by TChris
Former Louisiana Judge C. Hunter King lost his job after he threatened courthouse employees with the loss of their jobs if they didn't sell tickets to a campaign fund-raiser. When his court reporter complained to the Judiciary Commission, King denied the charges under oath, characterizing the court reporter as a disgruntled ex-employee. The lie fell apart when he was confronted with "recorded tapes of staff meetings during which he spoke frankly of campaign fund raising on court time." King, suddenly remorseful, asked the State Supreme Court to give him a second chance, but the court unanimously decided to remove him from his judgeship.
Now King is being prosecuted for perjury as a result of his false testimony before the Judicial Commission, but the details of that prosecution have become difficult to unearth. Judge Julian Parker, presiding in former Judge King's case, issued a gag order and took the unusual step of sealing the court file. Parker gave no explanation for the order, and the computerized court docket doesn't reflect a request by any party for an order sealing the file. Gag orders sometimes promote a fair trial, but court files are public records, and public scrutiny of the judicial system serves as a check against judicial abuses. Sealing court files is a rare practice in Orleans Parish, a practice that hasn't been followed in other high profile cases. Why is Judge Parker treating the case of former Judge King differently?
by TChris
Bob Woodward's book says that President Bush started spending money to prepare for the war in Iraq in July 2002. But Bush didn't go to Congress at that point to ask for money to invade Iraq. Instead, the administration diverted money that Congress had appropriated to fight terrorism.
Congressman David Obey wants the administration to explain where the money came from for pre-war preparation. He thinks "the administration owes Congress a full, detailed and immediate accounting."
"If this is all true, it is ironic that the president was surreptitiously authorizing expenditures to begin a plan for war at the very same time he was resisting bipartisan congressional efforts to provide desperately needed funds for homeland security," Obey said.
The Washington Post takes Ashcroft to task in an editorial for his smear of 9/11/ Commission member Jamie Gorelick in accusing her of being responsible for creating "the wall."
Round 2 was Gorelick's response to Ashcroft. Round 1 was Ashcroft's partisan attack of Gorelick to the 9/11 Commission.
Suggested music and video to accompany reading the three rounds: We Can Be Together from Volunteers by the Jefferson Airplane ("Up against the wall motherf**er, tear down the walls," and The Wall by Pink Floyd.
The Iraqi Governing Council has named a bunch of Iraqi judges and prosecutors to a tribunal to try Saddam Hussein. They chose an opponent of Saddam's to play a major role--which may turn out to be a controversial move:
A senior member of Ahmad Chalabi's Iraqi National Congress was appointed to head the all-Iraqi tribunal - a potentially controversial choice. Chalabi, a longtime exile who returned to Iraq and was named to the U.S.-appointed Iraqi Governing Council, is mistrusted as an outsider by many Iraqis who want to see Saddam prosecuted by Iraqis who were present under his brutal rule. ....In the tribunal appointments, Salem Chalabi, a U.S.-educated lawyer and nephew of Ahmad Chalabi, was named by the Governing Council as director-general of the court, said INC spokesman Entefadh Qanbar. Salem Chalabi named seven judges and four prosecutors, and further judges will be appointed, Qanbar said.
Though INC head Ahmad Chalabi played a leading role in the opposition abroad to Saddam, many Iraqis consider him and other Governing Council members as American implants. Chalabi has been trying to gain grassroots support for his faction after decades in exile. On the council, Chalabi, a favorite of the Pentagon architects of the Iraq invasion, has been a fierce proponent of expunging traces of Saddam's regime. He heads an official De-Baathification Commission that has been aggressive in purging Iraqis with links to Saddam's dissolved party from government positions - so aggressive that even some U.S. officials have complained that it was getting rid of needed expertise.
For more on Chalabi and his tightness with the U.S., see TChris's posts here, here and here.
The trial would not begin before the June 30 handover of power.
If Chalabi's status is diminished in that handover, "there is a very good chance ... this court may see a change in its membership," said Adeed Dawisha, professor of political science at Miami University in Ohio.
Who's amassing the evidence? The Justice Department:
A team of Justice Department prosecutors and investigators has been gathering evidence for a war crimes case against Saddam, while other international groups have been sifting through the mass graves where U.S. officials say 300,000 victims of Saddam's regime were buried.
And who will foot the bill? Don't be surprised if we end up paying for it.
What else is wrong with trying Saddam by Iraqi tribunal instead of by international tribunal? We tell you here.
John Kerry has agreed to release all of his military records, including evaluations by superiors and medical records. They will be available on his website, beginning tonight.
Kerry won three purple hearts and a silver star during his service in the Vietnam war:
A senior adviser to Mr. Kerry, Michael Meehan, said the campaign was releasing all the documents because Mr. Kerry was "running on his military record, not from his military record."
