by TChris

The Bush administration and its cheerleaders have criticized Amnesty International's use of the term "gulag" to describe Guantánamo Bay. AI gives the administration a nice slap in response:

Kate Gilmore, the group's executive deputy secretary general, said the administration's response was "typical of a government on the defensive," and she drew parallels to the reactions of the former Soviet Union, Libya and Iran under Ayatollah Khomeini, when those governments were accused of human rights abuses.

It hasn't escaped AI's notice that the administration relies on AI reports of human rights abuses when those reports focus on countries the administration looks upon with disfavor. Nor does AI mind the publicity it receives when one government official after another talks about its findings.

While the University of Colorado decides the career fate of embattled Ethnic Studies Professor Ward Churchill, the Rocky Mountain News has spent the past two months unearthing every possible fact, rumor and innuendo about the Professor. Beginning today, having played Inquisitor, Judge and Jury, without benefit of cross-examination by Churchill, they are presenting their findings in a five part series. Part One of the five part series is online here. The tag to the headline of the paper edition reads :

A News investigation of the charges before a CU panel reveals strong evidence of possible misconduct by the professor. (our emphasis.)

Shorter version: We think he lied his a** off, but we can't prove it and we don't want to be sued by his lawyer, David Lane.

Today's articles examine the "Eichman" statement. Tomorrow's issue:

by TChris

In a country so deeply divided, it's surprising that relatively few trials end with a hung jury. Twelve people in a locked room will generally agree on a verdict. Sometimes they struggle; sometimes deliberations become a contest of wills. Recalcitrant jurors usually surrender at some point, if only because they don't know how long the judge will otherwise force them to stare at each other in the locked room.

Occasionally, differences are irreconcilable, wills are equally strong, and unanimous agreement cannot be won. That may be the result in the government's first Sarbanes-Oxley prosecution.

Federal prosecutors Friday appeared on the verge of a serious setback in their landmark fraud case against Richard M. Scrushy, perhaps Alabama's best-known businessman, as jurors in Birmingham told the judge they were badly deadlocked on all charges.

Scrushy's apparent good fortune may be the product of a public relations strategy tailored to Bible Belt jurors.

by TChris

Sensitivity be damned. This is a blatant appeal to right wing voters, without regard to the ugly message it sends to those who view the Confederate flag as a symbol of the struggle for white supremacy.

Missouri's governor has ordered that the Confederate flag be flown tomorrow at a state cemetery where former rebel soldiers were buried, a move denounced by black leaders.

Confederate flags had flown daily at the Higginsville site and the Fort Davidson State Historic Site in Pilot Knob until they were ordered down in January 2003 by Democratic Governor Bob Holden's administration. [Gov.] Blunt has supported legislation, which failed to come to a vote this year, that would have allowed the state park board to decide whether the Confederate flag should fly over Missouri's historical gravesites. The bill was opposed by many black lawmakers.

by TChris

The First Amendment's Establishment Clause prohibits government from favoring one religion over another, and from promoting religion generally. That constitutional requirement applies to the military just as it applies to all other branches of government. As a Washington Post editorial notes today, it's disturbing to learn that an Air Force Academy chaplain urged cadets to convert classmates "by warning that they 'will burn in the fires of hell' if they do not accept Christ."

During basic training, freshman cadets who decline to attend after-dinner chapel are marched back to their dormitories in "heathen flights" organized by upperclassmen. A Jewish student is taunted as a Christ killer and told that the Holocaust was the just punishment for that offense. The academy's head football coach posts a banner in the locker room that proclaims, "I am a Christian first and last. . . . I am a member of Team Jesus Christ."

First and foremost, government officials and employees are part of Team America -- a team that is equally open to all religious beliefs. The Pentagon contends that it has addressed the problem of religious intolerance by appointing a task force, but the Post questions whether the task force conducted its investigation in good faith.

In the closest thing to an apology Maher Arar has received to date, Canadian Defense Minister Bill Graham said Friday he regrets that it took so long to obtain Arar's release from Syria, where he was sent by the U.S. and allegedly tortured during a year of confinement.

Testifying at a federal inquiry into Canada's role in Arar's deportation Thursday, Graham said things might have been different had Canadian officials known what they know now.

"But in the light of what we knew at the time and the nature of the practices and what we were trying to achieve, I honestly believe we did, you know, the best we could and with the best motives and everyone was trying to get Mr. Arar out as quickly as we could," he said. "Clearly we would've preferred he'd been gotten out earlier, and I'm very sorry that he was not, for obvious reasons."

