James J. Smith, former FBI supervisor and handler of accused spy Katrina Leung pleaded guilty in federal court in LA today. He most likely will avoid jail because he cut a deal to testify against his former lover and asset, Ms. Leung.

A former FBI counterintelligence supervisor pleaded guilty yesterday to lying about a long-running sexual affair he had with a prized bureau informant now accused of spying for China.....Smith, 60, agreed to cooperate with the government's ongoing investigation into Leung's suspected 20-year penetration of FBI counterintelligence efforts, which could include testifying against her if she is tried next year. In exchange, charges involving mail fraud and mishandling of classified documents against Smith will be dropped.

In addition to not telling the bureau of his affair with Leung, Smith also was accused of withholding his discovery in 1991 that the Chinese government knew that the FBI had her on its payroll as an informant....By agreeing to the unusually light sentence, officials said, the government hopes to build a stronger case against Leung, speed its damage assessment and avoid having to air more national security information during a trial....Four remaining counts of the indictment against Smith will be dismissed when he is sentenced in January if the government is satisfied with his cooperation. He faces a maximum penalty of five years in prison, but U.S. District Court Judge Florence-Marie Cooper said she did not "anticipate this punishment will be imposed in this case." Smith, who retired at 57, also will be allowed to keep his FBI pension.

Here's a press release (pdf) from the World Tribunal on Iraq--New York Session held on May 8, 2004. An international jury of conscience found the Bush Administration guilty of a wide range of war crimes in Iraq and demanded accountability.

The thirteen-member jury considered evidence on a range of violations
including the continued arbitrary detention and torture of Iraqi civilians, the use of cluster munitions in heavily populated civilian areas, the extrajudicial killings of Iraqi civilians, and the destruction of vital services.

The jurors found that "instead of caring for Iraqi people, the US authorities have killed, starved, maimed and tortured thousands of Iraqi people, destroying their infrastructure, including their water and health facilities. ... This was done by the US government. The people of the US are responsible and must hold their government accountable."

As outrage over the torture of Iraqi prisoners by the U.S. military continues to grow both domestically and internationally, the evidence at the tribunal highlighted the systematic brutality of the U.S. invasion and military occupation for the people of Iraq....The Jury's statement (pdf) emphasizes that "the responsibility for defining the future of their country has always rested with the people of Iraq and not with any outside power, or external military force, let alone one that previously encouraged and collaborated with Saddam Hussein in some of his most violent escapades."

Blogger Terry L. Welch (Nitpicker) has been deployed to Afganistan. He writes in:

Seems that the children of Afghanistan want nothing more than they want a pen. It was explained to me that the villages through which I traveled (near Kandahar, where I'm based) are so poor that a pen is like a scholarship to these children. They desperately want to learn but, without a pen, they simply won't. It's a long story. I won't bore you with it. Trust me, though, when I say that it would be a big deal if even a few of you could put up the call for pens for me. Anyone interested in helping out could either send some directly to me or go to Office Depot or any other office supply site and send them, where you can find them for as cheap as $.89 a dozen.

Here's the address to send them:

Terry L. Welch
105th MPAD
Kandahar Public Affairs Office
APO AE 09355

Come home safe and sound Terry, and thanks for looking out for the children.

by TChris

An earlier post refers to Air Force translator Ahmad Al Halabi, who is accused of espionage and misusing classified information. Halabi got good news today: new evidence persuaded a military judge to release Halabi from custody. Judge Col. Barbara Brand ruled that Halabi is not a flight risk, so he will not be detained pending his court martial.

Many of the original charges against Halabi have been dismissed, and Halabi's lawyer is confident that more dismissals are coming, presumably on the basis of the undisclosed "new evidence." The judge's ruling today sends a strong signal that Halabi's lawyer has it right.

by TChris

A snapshot of recent opinion:

From CBS News (Tuesday):

President Bush's overall approval rating has fallen to the lowest level of his presidency, 44 percent, in the latest CBS News poll, reflecting the weight of instability in Iraq on public opinion of Mr. Bush even as the economy shows signs of improvement.

From the Pew Center (May 3-9):

President George W. Bush's job approval rating fell to 44 percent, a 4-point drop, following revelations that U.S. soldiers abused Iraqi prisoners, a poll by the Pew Center for the People and the Press shows.

An MSNBC headline, reporting on the Pew poll: Pollsters: Kerry aside, Bush is in trouble.

Reuters: Bush's poll numbers hitting the danger zone. From the article:

Low approval and re-election numbers are particularly bad for an incumbent, who already is well known to voters. Undecided voters, who have had plenty of time to evaluate the incumbent, often break heavily for the challenger.

But it's only May.

by TChris

Once again, the credibility of the Bush administration has been questioned. The family of Nicholas Berg insists that he had been had been held by U.S. authorities in Iraq, causing him to miss his scheduled departure. Berg was captured shortly after his release. He was later beheaded.

U.S. officials admit that Berg was visited by the FBI while being held by the Iraqi police, but deny tht he was ever held by U.S. forces.

A State Department official in Washington told the Associated Press that Berg had turned down an invitation to fly out of Iraq. Spokeswoman Kelly Shannon said that a few days after he was released by Iraqi police, Berg spoke to a U.S. consular officer, who offered him a chance to fly back to the United States. "He told the consular officer that he planned to travel over land to Kuwait and would call the family from there," Shannon said.

