Muno2 TV has been replaying episodes of the Colombian series Pablo Escobar: El Patron del Mal every weeknight at 8 and 11 pm. It's really good. It's in Spanish but has English subtitles. Andres Parras, the actor who plays Pablo Escobar really looks like him. (Many of the cast members resemble their real life role models, see pictures here.) You can also watch all 74 episodes online. It was produced in Colombia in 2012 by Caracoal TV and is fact-based -- but entertaining. It's not a documentary.

In real life, last week Hugo Aguilar, the former police commander led the operation that killed Pablo Escobar in 1993, was sentenced to 9 years in prison for accepting money from the paramilitary group AUC, United Self-Defence Forces of Colombia . Here's a picture of him with the Escobar's body.

This is an open thread, all topics (except Zimmerman) welcome.

Chelsea Manning, formerly known as Bradley Manning, is requesting hormone therapy during her incarceration. Here is her letter. After thanking her supporters, she writes:

As I transition into this next phase of my life, I want everyone to know the real me. I am Chelsea Manning. I am a female. Given the way that I feel, and have felt since childhood, I want to begin hormone therapy as soon as possible. I hope that you will support me in this transition. I also request that, starting today, you refer to me by my new name and use the feminine pronoun (except in official mail to the confinement facility). I look forward to receiving letters from supporters and having the opportunity to write back.

[More...]

In response to a FOIA lawsuit(document here) by the Electronic Frontier Foundation (EFF), the Government today agreed to release a FISA court opinion finding some parts of the NSA electronic surveillance program unconstitutional. For example, for a period of time, the NSA illegally collected domestic emails and internet communications of Americans.

The October, 2011 opinion by former FISA Court Chief Judge John Bates is here. A September, 2012 opinion by Judge Bates finding the issue sufficiently resolved is here. Spencer Ackerman and other reporters had a conference call with an intelligence official who gave an explanation of what happened and why. Here is the Guardian report on documents from Edward Snowden describing the loophole (also here.)

DNI Director James Clapper's letter explaining today's releases is here. The website DNI set up with links to released documents is here.
Other documents released today include: [More...]

Here's an open thread, all topics welcome. (Except Zimmerman.)

Bradley Manning was sentenced to 35 years today. The Government asked for 60. The maximum was 90. He will be eligible for parole after 1/3. He gets credit for the time already served. He also will get another 112 days of credit for the harsh conditions he endured during in the early days of his confinement.

In all, he received 1,294 days of credit, and will be eligible for parole in 8 /12 years.[More...]

A few documents were unsealed in the Dzhokhar Tsarnaev case, including the transcript of his advisement at the hospital two days after his capture. The trauma surgeon attending to him told the judge:

He has multiple gunshot wounds, the most severe of which appears to have entered through the left side inside of his mouth and exited the left face, lower 18 face. This was a high-powered injury that has resulted in 19 skull-base fracture, with injuries to the middle ear, the skull base, the lateral portion of his C1 vertebrae, with a 21 significant soft-tissue injury, as well as injury to the pharynx, the mouth, and a small vascular injury that's been treated. He has, in addition to this, some ophthalmologic injuries that have been treated.

He has multiple gunshots wounds to the extremities that have been treated with dressings to the lower extremities; and in the case of his left hand, he had multiple bony injuries as well that were treated with fixation and soft-tissue coverage, as well as tendon repair and vascular ligation.

He was questioned for two days before this hearing, without being advised of his right to counsel. He was also being administered Diluadid, a potent pain killer, every three hours.

A NY appeals court has ruled Fox News reporter Jana Winter can be compelled to testify in the James Holmes murder case in Colorado (background here). It did not rule she had to give up the law enforcement sources who leaked information to her -- that will be up to the Colorado judge to decide. NY has a more expansive reporters' shield law than Colorado. In Colorado, reporters have qualified, not absolute immunity.

You can read the opinion here. Two justices dissented, which means Winter can appeal to a higher NY court.

Via Shayana Khadidal, this excellent post by Jack of Kent, who appears to be a British attorney, regarding the detention of David Miranda at Heathrow Airport The gist:

What section 40(1)(b) says:

So schedule 7 provides a limited power to question and a limited power to detain. Both the powers to question and to detain are conditional on the purpose of whether a person falls within section 40(1)(b) of the 2000 Act.

So the next question is fundamental – what does section 40(1)(b) say?

Section 40(1)(b) is a definition clause, and it provides the following definition of “terrorist”:

a person who…is or has been concerned in the commission, preparation or instigation of acts of terrorism.

Section 40(1)(b) thereby is a limiting definition – the questioning (and any period of detention) under schedule 7 is for seeing if a person falls within this definition. Accordingly, any questioning (and any period of detention) which is not for this specified purpose is outside the scope of the provision. [Emphasis supplied.]

Atrios writes:

[I]t's not that I think everyone to "the left" of me is a posing emo-prog and everyone to "the right" of me is a posing o-bot. There are people genuinely to the left and to the right of me on policy, people who have different ideas about what our goals should be and how best to achieve those goals. And, you know, these people rarely piss me off. People disagree about stuff. People have different priorities. But there are also people who seem to enjoy judging your worth by how righteously you dislike or like the Obama administration. It's annoying.

When you write about politics, team jerseys are alwys a factor for everybody I think. The question is is it the only factor? Or the biggest factor?

I try to make it as small a factor as I can, but there is always the "big political picture" (GOP really sucks) right? And sometimes I get too caught up in it.

Speaking for me only

The Guardian has an interview with David Miranda describing his 9 hour detention.

The Guardian editor describes how he was pressured to destroy hard drives.

[O]ne of the more bizarre moments in the Guardian's long history occurred – with two GCHQ security experts overseeing the destruction of hard drives in the Guardian's basement just to make sure there was nothing in the mangled bits of metal which could possibly be of any interest to passing Chinese agents. "We can call off the black helicopters," joked one as we swept up the remains of a MacBook Pro.

The White House says it didn't request Miranda's detention, but the UK gave it a heads-up -- in other words, the U.S. knew of the detention plan before it occurred. [More...]

Update: The Indictment and 107 person witness list is here, courtesy of journalist Barry Batemen of Eyewitness News. The first charge is the unlawful and intentional killing of a person. (On page 2 the indictment says it doesn't matter if the person killed not the person one intends to kill. In other words, the state doesn't have to prove he intended to kill Reeva Steenkamp, only that he intended to kill someone.) The second charge is illegal possession of 38 rounds of ammunition at his home. [More...]

Update: Britain has an independent reviewer of its terror legislation, David Anderson QC. He investigates and prepares reports on the legislation for submission to Parliament. Here is his latest report on terror stops at airports.

****

David Miranda, the partner of journalist Glenn Greenwald, was detained and questioned for 9 hours at Heathrow today presumably for reasons related to Glenn's disclosure of the Edward Snowden documents. He is a Brazilian citizen who resides with Glenn in Brazil. He was detained under Schedule 7 of the 2000 Terrorism Act.

The law allows authorities to detain people at airports, border areas and ports for questioning in a terror-related investigation. Most interrogations last less than an hour, not 9. Also, police confiscated his "mobile phone, laptop, camera, memory sticks, DVDs and games consoles." There is no right to an attorney during questioning, and refusal to answer questions is a separate criminal offense.

Glenn writes in the Guardian that the detention will have the exact opposite effect of the one intended by the Government.[More...]: