OBAMA: NO INAPPROPRIATE CONTACTS

WASHINGTON – AP: President-elect Barack Obama and two of his top aides met last week with federal investigators building a corruption case against Illinois Gov. Rod Blagojevich, accused of trying to swap Obama’s Senate seat for cash or a lucrative job.

The interviews with Obama, along with incoming chief of staff Rahm Emanuel and adviser Valerie Jarrett, were disclosed Tuesday in an internal report produced for Obama on contacts with Blagojevich. The report supported Obama’s insistence last week that there had been no inappropriate contact with the governor’s office by Obama or his staff.

Obama delayed releasing his report until U.S. Attorney Patrick Fitzgerald’s staff had completed the interviews with Obama and his two top aides, incoming White House attorney Greg Craig said in the review he wrote for Obama.

The mostly blogged Michael Connell story is slowly becoming a straight media story. Some newspapers have picked it up. Mr. Connell was ready to tell all.

• Telegraph.co.uk George Bush aide dies in plane crash

• The Plain Dealer - Cleveland, OH Federal officials probing plane crash that killed GOP consultant Michael Connell

CBS AP: Republican IT Guru Dies In Plane Crash

(CBS/AP) Federal investigators are looking into a small plane crash in Ohio which claimed the life of its pilot, a Republican media consultant who was instrumental in the presidential and gubernatorial campaigns of three members of the Bush Family.

Michael Connell, 45, of Akron died Friday when his plane crashed near a vacant house in Uniontown while attempting to land at nearby Akron-Canton Airport.

But the fatal accident is also raising questions about Connell and his work for key political figures and lobbyists, which has targeted him in investigations over missing White House e-mails and a lawsuit alleging electronic voting fraud.

• View raw rootage at BradBlog.com: Connell Plane Crash Afterwards

• Channel 19: Connell was told his plane may be sabotaged and received threats from Rove over Ohio election fraud case - video:

• Why Michael Connell was so important - Taped November 3, 2008

• World coverage:Video coverage from Belgrade, Serbia discussing two previous flights canceled due to suspicions plane had been tampered with.

• RoveCybergate.com for more information.

FROM THE WASHINGTON POST: Fate of Guantanamo Detainees - European Countries May Take Detainees

European nations have begun intensive discussions both within and among their governments on whether to resettle detainees from the U.S. military prison at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba, as a significant overture to the incoming Obama administration, according to senior European officials and U.S. diplomats.

Ret. Air Force Colonel Sam Gardiner: Latest from Iran

There is more and more smoke. One has to suspect fire.

This morning, the AP is quoting a U.S. intelligence official that the sale has taken place but that no delivery has started. The State Department has taken the story of the sale seriously enough to issue a public statement yesterday. “We have repeatedly made clear at senior levels of the Russian government that we would strongly oppose the sale of the S-300…” The United States has asked Russia for clarification.

Since the State press conference, there certainly has been time for a high-level Russian denial. None has come as of Tuesday afternoon Moscow time.

“Russia will not do anything to destabilize the military balance and=2 0endanger Israel.” I’m told by a source in Israel that this was the response the Russians gave to the Israelis when asked about the missile sale. Yesterday the Russian arms export agency was reported to have said that Russian only provides defensive systems to Iran. Technically, both statements could be true and the sale of the S-300 be taking place.

A year ago talk of a sale had specifics. At that time, there were press reports that the deal was for five batteries, and the price tag was $800 million. There is nothing in current reporting on how big a sale might be.

For the United States, the S-300 would not be militarily game changing. We know the system very well. We’ve actually had one in our possession since the end of the Cold War. The impact would be minimal for the US whose attack plans rely on stealth and cruise missiles. Although the impact on Israel would be greater because Israel does not have stealth aircraft, the IDF know how to counter the S-300.

The political impact, on the other hand, is very significant. The sale would contaminate the new administration’s agenda for both Iran and Russia. The sale would suggest to me is little interest in Moscow in cooperating with the new administration to collectively deal with I ran issues. The sale would strengthen those in Israel and the United States who oppose any negotiations with the Iranians.

I’m saddened. The possibilities for change are slipping away.”

FINANCIAL TIMES: SHOE HERO UPDATE

Bush shoe-thrower tells of ordeal

Muntadar al-Zaidi, the Iraqi journalist who threw his shoes at President George W. Bush of the US during a Baghdad press conference last week, spent his first days behind bars believing his family and colleagues would shun him, the man’s brother said yesterday.

