Prosecutorial Misconduct in Dixie

Law and order my ass. Scott Horton's continuing series on the political prisoner and former Alabama Governor Don Siegelman. This series began back in June 2007 and is required reading for all those interested in the politicizing of the DOJ prosecutions. It includes some interesting, and not at all surprising involvement by Karl Rove.

Legal Fiction (or Justice in the Former Cheerleader's America)

Slate's Dahlia Lithwick lists the Bush administration's dumbest legal arguments of the year. Its stunning when you put them all together. The breadth of the stupidity and crass arrogance befits any banana republic. Shame. Its difficult to pick a favorite, but this might be the most absurd:

8. The vice president's office is not a part of the executive branch.

We also learned in July that over the repeated objections of the National Archives, Vice President Dick Cheney exempted his office from Executive Order 12958, designed to safeguard classified national security information. In declining such oversight in 2004, Cheney advanced the astounding legal proposition that the Office of the Vice President is not an "entity within the executive branch" and hence is not subject to presidential executive orders. When, in January 2007, the Information Security Oversight Office asked Attorney General Alberto Gonzales to resolve the dispute, Cheney recommended the executive order be amended to abolish the Information Security Oversight Office altogether. In a new interview with Mike Isikoff at Newsweek, the director of the ISOO stated that his fight with Cheney's office was a "contributing" factor in his decision to quit after 34 years.

Some things you just can't make up.

FISA Works

But it requires the over politicized DOJ to pull their heads out of their asses. It took these dumb bastards NINE hours to get a special FISA approval.

The original FISA law generally requires court orders if the government conducts electronic surveillance on U.S. soil. It allows the attorney general to authorize surveillance in emergencies without a court order for up to 72 hours, provided the government has probable cause to believe it is eavesdropping on an agent of a foreign power.

Here's the timeline:

The soldiers were ambushed on May 12 south of Baghdad. On May 13 and 14, intelligence officials got leads on insurgent communications they believed were related to the case, and on May 14 the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Court was asked for and granted a court order to target some communications.

On May 15, intelligence agents met at 10 a.m. to discuss collecting additional intelligence. By 10:52 a.m., the NSA had notified the Justice Department it would need a FISA order for some of it.

At 12:53 p.m., the NSA general counsel agreed that all the requirements for an emergency FISA authorization existed. The attorney general makes the authorization.

From 12:53 p.m. until 5:15 p.m., "administration lawyers and intelligence officials discussed various legal and operational issues associated with the surveillance."

At 5:15 p.m., they made the formal request for emergency authority to the Justice Department's FISA office, the Office of Intelligence Policy and Review.

Fifteen minutes later, the OIPR attorney on duty attempted to reach the solicitor general, Paul D. Clement, who in Gonzales' absence was acting attorney general. Clement had left for the day.

Nearly two hours later, at 7:18 p.m., Gonzales authorized the requested surveillance. The FBI was notified, and at 7:28 p.m., the FBI notified intelligence agencies and personnel of the approval. Surveillance began at 7:38 p.m.

NEWSFLASH for all the dumbasses at DOJ: Make sure you know where the AG or his authorized representative is. WE ARE IN A WAR AND LIVES ARE AT STAKE!

UPDATE: We are not at War. Only our brave men and women in uniform are at War. Sorry for the misunderstanding. My apologies to all the hard working REMF's at DOJ.

Iglesias bashing and the NM GOP

to: all the Iglesias bashers:

Why do you think the charges against Manny and crew were announced in April? From the documents and reporting I have seen it appears that key plea agreements were necessary in order to solidify cases against the major players. Evidently those agreements were not reached until just prior to the unsealing of the indictments. Iglesias a slacker? Yea, the slacker that finally got the goods on Manny. OK he was PART of the team (and its leader)that will probably take down one of NM's most influential political leaders of the past quarter century. Now let's see how well the post-Iglesias USA's office does with the trial. The office is full of CAREER professional federal prosecutors, people hired based on non-partisan criteria. They are sworn to uphold the law. Officers of the Court as it were. Will the entire DOJ scandal effect the trial? Let us hope not. But I am not so sure. Has the DOJ been infected by partisan politics?

Each President lays out the agenda and priorities for the DOJ. But--did this Administration inject prosecution for political gain into who, how and when prosecutions are carried out? Read or watch all the testimony before Congress. It appears that may be a distinct possibility. I hope it does NOT harm this, or any other, pending case.

My question for the Iglesias bashers is this: Has the DOJ been harmed by the Current Occupant and his crew? Do the American people still have faith in the Federal justice system? With a few good Republicans like David Iglesias, just maybe, all is not lost.

Just as an aside--I doubt I would vote for Iglesias if he ran for public office. Why? We probably do not agree on many important issues. I don't defend Iglesias because I think he is on my political side. Iglesias was one of the few good political appointees made by the Current Occupant. He was a very good law enforcement official. That does not mean I want him to be my Senator or Congressman. No offense intended to Mr. Iglesias, but I do thank you for your service in our Navy and in law enforcement.