The Daily MuckSeventeen Guantanamo detainees remain trapped in a precedent-setting legal battle over war powers — imprisoned by mistake and ordered released, but not yet free to go. The Bush administration appealed this week’s ruling that it cannot hold the men any longer, and while the lawyers work out the details, the men will languish in prison a little longer. The men, Uighur Muslims from a restive region in the far west of China, were captured — or possibly sold — in Afghanistan in 2001. A judge cleared them for release in 2004, but the U.S., with its eye for irony, kept them in prison because of fears that China might torture them. (China gave assurances yesterday that it has no such intentions.) (ProPublica/AP)
It doesn’t look good for the lawyers attempting to pin money laundering on two associates of former House Majority Leader Tom DeLay. On Wednesday, they lost a bid to replace the trial’s judge. The judge had indicated in August that he thought the prosecution had no case, reasoning that, like a corner store, the money laundering law accepted only cash, not checks. (Austin-American Statesman)
The stakes are high in this election, and a Washington watchdog group wants to know how good a gambler McCain is. McCain hasn’t reported his winnings on federal disclosure forms, which the organization, Citizens for Ethics and Responsibility, claims merits a Senate ethics inquiry. The McCain campaign says no dice. (Politico)
N.S.A workers listening in on late-night conversations passed the tapes around when the talk moved into raunchier territory. That’s kind of sad in and of itself, even forgetting all those civil liberty violations that the recordings, taken of military and humanitarian aid workers accused of no wrongdoing except for being based in the Middle East — could present. Don’t worry though — the Senate Select Intelligence Committee is on it. (AP/New York Times)
The government filed a new indictment against former White House official David H. Safavian, found guilty in 2006 in connection with unsavory dealings and extravagant golf dates with lobbyist Jack Abramoff. An appeals court upturned the conviction in June and set the new trial date for December. (Bloomberg)
Western officials are investigating a James Bond-like plot twist in the story of the Iranian nuclear program, one that would introduce a Russian scientist to the cast of characters. (New York Times)