The Daily Muck

The U.S. military asserts that attacks against U.S. troops in Iraq that involve Iranian bombs have sharply declined (sub. req.) and that the influx of Iranian weapons has also waned. Rear Adm. Gregory Smith asserted that “the number of signature weapons that had come from Iran and had been used against coalition and Iraqi forces are down dramatically except for this short uptick in the EFPs in the early part of January,” yet these remarks were preceded by allegations from Gen. David Petraeus last week that EFP attacks had risen by a factor of two or three recently. (Wall Street Journal)

For approximately one week, Canada placed the U.S. on a “torture watch list.” But as a result of complaints from the U.S., Canada’s foreign minister has conceded that his nation “wrongly” included “some of our closest allies.” The U.S. Ambassador to Canada argued that it was “offensive for us to be on the same list with countries like Iran and China,” but Amnesty International noted that Canada’s primary concern should “should not be” whether it is “embarrassing allies.” (Think Progress, BBC News)

For the fourth time in fewer than three years, the highest ranking editor or the publisher of the Los Angeles Times has been forced out for taking a stand against newsroom job and budget cuts. The paper’s top editor, James O’Shea, resisted calls by publisher, David Hiller to cut the news budget by $4 million. (New York Times)

West Virginia Supreme Court Chief Justice Elliot Maynard, who was photographed meeting with an executive from Massey Energy Co. while on vacation in Monte Carlo in 2006, has disqualified himself from a case involving the coal company. (New York Times)

Rep. William Jefferson’s (D-LA) name has surfaced in a corruption case in Botswana. Louis Goodwill Nchindo, former managing director of the Debswana Diamond Co. Ltd., has been charged with illegally spending his company’s money to host Jefferson and his family on trips to Botswana in 2001 and 2002. Jefferson has not been accused of any wrongdoing in the case. (AP)

Antonio Rezko, who will be tried next month on federal charges that he forced investors in a state pension fund to pay kickbacks, was an early and generous contributor to Senator Barack Obama (D-IL). On Saturday, Obama announced that he will donate to charity $40,350 in past Rezko contributions. (LA Times)

Prosecutors investigating a bribery case involving Richard Scruggs – brother-in-law of former Senator Trent Lott (R-MS) – are looking into Scruggs’ ties with friend and adviser Presley L. Blake. Although Blake has not been charged, he is connected to other figures in the case, including two men who recently plead guilty. (New York Times)

In 2005 the Library Connection, a cooperative of 26 Connecticut libraries, sought ACLU assistance in fighting a national security letter from the FBI demanding the computer records of a library patron. The librarians won their court case on First Amendment grounds, defeating Connecticut US Attorney Kevin O-Connor, who’s been nominated for a top Justice Department spot. O’Connor “slurred” the librarians (whose identities he wrongly revealed) by alleging that they are “celebrating the fact that” they “prevented the government from investigating a potential terrorist threat.” (Columnist Kevin Rennie, The Hartford Courant)