This story out of Omaha is just unbelievable. Well, maybe not, after last year's revelation about Frank Pignatelli (see here and here.) But if two cases of using defense lawyers as snitches to make cases against their clients are a trend, this one needs to stop.

Terry L. Haddock, a 52 year old defense lawyer in Omaha, decided to wear a wire while visiting more than 30 times with Shannon Williams, an inmate at the Douglas County Jail in Omaha, and set him up for a money laundering Indictment. From today's news:

Bellevue Police Sgt. John Stuck testified last week that he equipped Haddock with a wire and recorded more than 30 jailhouse meetings between Williams and Haddock in 2009. In the meetings, Stuck said, Williams would use Haddock's cell phone to divvy up hundreds of pounds of marijuana and to launder hundreds of thousands of dollars in drug money.

In their first jail meeting, Stuck said, Haddock informed Williams that he was not acting as an attorney and "would not do any legal work whatsoever for Mr. Williams." Williams disputed that. He said he hired Haddock while he was still out of jail, during his supervised release from a crack- cocaine-dealing conviction.

[More...]

The DC Circuit Court of Appeals today affirmed the denial of a habeas petition by a Yemeni detainee, held since 2002. The case is Al-Bihani v. Obama (Circuit docket 09-5051). The opinion is here. Al-Bihani was a cook who went from Saudi Arabia, through Pakistan, to Afghanistan to help the Taliban fight the Northern Alliance. Along the way, he stayed at guest houses he says were Taliban-affiliated and the Government says were al-Qaeda affiliated

He accompanied and cooked for a paramilitary group allied with the Taliban, known as the 55th Arab Brigade, which the Court says included Al Qaeda members. After the U.S. entered the war in Afghanistan, the group was forced to retreat and surrendered to the Northern Alliance. The Northern Alliance held him until 2002 then turned him over to U.S. forces who sent him to Guantanamo.

ScotusBlog dissects the opinion and what it may mean for other detainees. Essentially, it holds that the President's power to detain non-U.S. citizens is not limited by international law, including the law of war. [More...]

And so it begins. White House Press Secretary Robert Gibbs today said they are halting the transfer of cleared detainees to Yemen:

"One of the very first things Al Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula used as a tool was Gitmo," Gibbs said. "We're not going to make transfers to a country like Yemen that they're not capable of handling (the detainees). While we remain committed to closing the detention facility, the determination has been made that right now any additional transfers to Yemen is not a good idea."

This is unacceptable. Many of these men have been held 9 years, without charges. Many should never have been arrested in the first place. Sending them to Illinois for more indefinite detention is not only unfair to them, it will engender further animosity towards the U.S. and further devalue our core values and principles. [More...]

It is a time honored tactic in a business negotiation (whether it be a corporate takeover or a contract dispute.) We see it now in a somewhat different context - the negotiations of the potential mega fight between Manny Pacquiao and Floyd Mayweather, Jr. Mayweather appeared to be attempting to leverage his demand for Olympic style drug testing for the proposed fight in order to gain some concessions in the negotiations. Or so it appeared to me. The gist of the tactic was rather remarkable - accuse the Pac Man of being a doper and demand the Olympic drug testing standards be imposed for the one fight between Mayweather and Pac-Man. Strangely enough, the Mayweather camp, which includes Oscar de la Hoya's Golden Boy Productions - represents the fighter Shane Mosely - who has admitted to using steroids. Something about glass houses comes to mind.

It is not really important anymore, as the Senate bill will be the final product, but Ezra Klein touts this comparison of the House and Senate health bills.

The House bill is superior in almost every way. Of course that means that the Senate bill will be the final product.

I'll make this an open thread to allow discussion of more relevant issues.

d-day writes:

TPM reports that immigrants rights advocates and their allies in Congress will not block health care legislation that could include harsh anti-immigrant provisions, so long as they extract a promise on comprehensive immigration reform. [. . ] It’s kind of unclear who’s saying what here. Leadership appears secure that the Congressional Hispanic Caucus won’t block the health care bill. There are some anonymous sources claiming that, as trade, they will accept a promise to move on the immigration bill.

