WASHINGTON - A former U.S. army civilian translator was sentenced to three years in prison for attempting to bribe a senior Iraqi police official in violation of the Foreign Corrupt Practices Act (FCPA), Assistant Attorney General Alice S. Fisher of the Criminal Division and U.S. Attorney Jeffrey A. Taylor of the District of Columbia announced today.

Faheem Mousa Salam, 29, of Livonia, Mich., a U.S. citizen, was sentenced today in U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia by the Hon. Judge Richard J. Leon.

Salam was arrested on March 23, 2006 at the Dulles International Airport upon his return from Iraq, and pleaded guilty on August 4, 2006 to violating the Foreign Corrupt Practices Act. Salam admitted that in January 2006, while working in Baghdad as a civilian translator for a U.S. army subcontractor, he offered a senior Iraqi police official $60,000 in exchange for the official's assistance in facilitating the purchase of 1,000 armored vests and a sophisticated map printer for a sale price of approximately $1 million. Salam requested the official use his position with the Iraqi police force to coordinate the sale of the material to the multinational Civilian Police Assistance Training Team (CPATT), an organization designed to train the Iraqi police and border guard in Iraq. Salam admitted that he later made final arrangements with an undercover agent of the Office of the Special Inspector General for Iraq Reconstruction who was posing as a procurement officer for CPATT. Salam admitted that during the subsequent discussions with the undercover agent he offered a separate $28,000 to $35,000 to the agent to process the contracts.

At sentencing, the government argued that Salam was motivated by greed and the prospect of financial gain, rather than any desire to provide the Iraqi troops with equipment; in fact, Salam made no attempt to check the brand names, quality or source of the vests, demonstrating that his motives were anything but altruistic.

The case is being prosecuted jointly by the Criminal Division's Fraud Section Deputy Chief Mark F. Mendelsohn and Trial Attorney Stacey Luck and Assistant United States Attorney for the District of Columbia Bradley Weinsheimer. The case was investigated by the Office of the Special Inspector General for Iraq Reconstruction.

A federal appeals court has ruled that a police officer who arrested a Michigan man for using a curse word in a public meeting violated the man's right to free speech.

The ruling reverses a lower court's decision that the officer had probable cause to arrest Thomas Leonard, who cursed while addressing the Montrose Township board in 2002. At the time, his wife was suing the town over a towing contract.

A three-judge appeals panel ruled that the use of "mild profanity" while peacefully advocating a political position is not a criminal act.

The Michigan Court of Appeals has ruled that an amendment to the state constitution defining marriage as between a man and a woman also prohibits Michigan public employers from offering benefits, such as health insurance, to same-sex partners of homosexual employees. The appeals court overturned a lower court decision finding no conflict between the 2004 amendment and providing the benefits.

In its ruling Thursday, the court wrote:

It is undisputed that under the marriage amendment, heterosexual couples that have not married also may not obtain employment benefits as a couple on the basis of an agreement "recognized as a marriage or similar union for any purpose. . . ." The amendment is grounded in the longstanding and legitimate governmental interest in favoring the institution of marriage. . . . The amendment is narrowly tailored to further the legitimate governmental interest in protecting and strengthening the institution of marriage, and not to arbitrarily or invidiously exclude individuals from the protections of the laws of this state. . . .

Because the marriage amendment does not make arbitrary or invidious distinctions in furthering the legitimate governmental interests of the state, does not violate the equal protection guarantee of the Michigan constitution. . . .

The marriage amendment's plain language prohibits public employers from recognizing same-sex unions for any purpose.
In March 2005 Michigan Attorney General Mike Cox issued an opinion asserting that the amendment's language barred public employers from offering domestic partner benefits. After the lower court ruling, the Michigan Senate approved resolutions preventing taxpayer money from being spent on same-sex benefits until the state Supreme Court decides the issue. The ACLU of Michigan expressed disagreement with appeals court decision, claiming that the voters were told the amendment would not affect domestic partnership benefits, and said that an appeal to the state high court is planned.

The US military announced Friday it has drafted new charges against three high-profile Guantanamo Bay detainees. Col. Morris Davis (USAF), chief prosecutor for the Department of Defense Office of Military Commissions, said that the new charges against Australian David Hicks, Canadian Omar Khadr, and Yemeni Salim Ahmed Hamdan included murder, attempted murder, conspiracy and providing material support for terrorists under the Military Commissions Act of 2006 (MCA). The original charges against the three had to be dropped after the US Supreme Court ruled the original military commissions system established by President Bush unconstitutional without Congressional authorization.

