Federal Judge Joyce Hens Green Monday ordered the government to justify why it has been holding 60 detainees at Guantanamo for almost three years without charges, and to show why they should not be released.

U.S. District Court Judge Joyce Hens Green said the Defense Department must provide the charge or factual basis for detaining each of the 60 detainees who have sued the government, starting immediately and finishing by Oct. 18....

Green also expressed frustration that she learned of the government's release of 35 detainees to Pakistani authorities from a newspaper story, and ordered the Pentagon to give her advance notice of any future plans to free captives. She also set a public hearing on Oct. 13 to discuss any remaining disputes.

According to a new report:

Millions of U.S. citizens, including a disproportionate number of black voters, will be blocked from voting in the Nov. 2 presidential election because of legal barriers, faulty procedures or dirty tricks, according to civil rights and legal experts.

From an earlier report on the 2000 election (same link):

The commission, in a report earlier this year, said that in Florida, where President Bush won a bitterly disputed election in 2000 by 537 votes, black voters had been 10 times more likely than non-black voters to have their ballots rejected and were often prevented from voting because their names were erroneously purged from registration lists.

Today, a new report has been released on the suppression of student votes. From the Project Democracy Press Release, received by e-mail:

C.B.S. has announced the names of those it has hired to review RatherGate. They are former Pennsylvania Governor and U.S. Attorney General Dick Thornburgh and retired Associated Press Chief Executive Officer Louis Boccardi. Their report will be made public.

Bump and Update: Sad news. The identity of the headless body found yesterday has been confirmed as that of Jack Hensley, who would have turned 49 today.

Bump and Update: Al Jazeera reports that the posting on the miltant Islamic website says Mr. Hensley was killed by having his throat slit.

The sons of our nation have slit the throat of the second American hostage after the deadline passed and we will provide you with pictures soon," said the contributor, who goes by the pseudonym Abu Maisarah al-Iraqi.

***************
Original Post

This is beyond sad. Iraqi militants have announced they have killed a second American hostage,Jack Hensley of Florida.

[Note: See update below. Prof. Cole is referring to jury convictions --cases Ashcroft proved at trial.]

Law Professor and civil liberities expert David Cole has some astonishing news today. With the collapse of the Detroit terror convictions a few weeks ago, Ashcrofts record is one of zero terrorism convictions since 9/11.

Until that reversal, the Detroit case had marked the only terrorist conviction obtained from the Justice Department's detention of more than 5,000 foreign nationals in anti-terrorism sweeps since 9/11. So Ashcroft's record is 0 for 5,000. When the attorney general was locking these men up in the immediate wake of the attacks, he held almost daily press conferences to announce how many "suspected terrorists" had been detained. No press conference has been forthcoming to announce that exactly none of them have turned out to be actual terrorists.

Nor, have any higher-ups been convicted in the Abu Graib Iraqi prison abuse scandal. The Bush Administration has not appointed an independent commission to investigate the abuse:

It prefers to leave the investigation to the Justice Department and the Pentagon, the two entities that drafted secret legal memos defending torture.

Against the wishes of the Bush Administration which has refused to negotiate with terrorists, the Iraqi Justice Minister announced that one of the two women being held in Iraqi prisons will be released in accordance with the militants demands. She is Rihab Taha, also known as "Dr. Germ" because she headed up Iraq's biological weapons program in the 1980's.

The second woman, Huda Ammash, was also a scientist involved in Iraq's weapons program. She has been referred to as "Mrs. Anthrax" and "Chemical Sally." She has been suffering from breast cancer while incarcerated. She will be given a hearing, and then she will probably be released. The Justice Minister said both have been cooperative. He stresses the releases have nothing to do with the kidnappings. Is anyone going to buy that?

Malik Dohan al-Hassan, the justice minister, told the Guardian that his government would later today release Rihab Taha, a biological weapons scientist. A hearing would be held to determine whether to release the second woman, Huda Amash, another weapons scientist, dubbed Chemical Sally.

"It has nothing to do with the kidnapping," he said. "They have all been cooperative and we have decided to release them on bail. In the Huda Amash case the Americans insist she should stay in detention and we said she should be released." A hearing would consider the case today, he said. "We couldn't find any wrongdoing they have committed."

