Free Republic

SAN MATEO COUNTY, Calif. (KGO) -- The San Mateo district attorney's office has a warning for all TSA personnel at SFO -- anyone inappropriately touching a passenger during a security pat down will be prosecuted.

By Noel Sheppard | September 12, 2009 - 15:26 In a shocking twist to Thursday's ACORN sting video story, the Baltimore city state's attorney is considering charging the two people that exposed the activity. As NewsBusters has been reporting, Hannah Giles and James O'Keefe caught on video several ACORN representatives giving them advice as to how to get a loan to purchase a house to be used as a brothel whose employees would be under-aged illegal immigrants. Despite the long list of laws possibly broken by these ACORN representatives, the Baltimore city state's attorneys office is looking into whether or...

Soon the anniversary of 9/11 will be upon us. We live in a real world inhabited by some evil, violent people, not a theoretical world inhabited by academics and paper-shufflers. Those who insist that we obey the Marquess of Queensbury rules, while our enemies obey no rules at all, may have good intentions. But in fact, they are doing their best to doom our civilization to destruction, and our people to terrible suffering. Still, if you believe it was “criminal” to “torture” suspected terrorists with sleep deprivation, emotional stress, or − in only three cases − waterboarding, you might consider...

(CNN) -- Could George W. Bush or some of his top aides end up behind bars? It's extremely unlikely, but the Obama administration is taking its first steps along a path that could lead in that direction, with the investigation of Central Intelligence Agency interrogators involved in the war on terror. "You don't know where these things are going to end up," former CIA agent Peter Brookes told me. "They could go to very high levels in the government." The probe will focus on whether interrogators exceeded their instructions and broke the law when, for example, they choked a prisoner...

Attorney General Eric Holder told US senators on Wednesday that fewer than 60 of the 230 detainees at the Guantanamo Bay prison could face eventual prosecution while the rest would be cleared for release. He was also optimistic about finding countries to take in the dozens ready to be set free. Holder told the Senate Judiciary Committee that about a quarter of the suspects still at the Guantanamo Bay prison, opened by former president George W. Bush in the aftermath of the September 11, 2001 attacks, would likely face prosecution.

An example of what to do with a DA who refuse to do his duty. § 7A‑66. Removal of district attorneys. The following are grounds for suspension of a district attorney or for his removal from office: (1) Mental or physical incapacity interfering with the performance of his duties which is, or is likely to become, permanent; (2) Willful misconduct in office; (3) Willful and persistent failure to perform his duties; (4) Habitual intemperance; (5) Conviction of a crime involving moral turpitude; (6) Conduct prejudicial to the administration of justice which brings the office into disrepute; or (7) Knowingly authorizing...

Those who attempt to criminalize past administrations deserve to be criminalized by a future administration. Those who are concerned about interrogation of suspected terrorists should ask themselves what they would do to prevent real criminals from subjecting innocent people to real torture.

There has been a lot of debate on the potential prosecution of Bush Administration officials who offered legal opinions supporting waterboarding -- with some even calling for investigations of high-ranking officials like Dick Cheney. However, one thing that hasn't been given the attention it deserves is the precedent it would set if we were to criminalize national security decisions. Hence, I've finally decided to test out the time machine I've been building in my basement. For instance, the following Associated Press story was filed on April 23, 2013, and if it sounds Orwellian, well, it is: OBAMA ADMINISTRATION OFFICIALS TO...

Now, however, comes the news that Pelosi knew as early as 2002 that the U.S. was using waterboarding and other torture techniques and, far from objecting, appears to have cheered the tactics on. The Washington Post reports that Pelosi, who was then a senior member of the House Intelligence Committee, was were informed by CIA officials at a secret briefing in September 2002, that waterboarding and other forms of torture were being used on suspected al-Queda operatives. That's bad. Even worse is the revelation that Pelosi was apparently supportive of the initiative.

Could one find a clearer example of gender bias and the female sentencing discount than this? Brenda Nesselroad-Slaby is not being charged with any crime. Let's review: 1) Brenda Nesselroad-Slaby left her toddler daughter in her car (in heat which reached 100 degrees) for eight hours while she worked. 2) According to police, the dead girl, Cecelia Nesselroad-Slaby, had been left in a hot car on at least three other occasions. 3) Security video shows that Brenda Nesselroad-Slaby was able to remember (twice) to unload the doughnuts she brought for meetings at her job, but nevertheless left her daughter in...

Many fear effort to legalize new hunt may be derailed NEAH BAY -- One day after a group of frustrated Makah tribal members asserted treaty and historic rights by harpooning and killing a protected gray whale, tribal leaders condemned the hunt and vowed to prosecute the men. "Their action was a blatant violation of our law, and they will be prosecuted to the fullest extent of the law," said Debbie Wachendorf, the Makah Tribal Council vice chairwoman. "The Makah Tribal Council denounces the actions of those who took it on themselves to hunt a whale without the authority of the...

