It seems more likely than ever that the campaign against Rep. Jane Harman (D-CA) that we have seen unfold, day after day, principally in the publication CQ, is emanating from former CIA Director Porter Goss and his acolytes. Today Goss goes public with his campaign, and adds Speaker Pelosi to his list of targets. (See also Marcy Wheeler.) And now is revealed one of his principal motives - defending torture and his involvement in it. Goss writes:

I do not recall a single objection from my colleagues. They did not vote to stop authorizing CIA funding. And for those who now reveal filed "memorandums for the record" suggesting concern, real concern should have been expressed immediately -- to the committee chairs, the briefers, the House speaker or minority leader, the CIA director or the president's national security adviser -- and not quietly filed away in case the day came when the political winds shifted. And shifted they have.

What nonsense from Goss. I wonder if there was a line item in the budget for "torture" in the CIA budget? Could Goss point that line item out for us please? More . . .

While most people will focus on Dick Cheney being proven wrong, again, my concern is with the guy in office now, Obama Administration Director of National Intelligence Dennis Blair, who strangely (or not so strangely) gets a pass from the Left blogs (see Greg Sargent, Steve Benen and Media Matters on the subject) for his statements about the effectiveness (and, in the "dark days after 9/11," as opposed to the "lear days of April 2009," the understandability of ordering torture - who could "find fault" for what was done then asks Blair) Imagine if Jane Harman had said what Blair said? They'd be hanging her from a sour apple tree. In any event, both Dennis Blair and Dick Cheney are proven wrong (and Jane Harman right) by this report:

The CIA inspector general in 2004 found that there was no conclusive proof that waterboarding or other harsh interrogation techniques helped the Bush administration thwart any "specific imminent attacks," according to recently declassified Justice Department memos.

Cheney will continue to lie about this. Will Dennis Blair? Will anyone on the Left ask about what Dennis Blair thinks of this?

Speaking for me only

We knew this was coming but it's still jarring to see and it is the dead wrong approach to combating Mexico's drug problems.

The Pentagon and Homeland Security Department are developing contingency plans to send National Guard troops to the U.S.-Mexican border under a $350 million initiative that would expand the U.S. military's role in the war on drugs, according to Obama administration officials.

...The initiative, which was tucked into a supplemental budget request sent to Congress this month, has raised concerns over what some U.S. officials perceive as an effort by the Pentagon to increase its counter-narcotics profile through a large pot of money that comes with few visible requirements.

The White House began briefing House and Senate Committees on the plan this week. I complained last month about the $350 million in the budget for the military's use in the war on drugs here, suggesting the U.S. War on Drugs abroad is getting its own stimulus package. [More...]

The swine flu outbreak in Mexico may have killed 60 people so far.

Mexico City has closed universities and schools until further notice, suspended all major public events and advised people feeling flu-like symptoms to stay home from work. Mexico City's busiest subway stations are handing out face masks to passengers to use on crowded train carriages. The city government has closed museums, including the popular Anthropology Museum.

It is believed to have spread to the U.S. where 8 cases have been reported (Thankfully, no deaths among them.) This is a strain of flu that is quite dangerous and never been seen before.

The virus is an influenza A virus, carrying the designation H1N1 and is spreading from person to person. It contains DNA from avian, swine and human viruses, including elements from European and Asian swine viruses, according to the U.S. Centres for Disease Control and Prevention, or CDC.

How do you get it? [More...]

Via George Stephanopoulos on today's LA Times article reporting up to seven of the Uighur detainees at Guantanamo may be released into the U.S.

Hill sources tell me that Congressional leaders were told today that Guantanamo detainees from China - the Uighurs - are likely to soon be released into the United States, most likely to the Virginia suburbs. These notifications follow this front page story today in the Los Angeles Times.

Stephanopoulos quotes Penatagon sources as saying it's not a done deal, just a "toe in the water." Our prior coverage of the Uighurs is assembled here.

