Arrests have been made in last week's London bombings. The BBC also reports that all four suspects were London natives. Sky News reports all four bombers died in the attacks.

Scotland Yard is conducting a press conference. Quick notes:

Three came from West Yorkshire area. Executed six warrants under Terrorism Act at three of the four men's homes. A detailed forensic exam will follow. All four arrived in London by train on the morning of July 7. They have seen CCTV footage showing them at King's Cross station at 8:30 am on that day. One man's family reported him missing. He was killed in the bus bomb.

Personal documents bearing names of three of four man have been found close to the sites of explosion. Missing man, his property was found on the bus. Property in name of second and third man found near two of the bombs.

Another man has been arrested in Yorkshire.

Your turn to pick the topics and speak your minds.

The New York Times succinctly recaps the Administration's prior statements on Karl Rove and the Valerie Plame leak:

In September 2003, Mr. McClellan said flatly that Mr. Rove had not been involved in disclosing Ms. Plame's name. Asked about the issue on Sept. 29, 2003, Mr. McClellan said he had "spoken with Karl Rove," and that it was "simply not true" that Mr. Rove had a role in the disclosure of her identity. Two weeks earlier, he had called suggestions that Mr. Rove had been involved "totally ridiculous." On Oct. 10, 2003, after the Justice Department opened its investigation, Mr. McClellan told reporters that Mr. Rove, Mr. Abrams and Mr. Libby had nothing to do with the leak.

Mr. McClellan and Mr. Bush have both made clear that leaking Ms. Plame's identity would be considered a firing offense by the White House. Mr. Bush was asked about that position most recently a little over a year ago, when he was asked whether he stood by his pledge to fire anyone found to have leaked the officer's name. "Yes," he replied, on June 10, 2004.

I don't expect President Bush to fire Rove. So, will Rove spare the President the embarassment and resign? And where is Fitgerald headed now?

If Rove gets indicted, I still think it won't be for outing Valerie Plame. I think it's more likely it will be for either perjury to the grand jury, making false statements to investigators or conspiracy to obstruct justice or violate the law against outing operatives.

Meanwhile, Judith Miller sits in jail protecting someone, probably Cheney's Chief of Staff Lewis Libby.

Salon has a new primer on the confusing case. The New York Times recaps prior White House briefings about the leaks. (So does Billmon.)

Will Karl Rove resign? Or continue to confidently maintain he's done nothing wrong and bank on escaping Fitzgerald's clutches? And if Rove goes down, who's going to go down with him? My bet is it will be Cheney's staff.

by TChris

This is how bipartisan negotiations over the Patriot Act have gone in the House:

"[T]he Republicans have told us for some time they are working on a bill, they asked for our suggestions, and they ended up saying that none of our suggestions were acceptable," the [senior Democratic] aide [on the House Judiciary Committee] said. "So they're now dropping a bill that we see as a total reauthorization of the Patriot Act with only very slight tweaks."

This is how bipartisan negotiations over the Patriot Act have gone in the Senate:

While negotiations to broker a bipartisan deal continued late Monday, Democratic officials said the compromise appeared to have stalled because of disagreement over whether to impose new restrictions on the government's ability to demand library records and other powers.

Bipartisan negotiations failed, in large part, because the Justice Department refused to agree to any lessening of the broad powers it gained under the Patriot Act. In fact, the Department wants even greater power, "including the F.B.I.'s expanded use of terrorism subpoenas without a judge's approval and ... expanded monitoring of certain mailings."

Elected representatives need to muster the courage to "just say no" to the Justice Department. They should work instead to pass the bipartisan SAFE Act.

If you are a doctor, a lawyer or a therapist, don't even think about responding to client or patient e-mail while on an airlane:

Federal law enforcement officials, fearful that terrorists will exploit emerging in-flight broadband services to remotely activate bombs or coordinate hijackings, are asking regulators for the power to begin eavesdropping on any passenger's internet use within 10 minutes of obtaining court authorization.

In joint comments filed with the FCC last Tuesday, the Justice Department, the FBI and the Department of Homeland Security warned that a terrorist could use on-board internet access to communicate with confederates on other planes, on the ground or in different sections of the same plane -- all from the comfort of an aisle seat.

How can they do that? Via CALEA:

by Last Night in Little Rock

Listening to audio of Scott McClellan's dissembling and stonewalling on Morning Sedition on Air America Radio gave me flashbacks to Ron Ziegler's performances during Watergate in 1972-73.

For once, somebody in the Fourth Estate actually had the spine to cross-examine him and "call him out on his lies" about "Rove, Abrams, and Libby," and, smelling blood, others joined in. McClellan was reminded of his denials and was running for cover, and you could hear fear in his voice. McClellan, however, continued to stonewall and hid behind the fact of a "criminal investigation" to not comment. He was more than freely denying everything about Rove's involvement when the criminal investigation started.