MOSCOW (AFP) - Russia could prosecute businessman and former Soviet KGB agent Andrei Lugovoi in the Litvinenko affair if Britain provides "proof" of his guilt, Russia's foreign minister said Friday. If the British "have proof that has 100 percent convinced them of Lugovoi's guilt, we are ready to receive it and study it," Sergei Lavrov said, cited by Interfax news agency from Beijing. At the same time, he said Russia did not intend to exchange Lugovoi for Russian businessman and Kremlin critic Boris Berezovsky, who currently lives in London and is wanted in Russia on various charges of fraud. "For...

Police accused of 'cowardly failure' to prosecute militant By Roya Nikkhah and Adam Lusher (Filed: 24/09/2006) The police were accused yesterday of being "cowed by lunatics" amid anger at the failure to prosecute a Muslim militant who praised the July 7 bombers. Abu Izzadeen, the extremist who branded John Reid, the Home Secretary, an "enemy of Muslims and Islam" last week, has yet to face charges more than a year after police began investigating him for alleged incitement to murder. Abu Izzadeen: 'The real terrorist is Tony Blair' Mr Izzadeen was removed by security guards after he screamed abuse at...

WASHINGTON — The Pentagon's top uniformed lawyers took issue yesterday with a key part of a White House plan to prosecute suspected terrorism detainees, telling Congress that limiting the suspects' access to evidence could violate treaty obligations. Their testimony to a House committee marked the latest time that military lawyers have publicly challenged Bush administration proposals to keep some evidence — such as classified information — from accused terrorists. In the past, some military officials have expressed concerns that if America adopts such standards, captured American troops might be treated the same way. The lawyers' testimony contrasted with the panel...

The disciplinary arm of the N.C. State Bar dropped charges of felonious misconduct against two former Union County prosecutors Friday because of a 1999 clerical error at the state Supreme Court. The State Bar had charged Kenneth Honeycutt and Scott Brewer with lying, cheating and withholding evidence in a 1996 death penalty case. The ruling Friday marks the second time that Honeycutt and Brewer won on procedural grounds before the bar's Disciplinary Hearing Commission, which sits as judge and jury in disciplinary cases. . . . Prosecutors around the state are concerned that the case is damaging their reputation and...

The N.C. State Bar has challenged the dismissal of disciplinary charges against two former Union County prosecutors, saying they committed felonies to win a death penalty conviction. Kenneth Honeycutt and Scott Brewer were charged with lying, cheating and withholding evidence in the 1996 murder trial. Honeycutt, the former district attorney in Union County, has since returned to private practice; Brewer is now a District Court judge in Richmond County. Last week, the bar's Disciplinary Hearing Commission cited a missed deadline in dismissing the case against them. But the bar's lawyers say there is no deadline to bring charges because the...

Virginia Muslim leader gets life in prison "Islamic Scholar Sentenced to Va. Prison," from AP, with thanks to all who sent this in: ALEXANDRIA, Va. - A prominent Islamic scholar who exhorted his followers after the Sept. 11 attacks to join the Taliban and fight U.S. troops was sentenced Wednesday to life in prison. Ali al-Timimi of Fairfax was convicted in April of soliciting others to levy war against the United States, inducing others to aid the Taliban, and inducing others to use firearms in violation of federal law. The cleric addressed the court for 10 minutes before his sentencing....

On October 24, 2004, Arabic websites Middle East Transparent[1] and Elaph[2] posted a petition from Arab liberals to United Nations secretary-general Kofi Annan and the Security Council. Written primarily by the Tunisian intellectual Lafif Lakhdar, the petition calls for an international treaty banning the use of religion to incite violence. The Saudi newspaper Arab News reported that, within a week of the petition's posting, over 2,500 Muslim intellectuals from twenty-three countries had signed the petition.[3]Shakir al-Nabulsi, a Jordanian academic and one of the signatories, noted that "There are individuals in the Muslim world who pose as clerics and issue death...

As we reported last week, Venezuela's vengeful dictator, Hugo Chavez, continues to target eight helpless fired oil workers for long prison terms. Their "crime" was leading a strike. Former Venezuelan oil company executive Gustavo Coronel points out that they are, shockingly, being charged with crimes and neglect against the state oil company that happened after they were fired from their jobs by Chavez himself on live television. In today's El Universal, another Unapetrol oil union leader speaks out, pointing out the shifty legal maneuvers the Chavez court has engaged in over Christmas to deny the eight arrested strike leaders any...

As the debate about resisting the expulsion of Gaza's Jews heats up, some who vehemently oppose the 'illegal order' to transfer Arabs are calling the same opposition to the transfer of Jews "incitement." Pressure is being placed on Attorney-General Meni Mazuz to put on trial right-wing figures who mention the word "rodef" in their public statements regarding the disengagement plan. A "rodef" is one who is about to murder or cause the wrongful death of a person, thus leaving himself open to be killed by anyone who can stop the murder. Rabbi Avigdor Nebenzahl recently quoted, in a public forum,...