BABE OF THE DAY

USA - GOP lawmakers: Prisoner exchange violated law...

OFF THE WIRE

By DARLENE SUPERVILLE

WASHINGTON (AP) — Two Republican lawmakers on Saturday accused President Barack Obama of breaking the law by approving the release of five Afghan detainees held at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba, in exchange for a U.S. soldier believed held by Islamist insurgents for five years.The White House agreed that actions were taken in spite of legal requirements and cited "unique and exigent circumstances" as justification.

Sgt. Bowe Bergdahl, 28, of Hailey, Idaho, was handed over to U.S. special operations forces by the Taliban. In return, five Afghans who were held at a U.S. detention facility in Cuba were released to the custody of the government of Qatar, which served as a go-between in negotiations for the trade.

Rep. Howard "Buck" McKeon of California and Sen. James Inhofe of Oklahoma said in a statement that Obama is required by law to notify Congress 30 days before any terrorists are transferred from the U.S. facility. They said Obama also is required to explain how the threat posed by such terrorists has been substantially mitigated.

McKeon is chairman of the House Armed Services Committee. Inhofe is the top Republican on the Senate Armed Services Committee.

In response, the White House said it moved as quickly as possible given the opportunity that arose to secure Bergdahl's release. Citing "these unique and exigent circumstances," the White House said a decision was made to go ahead with the transfer despite the legal requirement of 30 days advance notice to Congress.

While saying they celebrate Bergdahl's release, McKeon and Inhofe warned that the exchange "may have consequences for the rest of our forces and all Americans."

"Our terrorist adversaries now have a strong incentive to capture Americans. That incentive will put our forces in Afghanistan and around the world at even greater risk," they said.

Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid, a Nevada Democrat, said in a statement that "the safe return of Sgt. Bowe Bergdahl is an answer to the prayers of the Bergdahl family and a powerful reinforcement of our nation's commitment to leave no service member behind."

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Associated Press writer Douglass K. Daniel contributed to this report.

The U.S. Government Has A Fort Knox For Their Weed Stash

Down in the deep south, the feds have a stash that would put Cheech and Chong in the emergency room.

By James Joiner

Way deep down in Oxford, Mississippi, nestled away in the heart of the Ole Miss campus, our government has a Fort Knox-like fortress full of green gold.
The LA Times visited the federally funded Marijuana Research Project, a 46-year-old center dedicated to growing, processing, and selling pot for the United States government, which is the only one of its kind. (There was supposed to be another at the University of Massachusetts, but bummer DEA chiefs harshed their mellow.) This is the only stash scientists can dip into — after jumping through a dizzying array of hoops — in order to legally investigate marijuana’s medicinal properties.
Inside the lab, there is a stoner’s wet dream of a THC stockpile, as described by the Times’ reporter, Evan Halper:

Marijuana buds are packed into thousands of baggies filed in bankers boxes. Fifty-pound barrels are brimming with dried, ready-to-smoke weed. Freezers are stocked with buckets of potent cannabis extracts. Large metal canisters sit, crammed full of hundreds of perfectly rolled joints.

The lab is in the process of readying 30 thousand plants on their 12-acre farm, and has made headway in developing new bud strains that are higher in the chemical compounds scientists posit help the sick. But don’t expect these plants to flower in the feel-good reggae vibe of their cousins on the outside. Their overseers are not the heady kind.
The lab’s boss, Mahmoud A. Elsohly, has been running a tight ship here since 1980. He believes in the medical powers of cannabis, though he is also opposed to smoking it, which he attributes to just getting high. Instead, he has been working on a THC suppository, since you can't get high “through your rectum.”
This is a claim some stoner-types would dispute.
His deputy, a former narcotics cop named Zlatko Mehmedic, echoes his anti-puffing policy, saying the weed they receive for testing from law enforcement agencies, “could put a novice user in the emergency room.”