The U.S. soldier who opened fire at a counseling center at Camp Liberty in Baghdad today is in custody. He killed five people, presumably fellow soldiers.

As TChris and I wrote separately yesterday, the death penalty phase of a trial for another homicidal former Iraq soldier, Steven Green, begins today in Paducah, KY.

Roxana Sarberi has been freed in Iran and reunited with her parents. She can now return to the U.S.

It looks to me like efforts by the Obama Administration and Secretary of State Hillary Clinton were successful. Iran reduced Sarberi's sentence to a suspended term:

The judiciary spokesman, Jamshidi, said the appeals court reduced her sentence as a gesture of "Islamic mercy" because she had cooperated with authorities and had expressed regret.

In comments to this post, I speculate that the Obama Administration's possible release of a 2004 CIA report on torture may be motivated by former Vice President Dick Cheney's insistence on release of more information on the subject and his assertions that President Obama's abandonment of torture has made the country less safe. Josh Marshall notes the irony that Cheney has become the de facto leading advocate for a torture investigation:

[W]ith his on-going round of aggressive public appearances [Cheney] not only seems to be inviting a public inquiry into Bush administration anti-constitutional practices . . . -- but actually inviting it -- in the sense that he really seems to be pushing for it to happen. In his interview this weekend he seemed to say that he'd be happy to testify under oath about his torture policies. And intentionally or not, he's the one moving the ball forward on the release of various classified documents detailing torture practices.

Beltway stalwarts Fred Hiatt and Stuart Taylor are on board already. What's the hold up?

Speaking for me only

In my discussion of Stuart Taylor's view (I intemperately accused Taylor of dishonesty and later apologised for my characterization) on the effectiveness of torture, I relied on published reports regarding a 2004 report by the CIA Inspector General to support my view that torture was ineffective. Via Greg Sargent, the Washington Post reports that the Obama Administration is considering releasing this 2004 report. If the report is accurate, this should be big news:

It's a shame that the press involves a "public trust." Otherwise, the Media could take its cues from American Idol:

Can a television show with a shrinking audience actually increase its revenue? In the case of “American Idol,” the answer is yes . . . Despite losing viewers in each of the last three years, “American Idol”. . . is generating ever-growing profits for its creators and, it appears, for Fox Broadcasting through brand extensions, marketing arrangements and licensing fees.

The New York Times could sell naming rights - The Federal Express NYTimes? Anyway, this is an Open Thread.

AP reported:

Government exams of the nation's biggest banks have helped lift a cloud of uncertainty that has hung over the economy. . . . "The publication of the stress tests simply cleared the air of uncertainty," said Allen Sinai, chief global economist at Decision Economics. "The results were not scary at all."

Happy to hear it. If that is the case, why in blazes do we need the Geithner Plan? It should be scrapped immediately and all government assistance, from TARP to government guarantees of bank debt should be scrapped as soon as possible, if not immediately.

Speaking for me only

There is one way, over the long haul, to guarantee the appointment of judges that are sensitive to issues of social justice, and that is to win the right to appoint them by recapturing the presidency and the Senate. - Barack Obama, 2005

Via DemfromCt, E.J. Dionne:

When George W. Bush was president, Senate Republicans now proposing to raise an ideological ruckus said Democrats were wrong to use judicial philosophy as a benchmark for confirming a nominee. If a president's picks were formally qualified and intelligent -- and both Chief Justice John Roberts and Associate Justice Samuel Alito were -- that should be enough, the Republicans said.

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You know how thrilled the Obama Administration is when that name gets said in the Media? I know Brian Williams loves Rush Limbaugh, but most of America does not. So Wanda Sykes has done Obama a great favor. I suppose conservatives will feel obliged to be "outraged" about it all, though I thought this was sort of half hearted:

TIME's Joe Klein: "comedy is by definition inappropriate. I mean, this is just comedy. And we're talking about a guy in Rush Limbaugh who is inappropriate half the time I hear him on the radio." "But he doesn't do it at a White House Correspondents' dinner." said [Amanda] Carpenter.

(Emphasis supplied.) Umm, so the problem was Sykes did it at the White House Correspondents Dinner, as opposed Limbaugh doing it on radio? Oookaaay Amanda.

Speaking for me only

"Ignore everything the Justice Department's antitrust lawyers said and did during the Bush administration" is the message Christine Varney, head of the Justice Department’s antitrust division, will be sending to judges and businesses in speeches this week at the Center for American Progress and the Chamber of Commerce. In a reversal of Bush administration policy, Varney plans to enforce the antitrust laws.

In the speeches, Ms. Varney is expected to explicitly warn judges and litigants in antitrust lawsuits not involving the government to ignore the Bush administration’s policies, which were formally outlined in a report by the Justice Department last year. The report applied legal standards that made it difficult to bring new cases involving monopoly and predatory practices. ... During the Bush administration, the Justice Department did not file a single case against a dominant firm for violating the antimonopoly law.

"Warning" judges in a speech not to follow a repudiated policy is an interesting way to advance a legal position. [More ...]

Last year, Jeralyn wrote about the 110 year sentence imposed upon Jesse Spielman for his role in what she called "the ugliest singular atrocity [she could] remember coming out of the Iraq War." Spielman was one of the soldiers tried in courts-martial proceedings for the rape and murder of a 14-year-old girl and the murders of her parents and younger sister in Mahmoudiya. Today Jeralyn wrote about the conviction and upcoming death phase of the trial of Steven Green, who fired the shots that killed the family.

The 110 year sentence should have disturbed "truth in sentencing" advocates, given that Spielman is eligible for parole after serving 10 years. But parole eligibility is only the opportunity for release, not freedom itself. Much more disturbing is the news that Spielman (and two other soldiers who were sentenced to terms of 100 years and 90 years) may be released after serving only 7 years, thanks to a deal they received for testifying against Green.

[more ...]

There's a lot of tv on tonight to cap a very pleasant Mother's Day. First up is the season finale of HBO's The Number One Ladies Detective Agency.

There's the three hour finale of Celebrity Apprentice where Joan Rivers goes to bat against her arch-rival, poker champ Annie Duke. (Joan has the better team but Annie should win since she's the better player. It should be a down and dirty sleaze-fest.) Update: Joan is killing Annie at the task, she really deserves to win. 45 minutes to go though. Update: My final prediction, with 20 minutes to go: Joan wins.

There's also a new Desperate Housewives and the season finale of Brothers and Sisters.

Since I'll be watching all of the above, here's an open thread for TV and for more important things. All topics welcome.

As I wrote here, one of the ugliest atrocities to come out of the Iraq war was the rape and murder of an Iraqi teen and murder of her family members in Mahmoudiya. Jesse Spielman was sentenced to 110 years for his part in the crime, which LNILR said should have been prosecuted as a war crime. Another soldier, Spc. James P. Barker, pleaded guilty to avoid the death penalty.

On Friday, the alleged ringleader of the group, Pvt. Steven Green was convicted of the rape and murders in a federal criminal court trial. He was tried in federal court because he was no longer in the military when the charges were brought. Relatives of the murder victims want the death penalty for Green.

The facts are really ugly. [More...]