Attorney General Eric Holder said Wednesday that the U.S. has identified 30 Guantanamo detainees to be released and will ask allies to take the former suspected terrorists within the next few weeks. Holder made the announcement in Berlin, Germany, a country which has so far declined to say whether it will take released detainees. Other European countries, including Britain, France and Portugal, have signaled that they will consider taking former Gitmo detainees to assist in President Obama’s stated goal to close the controversial military prison within the year. (Reuters)
The final remaining “enemy combatant” held on U.S. soil without charges is in negotiations to plead guilty, according to sources close to the talks. Ali Saleh Kahlah al-Marri entered the U.S. the day before the 9-11 attacks and has been accused of a number of crimes, including using hazardous chemicals to disrupt the financial system, though that accusation was not included in a February grand jury indictment. The deal will likely send al-Marri to prison for 15 years. (Washington Post)
Agents from the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency raided the government offices of a suburban Illinois town which for more than twenty years pumped water contaminated by carcinogenic toxins to the town’s 11,000 residents to cut costs, according to a Chicago Tribune investigation published earlier this month. Even after state environmental officials warned town officials that the water was contaminated by dry-cleaning chemicals and twice cited the town for violating environmental laws, officials continued to use the poisoned source. The state finally shut down the well in 2007 after testing it for the first time in twenty years. (New York Times)
One of the five real estate executives accused this week of planning a $70 million mortgage Ponzi scheme pleaded guilty Tuesday to money laundering. Carole Nelson, the former CFO of one of the Dream Homes companies involved in the mortgage fraud, said that the company did not provide the service it advertised. According to the indictment, employees of Metro Dream Homes asked investors to make a minimum investment of $55,000 in exchange for future mortgage payments and the promise of paying off the homeowner’s mortgage within seven years. Instead, the defendants allegedly used the investments to pay off prior debts, leaving no revenue to pay the mortgages. In the twenty months Nelson worked for Metro Dream Homes, she earned $413,075. (Washington Post)
Lawyers for Cortez Brown, a convicted murderer in Chicago, won permission Wednesday to subpoena the commander who oversaw his arrest. Brown claims that two police officers forced him into a false confession by beating him with their fists and a flashlight, and is seeking a new trial. Brown’s lawyers argued that former Commander Jon Burge, who now lives in Florida, should be subpoenaed because he approved a culture in which detectives with the Chicago Police Department knew that violence against suspects was condoned. (Chicago Tribune)
Speaking of Chicago cops, a group of police officers disrupted their pension fund board meeting Wednesday in protest of a $15 million investment deal between the police board and a real estate firm DV Urban, which employs Mayor Richard Daley’s nephew. City inspector general David Hoffman is investigating the city’s overall $68 million investment in DV Urban through pension funds representing police officers, teachers, and transportation workers. The officers criticized pension fund managers for not complying with Hoffman, by withholding recordings of board meetings that discussed the deal. (Chicago Tribune)
