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.

The Government springs another theory about what Zacarias Moussaoui was up to with Al Qaeda before September 11th. First, he was the "20th hijacker." Even Dick Cheney said so. Then he was to be a last resort in case something went wrong. Then he was supposed to be on a different mission, perhaps involving crop dusting planes.

Now, according to documents just unsealed, the Government has a new theory that Moussaoui was to pilot a 5th plane and crash it into the White House.

We think the Government is grasping at straws. Or playing us, the public, like a focus group--floating propositions of guilt and trying to see which one seems to catch on.

If there is one thing Moussaoui doesn't strike us as, it's a suicide bomber. He is fighting more to save his life than any other terrorism defendant we can think of. He speaks for himself, writes his own pleadings, attacks the Government and his own lawyers, and he won't cooperate or back down. He's a fighter. To the end. Are we really expected to believe that this man would fly an airplane on a suicide mission? No dice.

The Government said in court papers Monday it would keep Moussaoui's case in federal court. Today, the Fourth Circuit told the parties to work out a compromise on Moussaoui's judicially authorized interview of Ramzi Binalshibh. And now we learn the Government is considering switching theories for at least the third time.

Could it be the Government cannot figure out what Moussaoui's role was? Or is it tailoring the facts and its theory to fit within the charged conspiracy so it can get a conviction and death verdict against Moussaoui?

A federal judge today denied bail for Katrina Leung, accused of passing FBI secrets to the Chinese Government. The Judge determined that Leung posed a risk of flight, based upon her extensive foreign assets.

The defense argued that the FBI set Leung up, purposefully providing her with information to pass on to the Chinese. Two FBI agents have admitted long term affairs with Leung, who has been a respectable Los Angeles businesswoman and Republican Activist.

One of the two FBI agents romantically involved with Leung, James J. Smith, was supposed to be her "handler." Smith has been charged with "gross negligence in handling documents related to the national defense." He was released on $250,000. bail.

Leung is charged with "unauthorized copying of national defense information with the intent to injure the United States or benefit a foreign nation." Over the course of the past twenty years, the FBI paid Leung $1.7 million in fees and expenses. She took 71 overseas trips, mostly funded by the FBI.

The judge was not overly impressed with the Government's case.

The judge said the documents she is accused of passing to the Chinese government appear to be "innocuous" and "viewed alone the offense itself does not provide a substantial reason to flee." He said that the maximum sentence that Leung could draw on the current charges is 10 years in prison.

Leung offered to post $3 million in real estate to secure her bond. The Judge refused to accept her proposal, saying that sufficient details about her assets had not yet been revealed.

Leung's husband and other relatives appeared in court and volunteered to post their own property for her bond. Leung has a young son and substantial ties to the community. She knew about the investigation into her affairs since December and did not flee.

We think she should have gotten bail. The judge's comment "The court cannot conclude that the defendant does not pose a danger to the national security" is a far cry from the standard of "clear and convincing evidence" that the Government must produce to establish that a defendant is a danger to the community.

The federal bail statute provides with respect to the Government's burden at a detention hearing:

18 USC Section 3142(f)(2)(B): The facts the judicial officer uses to support a finding pursuant to subsection (e) that no condition or combination of conditions will reasonably assure the safety of any other person and the community shall be supported by clear and convincing evidence.

We don't see the difference between FBI agent Smith and Leung. If Smith, her "handler" is bailable, she should be too.

Bump and Update:

Ali is doing well after his first surgery.

Ali has arrived in Kuwait City, transported by the U.S. Military (MSNBC tv). Here's an update on his medical condition.

Plans are being made to fly twelve-year old Ali Ismaeel Abbas, who lost both arms and his family when his house in Iraq was bombed, to a Kuwait hospital for treatment. Doctors say that if he doesn't receive imminent treatment, he will die within the next few days.

There's only one problem: U.S. authorities in Kuwait say they don't know about the plans.

A spokesman for Ibn Sina hospital in Kuwait said U.S. forces were expected to fly Ali from Baghdad to an airfield in Kuwait, where an ambulance would be waiting for him. "It is already arranged and our people are waiting," hospital director Abudullatif al-Sahli told Reuters. However, a spokeswoman for U.S military forces in Kuwait said they did not know of any such operation.

Someone, help this boy, please. If the U.S. didn't know about the plans at the time of being interviewed for this article, it knows now. There is absolutely no excuse for the U.S. leaving this boy to die. Millions of people around the world have reacted with horror and sympathy to this boy's plight. Rumsfeld and Bush will have a black mark forever if they don't intervene in time.

Update: Yesterday the child accused the media of breaking its promise to him to get him help.

The autopsies have been completed on the bodies of a woman and baby boy that washed up on the California shore yesterday, but the coroner could not identify the bodies. They were badly decomposed and the woman's body is said to be skeletal. Thus, it is not known if the remains are of Laci Peterson and her child.

Police say yesterday's news reports that the woman was in maternity clothing are wrong. They have only recovered a "standard woman's bra."

Many news reports yesterday stated the baby was still attached to an umbilical cord. No word today on whether that is correct.

The bodies washed up two miles from the Berkeley Marina where Scott Peterson, Laci's husband, says he went fishing on Christmas Eve day. His lawyer today said that his client is "very concerned and broken up at the prospect that [the body] may be his wife."

Update: The police are saying they are going to consult with an expert on the decomposition of bodies in water. Here's a site where you can learn about it for yourselves.