On Congress and the Congressional Big Dig

The Corner writes:

Anybody who has walked by the east side of the Capitol in the last few years knows that there's a big construction project going on. It's for an underground visitors center. Here's the shocking news: It's costing far more than originally planned and taking years longer than expected to complete . . . . If Congress cannot properly oversee a project that's taking place in its own backyard—literally!—then how can it oversee anything?

Good question. The project they're talking about is the new Vistor's Center to the US Capitol building.

It was first meant to be opened in 2005, but the opening date has been repeatedly pushed back and the cost overruns have meant that the price tag has doubled.

Now, some of the reasons for the cost increase are reasonable - in the aftermath of the 9/11 attacks, the need to add security screening facilities became that much more apparent and the facility needed to handle a larger number of people. All visitors to the Capitol would be screened in this facility.

However, some costs make little sense. Congress wanted to have more conference and office space, and when it comes to outfitting Congressional space, no expense is spared. Those are places that would not be generally accessible to the public.

Among the facilities included are:

Congress appropriated funding to outfit the space in 2001. The designs were completed in 2003, and work began in 2005.

The House got, among other things, a regal two-story hearing room in its wing, said D. Rodman Henderer, a senior vice president with the Baltimore architectural firm RTKL, which designed the center.

The Senate wanted a series of small hearing rooms on its side, along with a huge TV-radio studio, complete with makeup facilities, for senators to create messages they could send to constituents, Henderer said.

I find it curious that among those supporting this expenditure are Mary Landrieu (D-LA), whose home state is still suffering from the after effects of the 2005 Gulf Coast hurricanes. Did she not think that saving money in one place (like in Congress' own backyard) could be used to fund programs in her home state? No, she, like most members of Congress think that revenue from taxpayers is a piggy bank that never ends. She and the other members of Congress benefit the most from the profligate spending and taxpayer interests are a distant concern.

I've seen this before. John Miller thinks this reminds him of Boston's Big Dig. I have another program that is similarly bloated and plagued by cost overruns. Can you say Secaucus Transfer?

I knew you could.

That project was originally given a price tag of $250 million to link nearly all NJ Transit lines in one place and serve as a hub for new retail and office construction. Instead, the facility is underutilized, no retail or office construction has taken place, and the price tag still isn't entirely clear - the estimates range from $450 million to $750 million and more - not counting what debt payments taxpayers are on the hook for.

Government agencies, and the federal government itself, does not always act with the best interests of taxpayers in mind. They engage in profligate spending on projects of dubious need - the Bridge to Nowhere comes to mind.

At this point, the spending will continue until someone in Congress demands accountability or the project is eventually completed.

Extended Weekend Open Posting

I'll be unavailable for a wee bit, so consider this an open post to showcase your best and brightest postings.

Bogus

If you think that you saw a posting by US News and World Reports writer Michael Barone about the developing situation regarding the dismissal of eight US prosecutors, you weren't seeing things. Someone did post an article about that subject.

Problem is that it wasn't Barone.

The US News website was hacked and someone published that story under his name, but it wasn't him. Barone actually wrote Andrew Sullivan (who at first was duped by the hacker - though not the only one according to memeorandum):

"I'm pretty sure I haven't commented on the firing of the U.S. attorneys. I really haven't looked into it enough to be able to comment knowledgeably."

One has to wonder how many people have relied on the faux Barone posting.

Muslim Student Suing Newark Over Public School Graduation at Church

A Muslim student is suing the City of Newark for holding a public school graduation at a church. The student claims that his civil rights and liberties were violated because he could not attend the ceremony because it would violate precepts of his religious faith.

The church was selected because the size of the graduating class limited the number of venues that could be used.

I frankly don't think that this case has much chance of success, but the ACLU is involved, so we'll see.

UPDATE:
Trackposted to Outside the Beltway, Blog @ MoreWhat.com, Perri Nelson's Website, Big Dog's Weblog, basil's blog, A Few Shiny Pebbles, The Amboy Times, Conservative Cat, Pursuing Holiness, Allie Is Wired, Right Celebrity, Faultline USA, stikNstein... has no mercy, Overtaken by Events, Pirate's Cove, The Pink Flamingo, Dumb Ox Daily News, High Desert Wanderer, and Right Voices, thanks to Linkfest Haven Deluxe.

Cutting Ties?

Hekmatyar is a loathsome and violent guy, but there's a reason he's survived as long as he has. He knows when to switch sides.

Fugitive Afghan rebel leader Gulbuddin Hekmatyar told The Associated Press that his forces have ended cooperation with the Taliban and suggested that he was open to talks with embattled President Hamid Karzai.

In a video response to questions submitted by AP, Hekmatyar said that his group contacted Taliban leaders in 2003 and agreed to wage a joint jihad, or holy war, against American troops.

"The jihad went into high gear but later it gradually went down as certain elements among the Taliban rejected the idea of a joint struggle against the aggressor," Hekmatyar said in the video, which was received Thursday. Hekmatyar wore glasses and a black turban as he spoke in front of a plain white wall at an undisclosed location.

There's a good reason that this guy has survived in one of the most inhospitable regions on the planet. He apparently has the knack to know which side has the most power at any given moment in a fluid and changing Afghan political landscape.

This may be his attempt to secure his survival for just a bit longer considering the world of hurt the NATO and US forces are busy inflicting on the Taliban in advance of their annual spring offensive.

Considering that quite a few Taliban leaders have been rolled up in recent weeks, he would have nothing to gain by siding with the group as their reputation and leadership goes down the drain. This doesn't mean that he's changed his stripes. Indeed, the US still considers him a terrorist on their watch list and have tried to eliminate him on several occasions.

That there are even reports of US forces operating in Warizistan (inside Pakistan) going after Taliban and al Qaeda are probably giving Hekmatyar second thoughts about the survivability of the Taliban. He's probably looking for the best deal to bide his time until he can strike out on his own.

The Latest Democrat War Plan Still Falls Short

What is it with Democrats and their desire to set clear dates for withdrawal from Iraq, even if the missions and viability of Iraq are incomplete? Have the Democrats learned nothing from the failures of military operations in the past where partisan domestic political considerations resulted in carnage on a far greater scale than seeing things through to completion?

Short answer is no. They still want to cut and run, but they've found that the American people wouldn't like that one bit so they've had to recast the cut and run under different terms (and different time frames).

Of course, domestic political considerations govern every aspect of the decision on Iraq, considering that they supported the ascendancy of Gen. Petraeus by overwhelming numbers, but complained and sought to undermine the troop surge, despite the fact that the surge was an idea proposed by Petraeus himself. He's actually calling for more military police troops to be sent to Iraq to police those who are captured by the coalition forces.

How will the Democrats in Congress react? They're going to react as they have for the past few years - they're stick their finger in the wind and see whether support or opposition to the latest request will play in polls and their chances for 2008.

The domestic political considerations are already taking a toll on Pelosi's ability to keep the caucus together, with Blue Dog Democrats screaming bloody hell if the caucus adopts a cut and run - in part because they were the most vulnerable to being tossed out by their constituents and the safe seats have no problem pushing a more radical agenda, even if only a minority in the country want to see the US tuck tail and run from Iraq.

