In deciding whether to grant bail for the Buffalo Six, the judge has to follow guidelines set forth in the federal bail and detention statute. Here is our earlier post on those guidelines in as plain English (non-legalese) as we could make them. It includes a link to the statute for those who'd like to read it.

John Walker Lindh gets sentenced today. You can read the Sentencing Memoranda filed by his lawyers and the Government here.

Far more interesting is the account of what Lindh told Rohan Gunaratna, the terrorism expert on his defense team, about plans he had heard for post- September 11 attacks. He said three phases of attacks were planned altogether: September 11 was the first; the second was going to make the U.S. forget about Sept. 11 and might include biological and chemical weapons; and the third was going to finish us off.

Authorities say they have received conflicting accounts from many prisoners and have not been able to confirm the information about future attacks. They suspect some prisoners were trained to give misinformation and others are simply repeating rumors or folklore that has spread among them since September 11.

Gunaratna interviewed Lindh for eight hours in July in his jail cell and submitted a report to the Judge. He concluded Lindh "never swore loyalty to Osama bin Laden and al-Qaida." He believes nonetheless that Lindh would be a "valuable U.S. intelligence asset because he understood what makes Islamic fundamentalists join conflicts around the world."

Is Binalshibh cooperating with authorities or not? We can't tell from today's Washington Post article Binalshibh Said to Provide 'Useful Information' .

Binalshibh is the former roomate of Mohammed Atta who allegedly was supposed to be the 20th hijacker but couldn't get a visa. Authorities think Moussaoui may have been Binalshibh's stand-in and have charged that Binalshibh funneled money to Moussaoui. Binalshibh was arrested in Pakistan a few weeks ago, turned over to the U.S and taken to a secure location to be interrogated.

The lead-in to the Post article says he's talking. The remainder of the article suggests he is not.

"Officials said they hope the Yemeni-born Binalshibh, 30, will corroborate and expand on details..." he gave in an Al-Jazeera television interview. (our emphasis)

"But officials cautioned that questioning of Binalshibh was in its early stages. "He has not been in captivity that long and it takes time to get significant information," one official said, adding, "We are learning some more every day."

There are two other men in custody the Government believes are high level Al Qaeda operatives: "Abu Zubaida, who helped direct the network's operations and was captured in March, and Ibn al-Shaykh al-Libi, who had run an al Qaeda training camp in Afghanistan and was seized in January."

"The interrogators are playing the testimony of the three men off against each other, officials said. "Then," an official said, "we can try to put it all together in a mosaic."

Sorry, but this sounds to us like spin. To us it translates to, we're working on Binalshibh as hard as we can, we're lying to him and telling him his buddies and superiors have given him up so there is no point in him holding out, it hasn't worked yet but we're gonna keep trying.

After three days of bail hearings over a week ago, the Magistrate Judge in Buffalo had said he would rule October 3, on whether the six men charged with aiding Al-Qaeda by participating in a training camp in Afganistan would be granted bail.

On Friday, the Government filed another affidavit in the case, referring to casettes and documents found during the search of some of the suspects' homes. The Government claimed the new materials contained references to Islam and suicide bombings and established the men were dangerous.

So instead of ruling on the bail issue Thursday, the Judge held another hearing on the meaning of the new documents.

The Government said one document defended suicide bombings. Rodney Personius, the lawyer for the defendant whose home the document was seized from, argued the document was from the spring and summer of 2000, during "part of an inquisitive period" in the young man's life, when he was about to settle down with his high school sweetheart, a Christian, and decided to learn more about religion."

"The folder the document was found in, Mr. Personius said, contained nine other religious documents, also culled from the Internet, on various aspects of Christianity and Islam."

"The document itself, Mr. Personius said, concerned the war in Chechnya, and he presented the judge with an elaborate indexing system to show that the enemies referred to were Russians, not Americans."

The cassette tapes came up next. The Government filed a retraction as to one of the tapes it had claimed at the last hearing contained clerics' justifications for attacks. It turns out the tape "consisted entirely of quotes from the Koran and was "not inflammatory."

However, the Government persists in its claim that tapes found in the house of another suspect are incendiary, which the suspects lawyer denied Thursday, saying "it is a leap to take these tapes and argue their dangerousness," adding it was a "desperate attempt" by the government to twist their meaning.

The Judge said he will rule this coming Tuesday and remarked "It's not a black and white situation," he said. "There are serious constitutional issues here."

The trial of New York lawyer Lynne Stewart on terrorism charges has been set for October, 2003.

Stewart represents the militant and blind Islamic cleric Sheik Omar Abdel-Rahman convicted of conspiracy in connection with plans to bomb NYC landmarks. She is charged with helping him communicate with the Egyptian-based Islamic Group from prison. The evidence against her is her jailhouse and telephone conversations with her client, secretly recorded by the Government. Here are more details of her case.

Now this is chilling: "Prosecutors said during a hearing on Thursday that they had evidence gathered from 97,000 phone-line intercepts."

