The Houston Chronicle reports that within the next two weeks, prosecutors will ask a federal grand jury to indict former Enron CEO Ken Lay for conduct that occurred during his last few months at Enron.

Prosecutors have been busy calling witnesses to the grand jury this past week, purporedly asking about Lay. While the prosecution is under a rule of secrecy, witnesses are not in the federal system. Here's what the prosecutors are believed to be asking about:

· Lay's receipt of three memos or e-mails warning of financial trouble and fraud at the company within weeks of Jeff Skilling's abrupt August 2001 departure as CEO.
·His public statements to investors and analysts.
·Lay's attempt to find an alternative to having to substantially write down the "goodwill" or excess price paid for assets.
·His trades of company stock for millions of dollars in company cash in those last months.

Sounds like they can't prove he was a participant in the main crimes, so they're going for the aftermath and coverup.

Daily Kos makes a good argument that Osama bin Laden will do what he can to ensure Bush's re-election.

We've had a nagging sense of unease over the Saudi's quick capture and killing of Paul Johnsons's suspected kidnappers and beheaders.

Saudi officials said the gunbattle came after a witness saw Johnson's body being dumped from a car and informed police of the car's license number. Police stopped the car at a gas station in Riyadh's al-Malaz neighborhood and a fierce gunbattle erupted, during which the four militants died, the officials said. Al-Ekhbariya broadcast footage of the station showing blood on the street and on merchandise inside.

For three days they couldn't catch a lead. All of a sudden, they get a report of a sighting of a vehicle which they are immediately able to surround at a gas station and the suspects are shot to death. After dumping a body, who goes to fill up? Why would the leader of the pack go along for the ride to dump the body? That's a lackey's job. We haven't seen anyone else mention this, until now. Here's Steve Soto at Left Coaster:

Good for the Saudis. Hours after an Al Qaeda-affiliated group claimed credit for beheading an American captive, Saudi security forces in downtown Riyadh surrounded several leading figures of Al Qaeda in Saudi Arabia and killed them in a raid. I must say that it is interesting that the Saudis were able so quickly after the terrible news about Paul Johnson’s death to locate, surround, and kill the leader of Al Qaeda in Saudi Arabia. He was right under their noses in downtown Riyadh, and just like that within hours they found and killed him. How efficient. It makes you wonder why they can’t do that all the time.

Now there's one more piece of news--in the same article: The Governor of Riyadh is denying that Mr. Johnson's body has been found.

This reporter for the Independent thinks the beheadings of Nicholas Berg and Paul Johnson may be the final straw for Americans when it comes to President Bush and his war on terror. [link via Buzzflash]

Is this the horror that will finally undo George Bush's presidency? First Nicholas Berg, now Paul Johnson: in two months and in two different countries, two US civilians have been kidnapped and beheaded by their al-Qa'ida-affiliated captors, becoming not only pawns in a deadly geopolitical game but also symbols of the complicated feelings of revulsion unleashed by the Bush administration's "war on terror".

...the overall mood is slipping away from the President. Two recent polls show that a majority believe the war against Saddam Hussein was not worth it. The Abu Ghraib torture scandal remains incendiary. And the recent traumatic events in Saudi Arabia - the siege of a residential compound in the oil town of al-Khobar last month, the shootings of Americans and other Westerners, and now the grisly fate of Mr Johnson - have raised anxious questions about the direction of US foreign policy and its ostensible goal of diminishing the terrorist threat.

One can only hope.

by TChris

Connecticut's Public Safety Commissioner wants to install cameras on I-95 to photograph the license plates of speeders, who would then be mailed tickets. But will that make the interstate a safer place to drive? The British experience has produced ambiguous results. In some locations near speed cameras, accident rates seem to have increased as drivers catching sight of a camera slam on their brakes.

The real motivation for the speed cameras may be to increase revenue from traffic tickets without hiring more police to catch speeders. That explains the concurrent proposal to have specialized traffic courts that won't give tickets the low priority that the Public Safety Commissioner thinks they now receive. But more courts cost more money, and you can be sure that more tickets will be contested if no witness can confirm who was driving the speeding car.

From the Northeast Intelligence Network, we find the full text of the al Qaeda Communique on the beheading of American Paul Johnson (whom they refer to as Paul Marshall), translated from Arabic. Marshall was Mr. Johnson's middle name):

Source - Voice of Jihad publication Voice of the Mujahideen in the Arab Peninsula Subject: Killing of the American Paul Marshall Date: 1/5/1425 [6/18/2004] News Report No. 14 on the beheading of the American prisoner Paul Marshall Thanks to God, and prayer and peace on His messenger, our Prophet Mohammad and His companions and followers.