One Step Away From Big Dance

My alma mater, SUNY Albany, is one step away from landing another automatic berth in the Big Dance. They need to win the America East Conference Finals against top seeded Vermont to have another shot.

Albany is the defending champion, and nearly made history in their first ever appearance. They not only played top seeded UConn close, but nearly pulled off the first ever upset of a number 1 seed by a 16 seed until UConn pulled away with a late game surge.

Good luck Danes!

Sentencing Day For Albany Terror Convicts

Yassin Aref and Mohammed Hossain will walk into U.S. District Court this morning knowing that hundreds of people, some of them strangers, have asked a federal judge to show them mercy.

The Muslim men, an imam and a pizzeria owner, were convicted in October of money laundering and conspiring to aid terrorism after being snared in an FBI sting that startled the region, playing on post-9/11 fears of terrorist plots.


Prosecutors have asked the judge to follow stiff federal sentencing guidelines that call for decades in prison for their roles in the fictitious plot to sell a shoulder-fired missile to terrorists targeting a Pakistani diplomat. Both face a recommended sentence between 30 years and life.

It's a curious thing that the reporter would latch onto the fact that these two convicted felons have supporters who are hoping for mercy as the lede and not the fact that these two were convicted of money laundering and conspiring to aid terrorism. Their entrapment defense didn't work, nor did claims that the evidence against them was unlawfully obtained.

UPDATE:
15 years for Aref.

UPDATE:
Hossein got the same sentence. 15 years.

Defected

A RETIRED Iranian general who went missing in Turkey last month has defected and sought asylum in the US, according to a well-connected Arabic newspaper published in London.

The newspaper, al-Shark al-Awsat, cited "high-profile" sources saying former Iranian deputy defence minister and Revolutionary Guard commander Ali Reza Asghari had gone over to the West.

Reports from Istanbul that General Asghari's family had also disappeared in Turkey support the likelihood that he defected rather than was kidnapped by either the CIA or by Israel's Mossad, as has been speculated. The general went missing from his Istanbul hotel a month ago.

Iranian authorities, who have been silent on the disappearance until this week, claim he has been abducted. "It is likely Asghari has been abducted by Western intelligence services," said Iran's top police officer, General Esmaeil Ahmadi Moghaddam.

Defection of such a high-ranking figure would leave no external enemy to blame and would be seen as a rejection of the Islamic state by someone who well knows its inner workings.

General Asghari's crossing of the line, whether voluntary or not, is a resounding blow for the Iranian Government since he is privy to its most intimate secrets, particularly those concerning its nuclear capabilities and plans.

He served until two years ago as deputy defence minister, a post he held for eight years and which presumably offered an uninhibited view of virtually every aspect of Iran's security apparatus.

This may leave a serious mark on the Iranian plans for the region. Imagine the information that he is providing on current plans and details on old operations that fill in the blanks.

Another possibility is that he had been providing intel to the West for some time, and now was the time he had to come in from the cold because his situation was going to be uncovered by the Iranian intel agencies. In that case, far from being an intel coup, this is a loss for Western intel assets in the region since they've lost a source on the inside. I doubt we're going to find out which way this news leans for a long time to come.

Libby Errata

The unseriousness of this juror who sat on the case is astounding. She played a role in the conviction of Libby but wants to see him pardoned for the sheer fun of it all.

Let that sink in folks.

She thinks that a trial that could send Libby up the river for a significant chunk of time thinks it would be fun to watch the President pardon him.

Did she think that he was guilty? Libby's lawyers have to be salivating all over this kind of stuff.

Then, there's the story in today's Washington Post by Robert Novak, whose original story way back started this whole mess in motion. The prime points raised:

The Libby trial uncovered no plot hatched in the White House. The worst news Tuesday for firebrand Democrats was that Special Counsel Patrick Fitzgerald was going back to his "day job" (as U.S. attorney in Chicago). With no underlying crime even claimed, the only question was whether Libby had consciously and purposefully lied to FBI agents and the grand jury about how he learned of Mrs. Wilson's identity.

While my column on Wilson's mission triggered Libby's misery, I played but a minor role in his trial. Subpoenaed by his defense team, I testified that I had phoned him in reporting the Wilson column and that he had said nothing about Wilson's wife. Other journalists said the same thing under oath, but we apparently made no impression on the jury.

The trial provided no information whatsoever about Valerie Plame's status at the CIA at the time I revealed her role in her husband's mission. No hard evidence was produced that Libby was ever told she was undercover. Fitzgerald had argued that whether or not she was covert was not material to this trial, and U.S. District Judge Reggie B. Walton had so ruled. Yet in his closing argument, Fitzgerald referred to Mrs. Wilson's secret status, and in answer to a reporter's question after the verdict, he said she was "classified."

In fact, her being classified -- that is, that her work was a government secret -- did not in itself meet the standard required for prosecution of the leaker (former deputy secretary of state Armitage) under the Intelligence Identities Protection Act of 1982. That statute limits prosecution to exposers of covert intelligence activities overseas, whose revelation would undermine U.S. intelligence. That is why Fitzgerald did not move against Armitage.

Some questions I was asked in television and radio interviews after the verdict implied that I had revealed Armitage's name to Fitzgerald.

Actually, in my first interview with Fitzgerald after he was named special prosecutor, he indicated that he knew Armitage was my leaker. I assumed that was the product of detective work by the FBI. In fact, Armitage had turned himself in to the Justice Department three months before Fitzgerald entered the case, without notifying the White House or releasing me from my requirement of confidentiality.

On Fox's "Hannity & Colmes" Tuesday night, superlawyer David Boies said Fitzgerald never should have prosecuted Libby because there was no underlying criminal violation. Boies scoffed at Fitzgerald's contention that Libby had obstructed him from exposing criminal activity. Boies, who represented Al Gore in the 2000 election dispute, is hardly a Bush sympathizer. But neither is he a Democratic partisan trying to milk this obscure scandal.

So, Fitzgerald knew from the outset of the investigation that Armitage was the leaker, and still engaged in the investigation despite the fact that no laws were broken - specifically the Intelligence Identities Protection Act of 1982. That is a curious position to be in, although it was still within his right and purview to ensure that there were no other contemporaneous leaks.

Some would argue that this is yet another case of prosecutorial misconduct, and Libby's lawyers will be sure to raise this in their appeal as well. With no underlying crime to investigate, there was no reason for further investigations into the case, let alone the Libby prosecution on unrelated matters that only arose in the course of an investigation after Fitzgerald already knew no criminal acts occurred by the release of Plame's name.

I think the defense will look at all the information that is filtering out about the deliberations, the trial, and the process and put together an appeal that hits upon many of the points raised by critics of the case. I find myself largely in agreement with Patterico over the handling of the case. Much of the criticism that Fitzgerald is receiving is over a judgment call that could have gone either way - namely whether to proceed to see if there were contemporaneous leakers or not, and then once that was determined, whether or not to prosecute Libby for the statements made to the grand jury and FBI that conflicted.

