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.

President Bush announced former NYC Police Commissioner Bernie Kerik will replace Tom Ridge as chief of Homeland Security.

Health and Human Services Secretary Tommy Thompson announced his retirement from the Bush Cabinet today.

Bush's cabinet has 15 members. To date, 8 have resigned.

Update: Thompson included these warnings in his departure announcement:

...he expressed grave concern about the threat of a global flu epidemic and the possibility of a terrorist attack on the nation's food supply. "For the life of me," he said, "I cannot understand why the terrorists have not attacked our food supply because it is so easy to do."

Thanks, Mr. Thompson, for letting them know.

Some small bombs went off at gas stations in Spain today, following warnings called in by the Basque Separatists ETA. No one was hurt. Six people were hurt.

Six people were slightly injured at two locations, including two police officers whose eardrums were hurt, said Interior Minister Jose Antonio Alonso.

by TChris

A new report explains why "abstinence-only" education has failed to prevent the spread of sexually transmitted diseases among adolescents.

"The report finds that over two-thirds of these federally funded abstinence programs rely on curricula that distort information about the effectiveness of contraceptives, misrepresent the risks of abortion, blur religion and science, treat stereotypes about girls and boys as scientific fact and contain basic scientific errors," according to the report ordered by US Representative Henry Waxman of California.