While the Republican press in the audience must have been devastated, Fox News did, at least, report it from an AP story: CIA Leak Denials on Rove's Behalf Crumble.

Sometimes I think we are living inside a made-for-tv sci-fi movie, co-written by George Orwell and Charles Dickens, and directed by a sadist. Here's the latest. The Bureau of Prisons will be installing fatal electrical stun fences on the perimeters of seven maximum security facilities. The reason: it's cheaper than prison guards.

Seven high-security federal prisons will be getting lethal electrified fences in a $10 million project intended to reduce the number of perimeter guards needed. The 12-foot-high "stun-lethal" fences, similar to ones used at some state prisons, can be set to deliver a shock if touched once, and a fatal jolt if touched a second time.

If you're a contractor, get your bids in now. The winner of the fence installation contract will be announced in the fall. If you're a taxpayer, ask yourself, how many times have you read about a federal prison breakout? The correct answer is zero.

President Bush gave a press conference on October 6, 2003. In it he was asked about the Valerie Plame leak. He called it a "criminal action." Here were his comments (from CNN, available on Lexis.com.)

QUESTION: Mr. President, on another issue, the CIA Leakgate, what is your confidence level in the results of the DOJ investigation about any of your staffers not being found guilty or being found guilty? And what do you say to critics of the administration who say that this administration retaliates against naysayers?

BUSH: Now, well, first of all, I'm glad you brought that question up. This is a very serious matter. And our administration takes it seriously. As members of the press corps here know, I have, at times, complained about leaks of security information, whether the leaks be in the legislative branch or in the executive branch, and I take those leaks very seriously. And therefore, we will cooperate fully with the Justice Department.

by Last Night in Little Rock

Rep. Henry Waxman called for a Congressional hearing over the Valerie Plame leak as the N.Y. Times this afternoon reported here.

Senator Frank Lautenberg of New Jersey said the intentional disclosure of a covert agency's identity amounted to an "act of treason," while Representative Henry Waxman of California, the ranking Democrat on the House Government Reform Committee, called for a Congressional hearing.

Congress's institutional memory may be too short. Remember Oliver North? He testified under compulsion at the Iran-Contra hearings and succeeded in excluding that evidence at retrial. United States v. North, 910 F.2d 843 (D.C.Cir. 1990).

As close as outing a CIA agent comes to treason, and it is only one or two steps below treason in the Sentencing Guidelines, one can see the Congressional villagers coming for Frankenstein with torches and pitchforks.

Update: Bernie Ebbers gets 25 years.

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Two days before his sentencing, convicted former WorldCom Exec Bernie Ebbers has settled his civil suit with the government, and will be giving up almost all that he owns:

A judge gave her blessing Monday to a civil suit settlement under which former WorldCom chief Bernard Ebbers will forfeit nearly all his cash and personal assets - as much as $45 million.

U.S. District Judge Denise Cote gave preliminary approval to the deal two days before Ebbers, 63, faces sentencing, and almost certain lengthy prison time, on his criminal conviction in the record WorldCom fraud. The civil settlement, which springs from a suit filed by angry former investors in the toppled telecom, will leave a modest Mississippi home for Ebbers' wife and roughly $50,000 for her to live on.

"Basically we left them with their furniture and the silverware," said Sean Coffey, a lawyer for New York state Comptroller Alan Hevesi, the lead plaintiff in the investor suit.

by TChris

Courts can't solve the problems spawned by legislatures, but sometimes they can force improvements. As TalkLeft reported, U.S. District Judge Thelton Henderson is using receivership to force California to correct its woeful administration of prison health care.

This happened after shocking testimonies given by two investigative physicians, each with 20-years-plus experience, who compared California's medical crisis to that of Angola, one of the worst prisons in the country. Both physicians stated that in all their decades in practice in correctional settings, they had "never seen such callousness and gross incompetence so widespread." They reported scores of preventable deaths verified from the medical records. At least 64 more per year are predicted to happen until the bureaucratic mess is cleaned up.

As Cayenne Bird explains, the problem isn't caused by a lack of money. It's caused by politicians who adopted a "lock 'em up" mentality with no thought to the consequences of ever-increasing prison populations.

Update: Execution stay granted. Among those fighting for the stay of execution: Former Independent Counsel Kenneth Starr - whose involvement is detailed in this WaPo article. [link via Sentencing Law and Policy]

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Robin Lovitt, 41, is scheduled for execution tonight in Virginia.

Virginia prepared Monday to execute a man convicted of stabbing a pool hall manager to death with a pair of scissors, a case that has attracted national attention because the murder weapon and DNA evidence were destroyed after the trial.