Meanwhile, Lorie Byrd wonders why so many still think that Joe Wilson is a trustworthy character since so many of his statements have been debunked by Congressional committees and the 9/11 commission report. Partisanship plays a big part in that.

Others commenting on this situation - and specifically questioning why a juror who just spent 10+ days deliberating and finding Libby guilty would now want to see him pardoned: AJ Strata, Ed Morrissey, Blue Crab Boulevard, Wizbang,

Ex-Navy Sailor Arrested on Terrorism Charges

A former Navy enlisted man was arrested and charged with violating terrorism and espionage laws by passing along sensitive information about the vulnerability of Navy ships to al-Qaida associates, sources told NBC News on Wednesday.

Officials already knew naval information had been relayed but just recently named a suspect.

Paul R. Hall, now known as Hassan Abujihaad, 31, was arrested Wednesday in Phoenix, Ariz., said the sources, who spoke on condition of anonymity. He is accused of sending classified information about the movements of a Navy battle group deployed to the Persian Gulf in the spring of 2001. The document discussed potential vulnerabilities to attack. It was sent to the operators of a London Web site, Assam Publications, who have since been arrested on terrorism charges. Their arrests in 2004 first exposed the contacts.

Abujihaad (translated to English means son of Jihad) had access and contacts.

So, if this case pans out, it would appear that the laws enabling the listening in on communications from outside the US to US contacts successfully uncovered a threat to national security.

This is the same kind of program that the NYT and other leftists opposed because they claimed it would violate civil rights. Ponder that a moment.

And apparently that's just the tip of the iceberg.

Ahmad was arrested in 2004 but the case against Abujihaad apparently received a boost in December following the arrest of Derrick Shareef, 22, of Genoa, Ill., near Chicago, who was accused of planning to use hand grenades to attack holiday shoppers at a mall.

According to the affidavit, Shareef and Abujihaad lived together in 2004 when Ahmad was arrested. After reading news reports of the case, Abujihaad became upset and said, "I think this is about me," Shareef told investigators.

Authorities then taped a phone conversation between Abujihaad and an informant in which Abujihaad appeared nervous. Though Abujihaad didn't say outright that he was involved in the leak of classified information, the affidavit provided enough evidence for an arrest warrant.

Abujihaad received an honorable discharge from the Navy in 2002, according to the affidavit.

Derek Shareef was arrested on charges to attack a mall at Christmas time - hoping to maximize kills. At the time, he was considered a lone wolf. That characterization should certainly change in light of this new evidence.

This is all about connecting dots. Sometimes they're easy to discern. Sometimes they take time to develop. However, these threats are continuing to pop up.

How Should Libby Get Sentenced?

Drawn and quartered? To the four winds? Strung up? Tarred and feathered?

None of those punishments are available and they obviously are not going to happen no matter where you reside on the ideological spectrum, so how about looking at what the law dictates under these circumstances. Jeralyn Meritt who has been covering the trial from the outset does a pretty good job laying out the setencing guidelines.

As she correctly notes, the talk about 25 years prison is the maximum authorized by law, but not what he will most likely receive. She thinks that the lowest the guidelines offer is 15 to 21 months while the high end would push out to 24 to 33 months. The sentencing guidelines are further explained by White Collar Crime Blog and the Sentencing Law and Policy Blog, who notes how the guidelines operate.

Based on the guidelines alone, I think those numbers are reasonable. However, this is a case with political ramifications as well, and it would be wise to examine similar and/or contemporaneous acts.

How the courts have dealt with other high profile cases involving perjury or obstruction of justice is a good place to start. Former President Bill Clinton comes to mind. After all, he was impeached for giving false and misleading statements in relation to the Lewinsky matter (itself a sidebar issue arising from the Whitewater investigation). Losing the law license is a definite possibility with no time served.

Then, there's the case of Sandy Berger, who received nothing more than a slap on the wrist. I found that to be a travesty of the law considering that he was involved in the destruction of classified documents and quite likely impeded the federal investigation into the 9/11 attacks by destroying documents that might have shed an uncomfortable light on the acts of the Clinton Administration. Those actions are just as, if not more, dangerous and undermine the legal system and national security, as any claimed against Libby.

Take the sentencing guidelines and combine with the political component, and you begin to get the idea in the complexity of the issue facing the judge. If a harsh sentence comes down, those who argue for a strict adherence to the guidelines - many of whom are Republicans - would complain that one of their own are getting hit in a way that a Democrat never was (see Berger and Clinton), while if he gets a slap on the wrist Democrats will complain that it was a miscarriage of justice. And both sides would be right. This is the hypocrisy of the Beltway political dance. There were miscarriages of justice here on both sides of the aisle, but not in the way that the partisans think.

Clinton and Berger got slaps on the wrist when their acts actually warranted much more serious punishment. Both will be able to practice law again and Berger will even be able to review classified documents in the near future. Libby's career would be seriously harmed by the imposition of an appropriate sentence under the guidelines. There's a reason that the sentencing guidelines are there and why judges should follow them - to prevent abuse and arbitrary sentences handed down.

However, that dichotomy (the political considerations and the guideline recommendations) leads me to think that the Libby sentencing will go the way of a slap on the wrist, though if the judge thinks that a pardon might be in the offing, might push a harsher sentence within the guidelines. This is Beltway politics after all.

Still, before we reach that point, there's the not insignificant point of the appeals process. Libby's defense team is more than likely going to appeal the decision on the facts and the law. They feel that there is more than enough here to merit an appeal and Libby's lawyer was quite clear that he believed that Libby was innocent. Things that work in his favor is the Cooper charge where he was found not guilty, the exclusion of certain evidence that the defense thought would be exculpatory, and various other details and inconsistencies in the witness testimony.

Of course talk will drift to the notion of a presidential pardon, but I think such talk is premature. Things have yet to play out fully on the appeals process, and in any event, Bush would not pardon Libby until after the November 2008 election on his way out of office.

Guess the date of the pardon and win a prize. Heh. If he receives one, it's going to be December 24, 2008.

UPDATE:
This editorial from the Washington Post should not be missed. The biggest loser in the entire kerfuffle? The media. The problem is that many of them don't even recognize it just yet.

Captain America Cut Down By Sniper

The venerable Marvel Comics character Captain America has been killed off in the upcoming publication. The character is killed by a sniper who first hits him in the shoulder and then a gut shot.

Captain America is dead. The Marvel Entertainment superhero, created in 1941 as a patriotic adversary for the Nazis, is killed off in Captain America #25, which hits the stands today.
As Captain America emerges from a courthouse building, he is struck by a sniper's bullet in the shoulder and then hit again in the stomach, blood seeping out of his star-spangled costume.

His death is sure to ignite controversy in the comic book world - still reeling from Superman's death in 1993 and resurrection the following year - and even political pundits, who may see Captain America's demise as an allegory for the United States.

"It's a hell of a time for him to go. We really need him now," said co-creator Joe Simon, 93, after being informed of his brainchild's death.

Captain America, whose alter ego is Steve Rogers, differed from many other superheroes because he had no innate superpowers. Also, he was a NYC guy - born on the Lower East Side and lived in Red Hook in Brooklyn.

However, since this is the comic book world we're talking about , expect the death to not last all that long - a retconning is all too likely.