After testifying, Mr. Graham walked over to Mr. Arar to shake his hand. Interviewed afterwards, Arar said:

The Pentagon today acknowledged - for the first time- that a soldier mistreated the Koran.

The Pentagon has confirmed for the first time that a U.S. soldier deliberately kicked a Guantanamo Bay prisoner's Quran in violation of the military's rules for handling the Muslim holy book.

In other confirmed incidents, prison guards threw water balloons in a cell block, causing an unspecified number of Qurans to get wet; a guard's urine splashed on a detainee and his Quran; an interrogator stepped on a Quran during an interrogation; and a two-word obscenity was written in English on the inside cover of a Quran.

The findings are among the results of an investigation last month by Brig. Gen. Jay Hood, the commander of the detention center in southeastern Cuba. The probe was triggered by a Newsweek magazine report -- later retracted -- that a U.S. soldier had flushed one Guantanamo detainee's Quran down a toilet.

USA Today has more. And Eric Alterman has a new column in The Nation on the Newsweek story - and why the Government shouldn't have "declared a jihad" and intervened.

Verdict Watch
June 3, 2005

The verdict isn't even in but the grandaughter of the 79 year old juror in the Michael Jackson case says the grandmother said she planned to write a book on the experience and she is working to make sure her grandmother follows through.

The granddaughter has already lined up a co-author, who has confirmed the plan, but says they will wait 90 days as required by law to finalize it.

by TChris

Ohio GOP Chairman Robert Bennett realizes that Republicans need a refresher course in ethics. His solution:

With an eye toward next year's election, Bennett said last week he will require any candidate seeking the party's support to have ethics training.

Bennett made the decision in the wake of a political scandal triggered by the loss of $12 to $13 million from the state's workers compensation fund. The fund inexplicably decided to invest in rare coins at the suggestion of Thomas Noe, a Toledo coin collector who was chairman of President Bush's 2004 re-election campaign in northwest Ohio. About 120 of the coins, supposedly in Noe's care, are missing.

Noe is described as "a lawn sprinkler of campaign cash to major Republican candidates in the state." Noe sprinkled money on a variety of Republican candidates, including President Bush, who is returning $4,000 in campaign contributions he received from Noe. The Bush campaign received more than $100,000 raised by Noe.

Other Republican candidates are also emptying their pockets of Noe's money.

Verdict Watch
Day One - Friday, June 3, 2005
Jury Recesses, no verdict.

Update: CBS News legal analyst Andrew Cohen rates the closing arguments. Mesereau wins.

Update: It's in the jury's hands. The Guardian says Mesereau's closing went "some way" towards overcoming the damage from the prosecution's closing.

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Original Post

The defense finished its closing argument today. As always, the prosecution will get the last word (because it has the burden of proof, they get to have two closing arguments while the defense only gets one.) The jury will begin deliberating today.

[Note: if you are affiliated with any juror, please do not read further. TalkLeft does not want to have any influence on the trial and my personal opinion is not meant to take the place of evidence at the trial, which should be the only thing jurors base their verdict on.]

by TChris

Add this to the growing list of editorialists and commentators who hope Wilton Dedge wins his lawsuit against Florida.

The state of Florida cast Dedge into a hellish existence that wiped out 22 years of his life. For that, at the barest minimum, he deserves substantial compensation.

TalkLeft's coverage of Dedge's wrongful conviction, eventual release, and attempt to obtain redress for his lost freedom is collected here.

by TChris

Federal prosecutors have accused former Macomb County Prosecutor Carl Marlinga of public corruption for allegedly accepting contributions to his failed 2002 bid for election to Congress in exchange for prosecutorial favors. Marlinga has denied the charges, and the strength of the government's case may be questionable, given its apparent decision to dismiss related charges against state Sen. Jim Barcia (who allegedly funneled funds to Marlinga's campaign) and real estate broker Ralph Roberts (another contributor who allegedly obtained a favor in exchange for his contribution).

This is the second time in less than a year that the U.S. Attorney's Office [in Detroit] has sought dismissal of charges in a high-profile criminal case. Last August, it persuaded a federal judge to dismiss terrorism charges against two men who were convicted in Detroit in 2003 in the first trial to result from the federal 9/11 probe.