Those 97,000 phone calls can't be solely those of Lynne Stewart--or her client. How many other inmates' legitimate and privileged conversations with their attorneys did the Government intercept and listen to?

On October 31, 2001, Attorney General John Ashcroft issued an emergency regulation, 66 Fed. Reg. 55062, allowing the monitoring of attorney-client conversations when the Attorney General has "reasonable suspicion" to "believe that a particular inmate may use communications with attorneys or their agents to further or facilitate acts of violence or terrorism." The order recognizes that these communications would "traditionally be covered by the attorney-client privilege." 28 C.F.R. § 501.3(d).

Here are the reasons why defense lawyers and others consider this regulation to be unconstitutional and ethically improper.

If you are interested in the war crimes trials going on in the International Criminal Tribunal for the former Yugoslavia in the Hague, you can stay up to date and even view the proceedings on the internet. Go here , pick the trial you are interested in viewing and click the audio-visual icon.

On days the Slobodan Milosevic trial is in session, you can also watch it live here.

A complete record on video, with audio in English, is available here for each day of the Milosevic trial. Currently, the video is archived by court session, which generally means one session in the morning, and one in the afternoon. The segments range in length from 30 minutes to three hours. You will need Real Player to view the segments.

The Ira Einhorn trial gets more bizarre daily.

First we have the defense's unusual attempt to show bias and thereby impeach two prosecution witnesses who testified they had seen bruises on Holly's face while she was living with Ira.

Defense Lawyer William Cannon "implied during cross-examination, then confirmed to reporters later, that he believed the women were testifying about Einhorn's alleged beatings of Maddux because the women were jealous of the hippie's romantic relationship with the beautiful Texan."

"Although male witnesses yesterday testified about Maddux's beauty, Cannon never inquired about their marital status or implied that they had been lusting after Maddux."

"I think most of the women we have seen so far are the kind of ladies who were very much part of the pro-feminist movement, who could be termed as man-haters," Cannon told reporters. "I felt these women might have a bias based on antagonism against Mr. Einhorn."

One of the women is a lesbian and lives with the tv critic for the Philadelphia Inquirer, and the other woman said she was not openly gay.

The next day, Mr. Cannon moved to the "free love" lifestyle of Mr. Einhorn and Holly. Saul Lapidus, a prosecution witness, testified that he had been having an intense affair with Holly for a month and that he knew Ira had been having an affair with Hilda, who happens to be Lapidus's ex-wife. Lapidus said, "I was told by Holly that she was physically put out of her apartment when my ex-wife was there...He bodily picked her up and put her out of the house."

Lapidus also testified Holly was staying with Lapidus when she received a phone call from Ira during which Ira said he was going to throw her things out in the street. Holly flew home and that's the last Lapidus saw of her. Prosecutors allege Holly was beaten to death a few days later.

On cross, Mr. Cannon tried to show that Lapidus had made up the story about Ira throwing Holly's things in the street because he was jealous of Ira's affair with his ex-wife.

"By establishing through other witnesses yesterday that Einhorn encouraged Maddux to have sex outside their relationship - just like he did - Cannon said he threw doubt into the prosecution's theory that Einhorn was so enraged about Maddux's new boyfriend that he killed her."

We can't wait to see what tomorrow brings. Stay tuned....

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Using a novel theory, several North Carolina criminal defense lawyers are asking the court in that state to declare a moratorium on the death penalty. They argue that elected judges cannot fairly decide capital cases because they have a personal stake in them

Bruce Cunningham is the lead lawyer in the challenge. He argues that "trial and appellate judges running for election -- partisan or not -- have to win popular votes, so they're under political pressure to rule for the prosecution and to campaign as tough on murder."

In the motions, the lawyers detail specific instances of judges ..."all the way up to a former chief justice, asking for political support for the way they've ruled on murders and other crimes."

"A judiciary that mixes highly publicized murder cases, elective politics and campaign fund-raising is fundamentally unjust, the defense lawyers maintain. They argue that operating a court system anchored by judges with an eye on the ballot box deprives defendants of their federal constitutional rights to procedural fairness, effective legal counsel, and rational punishment."

"The solutions they propose are either to exempt their clients from the death penalty or to create a parallel court system for capital cases, one with judges who are appointed instead of elected -- a change that might require a state constitutional amendment."

Jerry Falwell, in an interview to be broadcast Sunday on 60 Minutes, called Mohammed a "terrorist." In a later interview with the Associated Press, he stood by his statement.

"In response to Falwell's remarks, Ibrahim Hooper, spokesman for the Council on American-Islamic Relation in Washington, said: "Anybody is free to be a bigot if they want to. What really concerns us is the lack of reaction by mainstream religious and political leaders, who say nothing when these bigots voice these attacks."

"Hooper noted that Falwell and Robertson will speak at next week's Christian Coalition convention in Washington alongside House Majority Whip Tom DeLay and other politicians."

"How can these elected representatives legitimize this kind of hate speech by appearing on the same platform with Islamophobes and Muslim-bashers?" Hooper asked."

