, his persona and his music. He told his truth and it was the truth of an entire generation. His death was a tragedy, but his life was an inspiration.

The U.S. is preparing for security risks with tomorrow's long-waited release of the summary of the Senate's Torture Report, a history of the Bush Administration and CIA's "Rendition, Detention and Interrogation" program. The Obama Administration is backing the release of the report. Thousands of U.S. marines around the world have been put on alert in anticipation of reaction to the details in the reports. What's being released is the 450 or so page summary of the 6,000 page report. (Background here.)

Reuters has a preview.Here are the previously published findings. The report concluded: [More...]

BET aired its interview with President Obama on race tonight. (Warning: video plays automatically.) It's called "BET News Presents: A Conversation with President Barack Obama."

More Ferguson grand jury documents were released today.

The ACLU responds to DOJ's new racial profiling guidelines. It also points out that allowing racial profiling near the border is a bad precedent.

Protests continue around the country.

Homeland is back tonight, the Good Wife is not.
Our last open thread is full, here's a new one. All topics welcome.

Our open threads have been filling up much more quickly the past few weeks. They close automatically at 200 comments. So please don't be a blog-clogger. No one should have 20 or more comments in a single thread. And there's no need to take up a comment space just to say "wow" or "me too." Comments are for your thoughts and observations. An open thread just means you get to pick the topic you want to write about. Whether it's politics, what you cooked for dinner, TV, your pet, it's all fine.

As always, no name-calling (including calling others "trolls") and no personal attacks or profanity. TalkLeft welcomes all points of view. No one is a "troll" because they don't share your (or my) viewpoint. On the other hand, repetitive chatter -- making the same point over and over is objectionable, and those commenters will be limited to the number of times they can comment in a particular thread. If you want to have an extended conversation with a single commenter, please find another site for that. Open threads are not for extensive personal banter between two people. [More...]

The Pakistani military announced it carried out a raid this weekend on an al Qaida hideout in South Waziristan, killing AQ leader Adnan G. el-Shukrijumah, a naturalized U.S. citizen indicted for terror crimes in the U.S.

Pakistan said it was their intelligence that led to the raid (not U.S. Intelligence.) Adnan G. el-Shukrijumah has been on the FBI's wanted list for a long time. In 2003, based on information obtained during the interrogation of 9/11 detainee Khalid Sheikh Mohammed, they searched for him from Florida to Morocco. In 2010, he was indicted in the Eastern District of New York as part of the Najibullah Zazi case involving a plan to attack the NY subway. He was also charged with planning to blow up a shopping mall in Manchester, England. [More...]

Six detainees at Guantanamo have been transferred to Uruguay. Four are from Syria, one is from Tunisia and one is Palestinian.

Their names: Jihad Diyab, Ahmed Adnan Ahjam, Ali Hussain Shaabaan and Omar Mahmoud Faraj, Abdul Bin Mohammed Abis Ourgy and Mohammed Tahanmatan.

136 detainees remain at Gitmo. 67 have been cleared for release. 13 have been transferred since November.

The President of Uruguay, Jose Mujica, said they are free to leave Uruguay at any time. He refused to agree to hold them for two years as requested by the U.S. In a letter to the U.S. he wrote:
[More...]