Free Speech Threatened in France

The French Constitutional Council has approved a law that criminalizes the filming or broadcasting of acts of violence by people other than professional journalists. The law could lead to the imprisonment of eyewitnesses who film acts of police violence, or operators of Web sites publishing the images, one French civil liberties group warned on Tuesday.

The council chose an unfortunate anniversary to publish its decision approving the law, which came exactly 16 years after Los Angeles police officers beating Rodney King were filmed by amateur videographer George Holliday on the night of March 3, 1991. The officers’ acquittal at the end on April 29, 1992 sparked riots in Los Angeles.

If Holliday were to film a similar scene of violence in France today, he could end up in prison as a result of the new law, said Pascal Cohet, a spokesman for French online civil liberties group Odebi. And anyone publishing such images could face up to five years in prison and a fine of €75,000 (US$98,537), potentially a harsher sentence than that for committing the violent act.

This is a blatant attempt to protect so-called professional journalists and can have a chilling effect on free speech in France by limiting the rights of non-journalists to post newsworthy and important images and stories of their own. Those citizen journalists talked about in the aforementioned article include bloggers.

In effect, it is setting up a bifurcated approach to free speech - one level of protection for journalists, and another one for the rest of the French.

Another issue is that quite a few professional journalists now rely on photos taken by amateurs on cellphones or digital cameras to break news - this law would make those acts illegal. How does this improve the delivery of news and information? It does not.

No Pasaran has more.

Another Taliban Leader Nabbed

Afghan soldiers caught a senior Taliban commander at a checkpoint who was wearing a burqa, while NATO forces on Wednesday fought Taliban militants in the second day of the alliance's largest-ever offensive in Afghanistan.

Mullah Mahmood, who is accused of helping the Taliban detonate homicide bombs, was caught Tuesday in Kandahar province while wearing the all-encompassing Islamic veil worn here by women, NATO said.

This makes for yet another high profile Taliban leader nabbed in the last several weeks. It would appear that the earlier captures of top Taliban leaders have yielded results, as has apparently VP Cheney's visit to Pakistan to put pressure on Pakistani leader Musharaf to take the fight to the Taliban and al Qaeda elements along the Afghan-Pakistani border

Mysterious Incidents Connected to Russia Continue Piling Up...

...as does the speculation as to whether Russia's Vlad Putin is behind the murders and poisonings of critics, rivals, and potential threats to his power.

The latest incident is the thallium poisoning of two American women.

The U.S. Embassy on Wednesday confirmed that two American women have been hospitalized in Moscow for possible thallium poisoning.

The spokesman identified the women as Marina Kovalevsky and her daughter, Yana, but did not give further details. He said they were hoping to return home soon, but it was not immediately clear when they might be able to do so.

Citing unidentified medical authorities, the Interfax news agency later reported that the women had been discharged from the hospital in the morning and left for the United States in the afternoon. The U.S. Embassy could not confirm the report.

The hospital where they have been treated since falling ill on Feb. 24 said Wednesday morning that they were in moderately serious condition. Moscow's top public health doctor, Nikolai Filatov, was quoted by the RIA-Novosti news agency as saying that thallium poisoning had been confirmed.

It's unclear at this time what made these two women the target of a poisoning. This is an issue to continue keeping tabs on.

LAX Weirdness

What the heck was this guy up to and why did he think that flying on a plane with an electronic device stuffed up his rectum was acceptable?

An Iraqi immigrant with a suspicious device stuffed into a body cavity was detained at Los Angeles International Airport on Tuesday and a Philadelphia-bound jetliner was diverted to Las Vegas because his luggage was aboard, authorities said.

The device and the luggage were cleared by bomb squads in Los Angeles and Las Vegas.

"There never was a threat," said Larry Fetters, security director at Los Angeles International Airport for the federal Transportation Security Administration.

Fadhel Al-Maliki, 35, of Atlantic City, N.J., was held for a mental evaluation and for a possible immigration violation, federal officials said.

Al-Maliki is a permanent legal resident who came to the United States in 1994.

He had flown into Los Angeles from Philadelphia on Monday and was booked for a Tuesday return flight when he was chosen for extra security screening around 5:30 a.m. at Terminal One, which houses US Airways, America West and Southwest Airlines.

He triggered an alert during the secondary screening and immediately told screeners about the device he was carrying, FBI spokeswoman Laura Eimiller said.

"He initially said it was therapeutic," she said.

The device had a wire and what may have been a magnet concealed in his rectum, federal officials said.

It did not contain any explosives, Eimiller said.

Al-Maliki said he had flown to Los Angeles for a visit but details were unclear, Eimiller said.

The terminal remained open during the incident and no takeoffs or landings were affected, but a US Airways jet en route to Philadelphia was diverted because Al-Maliki's checked luggage already had been screened and put aboard the plane.

One question immediately comes to mind. If the individual was stopped and prevented from flying, why were his bags allowed to continue on with the flight?

Others blogging: Michelle Malkin, Jammie Wearing Fool, and Hot Air (who offers a similar exit question).

Grand Jury To Consider Hurricane Katrina Deaths

A special grand jury that will decide whether to bring murder charges against a doctor and two nurses accused of administering lethal injections to four patients at Memorial Hospital was sworn in Tuesday, kicking off what could be months of testimony, Orleans Parish prosecutors said.

The Memorial grand jury will meet an undisclosed location, in an attempt to prevent the news media from staking out witnesses, said Dalton Savwoir, spokesman for District Attorney Eddie Jordan.

The grand jury, which includes fourteen jurors and two alternates, was chosen in mid-February and may not hear testimony for several days, Savwoir confirmed. It will deal exclusively with the Memorial case.

The murder probe was initiated last summer by Louisiana Attorney General Charles Foti Jr., who ordered the arrests of Dr. Anna Maria Pou and nurses Lori Budo and Cheri Landry for allegedly committing second-degree murder during the sweltering days after Hurricane Katrina, when Memorial was marooned as Claiborne Avenue became a river.

Foti said the three women conspired to deliver lethal injections of sedatives and morphine to kill four patients shortly before the hospital was evacuated.

34 patients died at the facility in the hours and days after Katrina hit. These four cases may be the easiest to prove were the result of actions taken by the staff.

The discovery of patients that may have been murdered by staff at New Orleans medical facilities, along with the deaths at St. Rita's Nursing Home were shocking because these were people who relied on the staff for their care and expertise to keep them safe. They failed miserably.

Polar Opposites

When is one thing not like the other and yet diplomats, pundits, and media outlets think that the results will be different? When the subject is Israel.

Item 1:
Olmert, Rice, and Abbas to meet ahead of yet another summit on Israel-Palestinian peace process. Funny, but it isn't much of a process unless the Palestinians begin to accept the reality that Israel isn't going away. Israel exists. Deal with that and stop with the incitement to violence.

Item 2:
Hamas' Mashaal says that Israel will "disappear." Hamas is part of the Palestinian Authority and refuses to recognize Israel's right to exist. They seek to destroy Israel, have the blessing of Iran, and continue to agitate towards Israel's destruction, even if it means that foreign aid isn't quite so forthcoming. Hamas is hoping that Iran will pick up the tab that the West refuses to do. Iran expects to see gains from this relationship, so expect the rocket fire and other attacks to intensify.