Bail arguments were held today in the "Buffalo Six" case in which six men from the Buffalo area are charged with providing material support to a terrorist organization. The Judge will rule next week.

The defense argued "Mere possession of cassette tapes and papers defending suicide attacks is not sufficient to deny bail to six men suspected of comprising an al Qaeda-trained terror cell."

"The judge said for purposes of discussion that the tapes and documents about suicide attacks "would not be a factor all by itself" for deciding whether to grant bail or to keep the men locked up."

Former New York Police Commissioner William Bratton was selected today by Los Angeles Mayor James Hahn to serve as Chief of the LAPD.

We are very pleased and we commend Mayor Hahn for recognizing that if anyone can turn the scandal-ridden, morale-deprived Los Angeles Police Department around, it is Bill Bratton.

To understand why we feel this way, please read our prior endorsements of Bill- here, here, here, here and here.

Back to Thursday's New York Times:

"The outspoken Mr. Bratton, who ran New York's police department for 27 months from 1994 to 1996 until he was forced out by Mayor Rudolph W. Giuliani, promised in interviews with Mayor James K. Hahn and other city leaders that he would cut Los Angeles's rising crime rate and improve morale in the city's dispirited and distrusted police ranks."

"Mr. Bratton's brash promise, as well as his documented crime-fighting record in New York and Boston, tipped the scales in a competitive three-way contest for the chief's job, city officials said. He beat out his former deputy chief in New York, John F. Timoney, who went on to become police chief of Philadelphia, and Art Lopez, a 27-year veteran of the Los Angeles department who is now police chief in Oxnard, Calif."

...."Rick Caruso, chairman of the civilian police commission that recommended the three finalists to Mayor Hahn, said Mr. Bratton was the best candidate of the dozens the commission interviewed. "I've got to give Jim Hahn credit," Mr. Caruso said. "He made a tough choice, and he made the right choice in the best interests of the city."

"Mr. Bratton is widely respected among criminal justice experts for his successes in rapidly reducing New York's rampant street crime after becoming commissioner in early 1994. He is an advocate of "community policing," an approach that puts more officers on the street and tries to integrate the police into the daily lives of residents rather than merely responding to calls for help."

"In New York, he began a system of tracking crimes block by block on a computer, then flooding the high-crime zones with officers until the crime rate dropped. He achieved sharp reductions in street crime using the method, which he has said he will try to institute in Los Angeles."

"Mayor Giuliani forced Mr. Bratton's resignation in March 1996 after raising questions about his book contract and about luxury travel financed by friends and associates. At the time, Mr. Bratton was a nationally known crime fighter whose popularity in opinion polls exceeded that of any New York official, including Mr. Giuliani. In his book, Mr. Bratton described his tortured relationship with Mr. Giuliani and made it clear he did not intend for his police work to end in New York."

The Times notes that Bratton has his work cut out for him:

"The city's rising crime rate has resisted previous efforts, and the department's morale has been damaged by a decade of scandals, beginning with the beating of Rodney King and the response to the riots that followed. Police morale is low and the department is having some difficulty recruiting and retaining officers. The city's ethnic and racial diversity has also presented a huge challenge."

"Joe Domanick, author of "To Protect and Serve: The L.A.P.D.'s Century of War in the City of Dreams," applauded the mayor's choice, saying it was time for an accomplished outsider to come in and clean house. "This is really extraordinary and something that's been a half-century in coming."

Thursday's LA Times article on Bratton's selection is filled with praise from officers and city officials alike (Free registration required).

Congratulations to Bill. We know he will be a great presence and leader out in LA.

P.S. Bill Bratton is married to our good pal Rikki Klieman, the vivacious, smart, savvy and articulate Court TV anchor who in her prior life was one of the leading criminal defense attorneys in Boston, and one of the best female trial lawyers in the country.

We share the disappointment of the Washington Post in a speech Attorney General Ashcroft gave to federal prosecutors this week about the Justice Department's terrorism policies and their effect on civil rights.

"He expressed dismay that secret detentions and "military detentions of unlawful enemy combatants" -- which is to say locking up American citizens without trial or access to lawyers -- might be controversial. And he made clear that criticism will not deter him: "History instructs us that caution and complacency are not defenses of freedom: caution and complacency are a capitulation before freedom's enemies -- the terrorists."

The Post opines that caution and complacency are not the same and while caution is desirable, complacency is a danger.

"But caution in approaching such a diminution of liberty is a virtue. It reflects caution, not complacency, to ask that the Justice Department account honestly to Congress and, as much as possible, to the public about the changes it seeks. It reflects caution to hope that members of Congress deliberate seriously before changing the rules of surveillance and detention. It is not complacency to consider how effective those changes are likely to be relative to their impact on American liberty -- to seek, in other words, a balancing of risks and dangers without having to fear attack from the administration for allegedly endangering security."

"Mr. Ashcroft's disdain for such qualities is troubling. Zeal to fight the forces of evil can be recklessly deployed; it can misfire against the innocent; and it can, in doing so, cause dangerous threats to go undetected."