How low can corrections officers get? Read on, from today's Boston Herald:

A mentally retarded black inmate was handcuffed behind his back and forced to eat cake like a dog for the amusement of six white Essex County correction officers, who apparently forgot security cameras were rolling overhead, a source and authorities said.

``They were pushing his face down into the cake, flicking his ears,'' the source said. The source, who has not seen the tape but had its contents relayed to him, charged inmate Arthur Austin was made to kneel on the floor with his arms handcuffed behind his back, while his face was shoved in the cake.

Essex Sheriff Frank Cousins confirmed Austin was handcuffed, but said he was told he was fed from a countertop. ``There is a recording of this incident,'' Cousins, who has not seen the tape, acknowledged yesterday.

The humiliating horseplay, which Cousins said was played out at least two times and possibly three on Sunday, has resulted in Capt. Elaine Bushway and correction officers Jason Copp, Brian Lavoie, Rob Kostin, Joseph Goldstein and Thomas Francesconi being placed on paid administrative leave.

Findlaw Columnist Edward Lazarus argues against the federal sentencing provisions that were made part of the Amber Alert bill passed by the House last week. The provisions would lessen federal judges' discretion in sentencing. He wisely notes that the discretion provided federal judges under the Federal Sentencing Guidelines is already so narrow, Congress shouldn't tinker with it further.

Senate Republicans failed for the fourth time today to limit debate (invoke cloture) on the nomination of Miguel Estrada to the D.C. Circuit Court of Appeals. The Dems are holding the line. The vote was 55 to 44, with 3/5 needed to prevail. Here's the roll call vote. [link via Jurist's Paper Chase.]

Human Rights Watch has an excellent informational page on the international laws pertaining to torture, providing answers to these questions, and more:

What is torture?

What laws prohibit torture?

Do non-citizens in the U.S. have the same right not to be tortured as U.S. citizens?

Can a person be compelled to provide evidence?

Can limited physical force be used during interrogations?

Is the use of "truth serums" permitted?

Are there any situations in which torture is permitted?

Shouldn't torture be permitted if its use will save lives?

Does the U.S. lose valuable information if torture is prohibited?

May the U.S. send detainees to other countries to be questioned?

What are the remedies against torture?

You can read the full text of the 1949 Geneva Convention relative to the Treatment of Prisoners of War here.

Are there extra or different protections for women? Law Professor and Findlaw Columnist Anita Ramasastry addresses this timely topic in What Happens When GI Jane is Captured?

Al Jazeera is ceasing its live coverage in Iraq due to the expulsion of one of its reporters.

"Regretting this decision, Al-Jazeera has decided to suspend its live broadcast from Iraq and will only broadcast recorded items received from Iraq," the station announced."

Update: Freed Newsday journalist Matthew McAllester will be on CNN's Larry King Live tonight, 9pm EST. More news on the journalists here and here.

The freed Newsday journalists described their week in Abu Ghraib, an Iraqi prison today.

McAllester and Saman both described a nightmarish week in the prison, the largest in the Arab world. They said they were interrogated separately several times by up to 12 Iraqi intelligence officials at once who suspected they were American spies, despite their adamant denials.

"I was accused of being dishonest and my future depended on my becoming honest," McAllester said. The authorities wanted him to "come up with more information spontaneously without being asked."

The two said they were never mistreated or abused physically, although conditions in the prison were harsh. They often heard and felt bombs exploding in and around Baghdad. "At times it was extremely close," Saman said. "The cells would kind of rumble."

Inside the prison was an anti-aircraft battery that frequently was fired. The pair said they could barely sleep. Adding to the tension, they said, was that they often heard the screams of other prisoners being tortured and saw some with their eyes and faces bloodied and swollen. "There were beatings and torture going on outside our cells, in the corridor, literally," McAllester said. Other inmates hobbled around, apparently because the soles of their feet had been burned or otherwise injured.

The two journalists were given meager rations of bananas, boiled eggs, bread and chicken soup. They were issued two blankets each, along with prison uniforms and slippers. They stayed in small, separate cells, unable to talk to each other, in a block that housed suspected spies and U.S. sympathizers.

The pair also described how they were taken into custody.

McAllester and Saman said their odyssey began about 1:30 a.m. March 24. McAllester was about to file a story, and Saman was near the top of the Palestine Hotel taking photographs as U.S. airplanes bombed the capital. When Saman came back down to the room the two Newsday staffers were sharing, two Iraqi intelligence agents were sitting on one of the beds.

"Right away I figured there was something wrong," Saman said.

The two staffers were handcuffed and initially told they were being taken to Syria. Instead, they were taken to the prison, where the interrogations soon started. McAllester said that at one point the authorities wanted him to sign a statement in Arabic, which he refused to do. Instead, he wrote one out in English saying in part that "I was not sent here by the CIA or the Pentagon and I'm not from any mission."