The rocket attacks will continue, and Hamas has not changed its tune since the Mecca meeting. It is interesting that in his meeting with Mashaal that Ahmadinejad is leaning on him to stop the internal violence between Fatah and Hamas. That violence is getting in the way of the larger mission - to destroy Israel. Priorities.

Do Not Count Me Among Them

Both Sen. Hillary Clinton and Sen. Barack Obama are trying to curry favor with Jewish groups. Democrats have long called Jewish voters as a safe voting bloc. The battle over this important bloc of Democrat voters is leading to dueling receptions:

The leaders for the Democratic presidential nomination in 2008 plan dueling receptions Monday when an influential pro-Israeli lobby group, the American Israel Public Affairs Committee, holds its major Washington policy conference.

The competing receptions are one more sign of the intensifying scrum between Clinton and Obama over key Democratic interest groups, highlighted Sunday by near-simultaneous civil rights speeches in Selma, Ala.

"It would be amazing if you didn't have a fierce competition," said Norm Ornstein, an American Enterprise Institute scholar who is leading a panel at the AIPAC forum.

Clinton had been counting on black support before Obama got in the race. Ornstein said she had a natural base among Jews because of her Senate work and her husband's record, but some liberal Jews favor Obama because he opposed the Iraq war.

"If you get over the bar on the Israeli issue, which I think he has, then for many people, Iraq becomes the issue," Ornstein said.

I can't quite figure out why supporters of Israel would lean towards Hillary considering that she's done nothing other than pay lip service to the support of Israel.

Hillary kissed up to Yasir Arafat's wife, Suha, despite the fact that Arafat had all kinds of Israeli and American blood on his hands - from American diplomats to tourists to folks simply riding to work on buses.

Yet, Hillary is feted because she's got the starpower. Her stand on the issues is secondary.

Obama is something of a mystery. Where exactly does he stand on the issues other than the Iraq war (which he opposes)? No one quite knows because he hasn't been around long enough to provide a paper trail on which to know for sure. Supposedly his opposition is sufficient to curry favor with the liberal Jewish democrats. Gotcha.

Considering how quick both were to adopt Southern accents while speaking on the 42nd Anniversary of the Selma march, one has to wonder who will be first to crack a Yiddish joke or two. I'm betting Hillary wins that one.

UPDATE:
What is it with people who think they know what Jesus would say, think or do? Who does John Edwards think he is to speak for Jesus? That takes a lot of nerve. He's just another politician pandering and making claims he simply can't support.

And the Verdict Is....

The jury has reached a verdict in the case against Lewis "Scooter" Libby. It will be read in court shortly, but it remains to be seen whether there will be a Fitzmas or not.

My gut feeling is that the jury couldn't find him guilty. The jury itself was wrestling with the same issues that dogged Libby - the ability to recall specifics of the case and details that may have been central to Fitzgerald's case.

UPDATE:
Firedoglake, which has been providing daily coverage of the trial, will be liveblogging the verdict as soon as it comes down.

UPDATE:
Firedoglake is swamped, but Drudge is headlining that Libby is guilty of some charges. No word on which ones or any other details. As they say, this is still developing.

UPDATE:
NYT: Jury Finds Libby Guilty on 4 of 5 Counts, Including Obstruction of Justice

UPDATE:
Obstruction of Justice: GUILTY
False statements to FBI investigators (about Russert conversation): GUILTY
False statement to FBI investigators (about Cooper conversation): NOT GUILTY
Perjury to the Grand Jury (about Tim Russert conversation): GUILTY
Perjury to the Grand Jury (about the Matt Cooper conversation): GUILTY

The perjury charges flow into the obstruction charges, so in that respect this make sense facially. Still, it will be interesting to read what the jury thought was the determining factor in the guilt.

It is curious that the jury thought that Libby was less trustworthy than Tim Russert or Matt Cooper, when it came down to it though the jury did find that Cooper wasn't nearly as trustworthy as Russert. All had motives here to be less than forthcoming - for Russert and Cooper, it was their journalistic careers and for Libby it was being a member of the Administration.

It was the word of one man versus the word of another.

This case leaves much to be desired considering that the key detail that got the ball rolling - the supposed revelation about Valerie Plame's CIA status, was a nonissue. No laws were broken in relation to that fact, and Libby's charges were all related to the investigation that turned up no wrongdoing for which Fitzgerald was originally charged to discover.

Sentencing will bring this sorry chapter to a close. Still unanswered by all this is who exactly prompted Joe Wilson to go to Africa and whether his wife had anything to do with it.

UPDATE:
For those who have forgotten what the original charges are, here's the original filing.

UPDATE:
The matter had been closed for months since there was nothing more to investigate. The identity of the person who first exposed Plame's name was known: Richard Armitage, and yet Fitzgerald declined to prosecute Armitage primarily because there was no crime committed.

The investigation still continued because they needed to cross and dot. Libby got caught up in all this because he gave conflicting statements that affected the course of the investigation. To Fitzgerald and his team, this presented a problem - would it be unethical as a prosecutor to let this stand. They decided to prosecute Libby on those grounds.

I don't totally buy it since the facts and circumstances appeared to be slim at best - and it came down to he-said v. he-said. However, the jury saw things differently. They spent more time examining matters and heard only bits and pieces of the whole story - as per various rulings on testimony and what was introduced as evidence. That definitely plays a role in the verdict.

Looking at the jury instructions and finding out what led them to rule in this fashion will be interesting exercises in the coming days.

UPDATE:
Pajamas Media has a huge roundup of reaction. Others weighing in on the Libby verdict include: Blue Crab Boulevard, AJ Strata, Outside the Beltway, Flopping Aces,

Trackposted to Perri Nelson's Website, The Virtuous Republic, Rightlinx, Faultline USA, stikNstein... has no mercy, Adam's Blog, Overtaken by Events, Pirate's Cove, Planck's Constant, The Pink Flamingo, Leaning Straight Up, Conservative Cat, Pursuing Holiness, Right Voices, and Conservative Thoughts, thanks to Linkfest Haven Deluxe.

Dropping Like Flies

Yet another critic of Russia's Putin has died under mysterious circumstances.

Ivan Safronov, the military affairs writer for Kommersant, died Friday after falling from a fifth-story window in the stairwell of his apartment building in Moscow, officials said. His body was found by neighbors shortly after the fall.

With prosecutors investigating the death, Kommersant and some other media suggested foul play.

"The suicide theory has become dominant in the investigation, but all those who knew Ivan Safronov categorically reject it," Kommersant said in an article Monday.

He literally fell to his death. His friends and those who knew him believe that it was a murder meant to look like a suicide.

Another critic, who recently appeared on NBC's Dateline, was found shot to death.

Paul Joyal, a former Senate Intelligence Committee staffer, was shot in his driveway just four days after he appeared in a "Dateline NBC" segment that was critical of Putin and his government.

