The Washington Post reports Monday that investigators in Spain now believe Al Qaeda was responsible after all for the Spain bombings:

Investigators believe the train bombings that killed 200 people here last week were the work of a multinational cell of al Qaeda loyalists, some of whom entered Spain specifically to carry out the attacks and who are now the target of an international effort to identify and capture them, according to European and Arab intelligence officials. The officials said the preliminary investigation and interrogation of five arrested suspects -- three Moroccans and two Indian Muslims -- as well as other evidence indicated that the Thursday morning rush-hour bombings were carried out by the al Qaeda network, marking the first time the group has struck in Europe.

The way the bombings were carried out is particularly worrisome to European leaders:

For European leaders, the al Qaeda link is a chilling development, and security services across the continent are now scrambling to assess the likelihood of further attacks in Europe. Analysts said the method of the Madrid attacks -- synchronized bombings apparently carried out by remote control rather than by suicide bombers -- suggested that Islamic extremists had become more adaptable and, therefore, even more of a threat.

The Moroccan suspects are being interrogated. So far, they have provided only limited information and have made several requests for the Koran. As to why Spain was chosen, officials theorize:

In a stinging rebuke to Spain's conservative government that supported the war in Iraq, voters booted them out at the polls today--

It was the first time a government that backed the Iraq war has been voted out of office. Incoming prime minister Jose Luis Rodriguez Zapatero has pledged to bring home the 1,300 troops Spain has stationed in Iraq when their tour of duty ends in July.....Pre-election polls had favored the ruling party to win handily. But on election day voters expressed anger with the government, accusing it of provoking the Madrid attacks by supporting the U.S.-led war in Iraq, which most Spaniards opposed.

Say hello to the new legal group blog, De Novo--comprised of several of the members of the recently defunct En Banc. The new blog consists of symposia on various legal issues. It's first post has contributions from some well-known legal bloggers:

Howard Bashman, "To Think Like A Lawyer"
Prof. Douglas Berman, "It Depends"
Prof. Lawrence Solum, "What Do Law Schools Teach?"
Prof. Eugene Volokh, "Writing to Think Like a Lawyer"

The "remember me" function in the comments should be working again. A big thanks to Al-Muhajabah who answered our question in the Movable Type forums. For those of you with MT questions, check out Al-Muhajabah's MT tips page.

The New York Times says in this editorial :

Four years after Florida made a mockery of American elections, there is every reason to believe it could happen again. This time, the problems will most likely be with the electronic voting that has replaced chad-producing punch cards.

Here's the latest, according to the Times:

As Floridians went to the polls last Tuesday, Glenda Hood, Katherine Harris's successor as secretary of state, assured the nation that Florida's voting system would not break down this year the way it did in 2000. Florida now has "the very best" technology available, she declared on CNN. "And I do feel that it's a great disservice to create the feeling that there's a problem when there is not." Hours later, results in Bay County showed that with more than 60 percent of precincts reporting, Richard Gephardt, who long before had pulled out of the presidential race, was beating John Kerry by two to one. "I'm devastated," the county's top election official said, promising a recount of his county's 19,000 votes.

Other Florida election snafus this week:

The latest news in the Spain bombing investigation is that one of the three Moroccans arrested yesterday has ties to the leader of an Al Qaeda cell who figured into the 9/11 attacks and who has been in custody in Spain for some time.

A Sept. 17, 2003 indictment calls Jamal Zougam - arrested in Thursday's attacks - a "follower" of Imad Yarkas, the alleged leader of Spain's al-Qaida cell who was jailed for allegedly helping plan the Sept. 11, 2001, attacks on New York and Washington. Yarkas, whose alias is Abu Dahdah, remains in Spanish custody. The indictment targets Yarkas and 34 others, including bin Laden, for terrorist activities connected to al-Qaida. Zougam, 30, was not indicted.

Friends of two of the jailed Moroccans think they are not involved:

Friends of the Moroccans said the Madrid store where they worked sold cell phones but they insisted that the men would not have been involved in planning or carrying out the attacks. "People shouldn't be put in jail for selling cell phones. They are hard workers," said Karim, who works in a phone shop near the now-shuttered store where the arrested Moroccans worked. Karim did not want to give his last name.

Death row inmate David Paul Hammer plans to testify at Terry Nichols' trial that while Hammer and Timothy McVeigh were in nearby cells on death row, McVeigh told him that Nichols refused to help build the bomb--and that the bomb was built in an Oklahoma warehouse and not in Kansas. The prosecution says Hammer is not a credible witness. He is scheduled to be executed June 8 for killing a cellmate. More on Hammer and his upcoming book can be found here.

The jury has been seated. Opening arguments are set for March 22.

