Far fetched? You decide. This from today's Dallas Morning News:

Retired National Guard Lt. Col. Bill Burkett said Tuesday that in 1997, then-Gov. Bush's chief of staff, Joe Allbaugh, told the National Guard chief to get the Bush file and make certain "there's not anything there that will embarrass the governor."

Col. Burkett said that a few days later at Camp Mabry in Austin, he saw Mr. Bush's file and documents from it discarded in a trash can. He said he recognized the documents as retirement point summaries and pay forms.

Bush aides denied any destruction of records in Mr. Bush's personnel file. "The charges are just flat-out not true," said Dan Bartlett, White House communications director. He said the president has been forthright in producing all documents relevant to his stint in the Texas Air National Guard, from 1968 to 1973. He dismissed Col. Burkett as a disgruntled former officer of the Texas Guard. Mr. Allbaugh, now a Washington lobbyist, called Col. Burkett's assertions "hogwash."

The Dems are not buying the White House version that the released records show Bush served as required:

The Democrats' Mr. McAuliffe said he still has questions. "The fact remains that there is still no evidence that George W. Bush showed up for duty as ordered while in Alabama," he said. "We also still do not know why the president's superiors filed a report saying they were unable to evaluate his performance for that year because he had not been present to be evaluated."

The 11 pages are pay records and summaries reflecting how many points Mr. Bush accumulated toward fulfillment of his Guard obligation. The records don't document any service dates between April 16, 1972, and Oct. 28, 1972 – periods during which Mr. Bush was in Alabama.

[link via Atrios]

The release of the documents seems only to have fueled the fire.

Update: Calpundit analyzes the Burkett claim.

A psychiatrist testified before the Arizona Senate Judiciary Committee that juveniles who kill should not face the death penalty because the part of their brains that controls violent reaction is not fully formed.

Dr. Mark Wellek, past president of the Society for Adolescent Psychiatry, testified in support of Sen. Linda Aguirre’s bill (S1139), which would prohibit a court from imposing a death sentence on a person who committed first-degree murder while under the age of 18. He said major medical organizations oppose the death penalty for minors “because discoveries in recent years suggest that their brains are not yet developed and, therefore, they are probably not as culpable.”

17 states prohibit killing those under 18 at the time of their crime. Arizona is not one of them. In 2000, the Arizona Attorney General’s Capital Case Commission was formed and has since voted to recommend that the death penalty not be applied to those under 18. Five of Arizona's 127 death row inmates were under 18 at the time of their crime.

The New York Times gets it right in this editorial on yesterday's release by the White House of President Bush's National Guard records. In a nutshell, the payroll records are so at odds with statements by his superiors that further elaboration is essential:

If President Bush thought that his release of selected payroll and service records would quell the growing controversy over whether he ducked some of his required service in the Air National Guard three decades ago, he is clearly mistaken. The payroll records released yesterday document that he performed no guard duties at all for more than half a year in 1972 and raise questions about how he could be credited with at least 14 days of duty during subsequent periods when his superior officers in two units said they had not seen him.

Investigative reporting by The Boston Globe, our sibling newspaper, revealed in 2000 that Mr. Bush had reported for duty and flown regularly in his first four Texas Guard years but dropped off the Guard's radar screen when he went to Alabama to work on a senatorial campaign. The payroll records show that he was paid for many days of duty in the first four months of 1972, when he was in Texas, but then went more than six months without being paid, virtually the entire time he was working on the Senate campaign in Alabama. That presumably means he never reported for duty during that period.

The FBI wants more wiretapping authority--in particular, it wants to be able to intercept calls on a new protocol--Voice Over Internet Protocol (VOIP):

The debate over government interception of Internet communications has expanded to a new technology, namely Voice over Internet Protocol (“VoIP”) transmissions. Indeed, representatives of the FBI’s Electronic Surveillance Technology Section in Chantilly, Virginia have been meeting secretly with the Federal Communications Commission since July, 2003, exploring ways to provide the FBI with more regulatory authority to “wiretap” Internet communications, and in particular VoIP transmissions. [i] The FBI along with the U.S. Drug Enforcement Administration and the U.S. Department of Justice want VoIP providers declared as “telecommunications carrier[s]” under the Federal Communications Act of 1996 and the Communications Assistance for Law Enforcement Act of 1994 (“CALEA”).[ii] These three federal law enforcement organizations declared that if left unregulated, VoIP would provide a means of communications whereby “terrorists, spies, and criminals … [can] most likely evade lawful electronic surveillance.” [iii]

....The FBI now has taken the position that the combination of the federal wiretap laws, originally enacted in 1964, and amended numerous times since,[xiv] along with CALEA, give it the authority to wiretap DSL and other types of broadband services, including VoIP. [xv]

Here's a description of VOIP, the use of which

....Voice Over Internet Protocol allows analog voice signals to be digitized into packets of data, sent over a series of networks, and reassembled at the other end. [iv]. In other words, telephone calls that have traditionally, since the late 19th century, been made through Public Switching Technology Networks (“PSTN”) are now initiated, transmitted and received through computer networks, and thereby avoid long distance telephone charges. The technology, introduced in 1995, stumbled along until recent improvements in the sound quality and transmission reliability have made “phone carriers …practically tripping over each other to announce aggressive VoIP strategies aimed at both consumers and businesses

According to Wolf Blitzer on CNN, the Associated Press reports that Wesley Clark will announce his withdrawal from the Presidential race tomorrow in his home state of Arkansas. Clark aides are confirming the report.

Would it have made a difference if Clark had run in Iowa? Will Kerry consider him as a VP candidate? We'd far prefer Clark to Gephardt, who is rumored to be under consideration for a Kerry VP slot. It will be hard to get excited about a Kerry-Gephardt ticket. No innovation, no one beyond the beltway, same old, same old. Gephardt is so "your father's Oldsmobile."

A new report by Amnesty International finds that the death penalty in Nigeria is unfairly applied to women:

In the report Amnesty International highlights cases of women facing the death penalty and whose rights to a fair trial and due process have been denied both under the criminal law system and the new Sharia penal codes.

Women are charged with capital offences and are in some cases awaiting trial for prolonged periods of time, without access to legal representation. "Under the criminal law system women are in some cases kept in prison awaiting execution for up to 10 years," the organization said. This is contrary to international human rights law and standards as well as Nigerian law.

The report also examines ways in which the application of the death penalty discriminates against women in certain cases and for certain crimes. Such discrimination derives from the categories of crimes that carry the death penalty and from the particular difficulties women face in accessing justice. This discriminatory effect is particularly apparent on women from socio-economically deprived backgrounds and who are illiterate, who have no husband and who become pregnant outside marriage.

The report is available here.

Accounts are cropping up of Iraqi detainees alleging torture and abuse at the hands of the coalition forces. This is disturbing. The accounts are backed up by memos of Amnesty International.

A widower and the father of two young boys, Baha al-Maliki worked as a hotel receptionist in the Iraqi city of Basra until September 14 of last year. That day, British soldiers arrested him and seven other hotel workers, saying they had found a stash of weapons hidden in the hotel. His family learned nothing of his whereabouts until three days later, when British soldiers came to their door to tell them he was dead. When al-Maliki’s father retrieved his body from the hospital, according to Amnesty International’s Khaled Chibane, “it was severely bruised and covered in blood.” The cause of death listed on his death certificate, says Chibane, was asphyxiation, apparently from being hooded during his interrogation. “It was obvious that he had died,” Chibane says, “as a result of torture.”

Al-Maliki is not the only Iraqi to have died under disturbing circumstances while detained by coalition forces. Though they have received minimal attention in the U.S. press, allegations of mistreatment of detainees have been surfacing persistently for at least the last six months. The allegations range from generalized neglect — unsanitary conditions and exposure to the elements — to beatings, electric shock and other forms of torture.

It was not until early this month, though, that the U.S. military’s Central Command released a brief and tersely worded statement announcing, “An investigation has been initiated into reported incidents of detainee abuse at a Coalition Forces detention facility.”

There's lots more, read the whole thing.

Here is the text of the press release by the National Lawyers Guild on the victory in Des Moines today. It should be up on their website soon.

The U.S. Attorney announced this afternoon that it withdrew the subpoena seeking records relating to the National Lawyers Guild (NLG) chapter at Drake University in Des Moines, Iowa. Subpoenas directed at four activists were also withdrawn. The NLG subpoena sought records relating its leadership and to a forum held at Drake on November 15, 2003, the day before a protest at which 12 were arrested. A gag order placed on employees of Drake University has also been lifted.

NLG President Michael Avery said, "The government was forced to back down in this case and it shows that people can and should stand up to the government when it is abusing its powers. The Lawyers Guild is grateful to our many friends and allies who supported us in the face of this attack by the government. This experience demonstrates that the American people cherish their right of free expression and the right of political groups to dissent from government policies."

Late Monday night, prosecutors from the United States attorney's office for the southern district of Iowa issued a statement confirming their investigation but saying that its scope was limited to finding out more about one activist involved in a protest at an Iowa National Guard based in Johnston, Iowa, the day after the forum. Prosecutor Stephen Patrick O'Meara said in a statement, "The narrow purpose and scope of that inquiry has been narrowed to determine whether there were any violation s of federal law, or prior agreements to violate federal law, regarding unlawful entry onto military property…" Federal officials had previously refused to provide any information about the grand jury inquiry.

NBC News projects John Kerry as the winner of the Virginia primary. He is expected to take Tennessee as well. The Teamsters will endorse Kerry tomorrow.

Update: Kerry has fired his Wisconsin phone company for routing calls through Canada.

Bump and Update: Victory in Des Moines! The Government has withdrawn its subpoenas.

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Original post

This from the Des Moines Register:

Federal officials Monday said a grand jury inquiry involving four peace activists and Drake University is not part of an anti-terrorism investigation. U.S. Attorney Stephen Patrick O'Meara said late Monday that the investigation focuses on unlawful entry onto military property at Camp Dodge on Nov. 16, and whether plans were laid for that at a conference the day before at Drake. Suggestions that the investigation is related to the Patriot Act "are not accurate," O'Meara said.

The investigation has alarmed peace activists in Iowa and around the country, who question whether the federal government is trying to silence dissent. "We're very alarmed," said Bill Dobbs, spokesman for United for Peace and Justice, a coalition of roughly 600 anti-war groups. "I sure hope those subpoenas are quashed, and I hope there's an investigation into just how this happened." O'Meara said his office does not prosecute people who are peacefully and lawfully engaged in rallies.

"The United States attorney emphasizes that the investigation regarding any attempted breach of the security fence at the Iowa National Guard Base is dangerous both to the person or persons attempting to breach the security fence, as well as a legitimately perceived danger to the base itself," he said.

The return date for the subpoenas has been continued to March:

Earlier Monday, O'Meara's office postponed court appearances for the four activists. They had been scheduled to appear before a grand jury today. All now have been told to appear on March 9.

More details on the case and postponement are here.

This past weekend on TalkLeft, TChris wrote about a British court ruling that suspicion is not proof of murder in SIDS cases. The dubious theory debunked by the Court in Britain is known as "Meadow's Law."

One sudden infant death is a tragedy, two is suspicious and three is a murder, unless proven otherwise.

Commenters to TChris's post were quick to condemn the court decision. But, this article in today's New York Times has some support for the decision.

The article concerns Brugada Syndrome, which is a genetic defect that causes a lightening bolt heart attack in structurally normal hearts. According to The Times, Brugada Syndrome "is now believed to be responsible for as many as 12 percent of all sudden deaths and roughly 20 percent of deaths in patients with structurally normal hearts." The Times also reports that one scientist estimates that "one American in 5,000 might be at risk for sudden death from the disease."

What's the link to infant death? Well, again according to The Times:

Although the disease usually strikes in early middle age, cases have been reported in babies only a few days old.

Apparently, Brugada Syndrome can be diagnosed -- via a determination that there is a mutation at the SCN5a gene. According to The Times,

SCN5a mutations have now been found in other sudden-death syndromes, including sudden infant death, or SIDS.

A scientific panel has issued its report onthe FBI's methodology of bullet analysis :

A scientific panel is questioning a method used by the FBI to match bullets from crime scenes, a finding that could give defense lawyers a new route to attack prosecution evidence. In seeking to tie bullets from a crime scene to others found in a suspect's possession, the FBI analyzes the lead for traces of seven other metals, a system that the report from the National Research Council said was sound.

However, the study questioned a statistical analysis method known as chaining in which trace elements in a series of bullets in a box are compared. It noted that the bullets sold together in one package are not necessarily all from the same batch of melted lead.

News of major problems with the non-scientific identification technique began surfacing in November.

It seems that contrary to what FBI agents have testified to in court the past few decades, bullets that appear chemically identical can come from different batches of lead. FBI experts have testified repeatedly in court that each time lead is melted and cast, its composition changes just enough to create a unique chemical signature for each batch.....Recent scientific studies have concluded that this premise is wrong. Studying blocks of lead used in the manufacture of bullets, researchers have found the same chemical makeup in batches made at different times. They also have reported that the concentration of trace elements can vary significantly in the same casting of lead.

If the skeptics are right, the matches found by FBI lab technicians are meaningless.

Update: The Innocence Project and the National Association of Criminal Defense Lawyers (NACDL), through President-Elect (and IP co-founder) Barry Scheck, have issued this press release, call for the reopening of cases in light of the National Academies report on FBI bullet lead analysis.

The National Academies report, Forensic Analysis: Weighing Bullet Lead Evidence is available here.A joint preliminary position paper by the Innocence Project and NACDL on improving the forensic sciences is here.