This editorial in the Toronto Star, written in the wake of yesterday's bombings in Turkey, gets it right:

After 9/11 the main thing was to put Al Qaeda out of business. That didn't happen. Instead, Bush invested vast resources into hammering Saddam Hussein's regime, which, while criminally brutal, was not a terrorist threat. Terror had not taken root in Iraq, before the invasion. It has now.

Meanwhile, bin Laden remains free to preach murder, and to bankroll it as his adherents stage a deadly comeback. Yet Bush is poorly placed to counter the threat to America and its allies, so bogged down is he in Iraq.

This is tragic. Bush has no priority more important than running bin Laden to ground and putting his crew out of business. It's past time to refocus the war on terror.

Bush, it appears, still does not get it:

A senior U.S. general said on Friday that al Qaeda mastermind Osama bin Laden had "taken himself out of the picture" and that his capture was not essential to winning the "war on terror."

Some good news....a U.S. envoy speaking in Spain said that 24 detainees are scheduled for release from Guantanamo in the next few weeks.

Pierre-Richard Prosper, the U.S ambassador-at-large for war crimes, said several dozen other prisoners will be transferred to the custody of authorities in their native countries.

More than 600 prisoners are being held incommunicado at the U.S. naval base in Cuba, accused of links to al-Qaida or the former Taliban regime in Afghanistan. Some 60 former suspects have been freed and sent home.

"We expect to see almost two dozen individuals released in the coming weeks who no longer pose a threat to the international community," Prosper told a news conference at the U.S. Embassy in Madrid.

The latest Texecution news: A state court judge in Texas has given the green light to the execution of James Lee Clark who is mildly retarded:

The Texas Court of Criminal Appeals stayed James Lee Clark's execution in November 2002 days before he was scheduled to die. They wanted a judge to review claims by Clark's attorneys that he is mentally retarded. A Supreme Court ruling [ Atkins v. Virginia ] bars the execution of mentally retarded inmates.

District Judge Lee Gabriel ruled Thursday if Clark is mildly retarded, he is not so impaired that he can be exempted from the death penalty.

[link via Paper Chase]

Don't miss " Jails for Jesus" in the November/December issue of Mother Jones:

President Bush wants faith-based programs to take over social services. But what happens when evangelical Christians try their hand at running prisons?

....Aided by friends in high places -- such as the White House -- legislators in Kansas, Iowa, Texas, and Minnesota have, in the last six years, turned over portions of their prisons, and corrections budgets, to the politically powerful evangelical Christian group, Prison Fellowship Ministries.

....The largest prison ministry in the world, PFM sends more than 50,000 volunteers into prisons in every state with the goal of "declaring the good news of Jesus Christ to those impacted by crime." The Ministries' "Angel Tree" program has presented more than 4 million children of inmates with Christmas presents and evangelistic materials. The goal is clear....

The New York Times reports that 33 Years Later, Draft Becomes Topic for Dean.

Dean got a medical deferment for back problems in 1970, at the height of the Vietnam war. He says he probably could have served but was happy with the deferment. His back didn't bother him enough to keep him from moving to Aspen to ski for a few years.

Kerry and Clark may try and get some play out of this but we think its a non-issue. Dean is anti-war now, just as he (hopefully) was anti-war in 1970. To us the issue is consistency of beliefs and actions.

Everyone we knew in 1970 tried to get a deferment. Everyone we knew then opposed the war in Vietnam. Everyone we know now opposes the war in Iraq. Ok, so we have a small circle of friends, but we're all consistent and true to our beliefs.

The same can't be said for the current President who dodged active service in the war (and who, according to many sources, went awol from the National Guard by failing to report , and now, because it suits his imperial purposes, has morphed into a hawk of the first order.

An anonymous U.S. army official today said that the Army is planning to have 100,000 GI's in Iraq until 2006. The article also reports that

Teams of Army Special Forces are now training Iraqis in an accelerated program to fill out the ranks of a civil defense corps, the equivalent of a militia.

In the "Doctor, My Eyes" department.....Laura Bush didn't see what everyone else saw yesterday. Check out her description of the London protesters.

President and Mrs. Bush left England today from the small rural town of Sedgewick, which is Tony Blair's home town. A few hundred of the town's five thousand residents turned out at the village green to protest. We wonder if Mrs. Bush missed them too.

Knights-Ridder reports:

The president's three-day state visit to Great Britain and the war in Iraq sent more than 100,000 protesters to the London streets Thursday. His visit Friday to Sedgefield, 250 miles north of London, spurred about 300 demonstrators to line the route between Blair's house and the Dun Cow Inn, a pub where Bush and Blair lunched along with their wives.