The new charges will not be considered formal until they are approved, which Davis said is expected to take an additional two weeks. With regard to Hicks, who faces charges for attempted murder, Davis told the Melbourne Age that he did not intend to "argue for the maximum penalty of a life sentence". AP has more. The Age has local coverage from Australia on the Hicks charges. The Toronto Globe & Mail has local coverage on the charges against Omar Khadr.

Tennessee Governor Phil Bredesen issued an executive order Thursday, directing the Tennessee Commissioner of Corrections to conduct a "comprehensive review of the manner in which death sentences are administered... and provide new protocols and related written procedures in administering death sentences in Tennessee" no later than May 2, 2007. Executive Order No. 43 also grants reprieves to four inmates on death row until May 2, 2007, and revoked existing procedures and related protocols used to administer the death penalty. Tennessee currently administers the death penalty by lethal injection and electrocution.

Last week, a North Carolina state judge issued an injunction blocking two executions until Governor Mike Easley issues new procedures to execute capital defendants without the presence of doctors. Capital punishment has also been suspended in Florida and California. In early-January, the New Jersey Death Penalty Commission recommended abolishing the death penalty and replacing it with a life sentence without the possibility of parole. An increased number of states have begun to review the administration of the death penalty following the botched execution of Angel Diaz in December 2006.

The UN's Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change, at a news conference in Paris, will release part one of a four-volume survey, the first such report since 2001. The study was reviewed by more than 2,500 scientists from 130 countries.

The IPCC will revise forecasts for rises in temperatures and sea levels this century. The panel will say it is more than 90 percent likely that global warming is being caused by human activities, Philip Clapp, president of the U.S. National Environmental Trust, said Jan. 31 in Washington. The degree of certainty in the last report was 66 to 90 percent.

"This is a statement by the largest scientific panel ever put together on a major scientific issue that we now have the smoking gun on global warming,'' said Clapp, who has seen portions of the draft. "The central message to governments is that we are at the tipping point and between 2015 and 2025 we have to stabilize the world's emissions'' of greenhouse gases, and then reduce them.

Industrial Revolution

"The science of climate change, of global warming, is now unambiguous: the Earth is getting hotter, the weather is becoming more variable and this is due to our own industrial revolution,'' U.K. Environment Secretary David Miliband said in a Jan. 31 interview. "All the predictions are that the problem is becoming more urgent, that the scientists are becoming more certain and that the dangers are becoming more real.''

The IPCC's report issued today is entitled "Climate Change 2007: the Physical Science Basis.''

Scientists say that carbon dioxide (CO2) and other gases produced by burning fossil fuels cause the Earth to heat up when they linger in the atmosphere, trapping energy from the sun that would otherwise reflect back into space.

The level of greenhouse gases in the atmosphere is at its highest in at least 650,000 years, European scientists who analyzed ice cores from Antarctica said in the journal Science in November 2005.

The IPCC will narrow the bands for its forecast on temperature rise because of a "greater degree of certainty'' in the science, Steve Sawyer, Climate and Energy Policy Advisor for Greenpeace International, said in a Jan. 31 telephone interview.

US Special Prosecutor Patrick Fitzgerald played portions of White House briefing room videos Thursday as the trial of I. Lewis "Scooter" Libby continued. Fitzgerald said the tapes show Libby's eagerness to publicly conceal conversations he had with reporters about CIA official Valerie Plame. US District Judge Reggie B. Walton allowed Fitzgerald to play portions of the videos that show former White House Press Secretary Scott McClellan publicly clearing Libby's name and announcing that individuals responsible for the leak would be fired. Judge Walton did not allow Fitzgerald to show a heated question and answer session between McClellan and reporters.

Libby is charged with perjury and obstruction of justice in connection with the investigation into the leak of former CIA operative Valerie Plame's identity. Libby's defense team has indicated that they plan to call Libby's former boss, Vice President Dick Cheney, to testify and that Libby also plans to take the witness stand himself. Walton has denied a request from several news organizations seeking the daily release of audio recordings of arguments and testimony.