The New York Times examines the case of John Boland, a military reserve officer from Cincinnati charge with abusing prisoners at Bagram Air Force Base in Afghanistan. First, the charged facts:

The report also said that Sergeant Boland shackled an Afghan named Dilawar, chaining his hands above his shoulders, and denied medical care to the man, a 22-year-old taxi driver, whose family said he had never spent a night away from his mother and father before being taken to the American air base at Bagram, 40 miles north of Kabul. The two detainees died there within a week of each other in December 2002.

Now, 21 months later, the Army has charged Sergeant Boland with assault and other crimes and investigators are recommending that two dozen other American soldiers face criminal charges, including negligent homicide, or other punishments for abuses that occurred more than a year before the scandal at the Abu Ghraib prison in Iraq.

Who authorized these methods of interrogation? And why did the military first say the two detainees died of natural causes? And who authorized the CIA to keep their names off the prisoner roster to shield them from the Red Cross?

When it comes to the drug war, Bush can't see the forest for the trees.

While he touts the U.S. success in Afghanistan, today in a speech:

[he] included the country on his list of major drug-producing nations and said its U.S.-backed president, Hamid Karzai, lacked the capacity to solve the problem.....Officials with the NATO-led peacekeeping force in Afghanistan have warned that militants were financing their guerrilla war by drug running. Afghan opium, which spawns the lion's share of the West's heroin, accounts for about one third of the country's economy, Afghanistan's Central Bank governor said on Wednesday.

No big deal. Here's his real concern:

Bush cited "continuing concerns" about the flow of drugs from Canada. White House spokesman Scott McClellan quoted Bush as saying that he was "concerned" legislation in Canada to decriminalize possession of small amounts of marijuana "could be an invitation to greater activity by organized crime and can undermine law enforcement and prosecutorial efforts."

And then he just makes stuff up.

Say hello to Secondary Screening, a new blog about Anti-Terrorism, Privacy and Data Mining. The author is Wired.com free-lance journalist Ryan Singal. A welcome addition to the blogoshere. [link via Hit and Run.]

And SKBubba tells us what we really should be talking about. He's right, of course.

Bump and Update: I just received this answer to an email I sent late this afternoon to the person reputed to be the kicker of the protester. His response, in full:

Ms. Merritt,

I'm Sorry, but you must have the wrong person. (This is a little strange.) Please inform your sources. Thanks.

Scott

***************
Original Post:

Do you recognize this young man?

Julian Sanchez at Hit and Run has more information and another picture allegedly of the young Republican who attended the RNC in New York and kicked a female protester while she was on the ground being held by three Secret Service agents.

Despite TalkLeft's offer on Sept. 6 to provide the kicker's alleged name and identifying details to ABC News, or any othermedia outlet or recognized reporter, no one has taken me up on it.

Atrios has posted the new photo (before it was cropped to exclude the alleged kicker). I believe that Julian, Atrios and I have been given the same name for the kicker, by different sources. My offer to the media stands. Email me, and I'll provide you with the email I received on September 6. And links to at least two articles he has written and one blog he has posted on using this name.

Update: Check the comments at Hit and Run. The kicker's alleged name is no longer a secret.

A federal judge today ordered New York Times reporter Judith Miller to testify before the grand jury investigating the leak of the identity of former CIA operative Valerie Plame. [Text of opinion.]

In a decision made public Thursday, U.S. District Judge Thomas F. Hogan rejected Judith Miller's claim that as a reporter she should not be compelled to testify about confidential sources. Federal prosecutors are trying to find out who in the Bush administration leaked the identity of Valerie Plame, whose name was published by syndicated columnist Robert Novak on July 14, 2003. Novak cited two "senior administration officials" as his sources. It can be a felony to leak the name of an undercover officer.

In his ruling, Hogan said Miller's testimony "is necessary for completion of this investigation ... and is expected to constitute direct evidence of innocence or guilt."

TalkLeft has been running very slowly since we added category archives to each entry and a section with the five most recently commented on posts. We just stripped the template of these items and will experiment over the weekend with adding them back. Also, blogrolling is apparently down.

We're sorry for any delay you are experiencing.

Jeff at Protein Wisdom has a very funny photo up that he says comes from the Abilene Kinko's--could it really be him?

Here we go again. Attorney General John Ashcroft has filed another terror Indictment. It sounds like he got the information from "dirty bomb" suspect Jose Padilla....who has been sitting in a military brig in South Carolina for the past 2 1/2 years, without charges being filed against him. The Government repeatedly has said it is not finished trying to interrogate Padilla.

A 10-count grand jury indictment handed up in federal district court in Miami charges Adhan Amin Hassoun and Mohamed Hesham Youssef with providing material support to terrorists and conspiracy to provide support. Hassoun has been in custody on other charges in Florida since June 2003 and Youssef is jailed in Egypt on a terrorism conviction. The indictment contends Hassoun helped recruit individuals from the United States for groups engaging in Islamic "jihad," or holy war, in countries such as Afghanistan, Somalia, Chechnya and Kosovo..

Bush's bounce bounces away.:

By the second poll, done Sept. 11-14, the Bush lead had evaporated. In that poll, Bush and Kerry were knotted at 46 percent among registered voters. Among likely voters, Bush was at 47 percent and Kerry at 46 percent.

Andrew Kohut, director of the Pew Research Center for the People & the Press, says "This poll finds a lot of the positive impact Bush had in the convention remains. But Bush's vulnerabilities on Iraq and the economy continue, and these have anchored the race."

Bush: Vulnerable on Iraq and the economy. Let's move off the Guard records and help John Kerry bring this one home.

The major television networks have not yet decided whether to carry the Presidential and Vice Presidential debates live. They should. Media for Democracy urges you to sign their petition.

The Village Voice has the details of an ad for John Kerry to use against Bush about Osama that just could make him win the election.

If you're in New York, previews are now going on for the new political satire show "George Bush is a MotherF***er." which opens September 25 at the Upright Citizens Brigade Theatre at 307 W. 27th St. in Manhattan. Ticket information here. The show will run through the November election.

George Bush is a MotherF***er. What has our President given us besides a failing economy, an ill-advised foreign policy, out of control gas prices and a nation that’s living in constant state of fear? For one, lots of ideas to put together a sketch comedy show. The Upright Citizens Brigade Theatre, along with Adam McKay and director Jake Fogelnest, presents a new stage revue that won’t tolerate any more bulls**it. There’s just no polite way to put it: George Bush Is A Motherf**ker. Produced by Adam McKay. Directed by Jake Fogelnest.

Congrats to Jake Fogelnest, who is a friend and the immensely talented son of criminal defense lawyer Bob Fogenest, whom we wrote about yesterday for his dedicated and spirited representation of one of the three Americans just convicted of torture in Afghanistan.

Jake has always been one amazing kid. When he was 14, he got his own tv show--it was on Manhattan public access and called Squirt-TV. The show took place in Jake's bedroom and moved to MTV in 1996--where it stayed in his bedroom: