Pretrial hearings are underway today at Fort Hood for soldiers accused of humiliating and assaulting prisoners at Abu Ghraib. Among those involved: Sabrina Harman and Javal Davis.

The Judge ordered Brig. Gen. Janice Karpinski, the former commander of U.S. prisons in Iraq, to testify about conditions at Abu Ghraib and about interaction between guards and military interrogators at Javal Davis' hearing:

Charges against Davis, a native of Roselle, N.J., include conspiracy to maltreat detainees, assault, dereliction of duty for failing to protect detainees from abuse and lying in official statements. He has acknowledged stepping on the fingers and toes of detainees, but denied hurting anyone.

Davis says the military officials condoned the abuse. Karpinski says she's been made the fall guy.

John McCain is threatening baseball with new legislation for mandatory drug testing in the wake of the media's revelation that Bonds told the grand jury his trainer, since indicted for steroid distribution, gave him substances to take while training.

McCain's threat to impose drug testing standards on professional athletes -- Congress has the authority under the U.S. Constitution's interstate commerce clause -- significantly escalates a long-simmering battle between the federal government and the national pastime over drug use.

McCain is the chairman of the Senate Commerce Committee. I think the question McCain should be asking is who leaked Bonds's grand jury testimony? While witnesses before the grand jury can discuss their testimony, prosecutors and agents are forbidden to discuss matters occurring before the grand jury including witness testimony. Bonds' lawyer denies he used steroids and says Bonds is the victim of a government smear campaign.

Bonds said he thought the substances he was given were flax seed oil and arthritis cream.

The New York Daily News puts Bernie Kerik's appointment as Homeland Security Chief in perspective: Rudy called in a chit.

"Rudy cashed in a chip on this one," said a White House source, who earlier this week predicted there was "no way" Kerik could land a cabinet-level job in the Bush administration.

Kerik was police commissioner under Rudy and then went to work for Giuliani and Partners, Rudy's consulting firm. What's a little more surprising is that Hillary Clinton, Chuck Schumer and even former NY police commissioner and Rudy foe Bill Bratton are supporting Kerik's nomination.

Meanwhile, in the Rudy news department, his recent Southhampton house-hunting excursions help explain why he didn't want the job himself--or any government job right now:

Rodriguez Orejuela, along with his brother, Miguel, founded the infamous Colombian Cali cocaine cartel. Now 64, he has been in a Colombian jail for 9 years. Friday night, he was extradited to the U.S. and en route to Miami to stand trial. Big prize for law enforcement. Big unnecessary prize.

U.S. customs and immigration agents are bragging they spend over 100,000 man hours on the project to extradite Orejuela and that he will be the biggest druglord ever tried in the U.S. While there's no mention of the number of hours the FBI or DEA spent on the case, you can bet they were similarly huge.

Once again, Osama bin forgotten. Why weren't these customs and other agents tracking down terror threats? John Ashcroft came out with a gloating statement on the extradition today. The same John Ashcroft who cut the FBI's anti-terrorism budget by $58 billion just before September 11.

The Cali cartel was not into massacres of public officials. Their deal was bribery of political officials in Colombia.

Do you feel safer tonight knowing that Mr. Orejuela, a relic of a drug dealer, will spend the rest of his days in a U.S. jail instead of one in Colombia, fighting and appealing the charges against him, while the world's leading terrorist freely roams Pakistan, Iran or Afghanistan, or wherever he is? Your tax dollars at work. How clueless can this Administration get?

The Ohio vote tallys from November 2 are now in. Bush's margin is less than previously reported--Ohio officials say Bush won by 119,000 votes. John Kerry, through his campaign, is joining in a request for a recount--but is not seeking to overturn the results. He just wants an accurate accounting:

President Bush's victory over John Kerry in Ohio was closer than the unofficial election night totals showed, but the change is not enough to trigger an automatic recount, according to county-by-county results provided to The Associated Press on Friday.

Bush's margin of victory in the state that put him over the top in his re-election bid will be about 119,000 votes, which is smaller than the unofficial margin of 136,000, the county election board figures showed. That means Kerry drew closer by about 17,000 votes.

The difference is attributed to provisional and overseas ballots not included in the original tallys.

The "few bad apples" theory loses more credibility as new photos emerged today of Navy Seals abusing detained Iraqi prisoners . The photos were posted by a woman whose husband served in Iraq and brought them home with him.

The U.S. military has launched a criminal investigation into photographs that appear to show Navy SEALs in Iraq sitting on hooded and handcuffed detainees, and photos of what appear to be bloodied prisoners, one with a gun to his head.

Some of the photos have date stamps suggesting they were taken in May 2003, which could make them the earliest evidence of possible abuse of prisoners in Iraq. The far more brutal practices photographed in Abu Ghraib prison occurred months later.

An Associated Press reporter found more than 40 of the pictures among hundreds in an album posted on a commercial photo-sharing Web site by a woman who said her husband brought them from Iraq after his tour of duty. It is unclear who took the pictures, which the Navy said it was investigating after the AP furnished copies to get comment for this story.

The photos appear to have been taken after raids on civilian homes:

by TChris

A search warrant was executed at Michael Jackson's Neverland ranch today. The ranch was last searched more than a year ago. The reason for and results of today's search are unknown.

Jackson is scheduled for trial in January on charges of child molestation.

by TChris

It's official.

President Bush asked Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld, who directed American military forces in wars in Iraq and Afghanistan, to remain at the Pentagon and he agreed to stay, a senior administration official said Friday.

by TChris

Walking can be dangerous, particularly for pedestrians who cross busy streets. The annual "Mean Streets" report (pdf) (executive summary here), prepared by the Surface Transportation Policy Project, cautions that "walking is the most dangerous mode of travel per mile."

The most dangerous metropolitan area for walking in 2002/2003 was Orlando, followed by Tampa, West Palm Beach, Miami-Ft. Lauderdale, Memphis, Atlanta, Greensboro, NC, Houston, Jacksonville, FL, and Phoenix.

by TChris

Richard Convertino, the federal prosecutor who withheld evidence in the Detroit terror trial, eventually causing the government to acknowledge that the convictions it obtained needed to be overturned (TalkLeft background collected here), is under investigation for misconduct in earlier prosecutions.

The two drug cases now under review involve 31 convicted defendants and were based in part on the testimony of numerous defendants who agreed to testify for the government. ... Several defendants filed sworn statements saying that prosecutors intimidated them into lying.

Laywers say that Convertino misled the jury in one of the cases by failing to disclose that a key prosecution witness had been given "a sharply reduced sentence" in exchange for his testimony. The witness, Hans Lee Thomas, killed a man in a drug deal after his release from prison.

In a second case, government officials "are reviewing whether Convertino improperly got leniency for a government informant accused of drug dealing."

by TChris

Selling stolen property on eBay, for the whole world to see, isn't bright. But greed overcame the tempered judgment of James Estrella who, by virtue of his 15 years as a police officer, had good connections: he bought the stolen property from thieves he encountered during his employment.

Estrella started his internet-based resale business in 1999. He took a leave of absence from the San Diego Police Department at the end of last year to pursue the business full time.

Rejecting requests from the Government, Judge Lonnie Brinkema, presiding over the trial of accused al Qaeda terrorist Zacarias Moussaoui, has refused to set a trial date.

Brinkema said in a two-page order that intense pretrial work in her court, including the handling of classified information, cannot resume until Moussaoui has exhausted pretrial appeals.