Newsweek has put the "secret torture memo" online here.

The March 6, 2003 draft memo from the Defense Department, which was obtained in part by NEWSWEEK, is titled a “WORKING GROUP REPORT ON DETAINEE INTERROGATIONS IN THE GLOBAL WAR ON TERRORISM” and explores numerous legal defenses for acts that might be construed as torture. (Click here to read the memo). It was first disclosed by The Wall Street Journal on Monday. Along with several other memos to come out of the Justice Department’s Office of Legal Counsel—two them previously disclosed by NEWSWEEK—the 56-page DoD memo is believed to form the main basis for legal arguments justifying intense interrogation methods used at Guantanamo Bay. Some of those methods were later believed to be adopted for use at Abu Ghraib prison in Iraq.

Our Newsweek link didn't work, but law Prof Eric Muller has it up here at Is That Legal?

Lea Fastow, wife of former Enron CFO Andrew Fastow, has been designated to serve her one year prison sentence for misdemeanor tax evasion at the downtown Houston federal detention facility. In other words, no federal prison camp. Detention facilities are jails--they house all security levels of prisoners who are awaiting trial--including repeat offenders and those charged with violent crimes.

Lea Fastow, the wife of former Enron Chief Financial Officer Andrew Fastow, has been ordered to serve her one-year sentence for a misdemeanor tax charge in a downtown Houston federal lock-up, just blocks from the failed company's headquarters. U.S. District Judge David Hittner ordered Fastow, 42, to surrender by July 12, an order made public on Tuesday said.

The Houston federal detention center is a considerably more restrictive prison than the one her lawyer had requested. Attorney Mike DeGeurin had asked that Fastow be sent to a minimum security women's federal prison camp in Bryan, Texas, 100 miles northwest of Houston. DeGeurin could not immediately be reached for comment.

Lea Fastow shouldn't receive special treatment, but she also shouldn't be treated more harshly than anyone else serving the same sentence. What's next, will Martha Stewart be sent to MCC Manhattan? This is overkill. The Bureau of Prisons should reconsider.

Check out Gunner Palace, a new documentary of American soldiers in Iraq. It's an amazing story, and trailers are on the site, easily viewed. In a nutsell,

The videos feature American solders rapping about the war; another doing a Hendrix inspired "Star Spangled Banner" on the roof of Uday Hussein's Palace. It's not really a musical, it's real and it's happening now. As a soldier says in the film, "For y'all this is just a show, but we live in this movie."

M. Tucker, the filmmaker says:

The purpose of my visit was to embed myself with a unit for as long as they would have me. Surprisingly, or perhaps not, owing to the fact that I was briefly in the military and come from a military family, I found a unit that embraced my presence. The unit, 2/3 Field Artillery aka the "Gunner" Battalion was based in Uday Hussein's Azimiya Palace-sitting in the middle of Adhamiya, the most volatile area in Baghdad.

The Palace itself, now referred to as "Gunner Palace", was a welcome retreat from the chaos of Baghdad's streets. It had a swimming pool. A putting green. It even had a stocked fishing pond. 2/3's commander, LTC Bill Rabena called it an "adult paradise". He lived in the Love Shack-a pumpkin shaped building where Uday Hussein apparently engaged in all kinds of debauchery-the LTC slept in Uday's circular bed, something right out of Austin Powers.

by TChris

In another affront to open government and Congressional oversight, John Ashcroft refused to allow lawmakers to see a policy memo concerning interrogation techniques deemed legally permissible by the Justice Department. The memo was prepared by DOJ's office of legal policy for White House Counsel Alberto Gonzales.

Angry Democrats on the Senate Judiciary Committee called on Ashcroft to provide the document, saying leaked portions that have appeared in news reports suggest the Bush administration is reinterpreting U.S. law and the Geneva Conventions prohibiting torture.

Although Ashcroft "said he could not discuss whether there had been any order or directive from Bush regarding interrogations," he also said: "There is no presidential order immunizing torture." Ashcroft's willingness to deny that there was an order "immunizing" torture, coupled with his unwillingness to comment on the existence of any other order regarding interrogations, implies that Bush made some kind of order or directive regarding interrogations. Was there an order or directive that encouraged or excused torture? Ashcroft won't say.

Abu Ghraib interrogator Joe Ryan's March 21-April 02 diary entries have turned up in the Alexa cache. (His April 11-26 entries were pulled out of the Google cache a while back but are all over the internet). Go to the cache and get it while you can. You can also search Alexa for "joe ryan" site:am1500.com "

Among other things Ryan says: "Please note the difference between the American Red Cross, a great organization, and the International Red Cross, the anti-American fascist organization."

If you're not familiar with Joe Ryan, the Abu Ghraib interrogator and his diaries, go read Billmon here.

by TChris

Nine out of thirteen soldiers killed in Iraq during the first week of June belonged to the National Guard or reserves.

