The Daily Nightly began on May 31, 2005. As Brian wrote in his first post it aims to provide a narrative of the broadcast day and a window into the editorial process at NBC Nightly News. Brian weighs in every weekday and NBC News correspondents and producers post regularly.
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Was it ignorance of Muslim tradition or legitimate concern that resulted in the delay of a U.S. passenger plane last night? Federal officials are trying to answer that question today, and an Islamic group is calling for an investigation into why the actions of six Muslim clerics resulted in the delay of a US Airways flight yesterday.
Flight 300 from Minneapolis to Phoenix was held on the ground more than three hours last night, after a passenger expressed concerns about the actions of the men to a flight attendant who, in turn, notified the pilot. In the end, passengers were removed from the flight, re-screened, and allowed to board again. Scheduled to leave at 5:15 p.m., the plane instead took off at 8:29 p.m. -- without the Muslims on board.
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Link to thisA Washington state lawyer today pleaded guilty to helping a client buy a business that would be used to launder money piling up from the client's sale of illegal drugs. Stephen Plowman of Medina, Wash., admitted that he failed to file the required reports for financial transactions over $10,000. He said he received more than 10 times that amount from the client to buy the business in Seattle last year. The client has since been convicted on drug charges.
The business for laundering money? A laundromat.
Discuss (0 comments) Email this | Link to thisFor the first time in more than 50 years, federal prosecutors are preparing to charge an American citizen with treason. Barring any last-minute complications, the charges will be filed today against Adam Gadahn, the American who has appeared in at least four al-Qaida videos, the most recent one in September.
Treason is the only crime specified in the Constitution and requires either confession in open court or the testimony of at least two witnesses to get a conviction. Prosecutors believe with millions of witnesses to his videos, they have enough proof, but the decision will be controversial, given that so little is known about the circumstances of the videos.
Born Adam Pearlman in California and raised on a goat farm in Riverside Co., he converted to Islam in his late teens. His parents say he moved to Pakistan in 1998. In 2004, the FBI revealed that it believed he was one of a group of al-Qaida terrorists planning some kind of attack later that year. In October of 2004, calling himself "Azzam the American," he first showed up in an al-Qaida video.
Editor's note: Pete broke this news on MSNBC-TV. Click here to watch the video.
Discuss (46 comments) Email this | Link to thisAfter months of difficult negotiations, the U.S. has reached an agreement with European countries that allows federal agents to get a larger amount of data about passengers on flights to the U.S. and to share that information with U.S. intelligence agencies.
Shortly after the aborted London plot was revealed, Homeland Security Secretary Michael Chertoff called for quick action on an agreement to let the U.S. share what's called Passenger Name Record data. It includes the name and address of the passenger, but also how the ticket was booked, form of payment, phone numbers, and sometimes parts of the travel itinerary.
Discuss (0 comments) Email this | Link to thisLegal experts and former federal prosecutors say it may be difficult to bring federal criminal charges against former Congressman Mark Foley, based on what's publicly known about the e-mails and instant messages he sent.
"To be illegal, the conduct needs to get beyond IM sex chat," says one former prosecutor who worked on child exploitation cases. "Sex talk with a minor is not prosecutable."
So far, say current law enforcement officials, it's not clear any federal laws were violated. While it may surprise some people, it turns out that talking trash to a minor is not automatically illegal.
Discuss (14 comments) Email this | Link to thisFederal authorities have declined to prosecute a man who tried to open a cabin door during a United flight from Los Angeles to Washington Dulles airport last night [story link].
Flight 890 was about two hours from Dulles when the man walked to the rear of the plane and flipped up the handle on the rear cabin door. Because those doors cannot open when a plane is in flight, nothing happened to the door. But the same cannot be said of the man. A federal investigator says he was immediately jumped by nearby passengers and beaten. "They roughed him up quite a bit," a federal official says.
Discuss (65 comments) Email this | Link to thisJustice Department officials confirm that an American citizen who joined al-Qaida and has appeared in al-Qaida videos has been charged with supporting terrorism. The charges, in an indictment filed under seal, will be made public in a few days and could include treason.
The American, Adam Pearlman, was born in California and grew up in Orange County. He converted to Islam as a teenager, eventually changing his name to Adam Gadahn. He has so far appeared in four al-Qaida videos. In the most recent, on the Internet last weekend, he was introduced by Ayman Al-Zawahri, who said that Pearlman/Gadahn wants to lead his people "out of darkness into the light."
Discuss (0 comments) Email this | Link to thisSuppose the police come to your office with a search warrant, suspecting you of having committed a crime. During their search, they find something that makes them want to search your home, too. You say no. But they go to your house anyway, where your spouse says yes. Is that a valid search?
No, it's not, according to a federal appeals court ruling today. In a 2-1 decision, the 8th Circuit Court of Appeals held that once one occupant says no, the others cannot veto that refusal. It extends a ruling by the U.S. Supreme Court earlier this year, involving two occupants of a house who argued with police outside about whether they could come in to search. Under this ruling, an occupant can stop a search, no matter how far from the house.
Discuss (6 comments) Email this | Link to thisThe thousands of federal air marshals who patrol the skies on selected flights won a concession today from the Department of Homeland Security -- one they say will help them remain undercover. The issue was how they dress and where they stay, to avoid calling attention to themselves.
Discuss (6 comments) Email this | Link to thisLegal scholars, both liberal and conservative, say they are disappointed with yesterday's ruling by the federal judge who held the NSA warrantless wiretapping program unconstitutional. Though they disagree on whether her conclusion was the right one, they generally agree that her legal reasoning left a great deal to be desired -- especially in a case of such national importance -- and probably won't be given much weight by the federal appeals courts that take up the controversy.
The ruling, though it offers a thorough review of how previous courts have handled similar issues in the past, is unusually thin on legal analysis in deciding this case.
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