In Iraq war news today,

U.S. troops blasted down the gates of homes, raising cries of women and children inside, and smashed in doors of workshops and junkyards in a massive raid Wednesday to hunt for pro-Saddam Hussein militants and stamp out the increasingly bold anti-U.S. resistance.

Meet your new boss, same as the old boss? (credit to The Who.)

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The federal judge in the trial of the Detroit terror suspects issued a rebuke to Attorney General John Ashcroft Tuesday:

A federal judge publicly admonished Attorney General John Ashcroft for statements that could have compromised defendants' rights to fair trials in a high-profile terrorism case, but denied a defense motion that the attorney general be forced to appear in court to justify his actions.

U.S. District Judge Gerald Rosen in Detroit, in an opinion released Tuesday, said Ashcroft had violated a court order regulating public statements in the nation's first major terror trial after Sept. 11.

Actually, Ashcroft suffered a double whammy Tuesday...the Federal Election Commission decided his unsuccessful 2000 Senate election campaign collected $110,000 in illegal contributions. The money was collected during a 1999 exploratory presidential bid. Can you imagine...Ashcroft as President?

Background on the Detroit case is here and here.

Via Liberal Oasis:

From last night's Diane Sawyer interview with Bush, as she pressed him on the Administration's earlier comments that Iraq definitely had WMD:

SAWYER: But stated as a hard fact, that there were weapons of mass destruction, as opposed to the possibility that he could move to acquire those weapons still --

BUSH: So what’s the difference?

Changing course from yesterday, President Bush now says Saddam deserves the "ultimate penalty" --death. We disagree. It's one of the reasons--the others being shortcomings in newly established the Iraqi Governing Council--that we prefer Saddam be tried in an International Criminal Tribunal, such as the one in Sierra Leone which combines local and global justice.

That's what we said on Hannity and Colmes tonight--in addition to panning torture for Saddam. Looks like the New York Times agrees with us, here's their editorial for Wednesday, Trying Saddam Hussein:

The Bush administration rightly endorses openness, Iraqi participation and international legal norms, but it has expressed a preference for a trial conducted by Iraqis. It should instead support an internationally sanctioned tribunal based on the model of the one in Sierra Leone, which uses a mix of local and international jurists.

We said it first! We'll post our comments when the transcript comes out tomorrow. Actually, we can't take all the credit, we got the idea here.

An internationally led tribunal would be a far better option, whether a fully international tribunalor, more likely, an internationally run tribunal with significant domestic participation, such as the special court set up for Sierra Leone. Because its personnel would be selected by the United Nations rather than by Washington's surrogates, an internationally led tribunal is more likely to be seen as legitimate. And because it can draw from a global pool of talent, it would be better able to secure the experienced and fair-minded jurists than a court that must look only to Iraqis. An internationally led tribunal could still conduct trials in Baghdad and involve Iraqis as much as possible, but it would be run by international jurists with proven records of overseeing complex prosecutions and scrupulously respecting international fair-trial standards.

Update: Death penalty for Saddam has critics.

In a major blow to the Justice Department, the 9th Circuit Court of Appeals today ruled that the federal drug crime statute does not apply to those simply using medical marijuana with a doctor's recommendation:

A federal appeals court ruled today that a law outlawing marijuana may not apply to sick people with a doctor's recommendation in states that have approved medical marijuana laws.

The 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals, ruling 2-1 in a rare late-afternoon filing, said prosecuting these medical marijuana users under a 1970 federal law is unconstitutional if the marijuana isn't sold, transported across state lines or used for non-medicinal purposes.

``The intrastate, noncommercial cultivation, possession and use of marijuana for personal medical purposes on the advice of a physician is, in fact, different in kind from drug trafficking,'' Judge Harry Pregerson wrote for the majority.
The court added that ``this limited use is clearly distinct from the broader illicit drug market, as well as any broader commercial market for medical marijuana, insofar as the medical marijuana at issue in this case is not intended for, nor does it enter, the stream of commerce.''

The case is Raich v. Ashcroft, 03-15481, the decision is here.

