The military report on the Abu Ghraib prison scandals is complete and will be presented today to Congress. The Associated Press has obtained a copy of the Executive Summary and reports:

The report by Navy Vice Adm. Albert T. Church said the pressure was not excessive. The investigation could find no "single, overarching reason" why prisoners under U.S. control were abused at the Abu Ghraib prison complex in fall 2003 and elsewhere in Iraq and Afghanistan. Command pressure for more intelligence was to be expected in a battlefield setting, Church wrote.

"We found no evidence, however, that interrogators in Iraq believed that any pressure for intelligence subverted their obligation to treat detainees humanely," he wrote in a summary of his findings.

A University of Colorado regent has confirmed to a local news station that an attempt will be made to buy Professor Ward Churchill out of his contract. The report on his scholarship has been delayed until next week.

You had to know something was up when President Bush agreed to give the 51 Mexican death row inmates in the U.S. new hearings, as ordered by the International Court of Justice in the Hague. Now, his purpose becomes a little clearer. Wednesday, the U.S. officially withdrew from the Vienna Convention protocol it proposed and ratified in 1963:

The Bush administration has decided to pull out of an international agreement that opponents of the death penalty have used to fight the sentences of foreigners on death row in the United States, officials said yesterday.

In a two-paragraph letter dated March 7, Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice informed U.N. Secretary General Kofi Annan that the United States "hereby withdraws" from the Optional Protocol to the Vienna Convention on Consular Relations. The United States proposed the protocol in 1963 and ratified it -- along with the rest of the Vienna Convention -- in 1969.

The protocol provided that its signatories would grant the International Court of Justice (ICJ) the last word when their citizens raised a claim of being illegally deprived of the right to meet with a diplomat of their home country when jailed abroad.

by TChris

The Georgia parole board made life easier for itself in 1997, when it adopted a policy limiting parole eligibility for inmates convicted of any of 20 crimes. The policy denied those inmates consideration for parole until they completed 90 percent of their sentences. In the wake of a lawsuit and upon advice of the state's attorney general, the parole board is finally dropping the policy.

Fulton County Superior Court Judge Jackson Bedford recently ruled that the 90-percent policy wasn't legally implemented in 1997.

"They should've done it a long time ago," [Atlanta lawyer McNeill] Stokes said Wednesday. "I still think this is one of the most massive civil rights violations of our times, by continuing to confine prisoners beyond the terms that they should be."

The doors to freedom are unlikely to swing wide for Georgia inmates -- the board might follow an unstated policy that replicates the abandoned policy -- but prisoners will at least have a chance to show that they are worthy of early release.

[T]he board will reconsider the plaintiffs in the Fulton County case immediately and eventually reconsider more than 7,800 in prison convicted of 90-percent crimes.

In the latest example of taser abuse at the hands of cops, an Orlando man was handcuffed to a hospital bed for refusing to take a urine test that would confirm he had ingested cocaine, as he earlier had told the police. A nurse tried to insert a catheter in him to get the urine. The man protested, and while still chained to the bed, the cop jumped him an then tasered him - twice:

...police officer Peter Linnenkamp noted that he jumped on the bed with his knees on Wheeler's chest to restrain him. Then, when Wheeler still refused to let the catheter be inserted, Linnenkamp said he twice used his Taser gun, which sends 50,000 volts into a target.

This is as ridiculous as the incident last week where Aurora, Colorado cops last week tasered a guy who failed to pay for his salad at a Chucky Cheese kids restaurant that was filled at the time with kids and parents.

Law enforcement is sinking to new lows. And the "few bad apples" theory doesn't hold because those responsible for training these trigger-happy cops are also at fault. [link via Mark at Norwegianity.]

Jackson Trial Update
Wednesday March 9

The 15 year old accuser of Michael Jackson began his testimony this afternoon. The DA hasn't gotten into the details yet of the alleged sexual misconduct. The accuser testified that Jackson wasn't that big a factor in his cancer recovery and said other stars visited him more often. It sounds like he is holding a grudge against Jackson.

"Sometimes he would be told by Neverland staff that Jackson was not home, then spot him on the grounds. On one of those occasions, he said, "I walked into the house and I saw Michael walking toward me and then he acted as if, 'Oh, Crap!."

Today, the accuser backed up some of his brother's and sister's allegations. No surprise there. How he does tomorrow on direct examination will not be the test - he's been prepped for that. Let's wait and see how he does on cross-examination.

Dan Rather gave his last CBS evening news broadcast tonight. Crooks and Liars has the video. Here's the text of what he said:

We have shared a lot in the 24 years we've been meeting here each evening. And before I say good night this night, I need to say thank you. Thank you to the thousands of wonderful professionals at CBS News, past and present, with whom it has been my honor to work over these years.

