It's a grim scene for the Red Cross in Baghdad:

A spokesman for the International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC) in Baghdad said heavy fighting between U.S. and Iraqi forces in the city prevented officials reaching any hospital but Kindi, near the city center.

There, doctors said they had taken in so many casualties that they were running short of anesthetics and some equipment, which the Red Cross helped to replenish by delivering a truckload of supplies.

ICRC Spokesman Roland Huguenin-Benjamin told Reuters: "Surgeons have been working round the clock for the past two days and most are exhausted. Conditions are terrible.

....hospitals were now relying on generators and that getting clean water to patients was a priority. ...."Some hospitals cannot take any more war wounded. They are stretched to the limits," spokeswoman Nada Doumani said.

The wounded were not being turned away, but many hospitals have run out of beds and patients were being treated wherever doctors could find room.

....Water is becoming a worry. There are certain areas of Baghdad which do not have any at all," Doumani said in Geneva. Lack of clean drinking water is a major cause of diarrhea and respiratory diseases, which already take a heavy toll of Iraqi children.

The Red Cross says right now there is only enough water to flush the toilets for one more day. For updates on the situation, go here.

This just takes our breath away its so sad. Don't look unless you are prepared. From Daily Kos, Ali Ismaeel Abbas, 12.Truly one of those instances where a photo is worth 1,000 words.

Via Reuters Alert, there is a new briefing report on humanitarian principles in Iraq:

This briefing note describes key humanitarian policy issues as they apply in the context of the war in Iraq. It is aimed at a wide audience, including those not necessarily familiar with these principles and debates. It highlights core principles of humanitarian action and key issues of likely concern, and identifies further sources of information.

The report is published by the Overseas Development Institute. Their updated page on humanitarian concerns in Iraq is here.

The New York Times weighs in against the Feeney Amendment in An Ominous Attack on Judges.

We need to defeat this amendment and save downward departures and judicial independence. For more, go here. And read Law Professor Jeff Cooper's great analysis and commentary here.

More on Justice in Tulia: See, Justice in a Small Town in today's Texas Lawyer:

It took a dozen lawyers and more than $1 million in donated fees, but last week a cadre of Texas, New York and Washington, D.C., defense lawyers may have extracted a bit of justice for 38 defendants in Tulia, Texas, who the lawyers say were wrongly convicted in a sweeping drug bust four years ago. Last week the prosecution and the defense agreed to stipulate that the police officer involved in the arrests was not credible.

Why did the lawyers volunteer? Here's the story as to one of them, Jeff Blackburn, a sole practitioner from Amarillo, Texas. By January of this year, Jeff had spent more than 2,000 hours and about $39,000 of his own money on the case.

The number of persons imprisoned in the U.S. now exceeds two million, according to the latest Justice Department statistics.

The Sentencing Project has the details.

Prisons and jails held one out of every 142 U.S. residents. The prison and jail population, long the world's largest, has almost doubled since 1990.

....There were 2,019,234 people in prisons or jails at the end of June 2002, according to the report. About two-thirds of the total were in state and federal prisons, and the rest were in local jails.

"The relentless increases in prison and jail populations can best be explained as the legacy of an entrenched infrastructure of punishment that has been embedded in the criminal justice system over the last 30 years," said Malcolm Young, the group's executive director.

In the 12 months that ended June 30, the jail population went up by 34,235 inmates, a 5.4 percent rise and the largest increase since 1997, according to the report. State prisons added 12,440 inmates, a 1 percent increase, while the federal prison system grew by 8,042 inmates, a 5.7 percent increase.

Among the other findings of the report:

• A total of 7,248 jailed inmates and 3,055 state prisoners were younger than 18.

• The federal government's prison system had the largest number of inmates at 161,681, followed by California with 160,315 prisoners and Texas with 158,131 inmates.

• Twenty states experienced an inmate population increase of 5 percent or more during the 12-month period.

• Female prisoners totaled 96,099 at the end of June, accounting for 6.7 percent of all inmates. There's more.

The rate of incarceration in the United States, 702 inmates per 100,000 residents, continues to be the highest in the world. Among black males 25 to 29, 12.9% were in prison or jail. Overall, 4.8% of black males were in prison or jails, compared to 1.7% of Hispanics and 0.6% of whites. Black women in prisons and jails continue to outnumber their white (5 times as many) and Hispanic (more than twice as many) counterparts.