Update: Randy Barnett, a blogger over at Volokh, argued the case. Here's his description of the ruling....warning, it's in legalese:

Detained U.S. citizen Jose Padilla will not be allowed to meet with his lawyer any time soon. Unlike Yaser Hamdi, whom the Adminstration finally allowed to meet with counsel last week, senior Government officials say Padilla is talking and providing valuable information and they're not about to let a lawyer interefere with that.

The Vatican weighs in on the arrest of Saddam and its opposition to the death penalty:

A top Vatican cardinal said Tuesday he felt compassion for Saddam Hussein after seeing video pictures in which, the prelate claimed, American forces treated the captured Iraqi leader "like a beast."

In the first Vatican comment on Saddam's capture, Cardinal Renato Martino said Saddam should face trial, but he stressed the Church's opposition to the death penalty. He told reporters the Vatican hoped Saddam's arrest would "contribute to the pacification and the democratization of Iraq."

Martino said he felt "compassion" for Saddam, even if he was a dictator, after seeing images of "this destroyed man" being "treated like a beast, having his teeth checked" by an American military medic.

As we opined here, the playing and replaying of the medic's exam of Saddam was over the top- and downright offensive.

Alberto Ramos was wrongfully convicted of rape. He served seven years in jail, and was released eleven years ago. Today it will be announced that New York will pay him $5 million the largest such award in New York's history. The cause of the wrongful conviction was prosecutorial misconduct - the withholding of documents by the district attorney:

City child abuse investigators said that they had referred the Ramos case to the Bronx district attorney's office for prosecution even though they believed that Mr. Ramos was innocent and that the child's story was false.

Day care center officials said the child had a history of sexual behavior in the classroom. They testified that they not only told the trial prosecutor about evidence favoring Mr. Ramos but had also informed other prosecutors before Mr. Ramos was arrested. No prosecutor disclosed the information to the defense.

The settlement ends 18 years of litigation.

Alberto Ramos, 40, said that while in prison he endured beatings, was sodomized and tried to commit suicide several times. His conviction was overturned in 1992 when a judge found that the prosecutor had withheld evidence that could have resulted in an acquittal.

Mr. Ramos was one of five men convicted of sexually abusing children at three city-run day care centers in the Bronx during the mid-1980's. All of the convictions have since been reversed.

President Bush announced yesterday there will be no blanket amnesty for immigrants. Instead he supports a system that matches willing employers with willing employees. This represents no change from his previous positions.

The president's comments come a week after Homeland Security Secretary Tom Ridge expressed support for giving legal status to immigrants. In Miami, Mr. Ridge said: "The bottom line is, as a country we have to come to grips with the presence of 8 to 12 million illegals, afford them some kind of legal status some way, but also as a country decide what our immigration policy is and then enforce it."

The last time blanket amnesty was granted was 1986. Republicans view that program as a failure. Here are the current major Republican proposals:

Our congratulations to Wynona Ryder for earning the Judge's praise for her conduct on probation resulting from her shoplifting conviction:

Actress Winona Ryder was commended by a judge Monday for abiding by the rules of her probation in a shoplifting case. Ryder's lawyer, Shepard Kopp, said outside court that the judge plans to review the case later and consider reducing her felony convictions to misdemeanors.

"I want to compliment you on your behavior on probation," Superior Court Judge Elden Fox told the actress, who did not speak during the hearing. He said her probation report had been very positive. " And there's an indication that things are going well," he said. Fox ordered Ryder to return to court May 26 for a six-month review and said he would decide then if she needs continued probation supervision.

Ms. Ryder has completed 480 hours of community service at the City of Hope Medical Center in Duarte.

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Britain will not participate in a trial of Saddam if the death penalty is an option:

Washington's closest Iraq war ally Britain said Monday it would play no part in any trial of Saddam Hussein that might lead to his execution. But London -- which abolished capital punishment 40 years ago -- also made clear it would reluctantly accept death for the captured ex-dictator if that was what an Iraqi tribunal ruled.

"The United Kingdom is against the death penalty," Britain's senior envoy to Iraq Jeremy Greenstock said. "So we would have no part of a tribunal or a process that had the death penalty as one of its penalties."