David Corn, at the Nation:

All of this contradicts what Bush told Americans before the invasion of Iraq. He and his aides claimed that Iraq had reconstituted its nuclear weapons program, that Hussein was producing and stockpiling biological and chemical weapons, that Baghdad was in cahoots with al Qaeda, and that the intelligence obtained by the United States and other governments (presumably including the Brits) left "no doubt" that Iraq posed a direct WMD threat to the United States.

The British memos are further evidence that Bush overstated the main reasons for the war. They also show that his key line of defense is bunk. When confronted with questions about the lack of weapons of mass destruction in Iraq, Bush and his allies have consistently pointed to bad intelligence. But the previously released Downing Street memos and the new ones indicate that the Brits--who had access to the prewar intelligence--saw that the WMD case (based on that intelligence) was, as Jack Straw observed, weak. One might ask, why did they have such a different take than the one Bush shared with the public?

[hat tip Atrios.]

Bump and Update: Sean Hannity will be dissing Senator Durbin tonight. Call Senator Durbin and tell him you're with him, and you want him to continue to hold this Administration's feet to the fire. (202) 224-2152. Web Contact Form.

Bump and Update: 6/16: The White House is now attacking Senator Durbin. [Link via AmericaBlog.]

Update: Billmon.

Update: Markos at Daily Kos:

What is beyond belief is that the type of torture more at home under tyrants and dictators is being seen in camps flying the United States flag. If McClellan and Bush want to defend torture, that's their right. But it's not the America I believe in.

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Original Post 6/15

Senator Richard Durbin (D-IL) is being attacked by right-wing talk radio and the White House for making this floor statement on Guantanamo yesterday (pdf). Kudos to Durbin for calling it like it is.

A Canadian Justice Minister has ordered Renee Boje extradited to the U.S. to begin serving a ten year mandatory sentence for a medical marijuana growing operation in California that occurred shortly after the state of California legalized marijuana for medical purposes. Marijuana activists have been following her case for many years and are very disappointed with the decision.

American refugee Renee Boje has just been ordered to turn herself over to Canadian court officials for deportation back to the USA to stand trial. This action is the result of Renee's appeal being denied by the Canadian Justice Minister, Irwin Colter , who has also signed an extradition order for the return of Renee to the U.S.

Renee has been ordered to surrender on Friday morning, 8.30 a.m. to a Canadian court for arrest and deportation to the US to stand trial on charges of co-conspiracy to grow 4,000 plants. Her alleged co-conspirators Peter McWilliams died waiting trial and Todd McCormack is out of jail after serving five years for his part in the Bel Air grow op.

You can read the decision here. (pdf). Here is the press release from her attorney, which I hope you will all read (link fixed)(Received by e-mail):

The U.S. today announced it has captured al-Zarqawi's top aide in Mosul.

This guy must have an unlimited supply of top aides. As noted by What Really Happened, this is the 5th one captured since May.

Sen. Bill Frist comments on the Terri Schiavo autopsy results. He says the case is over and denies making a diagnosis.

Frist said he accepted the results of Schiavo's autopsy released Wednesday, showing severe, irreversible brain damage. But he stood by his statements on the Senate floor last March, when he argued that on videotape Schiavo appeared to respond to her family and doctors.

"Would I do it over again? Yes, I would do it over again," the senator told reporters. Frist, R-Tenn., said he had only sought to make sure the most up-to-date testing was performed to determine whether Schiavo was truly in a persistent vegetative state, the diagnosis accepted by state courts. "I never made the diagnosis, I wouldn't even attempt to make a diagnosis from a videotape," said Frist, a heart surgeon.

What Frist said then:

Update: 2:30 pm (ET) It's starting. Watch online on C-Span 3 here. First witness will be former Ambassador Joseph Wilson.

Update: Raw Story has the latest statement from Rep. Conyers and the news that 122 Democrats have now signed on to his request that President Bush explain his actions.

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Original Post:

The hearing on the Downing Street Memo is today at 2:30 pm. C-Span 3 is providing live coverage. You can listen live at Radio Left or Pacifica. The Los Angeles Times has published these links to the British Iraq Memos (pdf):

• Legal Background
• Options Paper
• Ricketts Memo
• Straw Memo
• Meyer Memo
• Manning Memo

Don't forget to check updates on After Downing Street and Downing Street Memo.

TalkLeft is now three years old. How the time flies...

Many, many thanks to the readers and bloggers who have visited, commented and linked to us.

With 6.5 million visits, almost 11 million page views and three Koufax awards for Best Single Issues blog, I'm proud to say the site is still going strong. I hope you'll all stick around, the best is yet to come, as TChris and I continue to focus on the politics of crime - and the crime in politics.

Update: A special thanks to Skippy for his very flattering birthday wishes. Whenever I need to smile, Skippy's always the first place I turn.

Rep. John Conyers (D-MI) is calling for saner drug sentencing polices, particularly for women (pdf):

“The most recent casualties in the War on Drugs are women subject to misguided sentencing policy for acting as low level drug offenders. These casualties are referred to as the Girlfriend Problem. Many women are becoming implicated in drug trafficking operations because their boyfriends and husbands are high-level drug offenders. Our prison population now tops 2 million, which means 1 in 142 US residents are now in prison. The female population has increased rapidly with 101,000 women in state or federal custody last year, a 50% increase from 1995.

Irrational and unjust sentencing policies explain the increase in the women’s prison population. In too many cases, a woman is punished for the act of remaining with a boyfriend or husband engaged in drug activity, who is typically the father of her children. Under current law, even the least involved people in drug operations are held liable for the entire quantity of drugs found in connection with the conspiracy.

Bill O'Reilly tonight lambasted Al Franken in the talking points portion of his show. Among his charges: the NYTimes is "outsourcing assassins" by boosting Franken and Air America. Crooks and Liars has the video.

Deputy Associate Attorney General J. Michael Wiggins told the U.S. Senate Judiciary Committee at a hearing today that the White House believes detainees at Guantanamo can be held "in perpetuity."

In a rebuke to President Bush, with a nod to the First and Fourth Amendments, the House of Representatives today voted to ban the use of the Patriot Act for searches of library and book store records. Here's the roll call of the vote.

The House voted Wednesday to block the FBI and the Justice Department from using the anti-terror Patriot Act to search library and book store records, responding to complaints about potential invasion of privacy of innocent readers.

Despite a veto threat from President Bush, lawmakers voted 238-187 to block the part of the anti-terrorism law that allows the government to investigate the reading habits of terror suspects.

Convicted Oklahoma City bomber Terry Nichols refused to testify last week before a federal grand jury in Denver investigating explosives recently found under his old house. He said the grand jury is not the right forum.

Nichols, 50, has said he would cooperate with a congressional investigation. Rep. Dana Rohrabacher, R-Calif., is considering a probe into the bombing and is seeking to meet with Nichols in prison.

McDonnell said her brother does not feel safe at the federal supermax prison in Florence, Colo. "He feels his life is very threatened," she said. Other inmates "have told him he has been marked as a snitch and marked for murder, and so he's very fearful for his life."

She blamed FBI misconduct for the problem but would not elaborate. His life has been put in danger, and we don't appreciate it," she said. ....In late March, agents discovered explosives under Nichols' old house, acting on information that came indirectly from another inmate, mobster Gregory Scarpa Jr. Nichols later complained in letters to victims that Scarpa had mixed the truth about the explosives with lies in an effort to get a reduced prison sentence.