5280 Magazine has an in-depth report on how events unfolded in the "home grown" terrorism case of Najibullah Zazi. Zazi's first lawyer, who allowed the FBI to extensively question Zazi, discusses his strategy. Zazi, who has pleaded guilty and cooperated but not been sentenced, apparently is in the witness protection program and hoping for a sentence to less than life and a new identity when he's released. [More...]

I don't follow college sports. I never heard of Joe Paterno or Jerry Sandusky before last night, and I didn't click through the myriad of headlines to see who they are until this morning. Now, having read the grand jury report and several articles and opinion pieces, here's what I see.

An 84 year old coach with an unblemished record, who devoted his life to coaching a football team, has been abruptly fired because in 2002, a graduate student told him about witnessing what he perceived to be a former assistant coach's sexual assault on a young boy in a school shower. The assistant coach, Jerry Sandusky, retired in 1999, but retained many school privileges as part of his severance package.

Paterno timely reported the allegation to his superiors. They handled the allegation internally and didn't take it to the police. Sandusky was told he could no longer bring minors on campus. The graduate student, Mike McQueary, also told his father about what he observed, but not the police. Nor did he intervene to stop the perceived assault. He's now a coach for the team. [More..]

I've been busy. Be back next week with regular posting.

Open Thread.

The Military Commission's website last night posted the transcript of yesterday's four hour hearing for al-Nashiri. (Go here, click on second al-Nashiri link, it's the top document. There is no direct link.)

It wasn't just an arraignment. The judge heard argument on and granted the defense motion to prevent Gitmo and prosecutors from reading his legal mail (with some exceptions.) The Court also heard argument on al-Nashiri's motion seeking to have the military jury advised at the start of trial if an acquittal won't result in his release (see my earlier post on this here.) The Court addressed an issue of potential conflict of interest for one of the defense lawyers, Michael Paradis who represented al Bahlul in appealing his conviction by military commission and life sentence. Al-Bahlul is named as a co-conspirator of al-Nashiri's in Charge V. [More...]

Another Republican debate? I'm not watching. Better Fare: Survivor, The X-Factor, Harry's Law, Restaurant Impossible or even America's Next Top Model.

Human Rights Watch has a new report on abuses by Mexican police and military in the war on drugs. Shorter version: Mexico's war on drugs is a failure that only serves to increase the violence and fear:

Mexico’s military and police have committed widespread human rights violations in efforts to combat organized crime, virtually none of which are being adequately investigated, Human Rights Watch said in a report released today.

[More...]

Don't fall for the new book on Australian Schapelle Corby, sentenced to 20 years in an Indonesian prison for bringing 4 kilos of pot into Bali. The book claims Schapelle's now deceased father put the pot in her boogie board .

While the book doesn't go so far as to claim there is evidence that Schapelle knew the pot was in her board (its premise seems merely to be that after she was busted, she took the fall for her father, who died in 2008,) multiple media outlets are leading with incendiary headlines that Schapelle's guilt is now established. The author, Journalist Eamonn Duff, who works for the Sydney Morning Herald, has been coming up with these Corby family guilt scenarios for years. [More...]

Herman Cain yesterday said he doesn't recognize Sharon Bialek or know her. But Bialak and witnesses say differently, since a month ago at a function, Bialak was seen approaching him, hugging him and talking to him. One of the witnesses is WIND radio co-host Amy Jacobson.

As Guantanamo detainee Abd al-Rahim Hussein Muhammed Abdu Al-Nashiri is arraigned on capital charges of masterminding al Qaida's 2000 bombing of the U.S.S. Cole, lawyers are also arguing some important motions. Chief among them is: If al-Nashiri is acquitted, will he be released? Miami Herald Reporter Carol Rosenberg is live-tweeting the proceedings. Here's a handy twitter link to many of the reporters' live tweets in one place.

What are the possible outcomes of al-Nashiri's trial? If there are only 3, guilty and a death sentence, guilty and a sentence less than death, acquittal followed by indefinite detention, probably for life, why bother with a trial? A trial with no possibility of release is nothing but a show trial.

The defense argues that the military jury that will decide al-Nashiri's fate should be told that an acquittal means continued incarceration, if that's the case. Its motion is here. [More...]

Russell Pearce, the state senator from Arizona who authored the discriminatory Arizona immigration bill, lost his seat in a recall election yesterday.

Pearce, a former Phoenix-area sheriff's deputy known for his tough stance against illegal immigration, sponsored the state immigration law that became the focus of national media and legal attention.

"With Sen. Russell Pearce's defeat in this recall election, everyone who practices the politics of fear and division was put on notice," said Rep. Raul Grijalva, a Democrat from Arizona.

Mississippi voters today defeated a personhood amendment.

[T]he full wording of the measure as it appeared on the ballot define[d] every human being as a person "from the moment of fertilization, cloning or the equivalent thereof."

The Amendment was largely an effort of Keith Mason, co-founder of the group Personhood USA, based in Colorado. The group tried and failed to get the Amendment passed in Colorado in 2008 and 2010. The ACLU says Arkansas, Montana, Florida, Oregon, Nevada may be the next battlegrounds.

Carol Rosenberg of McClatchy reports on the cost of housing inmates at Guantanamo in the Miami Herald. It costs $800,000 a year to house one detainee, according to a letter Eric Holder and Leon Pannetta sent Congress this summer. There are 171 detainees still at Guantanamo.

Congress, determined to keep Gitmo open, authorized provided $139 million for its operation last year. Why isn't it under consideration for part of the $1.5 trillion budget cut?

Herman Cain is now represented by prominent Atlanta libel/defamation attorney Linn Wood, who previously represented the parents of JonBenet Ramsey, Richard Jewell, Gary Condit and the accuser in the Kobe Bryant Case. (He did not represent Kobe, as reported by the National Journal and ABA Journal, which should know better.) The National Journal reports he represented "Los Angeles Lakers star Kobe Bryant, whom Wood served as co-counsel in a federal civil-action rape case." Here's the Complaint in the accuser's federal suit, signed on page 8 by Lin Wood.[More...]