This is America--land of the free?

The Supreme Court Monday upheld a state ban on cross-burning.

A divided Supreme Court upheld a state ban on cross burning, ruling Monday that the history of racial intimidation attached to this symbol outweighs the free speech protection of Ku Klux Klansmen or others who might it. A burning cross is an instrument of terror, and government should have the power to stamp out or punish its use, Justice Sandra Day O'Connor wrote.

SCOTUS has the details and links.

Another example of the end of due process as we know it. Bail was denied in a secret hearing for Mike Hawash who is being held as a material witness in Oregon.

Hawash, a software engineer and American citizen, has been held since March 20. Our prior coverage is here and here.

The records of the searches of his home and office are sealed. His name has been removed from the list of prisoners at FCI Sheridan, where he has been held. His lawyers are gagged.

Josh Kardon, chief of staff to U.S. Sen. Ron Wyden, D-Ore., has been attempting to obtain information about Hawash. Here's what he has been told: Hawash is not at Guantanamo, he has a lawyer who was allowed to appear at his bail hearing, his wife and kids have visited him. The Government will not confirm that Hawash is being held as a material witness.

Sources say Hawash's arrest is related to the pending case against the "Oregon Six." Prosecutors have said they will seek a superseding Indictment in the case--adding new charges and possibly new defendants. In responding to Senator Wyden's inquiry, the U.S. Attorney wrote:

There are several contingencies which may accelerate the rate at which additional information will be publicly available. My best estimate is that we will be able to comment further by early May, but please understand that is an estimate."

It sounds to us like Hawash is being told that if he tells the Government the truth--the truth according to the Government, of course--he may be allowed to avoid being charged in the new Oregon Indictment. If he doesn't, he will find himself as a defendant instead of a witness. Some choice. Particularly if, as was the case with Susan McDougal, his version of the truth is different than the one the Government wants to hear.

The Dixie Chicks top the Billboard Chart of the top 20 country albums for this week (April 12). [link via Media Horse].

Al Jazeera's english version of its website is back up.

The BBC's world affairs editor John Simpson was accompanying a convoy of US special forces and Kurdish fighters when it came under attack from an American warplane, killing at least ten, including some American soldiers. Simpson was wounded by shrapnal, but kept reporting live by satellite phone. You can view the video/audio of his report here.

"Well it's a bit of a disaster... I was in a convoy of eight or 10 cars in northern Iraq coming up to a place that has just recently been captured. American special forces in a truck - two trucks I think - beside them, plus a very senior figure ..."[brother of Massoud Barzani, leader of the Kurdistan Democratic Party]

Simpson to US soldier: "Shut up. I'm broadcasting! Oh yes, I'm fine - am I bleeding?"

US soldier: "Yes, you've got a cut."

Simpson: "I thought you were going to stop me. I think I've just got a bit of shrapnel in the leg, that's all. OK, I will - thanks a lot.

"That was one of the American special forces medics - I thought he was going to try to stop me reporting. I've counted 10 or 12 bodies around us. So there are Americans dead. It was an American plane that dropped the bomb right beside us - I saw it land about 10 feet, 12 feet away I think.

This is just a scene from hell here. All the vehicles on fire. There are bodies burning around me, there are bodies lying around, there are bits of bodies on the ground. This is a really bad own goal by the Americans.

"We don't really know how many Americans are dead. There is ammunition exploding in fact from some of these cars. A very senior member of the Kurdish Republic's government who also may have been injured."

TV presenter Maxine Mawhinney: "John, just to recap for the viewers, an American plane dropped a bomb on your convoy of American special forces - many dead, many injured?"

Simpson: "I am sorry to be so excitable. I am bleeding through the ear and everything but that is absolutely the case. I saw this American convoy, and they bombed it.

They hit their own people - they may have hit this Kurdish figure - very senior, and they've killed a lot of ordinary characters, and I am just looking at the bodies now and it is not a very pretty sight."

Later, Simpson filed this report of what happened:

NBC reporter David Bloom died in Iraq Sunday of a pulmonary embolism.

He was 39 years old. We had occasion to work with David several times as a legal analyst for MSNBC in the late 90's. He was a consummate professional and a nice person. How very sad.