"And a deeply felt thank you to all of you, who have let us in to your homes night after night. It has been a privilege and one never taken lightly.

"Not long after I first came to the anchor chair I briefly signed off using the word 'courage.' I want to return to it now, in a different way, to a nation still nursing a broken heart for what happened here in 2001, and especially to those who found themselves closest to the events of September 11th.

by TChris

Another Milwaukee police officer has been charged with a crime.

A Milwaukee police officer was charged Tuesday with a criminal civil rights violation for trying to shake down a parolee for money and guns, according to a criminal complaint filed in federal court in Milwaukee. The officer, Ala W. Awadallah, 26, also threatened to plant drugs on the man and to have him sent back to prison, according to an FBI agent's affidavit filed in support of the complaint.

The complaint alleges that Awadallah searched a parolee's van without permission, discovering a controlled substance. The parolee, Earl Cosey, says that Awadallah planted the drugs, then threatened to arrest Cosey unless he "came up with two pistols and a 'chopper,' that is, an assault rifle, for Awadallah." Cosey was released (after, he says, parting with $200 that Awadallah confiscated) when he promised to provide the guns. That night, Cosey called Awadallah and said he wouldn't be able to get the guns until the next day. Cosey recorded that call and provided the tape to the FBI.

Cosey says Awadallah called him the next evening when Cosey failed to produce the promised weapons. Cosey provided the FBI with the voicemail that Awadallah left.

According to the affidavit, the voicemail from Awadallah said: "Yo, dude, you (expletive) up, player. You don't call me with an address in about four minutes, just want to tell you I'll find your ass and put a case on you. The case you should have had. Then you go back to prison. Alright. . . . Five minutes, man. Peace."

Arkansas prosecutors subpoenaed a defendant's dog to his murder trial, thinking the dog was a witness they could get to "roll over" on him.

[Prosecutors]sent out a batch of subpoenas for anyone who had contact with Albert K. Smith while he was jailed awaiting his murder trial. One of those subpoenas went out to 5-year-old Murphy Smith - Smith's dog, it turned out.

The defendant had written his dog a letter from his cell, and that is how the shih tzu's name got on the witness list. Prosecutors realized the mistake on Tuesday after the defendant's brother brought in Murphy to answer the subpoena and a deputy would not let them into the courthouse because no dogs were allowed.

Choice Point is not alone. LexisNexis, through its parent company, Reed Elsevier, announced today that a database it acquired from Seisint has been hacked and up to 32,000 files with personal information have been breached.

Federal and company investigators were looking into the breach at Seisint, which was recently acquired by Lexis Nexis and includes millions of personal files for use by such customers as police and legal professionals. Information accessed included names, addresses, Social Security and driver's license numbers, but not credit history, medical records or financial information, corporate parent Reed Elsevier Group PLC said in a statement.

Reed-Elsevier's statement is here.

The incidents arose from the misappropriation by third parties of IDs and passwords from legitimate customers. LexisNexis has notified law enforcement authorities and is proactively assisting in law enforcement investigations of these incidents.LexisNexis is also working with customers to enhance security procedures.

by TChris

Here's a surprise: President Bush actually promised to pay attention to the International Court of Justice. That court wants state courts in the U.S. "to consider complaints by 51 Mexicans held on death row that they were denied their right to have Mexican officials notified."

In a memorandum to the attorney general dated Feb. 28, President Bush said he had determined "that the United States will discharge its international obligations under the decision of the International Court of Justice."

The administration will order state courts to review the 51 cases. This represents a change of position for the president, who until now has shown little regard for either the Vienna Convention (which requires a country that detains a foreign citizen to notify that individual of his right to seek the help of a consular officer) or the International Court, which ordered the review. The change of heart comes after the Supreme Court agreed to consider an appeal by Jose Medellin, a Mexican citizen sentenced to death in Texas. Background on the case is here, with links to information about the International Court's decision.

The jury in the fraud trial of WorldCom's Bernard Ebbers has deliberated three days without a verdict.

The jury has made a lot of requests for transcripts and videos. They asked for transcripts and videos of Ebbers - including his cross-examination transcript. I haven't read that they've asked for a transcript of Scott Sullivan's testimony.

You can never know how a jury is going to act, but it sounds to me like one or more of them are having trouble with Ebber's testimony that he was not familiar with high finance and had no idea of the company's accounting practices.

If Ebbers is convicted, it will mean the word of a co-operating co-defendant singing for his supper, bolstered only by the closing argument of a prosecutor, prevailed. That's too bad.

If the "dumbing down" defense doesn't work for Ebbers, what chance does Ken Lay have? Probably not much. You can bet his lawyers are watching closely. The "dumbing down" defense seems about as palatable to the public as Charles Graner's "orders from above" defense in the Abu Ghraib prison scandal.