A grand jury returned a superseding indictment against David Coleman Headley, aka Daaod Gilani and Tahawwur Rana regarding the Mumbai attacks and alleged planned attack on a Danish newspaper.

Also indicted: Retired Pakistani military officer Abdur Rehman Hashim Syed (Pasha)and alleged Harakat-ul Jihad Islami (HUJI) leader Ilyas Kashmiri.

The U.S. Attorney's Office in Chicago released this detailed press release (pdf)on the Indictment. [More...]

Scott Ritter, former chief U.N. weapons inspector in Iraq from 1991-98, is facing charges involving internet sex with a 15 year old. It was a sting.

The online conversation occurred in February 2009, but the investigation lasted until November, when Ritter was charged, because police had to undergo the lengthy process of obtaining court orders to get Ritter's cell phone and computer information.

Ritter is awaiting his next appearance in Monroe County Common Pleas Court. He waived his right last month to a preliminary hearing and is free on $25,000 unsecured bail.

The Affidavit in Support of his arrest is here (pdf). He had a similar charge dismissed in New York in 2001. The DA held a press conference today on the case. [More...]

On Friday, January 22, MTV and George Clooney will host a telethon to raise money for Haiti.

EW reports the show will be simulcast on ABC, NBC, HBO and CNN.

Some folks are up in arms because union leaders protected their membership in their negotiations on the health bill (David Dayen has some details.)

I think people misunderstand precisely what the job of a union leader is - hint - it is not to protect non-union members. Anyone non-union who was counting on the unions to defend their interests probably also believed Obama was going to change politics.

I hold no grudge against the unions. They did their jobs. Folks who want the excise tax fixed further need to understand that fighting for that is their job, not the unions.

Speaking for me only

This dkos diary provides me an opening to AGAIN republish my 2007 They All Disappoint post:

Rescue efforts in Haiti are still facing difficulty in reaching the people. The Red Cross estimates 50,000 have been killed.

It's a race against time.

The pictures and news reports are harrowing. Looting is beginning, bodies are lining the streets and beginning to decay. Disease will begin spreading. The cemetaries are filled, and people are being put in mass graves.

Money is pouring in to relief organizations and countries around the world are trying to help, but the conditions there are so awful, it may be too little too late. The heavy equipment needed to dig out more potential survivors is still not there. People are still alive under the rubble. The medical care is not getting to them quickly enough. They need more supplies and pain meds.

The main port is closed, the airport is strained, relief workers say it's chaos.

With our world filled with tragedy and disappointments, it is important to keep our senses of humor. Luckily, Digby finds a gem for our laughing pleasure:

Why Not Young Luke Russert for [ABC's] This Week?

[More . . .]

The great Teddy Pendergrass passed away last night. My favorite work from Pendergrass was when he sang for Harold Melvin and the Blue Notes. Here is "The Love I Lost" from 1973.

And here is Teddy in 1979 (Teddy was paralyzed from the waist down in an auto accident in 1982) solo doing "Close the Door"

He was a great one. Rest in peace.

According to House Speaker Nancy Pelosi and Rep. Hoyer, the final health reform bill will be online for 72 hours before the House vote so Members and Americans can review.

You can follow the twitter feed of the Official House twitter account for the bill for updates.

BTD and I are both busy at work today. Some other things going on:

The ACLU on the hacking attack on Google (which prompted it to tell the Chinese government it would no longer censor on its behalf):

[W]hen you design information architectures around providing law enforcement with people's personal information, that can open up significant security gaps that become vulnerable to exploitation by hackers.

See this Computer World article.

The Supreme Court may have banned video from the Prop 8 trial, but Firedoglake is there and Marcy Wheeler is live-blogging.

The Immigration Policy Center says granting TPS (Temporary Protected Status) to Haitians is now an urgent matter.

The AP reports a tentative deal on the health care bill Cadillac Tax.

This is an open thread, all topics welcome.

President Obama has named former presidents Bill Clinton and GW Bush to lead the Haiti relief efforts.

While Clinton and GW's father, H.W. Bush, did an admirable job during the 2004 Tsunami, one has to question the selection of GW Bush, given his dismal performance during Katrina, and his administration's unfair, punitive policies on Haitian immigrants, which included keeping them locked up in detention facilities even after immigration judges ordered them released pending hearings. [More...]

At Politico, Radley Balko summarizes Martha Coakley's prosecutorial over-reaching during her career and the threat she poses to those who care about criminal justice reform.

As a member of the Senate, not only would Coakley be creating new federal criminal laws; given her record as a prosecutor, there’s a good chance she’d serve on committees with oversight over the Justice Department and the judiciary. She’d also be casting votes to confirm or deny federal judicial appointments. Advocates for criminal justice reform should be wary. Coakley may share Kennedy’s opposition to the death penalty, but her record as a prosecutor leaves plenty of doubt about her commitment to justice.

I hope if you live in Massachussetts, you don't vote for Martha Coakley. My prior posts on why she should not be Senator are here and here.