Saman said he was questioned about his job, what he was doing in Iraq, what kind of photos he was taking and if he had any connection with the CIA or the Pentagon. One agent also asked him if he was Jewish. "The main guy was convinced I was Israeli," Saman said. "I had to tell him, 'No, I'm not.'"

Saman was born in Peru, grew up in Spain and moved to the United States when he was 18. One of his grandfathers is Palestinian, and some of Saman's relatives still living in the West Bank also appealed to the Palestinian Authority to intervene on his behalf, Abington and Newsday editors said.

After the initial interrogations, the authorities left the two journalists alone for a few days, they said. Meanwhile, Abington was making contact with Arafat.

Here's more, including the statement by a Palestinian lawmaker that Yasser Arafat helped win the release of the two Newsday journalists through his contacts in Iraq. Newsday provides this account of the many groups who joined forces to win the pair's release.

Assistance came together from sources as wide-ranging as the Palestinian Authority, Roman Catholic Church, Iraqi diplomats and the Red Cross to win the release of two Newsday journalists from a Baghdad prison, the newspaper said yesterday.

The newspaper itself expended huge efforts towards gaining their release. A great job by all.

Matt Welch has an excellent article in today's Alternet about Patriot Act II.

We hope a sleeping Congress doesn't let this one sneak by like it did Patriot Act I, which was passed in haste, without hearings and without adequate time for serious review by Congress. We've believed since news leaked of Patriot Act II that it has been Bush and Ashcroft's intention to wait until we are in the throes of war with Iraq and then push it quickly though a Congress as a necessary measure to fight terrorism, thereby making legislators who oppose it look unpatriotic.

Here are Matt's summary of the provisions, taken from Nat Hentoff's column in the Village Voice a few weeks ago:

Skye News has an interview with an Iraqi pharmacist who treated rescued POW Jessica Lynch at the hospital.

During her stay in the hospital she tearfully kept asking about her boyfriend and family, an Iraqi pharmacist who treated her in hospital said.

"She kept saying she wanted to go home", the pharmacist added.

US media reports said she was found with two broken legs, a broken arm and gunshot wounds when she was rescued in a raid by US special forces on the Saddam Hussein Hospital near Nasiriyah.

The pharmacist who treated Private Lynch at the hospital told Sky News reporter Ross Appleyard that Private Lynch had often been seen crying. She asked about her family and kept asking when the war would finish, the pharmacist added.

He said that no soldiers had visited her and she had been treated well. She was regarded as a patient and not as a prisoner of war, the pharmacist added. He said Private Lynch was "very healthy" and had been treated for an injury to her leg only.

Of course, we don't know if the Iraq pharmacist is on the up and up--or if he's covering for Iraqis. We'd like to believe him, but we're still troubled by reports that the hospital was being used as a headquarters for Iraqi soldiers, that 11 other bodies, including those of two U.S. soldiers, have been recovered, that at least one bloodied female U.S. uniform was found with the American flag and name patch torn off and that a battery charger found inside the hospital may have been used as a torture device. Also, we suspect that if Jessica had been treated well at the hospital, the Pentagon would have said so instead of clamming up on the topic. The Skye article also provides this description of the rescue mission:

The Ba'ath Party headquarters and the building housing Saddam Hussein's loyal Fedayeen fighters were attacked in a diversionary strike, he said.

While the gunfight raged, special forces troops went in and rescued Private Lynch from the hospital.

Appleyard said: "Flares lit up the sky and we heard a great deal of gunfire and explosions. There was a huge gunfight - but it was all a diversionary tactic so special forces could go in and rescue Private Lynch."

We read elsewhere that Jessica's parents will be flying to Germany to meet her since she is being brought there before being flown home. That's good.

Update: Brig. Gen. Vincent Brooks, a U.S. Central Command spokesman: Ammunition, mortars, maps and a terrain model were found at the hospital, along with "other things that made it very clear it was being used as a military command post."

On the other 11 bodies:

"We have reason to believe some of them were Americans," said Navy Capt. Frank Thorp, another U.S. Central Command spokesman. He said the military has not confirmed whether they were members of Lynch's unit, the 507th Maintenance Company. "We don't yet know the identity of those people," Thorp said. "And forensics will determine that." Two of the bodies were in a morgue in the hospital, while the nine others were buried outside the building, Brooks said. He said U.S. forces were led to the graves by someone who had been taken into custody.

Here is a photo of interior of hospital where Jessica was kept.

Update: AP reports Pfc. Jessica Lynch arrived at a U.S. air base in southwestern Germany on a C-17 transport plane late Wednesday for treatment at a U.S. military medical center. Her condition was not disclosed, but U.S. officials in Kuwait said she was believed to have broken legs, a broken arm and at least one gunshot wound.

Ed Rosenthal may have received his best shot yet at a new trial. A juror disclosed that she sought legal advice during his marijuana cultivation trial.

In a startling revelation that could mean a new trial for convicted medical-marijuana cultivator Ed Rosenthal, a juror in the case says she violated the law by seeking outside legal advice during the trial and then sharing the information with a fellow juror.

