We all know "Married to the Mob"--now it's time for Married to the Jihad. This is a very bizarre article, in the truth is stranger than fiction department, particularly in its depiction of the wives' approval of their children becoming fighters. It consists of interviews with two women, Maha and Zaynab, Canadian mother and daughter married to al Qaeda fighters. The teaser:

They may be rich, cultivated and beautiful; but when the West steps up its 'war on terror', their husbands and sons are in the firing line. Jan McGirk meets some remarkable women.

A couple of tidbits:

Abdurahman and Omar were captured by the Americans and imprisoned at Guantanamo. Abdurahman, who liked to posture around the bazaar, swigging from an imported bottle of tabasco sauce to impress his buddies, has blamed greedy Kabul acquaintances for "selling" him to the Americans for a bounty. Omar, who was only 15 at the time, hunkered down with some fleeing Arab fighters in Khost, eastern Afghanistan, until American troops attacked the hideout. Despite being described by his mother as the most sensitive of the brothers, he is reported to have killed an American medic during the gunfight before taking a bullet himself, in the eye. He was soon whisked off to Guantanamo, where he was not allowed to speak with his incarcerated brother and where he remains under interrogation.

Maha describes how proud she is of her martyr husband, now dead. As to her teenage son:

Abdul Karim was also cornered and besieged that day. Described by his mother as a dreamy boy with a taste for Harry Potter and Matrix DVDs, he had been exploring the fields surrounding their new hide-out with a 16-year-old Arab friend, looking for hazards. They had left their weapons behind so as not to arouse the locals' suspicions, only to be ambushed by Pakistani soldiers lying in wait.

Abdul Karim was struck by a bullet that ripped through his spleen, liver and kidney and nicked his spinal cord. He later told his sister Zaynab that no water or first aid was offered to the bleeding boys for at least three hours, while Cobra helicopters attacked his father and comrades in the house. Pakistan army sources say the ensuing battle raged for 12 hours, and left nine foreign fighters dead. They showed Abdul Karim a photograph of his father's charred corpse while he lay recovering in a military cot. Now being held incognito in a basement somewhere near Islamabad, he is paralysed from the waist down.

Maha and Zaynab say it took them five months to find Abdul.

by TChris

Pamela Martinez was given a life sentence under California's three-strikes law for stealing a toolbox. Fortunately, her conviction was overturned on appeal. She entered into a plea bargain that resulted in a nine year sentence and was released after serving five. In the two-and-a-half years since her release, Martinez has become a dependable employee and a responsible citizen. Now, having realized that it mistakenly released Martinez about two months early, California's prison system wants her back.

The ACLU justly criticizes the state for spending $2 million just to "derail her hard-won successes." Martinez says her crimes were caused by a drug addiction that she's placed behind her. Now that she's finally gotten her life together, California wants to tear it apart.

Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger deserves credit for recognizing that this act of bureaucratic lunacy will not benefit the state. After the state supreme court upheld Martinez' return to prison, Gov. Schwarzenegger wrote to the court with a formal request to commute the remainder of Martinez' sentence. The court will consider the request after it reviews a report from the state Board of Prison Terms. In the meantime, Martinez hopes that a superior court judge will stay her return to prison (now scheduled for Tuesday) while the supreme court makes its decision.

A BBC television program airing Sunday night, Panorama, outs the man who betrayed Saddam. The program says it is his relative and former bodyguard, Mohammed Ibrahim Omar al-Musslit , who gave up Saddam after being arrested and interrogated.

Mr Musslit was a loyal lieutenant of Saddam Hussein. He was one of the people who accompanied the Iraqi leader as he fled Baghdad in a white Oldsmobile, as US troops entered the city on 9 April 2003. But Panorama will reveal that he was quickly broken by interrogators after being captured in Baghdad, and led American troops to his boss just hours after being arrested in December.

The program also reports that the U.S. will not give al-Musslit any of the reward money, because he didn't volunteer the information:

A senior US commander, Major General Ray Odierno, denied the source had been tortured but told the programme that he was "a shady character", adding that he believed "the US treasury gets to keep the money."

by TChris

What is life in occupied Baghdad really like? One journalist describes a city of relentless violence, much of it unseen by reporters who fear to leave their hotels at night.