After it was reported that Joyal's wallet was stolen during the shooting, some questions of a broader conspiracy waned; but Joyal's son Alex showed his father's billfold to a reporter from The Post, as Eric Rich writes this morning. Joyal was shot following a meeting with Putin's former KGB boss, Oleg Kalugin at the International Spy Museum, where Kalugin is a board member. The family refuses to speculate on the motive of the shooting.

This could be nothing but a serious of coincidences resulting in people who may undermine or embarass Putin's regime turning up dead. Or not.

This makes the third such critic to die under strange circumstances and doesn't count the mysterious poisoning of other rivals, like Viktor Yushchenko. Alexander Litvinenko was killed by exposure to Polonium 210.

The body count keeps piling up around the world, and the tie that binds appears to be the Kremlin up to its old tricks.

UPDATE:
Jammie Wearing Fool notes that criticizing Putin is bad for your health.

It certainly seems that way. That has a chilling effect on free speech and the press, though some are pressing the matter: The paper that Safronov wrote for, has an update on the now criminal investigation of Safronov's death. Does his death have something to do with an expose he was going to run on arms sales to the Middle East?

The Taganka prosecutor’s office in Moscow has initiated a criminal investigation on the forcible suicide of Kommersant journalist Ivan Safronov, who died under unknown circumstances last Friday when he fell from a window in the stairway of the Khrushchev-era five-story building in which he lived. The police and prosecutor initially characterized his death as suicide. Safronov, who turned 51 last month, wrote about the army and space. It is known that he was preparing a publication on Russian arms deliveries to the Middle East that could have caused a major scandal.

Good for the paper to push forward despite the fact that it is putting other journalists in harm's way.

A Year Removed

A year ago, the Duke Lacrosse team was facing its worst hour. Three of its players were accused of rape, and the university canceled its season.

Today? The team is ranked number one in the country.

The prosecutor on the Duke case is under investigation himself for prosecutorial misconduct and it appears that the case against the three players has gotten weaker with every retelling by the accuser.

Taking the Temperature

So, after being told that there is a consensus view on global warming and it is impossible to ignore, what does the fact that one of its leading proponents has reversed course and now is criticizing the whole mess say about the process and science involved? Without further ado:

In the 1980s and early 1990s, when concern about global warming was in its infancy, little was known about the mechanics of how it could occur, or the consequences that could befall us. Since then, governments throughout the western world and bodies such as the United Nations Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change have commissioned billions of dollars worth of research by thousands of scientists. With a wealth of data now in, Dr. Allegre has recanted his views. To his surprise, the many climate models and studies failed dismally in establishing a man-made cause of catastrophic global warming. Meanwhile, increasing evidence indicates that most of the warming comes of natural phenomena. Dr. Allegre now sees global warming as over-hyped and an environmental concern of second rank.

His break with what he now sees as environmental cant on climate change came in September, in an article entitled "The Snows of Kilimanjaro" in l' Express, the French weekly. His article cited evidence that Antarctica is gaining ice and that Kilimanjaro's retreating snow caps, among other global-warming concerns, come from natural causes. "The cause of this climate change is unknown," he states matter of factly. There is no basis for saying, as most do, that the "science is settled."

Dr. Allegre's skepticism is noteworthy in several respects. For one, he is an exalted member of France's political establishment, a friend of former Socialist president Lionel Jospin, and, from 1997 to 2000, his minister of education, research and technology, charged with improving the quality of government research through closer co-operation with France's educational institutions. For another, Dr. Allegre has the highest environmental credentials. The author of early environmental books, he fought successful battles to protect the ozone layer from CFCs and public health from lead pollution. His break with scientific dogma over global warming came at a personal cost: Colleagues in both the governmental and environmental spheres were aghast that he could publicly question the science behind climate change.

But Dr. Allegre had allegiances to more than his socialist and environmental colleagues. He is, above all, a scientist of the first order, the architect of isotope geodynamics, which showed that the atmosphere was primarily formed early in the history of the Earth, and the geochemical modeller of the early solar system. Because of his path-breaking cosmochemical research, NASA asked Dr. Allegre to participate in the Apollo lunar program, where he helped determine the age of the Moon. Matching his scientific accomplishments in the cosmos are his accomplishments at home: Dr. Allegre is perhaps best known for his research on the structural and geochemical evolution of the Earth's crust and the creation of its mountains, explaining both the title of his article in l' Express and his revulsion at the nihilistic nature of the climate research debate.

Calling the arguments of those who see catastrophe in climate change "simplistic and obscuring the true dangers," Dr. Allegre especially despairs at "the greenhouse-gas fanatics whose proclamations consist in denouncing man's role on the climate without doing anything about it except organizing conferences and preparing protocols that become dead letters." The world would be better off, Dr. Allegre believes, if these "denouncers" became less political and more practical, by proposing practical solutions to head off the dangers they see, such as developing technologies to sequester C02. His dream, he says, is to see "ecology become the engine of economic development and not an artificial obstacle that creates fear."

Meanwhile, if you want to pursue the carbon trading schemes that have helped Al Gore claim that he isn't a hypocrite by running up huge energy bills at his Tennessee home, here's a potential [and humorous] solution for the US: make a carbon trading deal with North Korea.



That black hole of a country without any sign of light is North Korea. South Korea shines brilliantly in the night. North Korea turns off the lights at 9pm because they have to ration power. How this deal would work: the North Koreans don't produce any power- nuclear or otherwise, while we give them money in the form of energy credits. The net-net is that we've suddenly become a more green country.

It's a win-win for all involved. The econuts get their green scheme. The North Koreans get money that will go to feeding L'il Kim's merlot habit, and the US gets to say they've solved the North Korean conundrum. Since North Korea isn't producing any power, they've got lots of energy credits to spare.

SUV Rampager Taheriazar Sounds Off In Court

Hot Air has the video, but Mohammed Taheriazar had an outburst in court that kept the court personnel on their toes:

Monday he was in court to discuss letters he wrote to Eyewitness News and other news organizations from prison shortly after the attack. In those letters he admitted to driving his vehicle into "The Pit" at UNC to avenge the deaths of Muslims around the world.

During today's hearing, Taheri-azar yelled "death to America" as he entered the Orange County courtroom. "I hate all Americans," he said. "All Jews. May they all burn in hell. Death to Israel," yelled Taheri-azar.

The judge warned Taheri-azar to be quiet during the proceedings. That's when Taheri-azar turned to his own lawyer and said, "I don't know this moron."

That's when the judge order the already restrained Taheri-azar removed from the courtroom.

James Williams, Taheri-azar's lawyer reacted to his outburst. "He does have a severe mental illness and that mentall illness affects his actions and I believe affected his actions on the day in question and still affects his behavior and was affecting his behavior in court today," Williams said.

Taheri-azar pleaded not guilty in January to 19 counts attempted murder and assault charges. He is currently being held at Central Prison in Raleigh on a $5.5 million bond.

His lawyers are going to claim that it was a mental illness that drove Taheriazar to take his rented SUV and rampage through the UNC Chapel Hill campus hitting nine people outside the campus center.

Today's outburst reflects earlier statements that suggest he was engaging in his form of jihad - not the personal struggle variety.

