Yet another bump on the road towards the naming of a town square in Baghdad after George W. Bush. The shooters in Blackwater’s mass killing — in a Baghdad square — were :
Potential prosecution of Blackwater guards allegedly involved in the shooting deaths of 17 Iraqi civilians last month may have been compromised because the guards received immunity for statements they made to State Department officials investigating the incident, federal law enforcement officials said yesterday.
FBI agents called in to take over the State Department’s investigation two weeks after the Sept. 16 shootings cannot use any information gleaned during questioning of the guards by the department’s Bureau of Diplomatic Security, which is charged with supervising security contractors.
Some of the Blackwater guards have subsequently refused to be interviewed by the FBI, citing promises of immunity from State, one law enforcement official said. The restrictions on the FBI’s use of their initial statements do not preclude prosecution by the Justice Department using other evidence, the official said, but “they make things a lot more complicated and difficult.”
The Iraqis might not be , with 17 of their own dead:
The Iraqi government on Tuesday approved draft legislation lifting immunity for foreign private security companies, sending the measure to parliament, a spokesman said.
The question of immunity has been one of the most serious dispute between the U.S. and the Iraqi government since a Sept. 16 shooting involving Blackwater USA guards that left 17 Iraqi civilians dead.
~~~
Iraqi government spokesman Ali al-Dabbagh said the draft law approved Tuesday would overturn an immunity order known as Decree 17 that was issued by L. Paul Bremer, who ran the American occupation government until June 2004.
“It will be sent to the parliament within the coming days to be ratified,” he told The Associated Press.
Al-Dabbagh did not single out Blackwater but said: “According to this law, all security companies will subjected to the Iraqi criminal law and must obey all the country’s legal regulations such as: registration, customs, visas, etcetera.”
Grandparents Dan and Diane Winkler contend Winkler is an unfit mother and the children have a better chance at a normal life* with them.
But Gold-Bikin said Winkler?s manslaughter conviction shows the jury believed her testimony about domestic abuse. Among other things, Winkler claimed she was forced to submit to sex acts she considered unnatural.
?Should we take these children away from a loving mother and give them to somebody who hates her?? Gold-Bikin said. ?Here is a little backwoods woman married to a very popular preacher and her entire self-worth has been undermined. She?s been made to parade around in high heels and no clothes, to do things she considers perverted. And she?s got nobody to talk to because nobody is going to believe her.?
The Justice Department is putting the final touches on regulations that could give Atty. Gen. Alberto R. Gonzales important new sway over death penalty cases in California and other states, including the power to shorten the time that death row inmates have to appeal convictions to federal courts.
The rules implement a little-noticed provision in last year’s reauthorization of the Patriot Act that gives the attorney general the power to decide whether individual states are providing adequate counsel for defendants in death penalty cases. The authority has been held by federal judges.
Under the rules now being prepared, if a state requested it and Gonzales agreed, prosecutors could use “fast track” procedures that could shave years off the time that a death row inmate has to appeal to the federal courts after conviction in a state court.
From yesterday’s Brewster Rocket, Space Guy:
I can see it now — Gonzo expedites the execution of several people, first claiming there was no evidence they were innocent, then after DNA clears them, stating that he made the decision to whack him but he wasn’t involved in the decision and had no knowledge of the reasoning upon which the decision was based.
After it turns out that Rove sent a bunch of emails urging Gonzo to put a bullet in each head personally, which emails the White House won’t turn over.
The guys I’ve talked to seem to feel “boys will be boys,” though many do feel the girls were victims of a sort.
The women feel much more strongly that the girls were victimized.
My sense is the boys need to be punished. But not as harshly as the district attorney wants them punished.
Cory Mashburn and Ryan Cornelison, both 13, were arrested in February after they were caught in the halls of Patton Middle School, in McMinnville, Ore., slapping girls on the rear end. Mashburn told ABC News in a phone interview that this was a common way of saying hello practiced by lots of kids at the school, akin to a secret handshake.
The boys spent five days in a juvenile detention facility and were charged with several counts of felony sex abuse for what they and their parents said was merely inappropriate but not criminal behavior.
The local district attorney has since backed off — the felony charges have been dropped and the district attorney said probation would be an appropriate punishment. The Mashburns’ lawyer said prosecutors offered Cory a plea bargain that would not require him to register as a sex offender, which the family plans to reject.
But the boys, if convicted at an Aug. 20 trial, still face the possibility of some jail time or registering for life as sex offenders.
More:
Cory Mashburn said he and Ryan Cornelison slapped each others’ and other kids’ bottoms every Friday. “Lots of kids at school do that,” he said.
Cory and Ryan were brought to the principal’s office Feb. 22, where they were questioned by school officials and a police officer. They were arrested that day and taken in handcuffs to a juvenile detention facility.
Court papers said the boys touched the buttocks of several girls, some of whom said this made them uncomfortable. The papers also said Cory touched a girl’s breasts. But police reports filed with the court said other students, both boys and girls, slapped each other on the bottom.
“It’s like a handshake we do,” one girl said, according to the police report.
Man says chopped up pal?s body in panic
… as opposed to, “while calm and relaxed”?
25 July, 2007 BRIDGEPORT, Conn. - A man charged with improperly disposing of a corpse claims he chopped up his friend?s body, stuffed the parts in a metal drum and rolled it into a river in a panic after the friend died of a drug overdose, police said.
Felix Rivera, 23, was charged Tuesday with improper disposal of a dead body after he told police his story of what happened to Charles Gerber, police Lt. James Viadero said.
Rivera told police he became “paranoid” and decided to hide the body in a metal drum. When the 5-foot-9, 180-pound body didn?t fit, he used an ax to cut off the head, hands and feet, police said.
It appears USC and UCLA meet in places other than the football field. Such was the case Tuesday in Santa Ana when U.S. District Judge Cormac Carney, above, put the hammer down on Barry Landreth, who was sentenced to six years in federal prison for running a real estate investment scam.
Landreth is a former adjunct professor of real estate and finance at USC. Carney? He’s a former All-American receiver at UCLA.
Prosecutors had recommended a four-year sentence for Landreth, but Carney would have none of that, saying Landreth abused his position as an instructor in real estate finance to lure investors and then used the money to buy luxury items, including a Cadillac Escalade and several show horses.
… A person claiming to be one of the victims wrote in the reader’s comments section of the Orange County Register(’s web site) that
So pizza man was in on it, after all. I can’t wait for the movie! Boldfacing all mine …
Wells died August 28, 2003, in Erie, Pennsylvania, after he claimed gunmen had grabbed him, locked the bomb around his neck and ordered him to rob a bank. After the robbery, he was detained, sat on the pavement and recounted the story to police. A bomb squad was called, but the device exploded before the squad arrived.
Two sources said one of the individuals who will be indicted is Marjorie Diehl-Armstrong, who has been linked to the case for years. Investigators have said the body of her boyfriend was found in a freezer in a home close to where Wells made his final delivery. Diehl-Armstrong is in prison after pleading guilty but mentally ill in the murder of her boyfriend.
I’m waiting for Actor212 to make the frozen pizza joke.
you know the drill: one of your family members gets email and you suffer thru a year or two of “fwd:fwd:fwd:warning!!!” emails. then they get a little savvier. this morning i opened my gmail to a helpful little video about kitchen fires. it ended with … well, i’ll let you see for yourself
i thought about responding with, “thanks for the informative email about kitchen grease fires! i’ve decided to never set foot in the kitchen again after that one!!!”