As promised, and after the expiration of the ultimatum set by the Mujahideen to the Devils in the Saudi Government, the Mujahideen from the Fallujah Detachment beheaded the American prisoner (Paul Marshall). This infidel received his fair punishment in this world before moving to the other world. He got to taste some of what the Muslims suffered from the Apache American helicopters that grilled them with their fire flames, embers, and missiles. The American infidel was one of four people in charge of the maintenance and system development of those helicopters.

With His help, we shall continue to fight the enemies of God, watching them everywhere, guided by the light of His book, and the law of His prophet, prayer and peace on Him. We shall put out the fire in the chests of the Believers in Palestine, Afghanistan, Iraq, the Arab Peninsula, and other Muslim countries. We shall keep humiliating the Polytheists and Blasphemers’ soldiers until the erection of a government ruled by the Shari’a, the Justice, and Attawhid. In our journey, we shall not pay attention to put the traitors down, or listen to the cawing of the failures that were disclosed by God in this incident. They shouted in fury for the capture and killing of a Christian soldier while they did not have the courage to say one word of truth in support of the oppressed Muslim prisoners who are being tortured at the hands of the adorers of the cross, and the devils of Abu Ghraib, Al Ha’er, Guantanamo, Al Ruways and other prisons.

As for the Americans and their supporters, blasphemers and criminals who ganged up in their coalition for a war on Islam, this action is an example and a lesson for them to be sure that those of them who came to our country will receive the same fate and God is our guide to the path of righteousness.
Signed: Al Qaeda Organization in the Arab Peninsula

[link via Back Country Conservative]

We wrote it here first, but we're proud to announce that Alternet has polished and reprinted our article on Ronald Reagan's Drug War legacy--a legacy that includes mandatory minimum drug sentences and the Federal Sentencing Guidelines.

The New York Times got a copy of Bill Clinton's memoirs....here's their review.

My Life

TChris started it with stupid criminals of the week. We'll continue with most ridiculous arrest of the week. This is too much.

A teacher's aide who forgot to put away her marshmallows and hot chocolate at Yellowstone National Park last year was taken from her cruise ship cabin in handcuffs and hauled before a judge Friday, accused of failing to pay the year-old fine. Hope Clarke, 32, crying and in leg shackles, told the judge she was rousted at 6:30 a.m. by federal agents after the ship returned to Miami from Mexico. She insisted that she had been required to pay the $50 fine before she could leave Yellowstone, which has strict rules about food storage to prevent wildlife from eating human food.

Turns out Ms. Clarke did indeed pay the fine, there shouldn't have been a warrant out for her, and she spent 9 hours in detention. The federal magistrate demanded an explanation. Here's the pitiful excuse:

Zach Mann, spokesman for U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement, called the arrest "an unfortunate set of circumstances." He added, "We were acting on what we believed was accurate information."

Don't think it can't happen to you.

In response to news of the beheading of American Hostage Paul Johnson, Dick Gephardt has come out and blamed the Saudis for fostering terrorism.

"The royal family made a deal with the religious zealots," Gephardt said, adding that it has caused problems for the rest of the world.

Sen. Frank Lautenberg expressed similar views:

The Saudi Arabian government has shown too much patience for these terrorist cells and the ideologies of hate they preach. The United States will no longer tolerate Saudi neglect of the extremists and terrorists who live and thrive in the kingdom," the senator said in a written statement.

"All further relations with Saudi Arabia must be entirely contingent on the kingdom's progress cracking down, reigning in and snuffing out its terrorist problem," Lautenberg added. "Deeds -- not words -- must be the benchmark of Saudi progress in solving the terrorist problem that threatens its society as much as it threatens our own."

by TChris

Fans of Crank Yankers may think that making prank calls is an art form, but making prank 911 calls has the potential to distract dispatchers from critical emergencies. Still, it's the kind of thing a 12-year-old might do without giving the consequences much thought.

Brian Daniel Vos and Corland Jay McDiarmid should know better. They aren't kids. They're officers of the Ionia, MI Police Dept. They called 911 three times and hung up because they wanted to "mess with" their friends on what they thought would be a slow night. Their reward? They've been charged with misdemeanors.

The runners-up for this week's award may not have committed a crime, but probably violated the Constitution by pulling over a car for "swerving" and giving a breath test to the driver (who tested zero and very probably didn't swerve). The real motivation for the traffic stop conducted by three Michigan police officers? They wanted to harass the passenger: the town's Mayor, who had threatened to lay off officers to save money in the town budget.

The leaders of the new Iraqi government are threatening to begin their rule with martial law. How democratic.