In the meantime, he's been confined to a Dorothea Dix Hospital for a mental health evaluation. Hmmm, jihad as a mental illness? That would certainly be a curious prognosis.

Reorganized

Iraq's Interior Ministry has fired or reassigned more than 10,000 employees, including high-ranking police, who were found to have tortured prisoners, accepted bribes or had ties to militias, a ministry spokesman has disclosed.

A soon-to-be-released internal inquiry also details 41 incidents of human rights abuse at the ministry. In one case, four members of the national police hanged prisoners from a ceiling and beat them with sticks in a ministry-run prison known as Site 4, according to the report by the ministry's inspector general.

The United States has pressured Iraq's Shiite-led government to clean up its security forces as they undertake a broad plan to reduce sectarian violence. Sunni politicians have accused Iraq's police of collaborating with Shiite death squads.

There have been problems of all sorts with the Interior Ministry from the outset. There have been repeated issues with human rights abuses, bribery and corruption, and large segments with ties to various militias, which made the effectiveness of parts the Interior Ministry security forces questionable.

The police and local security is still seen as having divided loyalties - those of the militias versus the Iraqi government, this shakeup may improve matters. It comes at a time when the US and Iraqis are trying to clamp down on the violence in and around Baghdad and Anbar - and are largely succeeding thus far.

The Iraqi government must believe that the time is right to make these changes because it is in a strong enough position to take on the entrenched interests at the ministry and the Sadrists.

Omar at Iraq the Model has more on the situation.

Charles Rust-Tierney: Sick Puppy

If that name doesn't sound familiar, that's because the news has not exactly plastered his name the way they might do with a politician or Britney Spears. He's a former chapter president of the ACLU who was arrested on child pornography charges.

Well, there are a few details that have leaked about what exactly he'd been up to, and they make my headline seem downright tame and charitable:

Alexandria, Va. (WUSA) -- A public defender from Arlington now finds that he is the accused. Fifty-one year old Charles Rust-Tierney appeared in United States District Court in Alexandria Wednesday.

He’s accused of receiving and possessing child pornography, and investigators outlined what they say they found after searching his home.

They say Rust-Tierney had video showing, among other things, the sexual torture of infants and toddlers. The judge said she’d never heard of child pornography that vile and said because of that, Rust-Tierney would stay behind bars until his trial.

Rust-Tierney is a father himself and also a coach of Arlington-area youth little league and soccer teams. In court, dozens of his friends and family members voiced support for him. They say they have never suspected him of improper contact with kids.

So this creep was into videos showing the rape and torture of infants and toddlers. Wonderful stuff. Other reports indicate that he was into watching pre-pubescent girls getting sexually assaulted.

The media embargo on this story is quite curious. They went to town when Rep. Mark Foley sent inappropriate emails and he never actually was involved in sexual acts with the interns. It was the top story for days on end. He was forced to resign and the GOP took a big hit at the polls as a result of the handling of the scandal.

Here? Not so much. Why? Is it because the ACLU is involved?

The ACLU has supported the likes of NAMBLA on free speech grounds even though such groups encourage and support child endangerment, child abuse, and sexual assaults that are illegal in all states. Rust-Tierney was apparently into the most vile sort of child porn, and yet the media doesn't think much of the story, despite the fact that he and his organization was trying to push NAMBLA's agenda into the mainstream and he personally was involved in trying to prevent library filters from preventing objectionable material from being viewed.

And he apparently coached youth sports teams in his spare time. That is, before he was arrested on the child porn charges.

Ace also comments.

Iran Misogyny Watch

Iran's authorities have arrested more than 32 women activists protesting outside a courthouse in Tehran.

The protesters were showing solidarity with five women on trial for organising a protest last June against laws they say discriminate against women.

The five have been charged with endangering national security, propaganda against the state and taking part in an illegal gathering.

US pressure group, Human Rights Watch, has urged an end to the prosecution.

It said the women had been exercising their right to freedom of peaceful assembly.

The five are organisers of a demonstration last June which was violently broken up by the police and led to the arrest of 70 people, many of them innocent bystanders.

It's curious that Human Rights Watch is labeled a pressure group in this instance, but is labeled something quite different when HRW is pushing its agenda against the US. Then, HRW is often labeled "leading international human rights organization."

HRW should be commended for speaking out against the ongoing misogyny in the Islamic world, where half the population is subject to intolerable conditions simply because they are women. Women are treated as little more than chattel and even the slightest sight of skin may be sufficient for a public beating or worse. That said, HRW and others have little power to effect change in Iran or the misogyny that is found throughout the Middle East and Islamic world.

Britney Spears' Very Public Slow Motion Train Wreck

If news reports are accurate, it would appear that Britney Spears is in dire straits. Her very public buzzcut was just the tip of the iceberg.

These reports now indicate that Spears attempted suicide while in rehab.

BRITNEY Spears broke down in rehab, reportedly trying to hang herself with a bedsheet after screaming "I am the anti-christ" to frightened staff.

She made the demonic cry after scrawling the devil's number "666" across her head.

Spears's manic behaviour has concerned relatives who once again fear for her safety, and has staff at the Promises Clinic in Malibu, California struggling to cope.

The former chart-topper's troubles have been revealed in Britain's News Of the World, which broke the exclusive story.

Within days of her suicidal behaviour, Spears - who was in and out of rehab before shaving her own head and later attacking a photographer's car with an umbrella - was begging estranged husband Kevin Federline not only for a reconciliation, but demanding she wanted to soon have another baby.

The ordeal began when she terrified staff by writing the number of the beast on her head and running around the clinic screaming, "I am the anti-christ!"

"The clinic people just didn't know what to do," a friend claimed.

The pop star then tried to hang herself with a bedsheet was but was found before she could hurt herself.

This is a woman who needs to get professional care as quickly as possible before she causes further harm to herself and may endanger others.

Post-partum depression may be playing a factor here, but her family and friends better step up before this ends very ugly for the mother of two young children.
You may not like her music or her wild ways, but she's a lost soul who needs support of family and loved ones, though that may still not be enough.

Indeed, this may be the second such attempt in just the past two weeks.

Technorati: britney spears, pop tart, hollywood.

Whiplash Nagin's Latest Gambit: Lawsuits

Don Surber points out the latest craziness proffered by the Mayor of New Orleans, Whiplash Ray Nagin. He wants to sue the Army Corps of Engineers for $77 billion.

The latest legal actions were submitted just as President George Bush made his first visit to the area in six months. Mr Bush made several stops across Louisiana and Mississippi, visiting homes rebuilt since the storm with federal grants, bearing the message: “The federal government still knows you exist.”

“I committed to the people of this part of the world and the Gulf coast that the federal government would fund recovery - and stay committed to the recovery,” he said.

But locals are frustrated that of the $110bn assigned by Congress in relief aid, only $53bn has actually been spent. Outside the downtown tourist area, large areas of the city remain disrupted with violent crime and murders on the rise and access to healthcare limited.

Wayne Baquet, owner of the cafe in New Orleans where the president ate, told the Associated Press: “If you don’t get New Orleans straight, the United States will never be the same. Everybody ought to be on the bandwagon trying to get New Orleans back.”