(Emphasis supplied.) A promise from whom? Clearly not Obama, who, we have been told, has no power over the Congress. From Speaker Pelosi? Since Ben Nelson decides what legislation passes the Congress, unless the promise is also from him, it seems an empty promise. As d-day argues, "Given the risk-averse nature of this White House and Nancy Pelosi’s vow not to tackle controversial subjects in the House without the Senate going first, it’s puzzling why the CHC would accept any kind of promise as an iron-clad guarantee to move to a bill." Obviously so. Are the CHC members suckers? I think not. They know they are getting nothing. This is a fig leaf.

Speaking for me only

(Also read Jeralyn for a view different than mine) Glenn Greenwald notes the rather hypocritical Obama cheerleading from some on the issue of criminal trials for terrors suspects:

The reality is that the Bush administration used a discretionary multi-tiered justice system for terrorism suspects: they gave civilian trials to some, put others before military commissions, and held the rest indefinitely without charges. That's exactly what the Obama administration's policy is. Back then, virtually no progressives claimed that the Bush administration was "upholding the rule of law" by granting civilian trials to some terrorism suspects and denying them to the rest. How can it possibly be the case that the Obama administration is upholding "the rule of law" when, to use Benen's words, it is according rights to terrorism suspects "the same exact way the Bush administration did" (albeit with some improvements to the military commissions and some new discretionary guidelines to use for who gets a civilian trial and who does not)?

[MORE . . .]

Via Sentencing Law and Policy, the Department of Justice has issued three separate memos to prosecutors on criminal disovery. They are:

• Issuance of Guidance and Summary of Actions Taken in Response to the Report of the Department of Justice Criminal Discovery and Case Management Working Group
• Requirement for Office Discovery Policies in Criminal Matters
• Guidance for Prosecutors Regarding Criminal Discovery

The DOJ announcement of the policies is here.

The New York Times has published its Sunday Magazine feature article, 9 pages long, by Peter Baker on President Obama's handling of the war on terror. Here's what you need to know:

While setting a one-year deadline to close Guantánamo and formally banning the interrogation methods that had already fallen out of favor, he left the surveillance program intact, embraced the Patriot Act, retained the authority to use renditions and embraced some of Bush’s claims to state secrets. He preserved the military commissions and national security letters he criticized during the campaign, albeit with more due-process safeguards. He plans to hold dozens of suspected terrorists without charges indefinitely. And he expanded Bush’s campaign of unmanned drone strikes against Al Qaeda in the tribal areas of Pakistan. Troop levels in Afghanistan are set to triple on his watch.

Bush Administration Veterans say Obama is not "Bush Lite", he is Bush. [More...]

Another season of The Bachelor starts tonight. I'm not expecting much, but it's like a train wreck, I just keep watching. I think Jake will make a terrible bachelor, he's bland, cheesy and moralistic. I'm hoping the women provide some fireworks.

For those of you not watching, and I suspect that's all of you, this is an open thread, all topics welcome.

The ACLU weighed in today on the new TSA airplane security rules, and the increase of whole body imaging scanners.

[T]he government should adhere to longstanding standards of individualized suspicion and enact security measures that are the least threatening to civil liberties and are proven to be effective. Racial profiling and untargeted body scanning do not meet those criteria.

..."We should be focusing on evidence-based, targeted and narrowly tailored investigations based on individualized suspicion, which would be both more consistent with our values and more effective than diverting resources to a system of mass suspicion," said Michael German, national security policy counsel with the ACLU Washington Legislative Office and a former FBI agent. "Overbroad policies such as racial profiling and invasive body scanning for all travelers not only violate our rights and values, they also waste valuable resources and divert attention from real threats."

[More...]

Terry Harrington and Curtis W. McGhee Jr. were wrongfully convicted of murder in Iowa and served 25 years. The Iowa Supreme Court vacated their convictions, saying the prosecutors failed to disclose exculpatory evidence of an alternative suspect.

The men then sued in federal court, also alleging the prosecutors had procured false testimony against them. They won on that claim, and the 8th Circuit Court of Appeals affirmed, holding a prosecutor’s procurement of false testimony “violates a [criminal defendant’s] substantive due process rights.” The Supreme Court agreed to decide the case and heard oral arguments. The case was Pottawattamie County v. McGhee, 08-1065.

Now, a settlement has been reached. Harrington and McGhee will get $12 million, and the Supreme Court has dismissed the case, meaning no ruling will be forthcoming on whether prosecutors can claim personal immunity for such misdeeds. [More...]