Explosions from bombs, rocket propelled grenades and artillery as well as guns firing can be heard all day and night, but their locations are usually impossible to determine, even if you are foolish enough to search for them after dark, when gangs and wild dogs own the streets. There are systematic assassinations of policemen, translators, local officials, and anybody associated with the occupiers. ... Nobody in the US (and certainly nobody in Iraq) even cares much about the American soldiers dying daily, as long as the numbers on any given day are low. In the Sunni neighborhood of Aadhamiya in Baghdad there are nightly RPG and mortar attacks on the US base, and the men on the street erupt in cheers and whistles at the sounds.

Freelance journalist Nir Rosen offers a compelling look at a country torn apart by internal strife, united only by its hatred of occupation. One cause of suspicion and hostility, rarely reported in mainstream media: "over ten thousand Iraqi men are being held prisoner, and most of them are innocent."

TChris wrote yesterday about the Department of Homeland Security's budget crunch. Here are some more details, from the Wall Street Journal(paid subscription required):

The year-old Department of Homeland Security is declaring a hiring freeze at two of its front-line units because of a potential $1.2 billion budget shortfall.
A third front-line unit, the Citizenship and Immigration Service, also has a hiring freeze in effect because of an unrelated shortfall in fee assessments.

The timing of the news couldn't be worse for the Bush administration. Speaking this week before the National Commission on Terrorist Attacks upon the United States, known as the 9/11 commission, former White House counterterrorism chief Richard Clarke raised serious questions about the administration's security efforts against al Qaeda prior to Sept. 11, 2001. Meanwhile, Democrats have been criticizing the department, which was created in the wake of the Sept. 11 attacks, for failing to have a comprehensive staffing strategy to secure the borders.

Democrats charge that the Homeland Security department shifted hundreds of agents from the southern border -- considered especially vulnerable to a terrorist attack -- to the U.S.-Canada border in order to meet new requirements set by the Patriot Act and the Border Security Act....The worst border problems in the country at the moment are in Arizona. Robert C. Bonner, the Commissioner of Customs and Border Protection, last month described the border security situation in Arizona, as a "complete mess."

Newsweek has the latest poll results following the testimony of Richard Clarke at the 9/11 Commission hearing this week. In a nutshell, Bush's terrorism approval rating dropped 8 points, from 65% to 57%.

If the election were held today between Bush and Kerry (no Nader, which we think will be the reality) Kerry would beat Bush 48% to 47%. With the margin of error factored in, it's a statistical dead heat. And too close to comfort for us. Give to Kerry.

At first glance, this is ridiculous. Upon reflection, it's scary. We reprint it only to show you how important it is to protect our Fourth Amendment:

British police used a giant X-ray machine to check for drugs and guns in raids on two London pubs, the BBC reported Saturday. Thirty four suspects were arrested by police who used a 7-foot high X-ray machine outside the two pubs. Suspects had the choice to be scanned or strip searched - officials said most people chose the X-ray. The scan shows anything hidden under one's clothes, including metal, plastic or ceramic guns, wooden clubs, explosives or drugs. Scotland Yard said the arrests were for offences that included possession with intent to supply drugs, possession of an offensive weapon, credit card fraud and immigration violations.

Here's a short poem we received by e-mail made up entirely of actual quotations from George W. Bush. We're told the quotes have been arranged, only for aesthetic purposes, by Washington Post writer, Richard Thompson.

MAKE THE PIE HIGHER

I think we all agree, the past is over.
This is still a dangerous world.
It's a world of madmen and uncertainty
And potential mental losses.

Rarely is the question asked
Is our children learning?
Will the highways of the Internet
Become more few?

How many hands have I shaked?
They misunderestimate me.
I am a pitbull on the pantleg of opportunity.

I know that the human being
And the fish can coexist.
Families is where our nation finds hope, where our wings take dream.

Put food on your family!
Knock down the tollbooth!
Vulcanize society!
Make the pie higher!
Make the pie higher!

If you're interested, Urban Legends sources the quotes.