The development is another chapter in the bizarre case of Rosenthal, a nationally recognized medical pot advocate whose case pitted state medical marijuana laws against federal laws, which do not allow for any use or cultivation of pot.

With Rosenthal's sentencing slated for later this month, jury member Marney Craig will appear this morning before Judge Charles Breyer. Craig is expected to say that despite constant warnings from the judge not to discuss the case outside of the courtroom, she sought and obtained outside legal advice on whether she could vote not guilty.

To make matters worse, the juror said she shared the advice she received with another juror.

When extraneous or outside evidence is brought into the jury room, it can be grounds for a mistrial. This seems like a clear case to us--the verdict should be set aside and a new trial ordered. If only Ashcroft would decide not to re-prosecute, but that's probably not likely given the mission he is on to stamp out medical marijuana.

Eric at The Hamster has the full text of an Arab News editorial warning that our conduct in Iraq is likely to create 100 Bin Ladens. Eric then sends us to American Prospect where James Galbraith explains why liberals must continue to oppose the war. And don't miss Eric's own thoughts on Republican hypocrisy on the affirmative action issue.

Howard Bashman of How Appealing has all the news on the Supreme Court oral arguments in the race cases. The transcripts of the oral arguments are here and here. He also covers the Senate's confirmation Tuesday of Timothy M. Tymkovich to the 10th Circuit Court of Appeals. The vote was 58-41. Joe Lieberman was a no show. Senator Leahy's statement is here. Howard says there will be another cloture hearing Wednesday on the Miguel Estrada nomination.

Skippy has a rant on secret arrests and nazi's-- and Bush and concentration camps.

Gary Hart updates his weblog with his thoughts on America's role in the world.

Avedon Carol of Sideshow has started a media blog (with help from Lisa English of Ruminate This) on the degradation of our airwaves. Avedon is having some surgery, we wish her well, and she will be posting at her emergency blog for the time being.

It's National Make Fun of the Cheney's day over at Rittenhouse, Neal Pollack and TBOGG (scroll down).

David Neiwert of Orcinus covers the War on Dissent.

Atrios has been so generous with his links, we hope you will buy him a present.

As for us, we should be finally settled at Corner Host, our new home, sometime tomorrow. We've managed 7,000 visitors both Monday and Tuesday despite the disruption of the move, so thanks to all of you for your patience.

This opinion article by Pat Rabitte, leader of the Irish Labour Party, published in the March 31 Irish Times (available on lexis. com) is too good not to print in its entirety. While others have written on the same theory, we find this article especially easy to follow, and quite compelling. In a nutshell, Rabitte says that the real purpose of the war in Iraq is "American global leadership," a concept with an imperial agenda and two very dangerous ideas that have been pursued by senior officials in the Bush Administration (I and II) for more than five years.

We can see the suffering and fear on television nightly. The war in Iraq has already caused untold human damage and will do a lot more before it's over. But before the final toll of physical casualties can be counted, we can already see others.

The multilateral global system has been severely damaged. The United Nations has been seriously (in the eyes of some fatally) undermined. Europe is bitterly divided. Economic development throughout the world has been compromised. And it has all happened in the name of two new concepts in international relations, concepts that most of us had never heard of until a couple of months ago.

I certainly would never have predicted that democratic countries, including one with a social democratic leadership, would go to war to secure "regime change". And I would never have predicted that the entire world would be caught up in a "pre-emptive war".

Where did these concepts come from? Have these new directions in global policy just sprung from the perceived threat of Saddam Hussein's weapons of mass destruction?

No. In fact, a small group of US policy-makers have been developing these dangerous ideas for several years. The brutal dictator Saddam Hussein is a good target and September 11th was the tragic catalyst they needed to put their policy into action.

These men are intent on world domination or, as they put it themselves, "American global leadership". They have an imperial agenda, which they have been pursuing for more than five years.

If these were cranks or conspiracy theorists, it would be possible to dismiss them, perhaps. But they include seven or eight people who occupy extremely senior positions at the heart of US government, and their philosophy dominates American policy.

They include Vice-president Dick Cheney, Secretary for Defence Donald Rumsfeld, and a host of senior appointees and advisers - names like Paul Wolfowitz, Richard Perle, Elliot Abrams, Paula Dobriansky, and others.

Their agenda first surfaced in 1992 with the document known as the Defence Planning Guidance, co-authored by Mr Wolfowitz, then an under-secretary in the Department of Defence. The agenda goes under various names such as the Wolfowitz Doctrine and the Project for the New American Century.

The White House Drug Office has announced it is ending it's drug and terrorism advertising campaign.

Now, the office will direct 60% of its buys toward youth-oriented media -- the same percentage it had previously directed at adults -- and will focus on halting drug use among children already using rather than aim to deter youth from starting drugs. The drugs-and-terror ads will end in May.