Nichols' attorneys plan to argue that McVeigh framed him to shield the real accomplices in the bombing. The attorneys have said Hammer will tell jurors that McVeigh revealed who else was involved in the 1995 attack, including the identity of a second person believed to have been with McVeigh on the day of the bombing. Hammer told the newspaper the second person was a member of the Aryan Republican Army, a gang of white supremacist bank robbers.

At American Prospect, Harvard terrorism expert Jessica Stern looks at the possible connection between Basque separatists and Al Qaeda:

I have to wonder whether there's cooperation between ETA and Al Qaeda, and what this relationship might consist of. Al Qaeda is pragmatic and likes to avail itself of local operatives, expertise, and languages. They especially like to recruit locals. Al Qaeda has a large presence in Spain, so looking for partners like ETA would be at the top of their list. We know that the majority of people in Spain oppose the war in Iraq, so it makes me wonder whether some members of ETA have been infiltrated by the Al Qaeda network. There's also the chance that Al Qaeda might be recruiting within ETA.

As to the credibility of the Al Quaeda group claiming responsibility for the Spain attacks, Stern says:

The group claiming to speak for Al Qaeda is notoriously unreliable -- they even claimed responsibility for last summer's blackout. Intelligence officials really don't know anything about the group.

The Denver Post has begun a new series examining the drug war . Adam Brickner, director of Denver's Office of Drug Strategy, argues that substance abuse prevention must be the top priority:

Substance abuse and addiction not only cause significant harm to Colorado families, but also carry a hefty price tag for our community. Colorado loses roughly $4.4 billion annually and Denver loses $1.5 billion annually in productivity, medical costs and criminal justice costs, in addition to the incalculable toll in human suffering.

University of Denver law professor Robert Hardaway says we are stuck in a quagmire:

Every year, more than 400,000 Americans die as the result of tobacco use. Alcohol abuse results in the deaths of another 110,640 Americans, including 16,653 alcohol-related traffic deaths. Alcohol is a major factor in more than half of all homicides and rapes, 62 percent of assaults, and 30 percent of suicides. According to the Cato Institute, based on deaths per 100,000 users, "tobacco kills 650, alcohol 150, heroin 80, and cocaine 4." If an observer from another planet - say, Mars - were to analyze these statistics, he might be surprised to learn that out of tobacco, alcohol and other drugs, only the others are criminalized in the United States.

Even more preposterous, says Hardaway, are the financial and other costs of the drug war:

• The expenditure of more than $80 billion annually to arrest and incarcerate hundreds of thousands of citizens, using large chunks of America's scarce jail capacity and necessitating the early release of murderers, rapists and child molesters.

• The imposition of thousands of raids, searches and wiretaps on American citizens;

• The forfeiture of billions of dollars of potential tax revenues to organized crime;

• The commission of more than one-fifth of all property crime in the United States, amounting to billions of dollars annually, by addicts seeking money for drugs made artificially expensive by criminalization;

• The corruption and undermining of our political system, particularly at the local level.

As for tangible results, Hardaway notes they are sorely lacking:

Public defenders: Overworked, Understaffed, Undaunted in Virginia. The situation is dismal in Georgia. It's even worse in Lousiana. Reform is needed in Alabama.

Friday, a judge in Louisiana appointed lawyers in four cases by looking in the phone book and making random calls.

The indigent defense system in this country needs a fix-- for starters, it needs adequate funding.

by TChris

When the Supreme Court banned executions of the mentally retarded in 2002, that should have been good news for Daryl Atkins. It was his case, after all, in which the Court ruled. But unsettled questions in the case have made it possible for the State of Virginia to continue its effort to impose the death penalty on Atkins.

The core issue in Atkins' case is whether Atkins is retarded. That should seem self-evident in light of Atkins' IQ of 59. But the prosecutor in Atkins' case has a novel theory: Atkins cannot be mentally retarded because the "truly mentally retarded" do not "commit these kinds of crimes."

Although some states have enacted statutes creating an objective standard -- prohibiting the execution of a defendant who has an IQ below 70 or 75 -- Virginia has enacted no standards. In Atkins' case, a jury will decide whether Atkins is retarded. The prosecution wants the jury to base its decision on the nature of Atkins' crime as well as his ability to recognize polysyllabic words and perform some basic tasks. The attempt to play to the jury's sympathy is transparent: by focusing on the facts of the murder rather than Atkins' IQ, the prosecutor hopes to distract the jury from the central question of Atkins' retardation.

The judge in Atkins' case has not yet decided what evidence the jury will be allowed to hear.

by TChris

Sheriff's deputies in Cleveland County, North Carolina arrested a 96 year old woman when, during the execution of a search warrant at the house she shared with her son, the deputies found crack cocaine in her wheelchair. The search was prompted, at least in part, by an informant's assertion that the woman had hidden drugs in her prosthetic leg during an earlier search.

The woman, who has no criminal record, denied knowledge of the drugs.