If you live in Louisiana, Texas or Mississippi, you just lost an important right: the right to be free from an intrusion and search of your home unless the police have a warrant. In a ruling two dissenting justices called "the road to hell," the 5th Circuit Court of Appeals has ruled that police may search homes and buildings for evidence without a warrant.

The 5th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals ruled that police do not need an arrest or search warrant to conduct a swift sweep of private property to ensure their own safety. Any evidence discovered during that search now is admissible in court as long as the search is a "cursory inspection," and if police entered the site for a legitimate law enforcement purpose and believed it may be dangerous.

Prior to this ruling, police were only allowed to make a cursory inspection of someone's property if they were there to arrest someone.

"I have no doubt that the deputy sheriffs believed they were acting reasonably and with good intentions," Judges Harold DeMoss Jr. and Carl E. Stewart wrote. "But the old adage warns us that 'The road to hell is paved with good intentions.' "

The ACLU weighs in:

"This decision is the latest roll-back of safeguards to protect the people from being at the mercy of a police state," said Joe Cook, executive director of the ACLU of Louisiana. "Allowing law enforcement to search homes without probable cause or any warrant makes a dramatic and dangerous departure from one of our most fundamental American freedoms."

The case is United States v Gould (2004, CA5 La) 2004 US App Lexis 5505 (pdf).

The Supreme Court has said, “physical entry of the home is the chief evil against which the wording of the Fourth Amendment is directed.” Payton v. New York, 445 U.S. 573, 585 (1980). We think this ruling runs afoul of that principle.

by TChris

Utah has joined the growing list of states that are dropping out of the Multistate Antiterrorism Information Exchange, or MATRIX. TalkLeft's background information about the crime-fighting database can be found here.

Gov. Olene Walker recognized that law enforcement agencies have a legitimate need to share information, but not at the expense of equally legitimate interests in protecting privacy.

Walker's announcement comes a day after a panel that she appointed to review the MATRIX recommended steering clear of the pilot crime-fighting network until "adequate oversight" is established to assure that the billions of public and private records it collects on citizens aren't misused. The panel also suggested that the Legislature decide what shape oversight should take.

Only five of the original thirteen partner states remain in the MATRIX program. Those that have abandoned the program share concerns about its potential for abuse.

©ivil libertarians and those opposed to big government fear the breadth of data stored in the MATRIX will allow law enforcement to spy on law abiding citizens. Its data mining capabilities, for example, would allow police to create lists of people who fit criminal profiles based on their ethnicity, address or credit history.

by TChris

Saddam Hussein has a lawyer.

A French lawyer, known for defending terrorists and a Nazi leader, said Saturday he will defend Saddam Hussein.

Jacques Verges told France-Inter radio he had received a letter from Saddam's family requesting him to defend the former Iraqi leader in court. The letter read: "In my capacity as nephew of President Saddam Hussein, I commission you officially by this letter to assure the defense of my uncle," Verges said. He did not name the person who sent the letter.

Verges may have difficulty meeting with his new client, as the United States has not disclosed Hussein's location. Nor have decisions been made about the date or location of Hussein's trial, the charges he will face, or the nature of the court that will hear the charges.

byTChris

The U.S. Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit has affirmed the conviction imposed upon Javid Naghani for interfering with flight attendants. Naghani, an Iranian, had been drinking prior to boarding the Air Canada flight from Los Angeles to Toronto. Flight attendants caught Naghani smoking in an airplane bathroom "and made him sit near the lavatory in a jump seat, where he become angry."

Flight attendants then said they heard Naghani threaten to sue Air Canada and either say that "my people will kill all Americans" or "I will kill all Americans." Naghani, a native Farsi speaker who speaks English with an accent, denied making such statements but was convicted in December 2001 and in March 2002 received a 33-month sentence.

The court justified the sentence by explaining that Naghani diverted flight attendants from their duties, creating a risk if an emergency happened to occur elsewhere on the airplane. Keep that in mind next time you divert a flight attendant's attention by requesting an extra pillow.

Naghani's drunken smoking and ranting were undoubtedly disturbing, and other passengers were inconvenienced when the flight returned to the LA airport (escorted by fighter jets). Nonethless, 33 months is a ridiculous sentence for rude behavior that caused no serious harm.