John D. Altenburg, Jr., a retired two-star general, has been chosen to oversee the Guantanamo military tribunals. He will also be responsible for approving charges.

President Bush has designated six detainees for military tribunals, including Australian David Hicks and Salim Ahmed Hamdan of Yemen. Altenburg will make the final decision on bringing charges and holding trials. Altenburg retired in 2002. He was then an assistant judge advocate general for the Department of the Army.

One of the most unfair aspects of the tribunals is that there is no federal court review. Bush today named a review panel to hear tribunal appeals. The members will serve for two years and be commissioned as Army major generals. They are:

• Griffin B. Bell, the former U.S. attorney general in the Carter administration and former U.S. circuit judge for the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Fifth Circuit. Griffin currently is a partner at the law firm of King & Spalding.

• Edward G. Biester, who has served since 1980 as judge of the Court of Common Pleas of Bucks County, Pa., Seventh Judicial District. He was Pennsylvania attorney general from 1979 to 1980 and served as a member of the U.S. House of Representatives from 1967 to 1977.

• William T. Coleman, Jr., a senior partner and the senior counselor in the law firm of O'Melveny & Myers. He was U.S. secretary of transportation from 1975 to 1977 in the Ford administration.

• Frank Williams, chief justice of the Rhode Island Supreme Court. He served as a captain in the Army during the Vietnam War.

Also released today was Military Commission Instruction No. 9 (pdf), which spells out the rules for the tribunals. Apparently, all steps are now in place for them to begin. The military's website on the tribunals is here.

Attorney General John Ashcroft has recused himself from the Valerie Plame investigation. The investigation concerns leaks by White House officials of the identity of CIA undercover operative Valerie Plame. Background on the investigation is available here.

It's important to note that the Justice Department will still be in charge of the investigation. The lead prosecutor will be U.S. Attorney Patrick J. Fitzgerald in Chicago. He will report to Deputy Attorney General James Comey.

No reason was given for Ashcroft's recusal--only that it is to avoid the appearance of impropriety. While Comey promises a full and independent investigation, we'll hold off on the celebration until we see if that indeed is what we get.

We think the investigators already know who the culprit is. It may be someone who is close to Ashcroft. A cynic would say that by having Ashcroft recuse himself, the Administration can try and claim he had nothing to do with any future determination not to bring criminal charges against the official on the grounds that the Justice Department doesn't believe it can prove the case beyond a reasonable doubt.

So, which of the White House officials are Ashcroft buddies?

Update: Our prior thoughts on James Comey and his appointment to replace former Deputy Attorney General Larry Thompson are here.

Update: To our surprise, Joe Lieberman makes a good comment:

A former prosecutor outside the Justice Department should have been chosen to lead an independent investigation, the Connecticut senator said. "The public will not likely trust the results of an investigation headed by a political appointee, especially when the special counsel is constrained by Department of Justice regulations that severely curtail the prosecutor's autonomy," Lieberman said.

Update: Here is the text of Comey's remarks and the q and a session following the announcement.

It takes a lot of fortitude for the family member of a murder victim to oppose the death penalty. Here's one mother's letter, published in the Boston Globe:

Change of heart on death penalty
Letter to Editor: Boston Globe

12/28/2003

HAVING LOST my 19-year-old son Brian to a brutal murder in 1989, I know the hate, rage, and need for revenge victims' families can feel (''Death for Sampson,'' Page A1, Dec. 24).

But in the past 12 years I have changed my mind about the death penalty. I know that if my son's murderer had been put to death, it would not have eased my pain, nor would it have brought closure.

It certainly would not have brought Brian back. No one has the right to take a life, and that means the state.

Spending the rest of one's life in prison is a more suitable punishment. I would not want anyone put to death in Brian's name. I want only positive things to happen in his name, such as the memorial award we give out each year.

And I would rather dwell on the wonderful memories we have of Brian and not on someone's being put to death for his murder.

PHYLLIS HOTCHKISS
Saugus

This story ran on page D10 of the Boston Globe on 12/28/2003. Murder Victims Families for Reconciliation is a group comprised of many such family members. We hope their message spreads.

The Boulder Daily Camera has a good editorial on the death penalty today. It notes three growing trends in the country:

• Executions were fewer in number.
• Capital punishment was confined more narrowly to one region.
• The integrity of the death-penalty system was challenged by elected officials in a position to do something about it.

Conclusion:

That's progress — one year of progress toward the day when Americans decide at last to abolish the death penalty.

[Thanks to George W. Brooks, J.D., Director of Advocacy, Kolbe House, Chicago, who every morning emails us the day's leading articles on the death penalty. We don't thank him often enough.]

