Law Professor Glenn Reynolds (aka Instapundit) shines today in his MSNBC column about terror cases involving Americans at home. Bottom Line: We can't trust the Justice Department when they cloak their work in secrecy.

Reynolds notes that the Buffalo Six (Lackawanna) pleas may be tainted by their lawyers' comments that the pleas came about only after the Government threatened to move them out of federal court and have them held as enemy combatants.

Reynolds talks about the case of U.S. citizen Mike Hawash, a married, father of two, computer tech guy being held on a material witness warrant in solitary confinement in a federal prison in Oregon, although he has not been charged with a crime. Reynolds says, "It’s not right to hold American citizens without charges."

Here is the transcript of 'A Chill Wind is Blowing in This Nation...' , the speech given by actor Tim Robbins to the National Press Club in Washington, D.C., on April 15, 2003. Read the whole thing, it's really good.

Coalition of Arizonans to Abolish the Death Penalty has unveiled a poster of Jesus Christ's crucifixion to oppose the death penalty. The poster will be displayed in churches, particularly during Easter week.

[The poster] depicts Jesus Christ's crucifixion as an example of how innocent people are executed in imperfect justice systems.

....The first church to display the banner, which shows the crucifixion with the words "Executions Have Always Been Wrong," is Trinity Missionary Baptist Church, 1402 N. El Rio Drive. "I felt safe putting it up there," said the Rev. Elwood McDowell, "because I know how the congregation feels about the issue."

Because these are the days preceding Easter, called Holy Week, the CAADP chose to unveil the poster Monday. This raises a theological question, because Christians believe Jesus died to save humanity.

"The intended message is that it's just unconscionable that we could execute people in a very fallible criminal justice system that makes mistakes," McDowell said. "And I don't understand how we can get a perfect system.

"And I hope that it makes people feel since he forgave his executioners, those of us who have been victimized, as painful and as horrible as it is, we can still find a way to forgive."

You can view the poster by clicking on the link to the article.

Here is the text of Justice Stephen Bryer's speech last week on Liberty, Security and the Courts. Among the issues he believes the Court likely will face:

The detainee cases may ask the courts to decide, among other things: What law applies to the detainees in Cuba? What rights or guarantees does the applicable law grant them? Have those rights been respected? Are the restrictions imposed upon the two American citizens detained in military prisons consistent with basic Constitutional guarantees? What rights, if any, does the Constitution offer foreigners illegally present in the United States? What are the rights of material witnesses? In particular, to what extent and in what circumstances do ordinary courts lack jurisdictional competence to decide these questions?

Breyer is emphatic that the Courts will not shy from these issues and that detainees have the right to ask that they be determined.

But as you understand, answers will be forthcoming. Our judicial system is open. An individual detainee, or a "next friend" if that detainee lacks immediate access to a court, can file a court complaint. The complaint can ask the judge for relief, say freedom from detention, access to counsel, or an amelioration of detention conditions. The court will respond, yes or no, grant or deny. And the losing party can appeal -- eventually to our Court. Indeed, a party concerned with delay can move for a speedy response and can seek review of an adverse ruling. And, if the government claims that the court lacks jurisdiction to decide a particular matter, the court, not the government, will decide if that is so, with the result in a lower court being subject to appeal.

Breyer goes on to note:

ODE TO THE BAGHDAD MUSEUM
by Joe Gallagher, a former columnist for the Los Angeles Downtown News and political writer for the Los Angeles City Watch Newsletter.

Along the Tigris and Euphrates’ verdant, fertile banks the world first cities started, and in order to give thanks
their people carved in sandstone, ivory and gold
the gods that brought them harvests of the crops they bought and sold

A harp of gold from Sumer, and Hammurabi’s code
that first spoke of rules to guide our lives from youth until we’re old
The final books of Gilgamesh, that first heroic tale
All these things and so many more were accumulated there

No kingdom lasts forever, no walls are tall enough
To the victor goes the spoils, and the fallen then must trust
that their heritage of expression is not trampled into dust

The BBC reports that the U.S. has changed its position from yesterday and is now acknowledging that it shot and killed Iraqis in Mosul.

Brigadier-General Vince Brooks said US marines and special forces soldiers fired at demonstrators on Tuesday after they came under attack from people shooting guns and throwing rocks. "Fire was indeed delivered from coalition forces, it was lethal fire and some Iraqis were killed as a result, we think the number is in the order of seven and we think there were some wounded as well," he said.

