by TChris

A few days ago, TalkLeft called attention to a NY Times editorial favoring laws that require the police to videotape interrogations. The editorial cited a study (pdf) demonstrating that recording custodial confessions benefits the police and prosecution while helping to protect the accused from coercive interrogation tactics that produce false confessions. That's why, according to the study, police agencies that use recording are uniformly in favor of the practice.

All states should require the recording of custodial interrogations. Former U.S. Attorney Thomas Sullivan, now with Jenner & Block, explains why the proposal makes sense:

"We found a major problem concerning disputes as to what occurred when suspects under arrest are brought to a police station for questioning," said Sullivan. "The simple solution is for law enforcement agencies to require that all in-custody interviews be recorded in their entirety."

Recording custodial interrogations saves time and money, creates compelling evidence and is effective in resolving disputes involving allegations of police misconduct and whether confessions are voluntary.

After a shoot-out today, Abdulaziz al-Moqrin, the alleged leader of the al Qaida unit that beheaded American hostage Paul Johnson was killed:

The leader of al-Qaida in Saudi Arabia was believed killed in a raid in the capital Friday, hours after his group claimed the beheading of an American engineer, Saudi security officials said. A U.S. official confirmed that Abdulaziz al-Moqrin, has been killed. The official spoke on the condition of anonymity because of the sensitive nature of the information.

John Kerry, the next President of the United States, will be in Denver on Monday June 21 for a Rally for a Stronger America. Gates open 1:00 pm.

WHERE: Greek Theater at Denver's Civic Center Park

For Kerry's best supporters, pick up your VIP tickets to get up front at the rally. Please stop by the Colorado Democratic Party HQ at 777 Santa Fe. Hours for ticket pick up are as follows:

Friday 4 PM - 7 PM
Saturday 10 AM - 6 PM
Sunday 10 AM - 6 PM
Monday 8 AM - 1 PM

Alternatively, general admission tickets are available online

Update: Reuters reports it has found the body of beheaded hostage Paul Johnson in the Saudi Capital. (via tv news). Al-Arabiya tv said there was also a video of the beheading.

****************
An Islamic website is reporting that American hostage Paul Johnson has been beheaded:

An al-Qaida group said Friday it killed American hostage Paul M. Johnson Jr, posting an Internet message that showed photographs of a beheaded body that appeared to be his. The statement was posted on a Web site where the group frequently makes announcements. Also posted were three still photos showing a head that appeared to be Johnson's.

Update: The Guardian reports:

One of the three photographs posted on the internet site showed a man's head, face toward the camera, being held by a hand. The other two showed a beheaded body lying prone on a bed, with the severed head placed in the small of his back. The face looked like Mr Johnson's, Reuters reported.

The beheaded body was clad in a bright orange suit, similar to those issued to suspected Islamic militants imprisoned by the United States at Guantanamo Bay - and similar to the suit another American captive, Nicholas Berg, was wearing when he was beheaded in Iraq last month by another group of Islamic militants inspired by al-Qaida. Soon after the statement appeared, the website was inaccessible, with a message saying it was closed for maintenance. Arab satellite network al-Arabiya said there was also a video of the beheading.

We are disgusted. We offer our sincerest condolences to Mr. Johnson's family. Post your thoughts here.

[comments now closed]

As we reported yesterday, CIA contractor David Passaro has been charged with crimes arising from the death of an Afghan prisoner. Some are asking why:

Have you asked yourself why David Passaro, of all the possible number of people involved in just such incidents in Afghanistan--where the number of deaths under interrogation goes into, I believe, at least the double digits--gets indicted? Today, an excellently researched and reported story in the WaPo by Susan Schmidt and Dana Priest gives one possible answer.

You see, the person killed in that incident was a man called Abdul Wali who last June 21 voluntarily gave himself up for questioning at the CIA/Special Forces base at Asadabad--and he had been accompanied to the base by the Hyder Akbar, the 18-year-old, US-educated son of a nearby, US-installed provincial governor, Sayed Fazl Akbar.

Read the Wapo article for the rest of the story.

Today is the deadline set by Islamic terrorists for the release of al-Qaeda prisoners in exchange for the release of American hostage Paul Johnson. Will it happen? The Saudis have expanded their search for him.

With helicopters flying overhead, thousands of Saudi police searched for American hostage Paul M. Johnson Jr. on Friday, as a deadline loomed for the kingdom to release jailed al-Qaida suspects or see him killed. Police went through several Riyadh neighborhoods, even going door to door, but authorities acknowledged having few leads for finding Johnson, a Lockheed Martin employee who was kidnapped a week ago by a group calling itself al-Qaida in the Arabian Peninsula. Security forces expanded their searches later Friday to more suburbs of Riyadh, and police stopped cars at checkpoints throughout the capital.