A blogger named Michael Douglas, MD has a blog called Dr. Pundit where he verbatim reprints the work of other bloggers (like us) without linking to the original blogger's work. He sometimes mentions where he gets it, but with no link, what good is that? Other times, he's wrong about where he found the work. In all cases, he reprints the original work under his own logo. We're angry about it and have been telling him so, but no response.

Go send him emails and tell him what he's doing isn't right. His email address is
**** (Ed. deleted, see update below)

Update: We heard back from Dr. Pundit. He has apologized and will refrain in the future from reprinting our material without linking to us. It was an oversight by some of his staff who are new to the world of blogging. His apology is graciously accepted.

From Colonel David Hackworth:

So far somewhere between 14,000 and 22,000 soldiers, sailors, airmen and Marines have been medically evacuated from Iraq to the USA. So at the end of this turbulent year, we must ask ourselves: Was the price our warriors paid in blood worth the outcome? Are we any safer than before our pre-emptive invasion?

Even though Saddam is in the slammer and the fourth-largest army in the world is junkyard scrap, Christmas 2003 was resolutely Orange, and 2004 looks like more of the same. Or worse.

Our first New Year's resolution should be to find out if the stated reasons for our pre-emptive strike Iraq's purported weapons of mass destruction and Saddam's connection with al-Qaeda constituted a real threat to our national security. Because, contrary to public opinion, the present administration hasn't yet made the case that Saddam and his sadists aided and abetted al-Qaeda's attacks on 9/11. We also need to know why our $30 billion-a-year intelligence agencies didn't read the tea leaves correctly, as well as what's being done besides upgrading the color code to prevent other similar strikes. [hat tip to Kevin Hayden]

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The Santa Barbara County Sheriff will respond to Michael Jackson's allegations that he was bruised and mistreated during his surrender to the police at a news conference tomorrow. Jackson showed the bruise on his inner arm during his 60 Minutes interview. It was in the spot that handcuffs would have been. Jackson said the cuffs were so tight that his shoulder became dislocated and he hasn't been able to sleep at night.

We'll be discussing the news conference on Fox News tomorrow around 12:50 pm ET (time always approximate.)

In other Jackson news today, the Nation of Islam said it has no official professional or business relationship with him.

A national poll shows the man and woman most admired by Americans are President Bush and Sen. Hillary Clinton. Mrs. Bush was third on the list of most admired women, while Oprah was second.

Where was Jeb? Thankfully, he didn't make the list.

Legal experts point out Saddam's options with respect to a trial. The first step most likely will be to challenge the authority of whichever body it is that seeks to put him on trial. None of the professors interviewed are optimistic about Saddam's future. But, they point out,

Saddam has nothing to lose by putting on a vigorous defense. He's not likely to win his freedom, but he could save his life.

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One place we're glad we are not going to be on New Year's Eve is New York City. Their security precautions, even if necessary, make it sound more like a prelude to Soylent Green than a festive occasion. From the news article:

As part of the measures, low-flying planes and helicopters will be banned from the area, manhole covers will be welded shut, and garbage cans, newspaper vending machines and mailboxes will be removed from street corners, a police official said. Snipers will be posted on rooftops, heavily armed groups of officers known as Hercules Teams will patrol the area along with thousands of uniformed officers, and hundreds of plainclothes officers will mix with the crowd, officials said.

The police will draw a tight perimeter around the city, with increased truck checkpoints and stepped-up Harbor Unit patrols on waterways. In addition to the Homeland Security air patrols, the Police Department's eight helicopters will be in the air, including a sophisticated new one with a powerful video camera that can give commanders on the ground an eye in the sky, officials said.

The police will use Sanitation Department sand trucks and other vehicles to block off side streets around Times Square. And a special National Guard civil support team, trained to respond to attacks by chemical, biological and radiological weapons, will be in the area, officials said.

Alleged dirty NY drug cops are allegedly cooperating with Internal Affairs after being suspected of stealing money from drug dealers. We don't know about these two cops, but we have plenty of clients who say drug cops stole their money--either outright or by claiming less was taken. It's real hard to prove. So it's real important to publicize it when it comes to light.

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The military is getting very concerned about the army suicide rate:

Since the U.S.-led coalition invaded Iraq last spring, 18 soldiers and two Marines have committed suicide, most of them after major combat was declared over May 1, the military said.

The Army is concerned about the deaths. Outside experts have said the rate is alarmingly high compared with the military's average suicide rates. A report by a 12-member team of military and civilian mental health professionals dispatched to Iraq in October to evaluate mental health of soldiers is expected to be released after the holidays, officials said.