Let's get this straight. Tens of billions of dollars was set aside by the federal government for rebuilding areas affected by the Gulf Coast hurricanes, and while some areas have done a good job at using the money to rebuild, others have not.

New Orleans for example.

The state and local government in Louisiana has done an awful job of dealing with the situation. They've repeatedly reversed course on key decisions - which is why I've given Nagin the whiplash moniker.

They're still trying to get their hands wrapped around the situation and yet their lawsuit only calls for $1 billion of the $77 billion to go to infrastructure repairs. The rest is nothing more than a shakedown of the federal government to cover up the failures at the state and local level.

Meanwhile, the Times-Picayune has a story up showing that it took 6,000 years to build up Southern Louisiana's coastline, but much of it has disappeared over the last 75 years and we've got only 10 years to fix the problems. Much of the problems stem from one entity - the Army Corps of Engineers, which has been called on time and time again to ensure that flooding doesn't occur as a result of the Mississippi River. That means that the ACoE has straightened the channel, limiting where the sediment carried by the river goes.

Vowing Quick Action on Walter Reed

The facilities at Walter Reed have been in decline for decades, known to military officials and journalists alike for years, and yet we're supposed to believe that Congress will act swiftly to solve the problems? Right.

In a letter Sunday to Defense Secretary Robert Gates on Sunday, Schumer asked for an independent commission, possibly headed by former Secretary of State
Colin Powell, to investigate all post-combat medical facilities and recommend changes.

"To think that men and women are serving their country in the most honorable and courageous way possible and all we give them is a dilapidated, rat-infested, run-down building to recover is a disgrace," Schumer wrote. "My fear is that Walter Reed is just the tip of the iceberg, and merely highlights the pervasive and systemic mistreatment of our service members."

President Bush last week ordered a comprehensive review of conditions at the nation's network of military and veteran hospitals. They have been overwhelmed by injured troops from the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan.

The White House said the president would name a bipartisan commission to assess whether the problems at Walter Reed exist at other facilities. Last week, Gates created an outside panel to review the situation at Walter Reed and the other major military hospital in the Washington area, the National Naval Medical Center at Bethesda, Md.

Gates also dismissed Army Secretary Francis J. Harvey, who had fired the medical center's previous commander, Maj. Gen. George Weightman, and replaced him with Lt. Gen. Kevin Kiley, the Army's surgeon general and a former commander of Walter Reed. Gates said that Harvey's response was not aggressive enough.

The Army announced that Maj. Gen. Eric B. Schoomaker will be the new commander of Walter Reed, which is in Washington.

They'll be quick to name a blue-ribbon panel that will outline changes, that will be quickly forgotten or dropped by the wayside as the next crisis demanding Senatorial attentions shows up.

As described in the article, Walter Reed is the crown jewel in the military's medical community, and yet it was slated to be realigned by BRAC. How come that part isn't mentioned in this article. There was a good reason that BRAC called for the facility to be realigned. Some of the problems outlined in the Washington Post expose were as a result of pending closure and funds diverted to the construction and operation of the new facility.

The mission at Walter Reed has been hampered by the outdated and archaic facilities and could be better served by more modern facilities elsewhere. The realignment is scheduled to be completed by 2011, when the new campus of the Walter Reed National Military Medical Center is scheduled to be opened.

Unless Congress is going to accelerate the switchover to the new facility, the infrastructure problems at Walter Reed are going to continue. Paperwork changes and bureaucratic changes may improve some aspects of care at Walter Reed, but one could say that for every medical facility in the country - from private medical care services to government operated health care facilities.

Global Incident Map

Via ginn at LGF, this website highlights suspicious and terroristic incidents around the world.

Everything from bomb threats called in to suicide bombings and mass casualty incidents. The map shows the latest events from around the world, many of which are not reported in the US media. Quite a few of the incidents that are mapped turn out to be hoaxes or false alarms - especially in the US.

Still, this provides a useful guide to events around the world.

Afghan Offensive

No, it's not the widely expected and anticipated Taliban spring offensive, but rather a US special forces offensive on a high-value target:

According to eye witnesses and local reporters in Kunar province, Coalition forces launched a fierce attack on a small enclave in the village of Mandaghel on Friday afternoon. Warplanes pounded the positions and ground troops, including US special forces and Afghan National Army soldiers, moved in shortly afterwards. The assault appeared to encounter stiff resistance from militants inside the compound. Heavy artillery and gunfire could be heard for hours, according to local witnesses. A handful of civilians were wounded in the strike. The area now appears to be under coalition control but is still sealed off.

US officials declined to name the target of declined to identify who the operation was aimed against, but did indicate that it was a “High Value Target” (HVT) Sources would not rule out that the al Qaeda leader, Osama bin Laden himself was the target. Afghan officials said the target could be another senior ranking al Qaeda leader.

The problem is that this is an isolated report and no one else appears to have picked up the story. The two Taliban thugs who were picked up in Pakistan may have provided intel vital to the current operation, but details are still developing on that front - the two were not picked up together but it appears that one gave up the whereabouts of the other. There is no honor among thugs.

The Taliban admit that Mulla Obaidullah Akhund is now in custody and Mulla Akhtar Mohammad Usmani was killed in a coalition air raid. Here's an interesting tidbit on how the Taliban and al Qaeda operate:

The Taliban members said switching off of phones by their senior military commanders and spokesmen always brought bad news. They said this is a sign that something has gone wrong for the Taliban and before long their apprehensions turn out to be true.

One other reason for switching off phones is to evade arrest. After such high-profile arrests, important Taliban figures also try to change their satellite and other phones and change their place of hiding.

Taliban spokesman Qari Mohammad Yousaf Ahmadi, earlier, denied that Mulla Obaidullah had been arrested. He insisted their former Defence Minister was in Afghanistan and leading Taliban fighters. It was also suggested by certain Taliban quarters that another man named Obaidullah rather than Mulla Obaidullah was arrested in Quetta. A few reporters were also told that a videotape of Mulla Obaidullah would be made available to prove that he was still a free man. But it wasn`t said when the tape would become available.

Meanwhile, the media appears focused on an incident involving US forces and civilian casualties. The facts and circumstances are far from clear though AP is pushing the claim that the US forces acted inappropriately and killed civilians while taking photo and video evidence from journalists at the scene.

The New York Times Terrorist Wish List

I see that the NYT has simply codified what it has been urging the US to do all along the past couple of decades except when patriotism actually overcomes the leftist bent (oh, they'll probably call it their jingoistic moments).

They've always thought that the War on Terror was a gross violation of civil liberties of Americans and terrorists have had their rights violated under the Geneva Conventions and therefore must deserve as many or more protections than provided in the US Constitution, even as such rights were never provided under the Geneva Conventions or the Constitution.

The NYT has been at the forefront of undermining the war on terror and the Administration efforts to keep Americans safe by publishing details of programs designed to gather intel and keep tabs on terror threats. They've substituted Bill Keller's judgment for that of the entire Administration, the CIA, FBI, and other alphabet agencies tasked with protecting us from another attack - one that if it does occur will be excoriated for not doing enough to prevent the attack.