A year ago I wrote about the DEA's expensive "African vacation" during which it sent informants and agents to Ghana as part of an elaborate sting operation to intercept cocaine on its way to Europe. It ended up with no cocaine or money, but flew three African men back to the U.S. to face criminal charges. (A year later, the court's docket in U.S. v. Oumar Issa, et. al., SDNY, shows the three are still in custody and the case hasn't even gotten past the discovery phase to the filing of pre-trial motions.)

I'm sure the men's lawyers (all court-appointed since the men are indigent) will be very interested in Wikileaks' release of embarrassing cables today pertaining to cocaine enforcement operations in Ghana, Mali and elsewhere in West Africa. One set of cables pertains to a longstanding and expensive UK operation called Westbridge, in which the UK teamed up with the Ghana Government. Cables by American diplomats claim corruption in Ghana has ruined the operation. [More...]

The Senate today added a provision to its omnibus spending bill blocking the transfer of Guantanamo detainees to the U.S., including for trial, for 9 months.

Obama could try to find other money to transfer prisoners, but the new law would make that politically untenable.

The ACLU adds:

The House passed a nearly identical provision last week as part of a continuing resolution on government spending. The provision, Section 12 of the bill, is the first across-the-board transfer ban. Previous Guantánamo detainee transfer bans passed by Congress have always included an exception for transfers for prosecution purposes.

[More...]

Ezra Klein writes:

I listed some of the conservative critics of the tax deal in Wonkbook today (Rush Limbaugh, Sarah Palin, the Tea Party Patriots, Charles Krauthammer), but Playbook shows their ranks are growing: Mitt Romney has an op-ed in USA Today saying the tax deal gives "President Obama ... reason to celebrate. The deal delivers short-term economic stimulus, and it does so at the very time he wants it most, before the 2012 elections."

[More...]

I'll be in court today. Here's an open thread, all topics welcome.

Update: Sweden is appealing the decision. A ruling in the appeal could take a week. Also, Assange's bond is L200,000, which must be in cash because cheques take a week to clear. His lawyer says: "So I have to go around to find cash and have it delivered to court, and until the court has it an innocent man stays in jail."

A British Court has granted bail to Wikileak's founder Julian Assange.

Via TPM Muckraker: It was Democrats, not Republicans, that inserted the ban on Guantanamo detainee transfers to the U.S., including for trial, into the Omnibus Spending Bill:

According to sources on both sides of the House Appropriations Committee, which had purview over the legislation, the bill was written entirely by the Democratic side. It was revealed to Republicans only hours before the vote. No amendments were allowed on the House floor. No Republicans voted for it.

And, the committee sources said, the White House would have seen the final package -- including the transfer ban -- and would have had the chance to object.

Did someone forget to tell Attorney General Eric Holder? [More...]

U.S. Diplomat Richard Holbrooke has died following heart surgery. He was 69.

An administration official says Richard Holbrooke, a longtime U.S. diplomat who wrote part of the Pentagon Papers, was the architect of the 1995 Bosnia peace plan and served as President Barack Obama's special envoy to Pakistan and Afghanistan, has died. He was 69.

Some details about him are here. He is survived by his wife, Kati Marton, who was formerly married to ABC anchor Peter Jennings.

A lot of prominent deaths this week: Elizabeth Edwards, Mark Madoff and now Richard Holbrooke. May they all rest in peace.

A detailed analysis of the ridiculous decision by District Judge Henry Hudson (PDF) striking down the individual mandate would be superfluous as any honest and competent constitutional scholar knows that the decision is not even close to being in line with existing Supreme Court precedent, and it is certainly not the job of district court judges to ignore existing Supreme Court precedent. As Orin Kerr succinctly states:

David Dayen:

Republicans see [The Deal] as the impetus to cut spending and essentially cancel out the stimulative properties.

In remarks prepared for the Senate floor, Republican leader Mitch McConnell [said] �This bipartisan compromise represents an essential first step in tackling the debt,� McConnell said. �[B]ecause in keeping taxes where they are, we are officially cutting off the spigot.�

Exactly. This is the entire conservative project in a nutshell � starve the beast. That�s what the most conservative Congress in history wants to do and what they will seek to do. [. . .] This deal faces a future of savage cuts to needed public services, which will diminish its positive impact. The talk of stimulus doesn�t take into account the full picture.

Precisely. The Deal is a terrible mistake by President Obama.

Speaking for me only

Open Thread.

In an otherwise typically intelligent col;umn, Paul Krugman seems oblivious that The Deal will lead to less government spending NEXT fiscal year. Krugman writes:

I�m often asked how I can oppose that deal given my consistent position in favor of more stimulus. The answer is that yes, I believe that stimulus can have major benefits in our current situation � but these benefits have to be weighed against the costs. And the tax-cut deal is likely to deliver relatively small benefits in return for very large costs.

I think Krugman overstates the stimulative effect of The Deal because he completely ignores that the deficit caused by The Deal will be used to bludgeon federal government spending. What The Deal does is trade out fiscal spending stimulus for tax cut stimulus. Which is the opposite of what Krugman says we need:

In case you missed it, here's SNL last night on Wikileaks' Julian Assange.

This is an open thread, all topics welcome.

The suicide bomber killed in yesterday's bombing in Sweden has been identified as Taimur Abdulwahab al-Abdaly, a 29 year old married father and former student at Bedfordshire University in Luton, UK. His family lives in Sweden.

An Yemeni Islamist website, Shumukh al-Islam, published a photograph of Abdulwahab in dark glasses, saying: “It is our brother, mujahid Taymour Abdel Wahab, who carried out the martyrdom operation in Stockholm.”

With AQAP is praising the act, and since Umar Farouq Abdulmutallab also attended college in England, how long until Anwar al-Awlaki is mentioned as the one who radicalized Abdulwahab?

Via CBS News, Mark Stephens, attorney for Wikileaks' Julian Assange, appears on David Frost's al Jazeera TV show and says they've received word a grand jury has been empaneled in Alexandria, VA to investigate criminal charges.

"We have heard from the Swedish authorities there has been a secretly empaneled grand jury in Alexandria...just over the river from Washington DC, next to the Pentagon," Stephens said. "They are currently investigating this, and indeed the Swedes we understand have said that if he comes to Sweden, they will defer their interest in him to the Americans. Now that shows some level of collusion and embarrassment, so it does seem to me what we have here is nothing more than holding charges...so ultimately they can get their mitts on him."

Inmates in at least six prisons have banded together and gone on strike, seeking better compensation and improved prison conditions. They have refused to leave their cells since Thursday.

Chief among the prisoners’ demands is that they be compensated for jailhouse labor. They are also demanding better educational opportunities, nutrition, and access to their families.

“We committed the crime, we’re here for a reason,” said the Hays inmate. “But at the same time we’re men. We can’t be treated like animals.”

How did they coordinate? Through banned cell phones and text messaging. How serious are they? The striking prisoners put gang affiliations and racial issues aside to join together.