Via the New York Times: Information from IMF head Dominique Strauss-Kahn's lawyers may have the makings of an alibi:

.... he checked out of the hotel around 12:30 p.m., returning his keys to reception, and met his daughter for lunch before going to the airport, where he realized he had lost one of his cellphones, calling the hotel and asking that they return it to him at the airport. The New York police originally estimated the time of the alleged attack on the maid at about 1 p.m., but have since revised it to around noon.

And how did Strauss-Kahn's political opponents get the news before the media? The first tweet was by a French student who belongs to President Nicolas Sarkozy’s center-right party. [More...]

Glenn Sargent at The Plum Line obtained a copy of the May 9th letter CIA Chief Leon Panetta wrote John McCain. He quotes three paragraphs:

Nearly 10 years of intensive intelligence work led the CIA to conclude that Bin Ladin was likely hiding at the compound in Abbottabad, Pakistan. there was no one “essential and indispensible” key piece of information that led us to this conclusion. Rather, the intelligence picture was developed via painstaking collection and analysis. Multiple streams of intelligence — including from detainees, but also from multiple other sources — led CIA analysts to conclude that Bin Ladin was at this compound. Some of the detainees who provided useful information about the facilitator/courier’s role had been subjected to enhanced interrogation techniques. Whether those techniques were the “only timely and effective way” to obtain such information is a matter of debate and cannot be established definitively. What is definitive is that that information was only a part of multiple streams of intelligence that led us to Bin Ladin.

Jury selection began today in Chicago in the trial of Tahawwur Hussein Rana, charged with conspiracy in the Mumbai bombings and a planned attack on a news agency in Denmark. The jury was given a questionnaire and told to return tomorrow. You can view the questionnaire here.

The trial may have major implications for the Pakistani ISI:

The proceedings are likely to add fuel to a diplomatic crisis over suspicions of official Pakistani complicity with terrorism after U.S. commandos killed Osama bin Laden on May 2 in a garrison city just 55 kilometers from Islamabad.

Pakistani intelligence, under the microscope following the revelation that the al-Qaida chief lived for years under the noses of Pakistani authorities, will come in for further scrutiny because the indictment names officers of Pakistan's powerful Inter-Services Intelligence (ISI) agency as conspirators in the Mumbai attacks.

More on the implications for Pakistan-US relations today at The Guardian. All of our coverage is available here.

I never thought Donald Trump would run for President. Turns out he won't. He made the announcement today.

Yesterday, NBC renewed Celebrity Apprentice. From the first linked article:

He was scheduled to meet with NBC's bosses early Monday morning to give them his final decision -- just hours before they were supposed to present their plans for the new fall season to advertisers.

IMF Director Dominique Strauss-Kahn was denied bail today, at least until his next court appearance on May 20. He's charged with unlawful imprisonment, engaging in a criminal sex act and attempted rape. Here's the Complaint.

According to Reuters twitter feed, prosecutors argued against bail, saying he may have engaged in similar conduct once before. The defense asked for $1 million bail, saying they expect him to be exonerated. They also told the judge that the person Strauss-Kahn had lunch with on Saturday will testify he was not fleeing the hotel.

By May 20, they will probably have some elaborate plan in place for a private security firm to do 24 hour monitoring at a New York apartment or hotel (as was done for Bernie Madoff and Cameron Douglas (who still managed to violate the terms and get bail revoked.)

More from the New York Times here.

When the Chicago terror case against Daood Gilani, aka David Coleman Headley and Tawawwur Hussein Rana first came to light, the most striking fact was that Headley had two prior heroin convictions and bargained his way out of heavy time for both by cooperating for the DEA. After 13 years of on and off again cooperation, he wasn't a newbie at the cooperation game, and he was well known to his handlers. Yet the DEA dropped the ball on Headley big time. And no heads have rolled.

In 1988 Gilani/Headley was busted at the airport in Frankfurt, Germany, when a customs officer asked to check his belongings. Finding 2 kilos of heroin inside, he called for a D.E.A. agent stationed nearby and who arrived at the scene? Derek Maltz. Maltz, who has since been promoted to head of DEA Special Operations, is 48 now. (He still crows after every big bust, but he's been focused more on Mexico and South America lately, it seems. Here's a You Tube video of him a few months ago, pleased as punch with his new perps. Or read this description of one of his many talks.

He's been with the agency 25 years (his father also spent his career in drug enforcement). He would have been 25 when he was stationed in Frakfurt and made Headley's bust. Within two days (probably on the flight home) Headley agreed to cooperate. Two days later, he was back home at his apartment in Philly, all wired up for his first snare. [More...]

It's a busy TV night: Three hours of Survivor, two hours of Celebrity Apprentice, a two hour Desperate Housewives finale and a new episode of The Killing.

For those of you with other things on your mind, here's an open thread, all topics welcome.

The Wall St. Journal has new details on the sex assault charge against IMF head Dominique Strauss-Kahn.

First, he's being represented by Ben Brafman (great choice.) Next, the maid accusing him identified him through a photo identification known as a "show up."

The accuser informed hotel security officials, who showed her a photo of the suite's occupant. After she identified Mr. Strauss-Kahn as her attacker, hotel officials then called police.

[More...]

Defense Secretary Robert Gates was on "60 Minutes" tonight. He said he had doubts about the intelligence information that Osama bin Laden was at the Abbouttabad compound.

While he had confidence in the SEALs before the mission, Gates told us he was very nervous about the intelligence on the mission. "I was very concerned, frankly. I had real reservations about the intelligence. My worry was the level of uncertainty about whether bin Laden was even in the compound. There wasn't any direct evidence that he was there. It was all circumstantial. But it was the best information that we had since probably 2001," he explained.

"And did you feel you had to strike while the iron was hot, if you will?" (Katie) Couric asked. "I think everybody agreed that we needed to act and act pretty promptly," he replied.

Gates also had a lot of praise for President Obama: [More...]

As many predicted, Mike Huckabee announced he won't seek the Republican nomination for President in 2012.

Was it his clemency record? As I wrote here, listing his many clemency decisions:

Huckabee granted a lot of deserved pardons while in office, particularly for drug offenders serving excessive sentences. A Governor's use of clemency and pardon power is a good thing. The problem with Huckabee's exercise of the power is that several of his decisions make no sense, he refused to explain his decisions, and he injected his religion into it.

It's a quiet Saturday afternoon here. What's going on in your world? Here's an open thread, all topics welcome.

Jury selection begins next week in the Chicago terror trial of Tahawwur Hussain Rana, charged with participation in the 2008 Mumbai bombings, the planned attack on a news agency in Denmark, and providing matierial support to Lashkar e Tayyiba (LeT.) The Second Superseding Indictment is here. Both Rana and the Government's star witness, former DEA informant David Headley, who cooperated in exchange for taking the death penalty and extradition to India and Pakistan off the table, insist they were receiving instructions from Pakistan's ISI and military. While the Judge won't let the information about ISI and Army in the front door, it's bound to come in the back door.

Today the Court entered a minute order directing Rana to respond to the Government's motion to exclude his expert witness, Marc Sageman. Sageman is a counter-terror expert, former CIA agent and psychiatrist who is the leading proponent of the theory that al Qaeda as a central organization is no longer a big threat, that Pakistan houses the main terror groups in the region. Here's his 2009 testimony before the Senate Foreign Relations Committee. Global terror is more of a grass-roots thing in recent years, composed of leaderless jihadis. They may be affiliated with or inspired by al Qaeda but al Qaeda, the core group, is too weak to provide much more.

So why does Rana want to call Sageman, and why does the Government object? [More...]