Some Saudis are unsympathetic:

The organization that claimed the kidnapping is believed to be headed by Abdulaziz Issa Abdul-Mohsin al-Moqrin, the top al-Qaida figure in Saudi Arabia.
People living in fundamentalist districts being searched in western and southern Riyadh suggested that the kidnappers enjoy popular support, partly because of U.S. policy in Iraq and America's perceived backing for Israel. "How can we inform on our brothers when we see all these pictures coming from Abu Ghraib and Rafah," Muklas Nawaf, a resident of Dhahar al-Budaih, said as he ate meat grilled on a spit at a restaurant called Jihad, Arabic for holy war.

At least one Saudi cleric is pleading for Johnson's return:

A top Saudi cleric, the preacher at the leading mosque in Riyadh, the Imam Sultana, implored the kidnappers to release Johnson in a column published Friday in Al-Riyadh newspaper. "O youth of the nation who have trodden the wrong path, come back to the fold of the community of Islam. Avoid this sedition and be obedient to the ruler of the Muslims," Sheik Mohammed bin Saad al-Saeed wrote.

There are few promising leads. Stay tuned.

by TChris

Unfounded hysteria about sexual abuse of children in daycare centers swept the nation in the 1980's, resulting in the convictions of innocent men and women. Bernard F. Baran Jr., convicted in 1985, says he's one of them.

Baran's lawyer, John Swomley, says the first family to accuse Baran was motivated by a stepparent's prejudice against Baran, who was openly gay.

The mother and her boyfriend were homophobic and had previously complained to the day care center about Mr. Baran because they thought he was gay. They had a history of severe drug abuse and mental health issues. The mother was fearful that she would not regain custody of her children if she did not testify in the manner expected by the prosecutor.

Swomley says Baran's lawyer, hired for $500, did nothing to investigate the suggestive questioning techniques that produced the accusations. He also argues that the prosecution withheld key evidence, including claims by two of the alleged victims that it was actually their mother's boyfriends who sexually assaulted them. Three of the six kids who accused Baran have now recanted their stories, but Baran is still serving multiple life sentences.

Swomley has filed a motion for a new trial, contending the evidence was unreliable, the defense lawyer was incompetent, and the prosecution withheld exculpatory evidence. No date to hear the motion has yet been set.

by TChris

If you've ever attended a protest in Denver, you might want to browse through a new archive of "spy files" created by the Denver police. Among the peaceful protestors catalogued by the Denver police over the last half century: "a Franciscan nun, Amnesty International and more than 100 public school students."

The Denver Intelligence Bureau collected files on 10,000 people and 1,000 groups before ending the practice in response to an ACLU lawsuit. The ACLU argued that spying on protestors chilled the exercise of their First Amendment rights and served no legitimate law enforcement purpose.

A new Harris Poll finds voters see little difference between Bush and Kerry on gun control--leading to the conclusion it won't be a big issue in the Presidential campaign. We never thought it would be, but since the news is reporting it, so will we:

By 29% to 25% a modest plurality thinks President George Bush would be better on the gun control issue than Senator John Kerry, but 22% see no difference, and 24% are not sure....These findings suggest that gun control is not an issue which is influencing voters in their choice of presidential candidates.

My Life

Debuts June 22. Get it now. And thanks to the anonymous TL reader who bought it for us off our wish list.

Update: Clinton says he slept on the couch for two months after telling Hillary the truth about Monical.

Big Brother times ten. Here's another excessive privacy intrusion made in the name of the war on terror: Britain will be given access to U.S. databases, including those with DNA and fingerprints of foreigners:

British police will almost certainly be given access in the near future to US intelligence databases containing DNA samples, fingerprints and digital images of thousands of foreign nationals seized around the world by the US as terror suspects. As the war on terror increasingly comes to rely on biometric technology - the use of physical characteristics unique to individuals such as iris pattern, DNA and fingerprints to verify identify - western police and intelligence agencies are drawing up plans for sophisticated biometric databases which would allow them to share sensitive information.

Here's what the FBI says--biometrics is the future.

Turns out it was not just one detainee that Rumsfeld ordered held from the Red Cross, but at least two detainees.

Defense Secretary Donald H. Rumsfeld admitted Thursday that he ordered the secret detention of at least two prisoners captured in Iraq so that they could be interrogated by the Central Intelligence Agency, a move that some legal experts say may have violated the Geneva Conventions. The Geneva Conventions, which outline proper treatment of prisoners of war, forbid holding prisoners incommunicado and require that their identities be registered with the International Committee of the Red Cross.

"It is clearly conduct in violation of international law," said Deborah Pearlstein, the director of the U.S. Law and Security Program of Human Rights First, a New York-based advocacy group formerly known as the Lawyers Committee for Human Rights.

Human Rights First today issued a new report on the Bush Administration's prisoner violations, titled "Ending "Secret Detentions" (pdf) charging that it held: