Mark Gisleson has penned his last column for Bush Wars--we're really sorry to see him move on. If you haven't been reading him regularly, go over now before his posts are all gone.

Drug War Rant reports that with just a few days until marijuana is downgraded from class B to class C in England, the attempts to scare people are getting silly.

Venezuela is moving to decriminalize marijuana.

Atrios finds some apparent plagerism in Bush's SOTU.

Matt Yglesias on SOTU:

What's the deal with this anti-drug stuff? I honestly don't have a problem with the idea that Dubya snorted a little coke in his youth, some of the finest people I know did the same, but isn't it a bit hypocritical for him to rag on like that about the evils of drugs? And also this business about abstinence. I can't believe I saw Democrats applauding that garbage. I'm going to go way out on a limb here and say that, personally speaking, I think sex is fun, and I'm guessing most members of congress (both parties!) feel the same way about it. Within or without the bonds of marriage.

Liberal Oasis on The Yawn of the Union.

Cursor has a terrific wrap-up of coverage on SOTU.

MadKane has her first interactive SOTU crossword puzzle.

Katherine of Obsidian Wings has put together a 16 part series on Maher Arar.

Skippy finds ShoptodropBush--commissions from every purchase go to MoveOn.

There's so much more great stuff going on around the bloggerhood this week. The blogrolls on the right side of TalkLeft are a great source of information and inspiration and we recommend them highly.

As for us, we'll be on Kobe duty today, you can catch us on CNN with Paula Zahn (8 pm ET) Thursday night.

Update: The New York Times has this article on googlebombing and "miserable failure", mentioning both The Horse and TalkLeft.

Canadian Maher Arar will file his lawsuit today against Attorney General John Ashcroft. Arar was seized at JFK while changing planes and ordered deported to Syria, where he was imprisoned for a year, during which he says he was tortured.

The suit will be filed in federal court in the Eastern District of New York, where JFK airport is located. The American Centre for Constitutional Rights has said it will oversee the lawsuit.

The Justice Department has previously said it received assurances from Syria that Mr. Arar would not be tortured.

In what the Canadian press is calling tactics resembling a police state, the RCMP, armed with a search warrant, spent 8 hours searching a reporter's home, trying to find the source of leaked information in the Maher Arar case that appeared in one of the reporter's articles on the case:

Police were seeking the source of an alleged information leak stemming from a Nov. 8 story O'Neill wrote on Arar, an Ottawa telecommunications engineer who became entangled in the war against terrorism. Arar, a Canadian citizen who hails from Syria, was deported to the country of his birth by U.S. authorities after being stopped in New York in 2002.

O'Neill's article cited "a security source" and a leaked document offering minute details of what Arar allegedly told Syrian military intelligence officials during his incarceration. Following his release last fall, Arar said he was tortured for months by Syrian authorities who pressed him about any links to the Al Qaeda terrorist network.

O'Neill reported that Arar told the Syrians he attended an Al Qaeda training camp in Afghanistan in 1993. Arar later insisted he only made a bogus confession under torture, and denied any involvement in terrorism. He has also called for a full public inquiry into what role Canadian police and intelligence officials might have played in his deportation. The federal government has so far rejected those calls.

The military lawyer appointed to represent Australian David Hicks at Guantanamo slams the tribunal rules and says they don't allow for a fair trial.

Maj. Michael Mori, who in November was assigned to be the military attorney for David Hicks -- an Australian held at the U.S. military prison in Cuba -- said the system set up by the Pentagon for trials of non-U.S. citizens captured during what U.S. officials call the war on terror was unfair.

"The military commissions will not provide a full and fair trial," Mori told a news conference. "The commission process has been created and controlled by those with a vested interest only in convictions.... Using the commission process just creates an unfair system that threatens to convict the innocent and provides the guilty a justifiable complaint as to their convictions."

Among the problems with the tribunal rules are these:

... the Pentagon can monitor communications between prisoners and their lawyers, and there is no independent judicial review process. Appeals go only to a special military review panel named by the Pentagon, to the secretary of defense or the president.

Mori said the most "striking injustice" of the system was that commission members, who take the place of an independent judge, do not have the authority to decide issues that could end up in the dismissal of a charge. ... There is no valid reason to create a new justice system only for non-U.S. citizens," he said.

The limitations on defense counsel contained in the tribunal rules --and the denial of due process, attorney-client confidentiality and privilege -- make it impossible for lawyers to provide adequate or ethical representation. By requiring lawyers to agree to the tribunal rules, the lawyer has to contract away his or her client’s rights, including the right to zealous advocacy.

John Kerry is on a roll. Fox News television is reporting that he raised over 1/2 million dollars in the past three days, picking up over 40 of Gephardt's supporters. His crowds have been standing room only. He has front runner status. We just saw his wife on the debut of Deborah Norville Tonight on MSNBC. Very low-key. She was complimentary to Judy Dean and Joe Lieberman.

The question on the news analysts' tongues tonight is will a Dean defeat in New Hampshire mean Dean is done?

Lieberman is reportedly promising to stay on no matter how he does in New Hampshire. We think he should take the high road like Gephardt and withdraw if he doesn't do well in New Hampshire.

In other campaign news, CNN reports that it has gotten its hands on a memo from the John Edwards campaign that tells volunteers how to slam his Democratic rivals.

This is for real. We hope the Boston folks fight hard:

Some Bostonians are up in arms over a Homeland Security Department plan to hold foreigners under arrest in a new office building in historic Charlestown, the neighborhood that saw the first major fighting of the American Revolution. The federal government has signed a 10-year lease with developers in the section of Boston that is the site of the Bunker Hill Monument and the home of the USS Constitution and was the starting point for Paul Revere's ride.

"I think not only is there an irony, but there's a tragedy," said Abhijit Das, a 31-year-old lawyer who lives in a condominium near the building. He and his neighbors have raised $22,000 and hired lawyers and media advisers to fight the project. They say developers promised the building would be filled with stores and office space - not holding rooms for people awaiting deportation.

At least there's some strong opposition:

Opponents, including some city officials, have asked why the government decided to use office building that was not designed for high security. Federal officials said it was the only building to put in a bid. Mayor Thomas M. Menino said the Homeland Security facility does not belong in this neighborhood. The Boston Redevelopment Authority said it would violate zoning laws.

In the Crimes 'R Us* department:

Scott Peterson has a new trial judge.

Martha Stewart's jury pool is diverse.

Kobe Bryant's hearing Friday on the accuser's medical records is closed to the public. (pdf.)

Three medical groups are backing Rush Limbaugh's claim to privacy in his medical records.

Michael Jackson's accuser reportedly is ailing.

• Crimes 'R Us is an old website of our's that we don't keep as current as we'd like. But sometimes, the name just fits, as in this post.

We love The Horse. Go read the whole thing:

CBS: "BUSH APPROVAL SINKING"

BUSH APPROVAL LOWEST SINCE STEALING OFFICE DISAPPROVAL HIGHEST SINCE STEALING OFFICE

MAJORITY SAYS BUSH'S WAR NOT WORTH THE RISKS

SADDAM CAPTURE FAILING TO HELP FAILURE

AMERICANS THINK BUSH IMMIGRATION, SPACE "INITIATIVES" INSANE

57% SAY THINGS WORSE NOW THAN BEFORE BUSH SUCCESSFULLY PETITIONED SCALIA FIVE TO CRUSH BALLOT COUNT AND INSTALL HIM INTO PEOPLE'S WHITE HOUSE

[comments now closed, there are 127, we usually limit to 100.]

This article in Tuesday's Miami Herald paints a portrait of wrongly accused cops set free by a Perry Mason moment in which a witness admits committing perjury.

Not so fast, says Univ. of Miami law prof Michael Froomkin in Heartwarming Story of Crooked, Violent Cops and the Strangely Unnecessary Perjury that Got Them Off Charges for Burning and Beating a Frequent Felon.

Seems the perjury related to an incident two days before the cops beat and burned the victim, an unsympathetic career criminal.

Given that the core accusations against the cops were that they beat and burned the guy after they had him handcuffed and helpless, what possible difference can it make whether he threw a rock two days earlier? Or even if he, say, had killed a large number people?

Some vindication.

Update: You can read a transcript of the testimony here. (pdf)

In response to President Bush's State of the Union Address, the ACLU Tuesday night issued a statement on the Patriot Act: Fix it, Don't Extend it.

Reflecting deep public discontent with anti-terrorism legislation adopted in the weeks after 9/11, the American Civil Liberties Union tonight urged Congress to reject President Bush's request that Congress make permanent controversial provisions of the USA Patriot Act.

"In his State of the Union address, President Bush once again preyed on Americans' fears and insecurities to justify extending the controversial USA Patriot Act," said Anthony D. Romero, ACLU Executive Director.

"The sunset provisions of the Patriot Act that President Bush now wishes to override were designed to give Congress an opportunity in 2005 to see if the law was keeping America both safe and free," Romero said. "Amidst mounting criticism of the Act from Republicans and Democrats alike, Congress must not abdicate its responsibility and cave in to the President once again."

"While much of the Patriot Act is neutral legislation for civil liberties, it contains about a dozen provisions that simply go too far," Romero added. "These dangerous provisions increase the chances that innocent Americans will be swept into terrorism investigations by removing traditional checks and balances on law enforcement and oversight powers from the judiciary."

The families of British residents detained at Guantanamo plan to take their fight to the US--with the help of the ACLU:

Politicians, campaigners and lawyers joined relatives of the prisoners to launch the Guantanamo Human Rights Commission at the House of Commons. A delegation will travel to Washington in March to lobby politicians and raise awareness of the detainees' plight with the backing of the American Civil Liberties Union.

There are 9 Briton and 3 British residents among the 660 detainees at Camp Delta. Another 11 are from a variety of European countries, including France, Sweden and Germany.

We also want to keep mentioning that there are three 13 to 15 year olds being held at the camp, as well as an unknown number of 16 to 18 year olds.

Bump and Update: The Washington Post has the latest.

***********
Original Post 1/18 9:00 pm

Newsweek's Michael Isikoff and Daniel Klaidman write of the FBI's new theory on the identity of the 20th hijacker and how he got away. He is a Saudi named al-Qahtani, who in late August, 2001 was turned away trying to enter the U.S. in Orlando. The FBI now thinks he was to be the 20th hijacker on United Airlines Flight 93, which crashed Pennsylvania on 9/11.

9/11 ringleader Muhammad Atta was at the Orlando airport that same day and made a call on a pay phone to a Mideastern country—apparently concerned that his guest hadn't gotten off the airplane. A surveillance camera captured Atta making the call. Months later, a Saudi by the same name—al-Qahtani—was captured by U.S. troops in Afghanistan and flown to Guantanamo Bay, Cuba, where investigators later ID'd him as the man in Orlando.

....The Feds once thought [Zacarias] Moussaoui was the 20th hijacker—a theory they quietly abandoned last year when they concluded al-Qahtani was more likely the real one.