If both women are released and Mr. Bigly's life is spared, does this mean that had the Minister acted 48 hours earlier, Mr. Armstrong and Hensley might also have been spared?

Update: Reuters reports the U.S. insists the women will not be freed.[link via Atrios.]

John Kerry is sticking with his new attack mode on President Bush's failures in Iraq. At a press conference in Florida today, he lobbed criticism after criticism. As Electablog says, his remarks can best be summed up with this line:

The management of this war has been both arrogant, lacking in candor and incompetent. And we need to change the course."

Another good line: "He [Bush] does not have the credibility to lead the world."

On getting rid of Saddam:

This story is so typical -

I am a senior citizen. During the Clinton Administration I had an extremely good and well paying job. I took numerous vacations and had several vacation homes.

Since President Bush took office, I have watched my entire life change for the worse. I lost my job. I lost my two sons in that terrible Iraqi War. I lost my homes. I lost my health insurance. As a matter of fact I lost virtually everything and became homeless.

Adding insult to injury, when the authorities found me living like an animal, instead of helping me, they arrested me. I will do anything that Senator Kerry wants to insure that a Democrat is back in the White House come next year. Bush has to go.
Sincerely,

Saddam Hussein

Here is the official document (pdf) calling for a reinsatement of the draft--for men and women--ages 18-34, not just to those who might qualify for active military duty, but for those with skills the Government finds helpful in war--linguists, medical workers, etc. Just about everyone.

Note this has nothing to do with bills to reinstate the draft by Democrats like Charlie Rangel that made headlines two years ago. This is the Bush Administration at work--its representatives on the Selective Service System (SSS).

The document was obtained through a Freedom of Information Act Request by a poster to Democracy Underground, going by the name of Will Winn. It has been republished by Blatent Truth. The Seattle Post-Intelligencer has reported on it a few times, including here.

As we wrote here, this is very scary. You should email a copy to your local college papers and to every young person you know. Read Blatant Truth and Seeing the Forest for more details. And remember, John Edwards has said there will be no draft under Kerry-Edwards.

Don't miss Juan Gonzales' op-ed in today's New York Daily News on the recent trial of three alleged American mercenaries in Afghanistan. He says it was a sham from the start. Criminal defense lawyer and TalkLeft pal Bob Fogelnest represented one of those on trial, Edward Caraballo, a 42 year-old Emmy-winning journalist from the Bronx. Caraballo received an eight-year sentence. The men were charged with conducting their own personal war on terrorism by illegally detaining and torturing Afghan civilians in a private jail. Some snippets from Mr. Gonzales' column:

The Supreme Court brief we've all been waiting for has been filed. You can read it here.(50 pages, pdf.)

It is the brief written by contributing TalkLeft blogger TChris in the case of United States vs. Freddie J. Booker, which along with United States v. Fan Fan, well may decide the future of the U.S. Sentencing Guidelines following the Court's decision last term in Blakely v. Washington.

The case will be argued October 4 in the Supreme Court--the first day of the new term. You can post some good luck messages to him in the comments. After that, TChris promises to return to blogging at TalkLeft. He's been missed.

Law Prof. Doug Berman of the Sentencing Law and Policy blog, the go-to place for all things Blakely, has links to the Fan Fan brief, and the amici briefs of FAMM, NACDL, The Washington Legal Foundation and the National Association of Federal Defenders. For the non-lawyers among you, the purpose of amici briefs filed as "friends of the court" to Booker and Fan Fan is to bring in collateral information that these outside groups uniquely may be able to present and that the parties don't have room to include in their briefs. According to our sources, the Federal Defenders' brief (pdf.)really shines.

Here are TChris's arguments on behalf of Mr. Booker:

The latest terror warning comes from anonymous Administration officials to the Washington Times. Al Qaeda is planning for a 'spectacular' attack between now and Inauguration Day. Bigger than September 11.

Thus, details of the possible attack remain murky, but analysts say it is planned to be bigger and deadlier than the September 11 attacks, which killed 3,000 people. Potential targets include the White House, Pentagon, U.S. Capitol and congressional buildings, as well as landmarks and business centers in New York, the officials said. The officials said that there is no specific information about targets.

Who's involved and what kind of attack is planned? Unnamed officials say: