by TChris

The U.S. and its partner-in-occupation, Great Britain, seem to be having a bit of a spat.

British Prime Minister Tony Blair, President Bush's chief ally in Iraq, said today that forces of the U.S.-led coalition there will need the "consent" of the new Iraqi government to conduct some military operations after political power is transferred on June 30.

Blair told a news conference in London that "if there's a political decision as to whether you go into a place like Fallujah in a particular way, that has to be done with the consent of the Iraqi government and the final political control remains with the Iraqi government. That's what the transfer of sovereignty means.

The Bush adminsitration isn't inclined to ask anyone's "consent" to do as it pleases with the U.S. military.

Secretary of State Colin L. Powell, asked later about Blair's comment, phrased the issue differently, saying that "we would take into account whatever" Iraqi officials say "at a political and military level."

Powell added: "Now, ultimately, however, if it comes down to the United States armed forces protecting themselves or in some way accomplishing their mission in a way that might not be in total consonance with what the Iraqi interim government might want to do at a particular moment in time, U.S. forces remain under U.S. command and will do what is necessary to protect themselves."

In other words, as long as a military action can be characterized as necessary to "accomplish a mission," sovereignty won't stand in the way. Although Powell earlier said that the U.S. military will leave Iraq upon request of the interim government, his assurance was promptly contradicted by Lt. Gen. Walter Sharp, who told Congress that only an elected government could kick the U.S. military out of the country.

Four soldiers received reprimands today for abusing Iraqi prisoners--they forced the Iraqis to jump into the Tigris River. The four were based at Fort Carson, Colorado.

Fort Carson soldiers are also under investigation in two prisoner deaths:

Budzyna also said that members of another Fort Carson unit, the 3rd Armored Calvary Regiment, are being questioned about the deaths of two Iraqi prisoners: Maj. Gen. Abed Hamed Mowhoush, 57, who was captured by the regiment in October, and Abdul Jaleel, 46.

The military has said Mowhoush died during interrogation Nov. 26 from asphyxiation due to smothering and chest compression. The CIA said one of its agents may have been involved and referred the case to the Justice Department. Jaleel died Jan. 9 at a post near Al Asad, Iraq, of blunt force injuries and asphyxia, the Army said last week. The facility was the base camp of the 3rd Armored Cavalry.

Law Prof Eric Muller of Is That Legal? has given the subject of Justice Department lawyers providing advice on acceptable and non-acceptable interrogation techniques a lot of thought. He says the questions we should be asking are these:

In which executive departments have attorneys been called upon to review the legality under American and international law of interrogation methods such as "water boarding" (in which people are dipped into water to make them fear they're about to be drowned) and multi-year confinement of people in total isolation? (On the strategy of permanent solitary confinement, see the Declaration of Lowell Jacoby (.pdf), Director of the Defense Intelligence Agency, on which the administration has relied in court.)
* What conclusions did these attorneys reach on the legality of these methods?
* How were disputes among attorneys or departments about the legality of these methods resolved? By whom?

Kobe Bryant's lawyers have requested permission to call two expert witnesses at Thursday's hearing to show the police conducted a shoddy and incomplete examination of evidence in Kobe's hotel room that would have shown his innocence.

[Attorney Hal] Haddon said the men “closed their eyes” to potential physical evidence at the site of the alleged crime that might have confirmed Bryant’s innocence. “The failure to conduct the most ’regular’ police procedure — investigation of a crime scene and collection of physical evidence — suggests both a bias against Mr. Bryant and a willful or reckless unwillingness to consider the possibility that Mr. Bryant committed no crime and that the accuser was lying about the sexual encounter for ulterior motives,” Haddon wrote.

....Defense attorneys say crime scene investigators should have taken more photos, collected the chair that was the site of the alleged assault, examined carpet near the chair and collected material in waste baskets.

We'll be talking about the case today during the second half hour of MSNBC's Abrams Report ( the show begins at 6PM ET).

Ralph Nader is calling for the impeachment of President Bush over Iraq. Nader says Bush is a "messianic militarist."

Mr. Bush's actions "rise to the level of high crimes and misdemeanors," Mr. Nader said in a speech to the Council on Foreign Relations in Manhattan. He said Mr. Bush had exceeded his authority in the face of widespread opposition at home and abroad. "The founding fathers did not want the declaration of war put in the hands of one man," he said, contending that United States foreign policy goals are being hindered because the president tends to "talk like an out-of-control West Texas sheriff."

While we're thinking of young people, Eric over at Hamster found these numbers at Drum Major Institute.

• Cost of annual tuition at Yale University, President George W. Bush's alma mater and university attended by his daughter Barbara: $37,000

• Average annual income for a full-time American worker: $32,500

• Number of associate's degrees awarded to American college students every year: 600,0008

• Number of U.S. information technology (IT), back office, customer service and sales jobs expected to move " offshore" by 2005: 600,000

by TChris

Scott Peterson's lawyer, Mark Geragos, filed a motion yesterday accusing the prosecution of withholding key evidence: the statement of a former peace officer who says he saw two men pull Laci Peterson into a van. Scott is charged with Laci's murder.

In the motion, Geragos alleges that the prosecution has known about the unidentified witness since December 2002 but didn't interview him until just last week -- just days before the start of the trial. Opening statements are scheduled for a week from today. "The witness confirmed his sighting of a woman he identified as Laci and her two abductors,'' according to the defense motion. "However, the Modesto Police Department chose to ignore this former peace officer's report presumably because 'it was not going in the right direction.' This ... clearly establishes that the prosecution's conduct was undertaken in bad faith."

Another witness, Diane Jackson, saw a van acros the street from Laci's house on the morning she disappeared.

by TChris

President Bush said little last night that was new, but what he said wasn't enough to satisfy those who believe that a handover of sovereignty should actually involve ... well ... a handover of sovereignty.

The president of the Iraqi Governing Council said today that a proposed U.S.-British blueprint for a post-occupation Iraq falls short of expectation, and several key U.N. Security Council members said the proposal presented to the United Nations does not make clear whether the new government will have full authority over Iraq's security, and when foreign troops would leave. They said that raises the question of whether there will be a true handover of power on June 30.

A sovereign nation would be entitled to tell the U.S. to take its soldiers and go home, but Bush offered no plan for withdrawing troops. He's letting the Iraqis decide whether we should demolish the Abu Ghraib prison, but he gave no suggestion that he intends to allow Iraqis meaningful control of their country after June 30.

The U.N. resolution that the U.S. proposed doesn't achieve true sovereignty any time soon.

The resolution sets no date for the troops to leave, although it calls for a review after 12 months, or earlier at the request of the elected government. France, Germany, China, Chile and Russia would like to have an earlier reassessment, or to simply leave the force's mandate to the new Iraqi government to decide.

Bush's speech. The advance on it is that he's going to promise to tear down Abu Ghraib prison and try to convince the American public that he has an exit plan from Iraq.

Nearly 800 U.S. service members have died since the beginning of military operations in Iraq last year, according to the Pentagon. And more than 5,500 Iraqi civilians have died violently in Baghdad and three provinces in the past year, an Associated Press count says.

There's nothing he can say that will satisfy us or make us think invading Iraq was a good idea. It was an unnecessary war that caused an unnecessary loss of life.

Did he convince any of you?

Update: Left Coaster asks the President, what about making sure we have a free America before claiming to be able to free Iraq?

Update: The FBI issues a rare apology to Mayfield.

A federal judge today threw out the Government's material witness action against Oregon lawyer Brandon Mayfield, who was arrested on a material witness warrant in connection with the Spain train bombings. The FBI misidentified his fingerprint. Background here. The Court's order is here.

Brandon Mayfield, a 37-year-old American convert to Islam, was released from custody last week. But he was not altogether cleared of suspicion at the time; the government said he remained a "material witness" and put restrictions on his movements.

Those restrictions have now been lifted. "Due to the misidentification by the FBI of a fingerprint, the court orders the material witness proceeding dismissed," read a statement posted on the US District Court's website. "The court orders all property seized to be returned to the material witness."

Furthermore, the court said any copies of Mayfield's property held by the federal government were to be destroyed, and that all documents in the case would be unsealed.

Mr. Mayfield and his lawyer held a press conference this afteroon. They were justifiably critical of the material witness statute and the Patriot Act. We predict lawsuits are days away from being filed. We hope he wins big damages.

by TChris

Cynthia Tucker reminds us that it isn't unpatriotic to criticize President Bush, his administration, or his decisions. Exercising the right of dissent is so vital to the democratic process that the Bill of Rights enshrines it in the First Amendment.

As Americans, we're supposed to have a deep respect for dissent, to value honest and open government, to believe in truth and justice. Those are among the core values that distinguish us from much of the rest of the world, where tyranny has free rein.

Tucker has harsh words for Zell Miller and others who insist that it's unpatriotic to criticize the war, the mistreatment of prisoners, or the President.

But Mr. Miller is not the only American in full retreat from the nation's core values. So are any number of others, officials and average citizens alike, who have denounced the press, war critics and any other institution or individual who dares present a view that does not reflect the fairy tale version of events that Mr. Bush and his minions, until quite recently, peddled to the public.

Dissenting from injustice is not unpatriotic. It's what we're supposed to do. We have free speech so that we can effect democratic change. Minds have already changed, and that trend makes the voices demanding our silence all the more shrill.

Too bad.

by TChris

Sean Baker was a member of a Military Police company assigned to Guantanamo Bay in January 2003, when he was ordered to play the role of a detainee during a training exercise. Baker quickly learned how detainees are treated when things go wrong.

Baker says what took place next happened at the hands of four U.S. soldiers - soldiers he believes didn't know he was one of them - has changed his life forever. "They grabbed my arms, my legs, twisted me up and unfortunately one of the individuals got up on my back from behind and put pressure down on me while I was face down," said Baker. "Then he - the same individual - reached around and began to choke me and press my head down against the steel floor. After several seconds, 20 to 30 seconds ... when I couldn't breath, I began to panic and I gave the code word I was supposed to give to stop the exercise, which was 'red.'"

The beating didn't stop until one of the soldiers noticed that Baker was wearing Army boots.

Baker sustained a traumatic brain injury that left him with a seizure disorder. Military records confirm that his injury "was due to soldier playing role as a detainee who was uncooperative."

A "training" exercise implies teaching and supervision. Who supervised the senseless beating of a soldier? And what, exactly, was being taught?