Berg's family sees it differently. They say Berg was taken into custody by Iraqi police on March 24 and that U.S. officials eventually took custody of him. Berg was detained for 13 days, causing him to miss his scheduled March 30 departure. On April 5, Berg's family filed a federal lawsuit seeking his release. Berg was released on April 6, and his family last heard from him April 9. (Helpful timeline here.)

by TChris

We know at least some of the things that happened at Abu Ghraib. We will soon know more about allegations of abuse at Camp Bucca. We've also heard about abuse at Bagram in Afghanistan. Information about abuse at Guantanamo Bay has so far been limited, but it looks like there's more to come.

A lawyer for a Syrian-born U.S. airman accused of espionage said on Tuesday that potentially damaging evidence of how detainees were treated at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba may surface during his client's court-martial hearing.

Ahmad Al Halabi's court marial is scheduled to begin in mid-June. Whether Guantanamo abuse will become an issue at the court martial, and whether that evidence will be made public, remains to be seen.

But not to worry. Donald Rumsfeld assures us that U.S. interrogation techniques neither violate the Geneva Conventions nor endanger the soldiers and civilians in Iraq (and elsewhere) who must deal with the repurcussions of prisoner abuse. Feel relieved?

by TChris

For years, the right has effectively intimidated the mainstream media with false claims of a "left wing bias" in media coverage. Fearful of further criticism, much of the media rather uncritically reported everything President Bush said until it could no longer ignore evidence of deception and incompetence in the White House.

Nobody can accuse the Appleton (Wisconsin) Post-Cresent of a left wing bias. In an editorial last week, the paper asked readers to send in letters of support for Bush to help "balance" all the letters to the editor complaining about the President and his policies. Things are pretty sad when a newspaper serving a Republican district has to plead for letters that support a Republican president. It's even sadder that the editor doesn't realize that the letters the paper received reflected how its readers feel, and that others weren't writing in support of the President because there's just not much to say in his defense.

The paper ran a second editorial this week, backing away from its earlier request "amid complaints of blatant politics."

by TChris

Can one person make a difference? It's easy to feel hopeless and overwhelmed, but Dick Dorworth reminds us that it's possible for one person to change the world.

Gandhi broke the back and spirit of British imperialism and created modern India.

Martin Luther King broke the back (but, sad to say, not the spirit) of institutionalized racism in America.

David Brower kept the Grand Canyon from being dammed.

Renee Askins got wolves re-introduced into Yellowstone and the American West.

An unknown Chinese man once stopped a tank in Tienanmen Square by simply standing his ground.

Daniel Ellesberg shortened the war in Vietnam by many months, if not years.

Someone leaked the photos of American military personnel torturing Iraqi prisoners in the Abu Ghraib prison.

Some changes can only be made if we act together, but the individual act of voting can make a profound difference. Remember that, in November, a few minutes of your time can change the direction of our country.

Vote Kerry.

by TChris

Speaking before the Seventh Circuit Bar Association, Supreme Court Justice John Paul Stevens said Monday: "I think this country would be much better off if we did not have capital punishment." He asked states to "really consider whether they think the benefits outweigh the very serious potential injustice, because in these cases the emotions are very, very high on both sides and to have stakes as high as you do in these cases, there is the special potential for error."

Stevens' statement ... appears to be the most pronounced statement against capital punishment made by a Supreme Court justice since the late Harry Blackmun wrote in 1994: "From this day forward, I no longer shall tinker with the machinery of death."

by TChris

Abuse of military prisoners may not be limited to Iraq, as the U.S. is finally paying attention to reports of abused prisoners in Afghanistan.

The U.S. embassy in Kabul said an Afghan police officer, reportedly held by U.S.-led forces in the city of Gardez and the U.S. base at Bagram in 2003, said he had been stripped naked, photographed, kicked and subjected to "sexual taunting."

It is not known how many prisoners are held at Bagram or who they are. An investigation into the deaths of two prisoners while in U.S. detention in December, 2002, has yet to be completed.

In a report late last year, Amnesty International criticized the United States for its failure to make public any details of the investigation, saying it showed a "chilling disregard for human life."

Update: Chalabi changes his story. Now he says Saddam won't be turned over by June 30 and won't be tried before 2005. [post title changed to reflect this]

Salem Chalabi, the chief director of the Iraqi tribunal that will try Saddam Hussein, says he and other top members of the regime now in U.S. custody will be turned over to the tribunal before June 30, and that the death penalty may be used.

US-led forces will hand over Saddam Hussein and top officials of his former regime to the Iraqis before the handover of power, a top lawyer who is coordinating the toppled dictator's trial said today. ''The coalition forces now have more than 100 detained former regime officials,'' Salem Chalabi told reporters in Kuwait. ''They will be transferred to us before the transfer of power, and they include Saddam Hussein, Ali Hassan al-Majid and Tareq Aziz.'' Washington has pledged to hand sovereignty to an unelected Iraqi government by June 30.

Chalabi says trials are expected to begin early next year, and that Saddam may not be first in the dock. Excuse us for being cynical, but we won't be shocked if President Bush convinces the tribunal to move the trials up to October, try Saddam first to get a quick death verdict against him just in time for the election. Then again, if Bush pulls Osama out of his hat in July or August as we expect he will, he may feel he doesn't need Saddam for that purpose. Unless, of course, the polls show him and Kerry still in a statistical dead heat.