“The Rev. Pat Robertson said President Bush dismissed his warning that the United States would suffer heavy casualties in Iraq and told the television evangelist just before the war that ‘we’re not going to have any casualties.’

Robertson related the conversation during an interview with CNN late Tuesday. He said he spoke to Bush prior to the invasion of Iraq in March 2003. While Bush’s response was a mistake, Robertson said, God has blessed the president anyhow.” (Pittsburgh Post-Gazette)

“With roughly one in six inmates suffering from mental illness, the American prison system has evolved into something of a mental institution by default. But mentally ill prison inmates receive little or no help while they’re locked up. Rather, they are usually dumped onto the streets with neither treatment nor medication when their sentences are finished. It should come as no surprise that large numbers quickly end up back behind bars.

For psychotic inmates, psychiatric care is particularly poor. A recent study in New York found that nearly a quarter of the inmates in disciplinary lockdown – confined to small cells for 23 hours a day – were mentally ill. Their symptoms worsened in isolation, and many tried to commit suicide.

Curbing recidivism means treating the mentally ill while they are still in custody. The optimal solution would be to extend public health services right into the jails and prisons, so inmates can begin drug and therapy regimens the moment they walk into custody.

The Mentally Ill Offender Treatment and Crime Reduction Act, which has now been passed by both houses of Congress, falls short of this ideal, but it moves national policy well along in a fruitful direction.” (New York Times editorial)

Anthrax Figure Wins a Round on News Sources: “In a development that could undercut reporters’ ability to obtain confidential information, Justice Department officials agreed Thursday to distribute to dozens of federal investigators in the 2001 anthrax case a document they can sign to release journalists from pledges of confidentiality.

Lawyers for Steven J. Hatfill, a former Army bioterrorism expert, had sought the releases as a step toward questioning reporters about their sources in the case. Dr. Hatfill, who has been described by Attorney General John Ashcroft as a ‘person of interest” in the anthrax investigation, is suing the government over leaks of a variety of information suggesting his guilt.

Experts on journalism and the law said the releases – first used in another case, involving a leak of the identity of Valerie Plame, an undercover officer for the Central Intelligence Agency – could erode government employees’ confidence that they can provide information to reporters without fear of being later identified and punished.” (The New York Times)