Remember Jack Kelley, the reporter for USA Today who was fired after a scandal in which it was disclosed that he had fabricated many stories for the paper ? Last night, Karen Jurgenson, the top editor at USA Today and an employee of the paper since its inception in 1982, abruptly resigned over the Kelley matter.
Tom Squitieri, a reporter who covers defense and foreign affairs, expressed regret only that Ms. Jurgensen had chosen to step aside before those editors who had more directly supervised Mr. Kelley. ``The editor least responsible for what happened is the one who has been forced to go,'' said Mr. Squitieri, who has worked at the newspaper since 1989. ``I and several of my colleagues are waiting to see if others will follow her lead.'' He He declined to identify who he thought those editors should be.
Who's Tom talking about? He doesn't say but other reporters at the paper are citing USA Today's Managing Editor Hal Ritter as being far closer to Kelly's work in terms of supervision. Meanwhile, Jack Kelly's wife is still employed by the paper as an advertising executive.
First Spain, then Honduras and now the Dominican Republic is set to withdraw their troops from Iraq.
Talk about reinstating the military draft is making the rounds on Capitol Hill. Leading the charge is Republican Senator Chuck Hagel of Nebraska who says the U.S. may need compulsory service to boost forces in Iraq:
There's not an American ... that doesn't understand what we are engaged in today and what the prospects are for the future," Senator Chuck Hagel told a Senate Foreign Relations Committee hearing on post-occupation Iraq. "Why shouldn't we ask all of our citizens to bear some responsibility and pay some price?" Hagel said, arguing that restoring compulsory military service would force "our citizens to understand the intensity and depth of challenges we face."
Send this guy back to Nebraska to peddle his piddling idea there.
by TChris
Congressman John Hostettler (R-IN) had one of those forgetful moments that lead to trouble. As Hostettler passed through a security checkpoint at an airport in Louisville, alert TSA screeners noticed that he had a 9-mm handgun in his carry-on bag.
Others have been arrested (sometimes unnecessarily) for attempting to smuggle banned (albeit less deadly) items onto an airplane, but the Congressman was "briefly detained." He explained that he grabbed the wrong bag and forgot that the bag contained a gun. An honest mistake, no doubt, but one that would cause most people more grief than a brief detention. Moral of the story: It pays to be a Congressman.
Discredited Oklahoma chemist Joyce Gilchrist is back in the news. We last wrote about her here, reporting that 11 people have been executed based on her work.
The news today: the Associated Press has obtained a confidential police memo that shows:
Gilchrist doctored trial evidence and may have destroyed hair samples that could have exonerated a man now on death row....The memo said Gilchrist not only altered her own case notes, but "there is compelling circumstantial evidence" that she "either intentionally lost or destroyed" crime-scene hairs used to convict Curtis Edward McCarty of murder so the evidence could not be retested.The Oklahoma City Police Department memo, written by then-Deputy Chief Bill Citty to then-Chief M.T. Berry, is dated Sept. 21, 2001, and details 14 days of deliberations and testimony heard by a department review board.
You can read more news reports about Gilchrist in the Hall of Shame.
The FEC has fined the Bush-Cheney 2000 campaign $90,000. for using a separate, secret bank account which raised $11 million and spent $13 million on the recount - they never disclosed the money to the FEC.
The Federal Election Commission (FEC) has entered into a conciliation agreement with Bush-Cheney 2000, Inc. resulting from the failure to report to the FEC receipts and disbursements associated with its recount activities. Bush – Cheney 2000, Inc. has agreed to pay a $90,000 civil penalty. According to the conciliation agreement, Bush – Cheney 2000 held a bank account designated “Bush-Cheney 2000, Inc. – Media.” After the November 7, 2000 presidential election, the Committee redesignated this bank account “Bush-Cheney 2000, Inc. – Recount Fund” and used the account to raise funds and pay costs associated with the recount. However, the Committee failed to include that activity in disclosure reports filed with the Commission.
Bush- Cheney 2000 admitted that the failure to report the receipts and disbursements associated with its recount activity and to properly itemize them as “other receipts” and “other disbursements” violated the Act. The committee agreed to cease and desist from violating these sections of the Act and agreed to submit a miscellaneous filing to the FEC that discloses and itemizes, where appropriate, its recount receipts and disbursements.
Insurgents fired 12 mortars into Baghdad's Abu Ghraib prison Tuesday, killing 22 detainees and injuring 92, U.S. military officials said....All of those killed or injured in the mortar attack on the U.S.-run prison were security detainees, said Col. Jill Morgenthaler, meaning they were held for suspected involvement in the anti-U.S. insurgency or remnants of Saddam Hussein's ousted Baathist regime.
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