We posted some of the witness' verision of events here.

The Bush Administration has launched a proposal to expand the national DNA database by requiring testing of juveniles and adults who have been arrested but not convicted of crimes. Presently, the national database includes only those convicted of crime.

Critics say that adding juvenile and arrestee profiles to the database threatens privacy by expanding the pool of samples beyond adult criminals. Although only digital DNA profiles would be linked to the FBI computer, the blood or saliva samples from which the DNA was drawn would be kept by state labs, they note. "It's only a matter of time before the government gets its hands on those DNA samples and starts playing around with our genetic codes," says Barry Steinhardt, privacy specialist for the American Civil Liberties Union's national office in New York City. "They say they don't want to do that, but not too long ago they were saying they'd only take DNA profiles from rapists and murderers and now they want juveniles ... We're not just on a slippery slope, we're halfway down it."

This is not just a law enforcement tool as the Administration suggests.

[Privacy advocates] note that researchers are identifying genetic markers for height, hair color and other features. They suspect that authorities soon will want to search DNA samples for such genetic markers.

This is a bad idea. We strongly oppose it. [link via Kevin ]

James Ujaama's mother tells why she stuck by him and how his guilty plea vindicates him.

More wrongdoing at the FBI lab has been revealed.

Last year when drug cops served a subpoena on Denver's Tattered Cover book store to learn which book a suspect had purchased, the store stood firm in its belief that a book purchaser has a First Amendment right of privacy in the books he buys and reads. They took the case to the Colorado Supreme Court and won. Even though they knew, as the public did not, that the book did not pertain to meth dealing. This was revealed yesterday, at a Denver Press Forum luncheon.

A book at the heart of a controversial drug case that went all the way to the Colorado Supreme Court isn't about drugs at all. It was a calligraphy book about how to draw Japanese characters.

For nearly two years, investigators in the North Metro Drug Task Force tried to obtain a receipt they thought was linked to two books they found in a mobile home that had been used as a methamphetamine lab.

But their attempt to obtain a receipt from the Tattered Cover bookstore led to a ground-breaking legal case in which the state's highest court upheld the store's right to protect its customer's privacy.

It was never about whether the cops were right or wrong. It was about privacy. Thank goodness there are still independent booksellers out there like Joyce Meskis, owner of the Tattered Cover. Patronize them.

From Ashcroft's New Ally by Chisum Lee in the Village Voice:

John Ascroft has a most unlikely ally in Charles Schumer, Democratic Senator from New York. The senator wants to give federal investigators wider latitude under the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act (FISA), which allows the most intrusive surveillance of suspected foreign spies and terrorists, and of individuals who may not be provably suspect themselves but can be linked to a suspect "foreign power" that currently may be as loosely defined as one other person. Schumer wants to redefine "foreign power" to mean the desired surveillance target alone, warning that someone could plot terrorism with no connection to anyone else. This change would obviate the need to make a link, removing one step from investigators' efforts to justify a FISA probe. In an indication of how seriously this change could jeopardize individual rights, the Kyl-Schumer bill would not apply to U.S. citizens or immigrants who are legal residents. Schumer conceded that there could be U.S. citizens who are single-handedly plotting terrorism and whom investigators might not nab without a FISA-like surveillance tool. But that risk cannot be helped, he said last week, as "every citizen has traditionally had greater rights than noncitizens."

Here is another article on the topic.

Update: Via Atrios we learn that Republican Rep. James Sensenbrenner, architect of the Amber Alert Bill, is resisting attempts to expand the Patriot Act --and eliminate the Sunset Provisions--he says the Administration has not been forthcoming enough about use of the Act to date. As Atrios says, "Give his office a call at (202) 225-5101 and let him know he's doing the right thing, particularly if he's you Rep."

The French newspaper Le Monde reports that the U.S. struck a deal with Maher Sufyan, the Commander of the Republican Guard, and gave him his freedom.

The commander of Republican Guard troops defending Baghdad struck a deal with US forces not to fight in exchange for his freedom, it was claimed yesterday. The French newspaper Le Monde said the commander, Maher Sufyan, reached an agreement with US forces in which he ordered his soldiers to surrender in exchange for his transfer by helicopter to an undisclosed safe haven.

Reportedly, a U.S. helicopter took Sufyan to an undisclosed location after he got his troops to lay down their arms.