The death toll among National Guard and Reserve soldiers has been climbing in recent months, and the pace of casualties so far this month has been the highest of the war. May had the largest number of Guard and Reserve deaths in Iraq, 22 of the month's 80 total U.S. troop deaths.

In all, 827 American troops have died in Iraq since the war began in March 2003. Of the total, 687 have died since President Bush declared major combat over on May 1, 2003.

by TChris

Animal cruelty is repellent, but it doesn't excuse human cruelty -- particularly when it's inflicted in the name of the law.

A Texas woman convicted of neglecting her two horses will get only bread and water for the first three days of a 30-day jail sentence, a judge said on Tuesday.

Apparently a fan of westerns, County Court at Law Judge Mike Peters of Houston thought an Old West-style punishment was fitting for a crime against horses. Why not just let the defendant and the horse shoot it out at the corral?

by TChris

Fawaz Mohammed Damra is scheduled to go to trial in Akron next week on charges of obtaining U.S. citizenship by providing false information. Federal authorities claim that Damra failed to reveal his connections with the Palestinian Islamic Jihad when he applied for citizenship. But thanks to the wrongdoing of federal agents who searched his house, the government won't be able to use all of the evidence that it intended to introduce against Damra.

FBI agents searched the home after the Palestinian-born imam was arrested there. Agents seized a computer, copies of sermons and political speeches, the manifesto of the Palestinian Islamic Jihad and stacks of financial records.

Damra's wife, Nasreen, was instructed to go to the basement during the arrest, apparently because she was upset, and the "uninvited lingering on the premises" by the agents after the arrest meant the search was unreasonable and therefore illegal, [U.S. District Court Judge James] Gwin ruled. "The agents' plan all along was apparently to prevent Nasreen Damra from knowing whether she had the right to ask them to leave," the judge said in a 16-page ruling.

The prosecution had intended to use the illegally obtained manifesto as evidence at Damra's trial, no doubt hoping to inflame jury prejudice by associating Damra with those views.

Why is the Department of Homeland Security resisting asylum for mentally challenged teenager Malik Jarno of Guinea, West Africa? Jarno has been in custody in the U.S. for three years. Jarno's lawyer, Chris Nugent of Holland and Knight (a huge law firm that does a large amount of pro bono work) recently went to Guinea and obtained several affidavits.

Four people remembered Jarno's father as the imam and also an opposition leader who had been arrested, tortured and killed in 1998, Nugent said. Several witnesses wrote that, because of his family's political views and because the government would say he shamed the nation's image abroad, Jarno would be imprisoned if he returned to Guinea.

In addition, the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees submitted a letter directly related to the Jarno case after meeting with the heads of UNICEF, the World Health Organization and other agencies. They concurred that no protection exists for mentally challenged children in Guinea, Rosaline Idowu, the deputy representative of operations, wrote May 27.

Jarno's hearing date is July 9. More background on Malik is available here.

by TChris

The Massachusetts Bay Transportation Authority has adopted "a permanent policy of randomly inspecting passenger bags and packages on subway and commuter trains." The policy takes effect next month. The MBTA is the first transit agency to implement a policy of random searches of bags and briefcases.

The policy was made public only weeks after the MBTA announced a controversial decision to begin requesting identification from T passengers police perceive as acting "suspiciously."

The MBTA says it will have dogs sniff the packages when trained dogs are present (they only have four), but will require passengers to open their containers when a dog isn't available.

Civil libertarians are concerned that no procedures are in place to assure that the searches are truly random.

Pamela Pratt, 46, a hospital supervisor from Randolph, said , "We all know who will be stopped -- black people like me or my brothers."

The MBTA's chief is in the process of finalizing the policy. He says he doesn't want to abridge anyone's rights, "but in this era, we need the highest degree of security." As do our civil liberties.

Nat Hentoff's new column in the Village Voice is Hoaxing the Supreme Court --it's on the Government's attempt to sway the high court with information recently released about Jose Padilla, while Padilla and his lawyers remain gagged. Hentoff does not believe James Comey. He thinks Comey is trying to influence Justice O'Connor:

I do not believe Mr. Comey. I believe this last-minute Hail Mary plea was in fact aimed at the most powerful woman in the country. During Supreme Court oral arguments in the Padilla and Hamdi cases, Justice Sandra Day O'Connor seemed likely, as often happens, to be the fifth and deciding vote, and of all the justices, she was the most conflicted as to how to rule. Will the government strategy backfire because the sudden fusillade against Padilla was so transparently an attempt to manipulate the Supreme Court?

Tom Daschle is facing the fight of his career this November. Jerome at MyDD has all the details. We're proud to host an ad for him on TalkLeft, and hope you will go over to his website to learn about him and his campaign, and contribute. We need to take back Congress. We need Tom Daschle. If Daschle loses, we lose the Senate. It's that simple.