As for the remaining detainees, a jail in Montana is considering making an offer to house them. The effort has received approval from the City Council.

Paul Krugman:

[T]he only way we can regain our moral compass, not just for the sake of our position in the world, but for the sake of our own national conscience, is to investigate how that happened, and, if necessary, to prosecute those responsible. . . [T]he fact is that officials in the Bush administration instituted torture as a policy, misled the nation into a war they wanted to fight and, probably, tortured people in the attempt to extract “confessions” that would justify that war. And during the march to war, most of the political and media establishment looked the other way.

Glenn Greenwald writes:

Bush-defending opponents of investigations and prosecutions think they've discovered a trump card: the claim that Democratic leaders such as Nancy Pelosi, Jay Rockefeller and Jane Harman were briefed on the torture programs and assented to them.

An inconvenient truth to both Republicans and Harman hating liberals - Harman opposed torture (see also Marcy Wheeler):

I'll be visiting clients at the jail most of the day, so here's an open thread for you.

All topics welcome.

The Obama Justice Department, in briefs filed by Bush holdover U.S. Attorney Mary Beth Buchanan (the one who prosecuted Tommy Chong and successfully sought a prison term for his shipping drug paraphernalia through the mail, and the one who prosecuted a 56 year old recluse for writing obscenity, and the one who has said Obama should let her stay on the job after his election) has taken the position that your whereabouts, as determined from your cell phone through records kept by your cell phone provider, is not protected by the Fourth Amendment.

There has been a split among federal district courts on this. Most say that before the Government can request cell phone providers to turn over cell site locator records -- which show where you are when on the phone by showing where your phone is when it is turned on -- they must submit an affidavit showing probable cause for the request. That's because unlike a pen register, which only shows numbers dialed from the phone, or a trap and trace, which shows numbers calling the phone, cell site tower records show the location of the the phone when being used. That makes it like a tracking device and people have an expectation of privacy in their whereabouts.

The first case to hit the federal appellate courts on the issue is one from the Western District of Pennsylvania -- thus the involvement of AUSA Mary Beth Buchanan. [More...]

More true colors?

The Justice Department is asking the Supreme Court to overrule Michigan v. Jackson, the 1986 Supreme Court decision that held that if police may not interrogate a defendant after the right to counsel has attached, if the defendant has a lawyer or has requested a lawyer.

[T]he protection offered by the court in Stevens' 1986 opinion is especially important for vulnerable defendants, including the mentally and developmentally disabled, addicts, juveniles and the poor,

This isn't the first time the Justice Department, under President Obama, has sought to limit defendants' rights. [More...]

So much for turning a new leaf on medical marijuana prosecutions.

The U.S. Attorney's office in California will seek a five year jail term for medical pot dispensor Charles Lynch.

Mr. Lynch, who ran a small dispensary in the surfing hamlet of Morro Bay, has become a symbol for the medical marijuana movement since his shop was raided in 2007. A registered business owner, Mr. Lynch has the support of the city’s mayor, city attorney, and the local chamber of commerce.

Medical marijuana advocates see the case as a test of the Obama administration’s policy of non-interference on state marijuana laws. California is one of 13 states that allow the cultivation and sale of marijuana for medicinal purposes.

Sentencing was continued today until June. Attorney General Eric Holder's appointee, H. Marshall Jarrett, is "guiding" the U.S. Attorney in seeking the jail term. Here is the pleading with Jarrett's letter attached. The Judge is George H. Wu, "a Bush appointed jurist who is hearing his first federal case." More here.

I missed the whole day's news due to work, but I'm going to catch up as I watch TV: there's a new episode of Gray's Anatomy, and Southland, the new, depressing LA cop show, is more watchable than Crash.

Think good thoughts for Jay Leno who is in the hospital with an undisclosed but reportedly minor illness. He's expected back next week.

This is an open thread, all topics welcome. What's on your agenda and mind tonight?