Free Republic

At a New York restaurant overlooking Central Park in April 2006, the governor of Pennsylvania sat down to dinner with about a dozen Democratic supporters. The 10-course meal in a private room at Per Se, including dishes like Nova Scotia Lobster Tail "Cuite Sous Vide," cost about $18,000, says a diner who was there. The host, Norman Hsu, was a businessman that the crowd admired but knew little about. In the past few weeks, much more has become known about Mr. Hsu: That he had filed for bankruptcy twice, including a time in 1990 when he said he had no...

Suleyman al-Faris, aka Abdul Hamid, aka John Walker Lindh, is asking for mercy. Via the San Francisco Chronicle: American-born Taliban soldier John Walker Lindh has asked President Bush again to reduce his 20-year prison sentence by an unspecified amount, Lindh's attorney said Tuesday. Lindh, now in his early 20s, wrote a first-person account to the Justice Department's pardon attorneys arguing why he believes Bush should reduce his sentence. Lindh's attorney said the document could not be publicly released under U.S. government restrictions intended to prevent Lindh from disclosing national secrets. National secrets? Don't worry. The New York Times will no...

Today's editorial pages are giddy with delight at the plea agreement reached yesterday in the John Walker Lindh case. Lindh agreed to plead guilty to two charges—aiding the Taliban and carrying explosives while doing so. The bargain was good for everyone. The government dropped all the serious charges, including its claim that Lindh had anything to do with the death of Mike Spann, the CIA officer killed in the prison uprising at Mazar-e-Sharif on Nov. 25. Lindh gets more jail time than the flimsy evidence against him warranted, and the government is spared an embarrassing trial and ugly disclosures about...