Some demonstrators near the pub chanted "Bush go home." Others along the route to the pub held signs that read "Bush is Not Very Nice" and "Mad Cowboy Disease." The road also was lined with supporters waving American flags and signs welcoming Bush.

The pub's main room was packed, with about 50 people seated at a half-dozen tables, when the Bushes and the Blairs arrived to nosh on leek and potato soup, fish and chips, mushy peas, and lemon creme brulee. "Hey there," Bush repeatedly said as he encountered pub patrons, "thank you for having us. We're thrilled to be here."

Breaking with the official White House position, Pentagon official Richard Perle yesterday acknowledged that the U.S. invasion of Iraq was illegal.

In a startling break with the official White House and Downing Street lines, Mr Perle told an audience in London: "I think in this case international law stood in the way of doing the right thing."

....Mr Perle, a key member of the defence policy board, which advises the US defence secretary, Donald Rumsfeld, said that "international law ... would have required us to leave Saddam Hussein alone", and this would have been morally unacceptable.

....Mr Perle's view is not the official one put forward by the White House. Its main argument has been that the invasion was justified under the UN charter, which guarantees the right of each state to self-defence, including pre-emptive self-defence. On the night bombing began, in March, Mr Bush reiterated America's "sovereign authority to use force" to defeat the threat from Baghdad.

Howard Dean's lead has taken a big leap forward in an new poll released today. He's 21 points ahead of John Kerry. Two weeks ago his lead on Kerry was 14 points. Wesley Clark moved up three points.

Dean stayed the same with 38 percent in the American Research Group telephone poll, while Kerry dropped 7 points to 17 percent. Retired Gen. Wesley Clark had 7 percent, up from 4 percent two weeks earlier.

Next was Sen. Joe Lieberman, 5 percent; Sen. John Edwards and Rep. Dick Gephardt, 4 percent each; Rep. Dennis Kucinich, 3 percent; and former Ambassador Carol Moseley Braun, 1 percent. Minister Al Sharpton had less than 1 percent, and 21 percent were undecided, unchanged from two weeks earlier.

MSNBC reports that Iowa is still up for grabs. The race appears to be down to Dean and Gephardt in that state.

This really makes us mad. Gloria Allred has no business in this case. Yet she filed a complaint with child welfare services today asking them to remove Michael Jackson's kids from his home. Doesn't she have enough publicity with her representation of Amber Frey in the Scott Peterson case to sastify her? Is she jealous that Mark Geragos is getting more media time than she is? Gloria, give it a rest. It's none of your business.

Allred has announced she's filed a complaint with the child welfare services in Santa Barbara, seeking an investigation of Jackson. She says that's warranted because of Jackson's previous statements about sleepovers with children, previous sex abuse allegations and an incident in which he dangled his infant son from a window.

Update: Jackson family attorney Brian Oxman responds to Allred's action:

"It is outrageous that she should seek such media attention for her own aggrandizement. She is attacking Michael for her own benefit," Oxman said.

Zacarias Moussaoui's redacted brief in the 4th Circuit Court of Appeals is now available online here. Oral arguments are set for Dec. 3. Moussaoui says the testimony of three government witnesses could save his life.

Terrorism defendant Zacarias Moussaoui needs access to three al-Qaida prisoners to prove he was not part of the Sept. 11 conspiracy and to spare his life, his lawyers said Friday. With the government seeking the death penalty, the three witnesses could demonstrate that Moussaoui was, at most, a bit player in the conspiracy, the defense team told an appellate court in a written filing.

Oral arguments are December 3. At issue is whether Moussaoui will be given access to Ramzi Binalshibh, Khalid Shaikh Mohammed and one other prisoner. The trial judge ordered the government to make the witnesses available to Moussaoui and the Government has appealed.

The defense motion accused the government of ignoring the Sixth Amendment, which guarantees defendants information that might exonerate them; and the Eighth Amendment, which provides protection against cruel and unusual punishment in this case, the death penalty. "No matter how well the government dresses up its arguments, the truth is that it seeks absolute power to withhold material, exculpatory witnesses in a death penalty case without suffering sanctions," the filing said.

But even if the government wins the argument over witness access, "the Eighth Amendment cannot tolerate a death sentence where the government has control over, but will not produce, witnesses" whose testimony could aid Moussaoui, the lawyers said.

The jurors in the trial of John Muhammad sent out a note today asking the Judge what happens if they are divided. This is a good sign, because all it takes is one juror to vote for life to defeat the death penalty.

The jury has retired for the weekend. You can access the jury instructions and verdict forms here.