Those guarding the 29-year-old journalist at a detention centre in Baghdad’s high security Green Zone forced him to watch a television channel run by Sunni extremists loyal to Saddam Hussein. They told him it was the only outlet in the world applauding his act, the journalist’s brother, Oday al-Zaidi, said yesterday after being allowed to visit him on Sunday.

“They told him: ‘Your tribe and your family reject you’,” Oday al-Zaidi said. Pointing towards the television set tuned to the Al-Raee channel, the guards added: “This is the only channel that supports you.” In fact, al Baghdadia TV, his employer, his relatives and people across the Middle East have praised him.

Oday al-Zaidi said his brother was gaunt, devastated and bruised - but unrepentant. His brother had told him: “If I had the same opportunity again, I would throw my shoes [at President Bush].”

Oday al-Zaidi said his brother claimed the guards had beaten him with a metal pipe after the incident.

He had a bruised eye, was missing an upper canine tooth and had cigarette burn marks on the back of his ears.

“I didn’t recognise him when I first saw him,” Oday al-Zaidi said.

The judge handling his case, Dhia al-Kinani, said last week that Muntadar al-Zaidi appeared to have been tortured while in custody. The judge has opened an investigation into his treatment.

Stampede for ‘Bush shoe’ creates 100 new jobs

Their deployment as a makeshift missile robbed President George Bush of his dignity and landed their owner in jail. But the world’s most notorious pair of shoes have yielded an unexpected bonanza for a Turkish shoemaker.

Ramazan Baydan, owner of the Istanbul-based Baydan Shoe Company, has been swamped with orders from across the world, after insisting that his company produced the black leather shoes which the Iraqi journalist Muntazar al-Zaidi threw at Bush during a press conference in Baghdad last Sunday.

Baydan has recruited an extra 100 staff to meet orders for 300,000 pairs of Model 271 - more than four times the shoe’s normal annual sale - following an outpouring of support for Zaidi’s act, which was intended as a protest, but led to his arrest by Iraqi security forces.

LETTERS

“BILL” WRITES ON POSSIBLE PARDONS

About this “pardon” business, particularly with respect to Cheney, it’s important to realize that “presidential pardons” are limited in jurisdiction and scope, and mr B may not even have any pardon power at all. I read the Marjorie Cohn article and your post today, and thought I’d share with you some of what I sent to her:

“Presidential “pardon” or not, the power is limited, non-existent “in case of impeachment” - which I believe is still in committee. What this Constitutional phrase means is unclear and remains to be explored, but Mr.Bush may not have any pardon power whatsoever. [it’s up to the judge]

Presidential pardons are limited too, to “offenses against the United States”. In this case the offense admitted to [by Cheney] is an offense against international law, and, if Nuremberg is to be understood as Taylor, Jackson, et al clearly understood it, jurisdiction is universal. Mr. Cheney, domestic prosecution or pardon and so forth notwithstanding, will be beset with a long-term shadow of arrest, and, were he my client, I would advise him not to leave the DC metro area and especially not to leave the US.

The presidential pardon power does not extend to State Law, nor to tort matters, if the plain reading is to be seen as valid. Torture, or conspiracy to torture, by the several agents “authorized” by this person may have taken place in state jurisdictions in which it may be that the conspiracy (to torture) and/or the actual acts were prohibited. Mr. Cheney may be subject to state prosecutions.

My recollection is that, while double-jeopardy is not a defense in war-crime trials, a person convicted may be punished only once. It may be that Mr.Cheney would be well-advised to seek prosecution in a favorable jurisdiction and plead guilty to a very general criminal charge and accept a light “punishment”. I am no expert in that area - it’s simply an idea that I would look into carefully, were I advising him.

How this might effect the tort problems that await him is, of course, another matter. Probably he ought to see about putting his assets in judgment-proof structures, if he has not already done that.

Withal, it seems to me, the entire gang, the “junta” (if I may be so blunt as to call it that) are now, in a functional sense fugitives. And they will become and remain more and more so; fugitives from both lawsuits and criminal prosecutions, until their celestial rewards arrive.”

I would add that Mr. Bugliosi’s “brief” with respect to murder, an offense under state laws which is prosecuted by local district attorneys, is going to hang over these people for the remainder of their lives.

Ms. Cohn, a professor of law, expressed the idea that the points above were “good points.”

A Greeting from Tony Sutton and Jools of Coldtype.net

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