For weeks, the right has heckled Attorney General Eric Holder Jr. for his plans to try the alleged 9/11 conspirators in New York City and his handling of the Christmas bombing plot suspect. Now the left is going to be upset: an upcoming Justice Department report from its ethics-watchdog unit, the Office of Professional Responsibility (OPR), clears the Bush administration lawyers who authored the “torture” memos of professional-misconduct allegations.

While the probe is sharply critical of the legal reasoning used to justify waterboarding and other “enhanced” interrogation techniques, NEWSWEEK has learned that a senior Justice official who did the final review of the report softened an earlier OPR finding. Previously, the report concluded that two key authors—Jay Bybee, now a federal appellate court judge, and John Yoo, now a law professor—violated their professional obligations as lawyers when they crafted a crucial 2002 memo approving the use of harsh tactics, say two Justice sources who asked for anonymity discussing an internal matter. But the reviewer, career veteran David Margolis, downgraded that assessment to say they showed “poor judgment,” say the sources. (Under department rules, poor judgment does not constitute professional misconduct.) The shift is significant: the original finding would have triggered a referral to state bar associations for potential disciplinary action—which, in Bybee’s case, could have led to an impeachment inquiry.

Update: here’s a little more information about “career veteran” David Margolis.

International arrest warrants have been requested for George W. Bush, Richard (Dick) Cheney, Donald Rumsfeld, George Tenet, Condoleeza Rice and Alberto Gonzales at the International Criminal Court, The Hague, Netherlands.

Professor of Law Francis A. Boyle of the University of Illinois College of Law in Champain, United States of America, has issued a Complaint with the Prosecutor for the International Criminal Court against the above-mentioned for their practice of “extraordinary rendition” (forced disappearance of persons and subsequent torture) in Iraq and for criminal policy which constitutes Crimes against Humanity in violation of the Rome Statute which set up the ICC.

As such, the Accused (mentioned above) are deemed responsible for the commission of crimes within the territories of many States signatories of the Rome Statute, in violation of Rome Statute Articles 5 (1)(b), 7 (1)(a), 7 (1)(e), 7 (1)(g), 7(1)(h), 7(1)8i) and 7(1)(k). Despite the fact that the USA is not a signatory State, the ICC has the jurisdiction to prosecute under Article 12 (2)(a) of the Rome Statute.

This Article stipulates that the Court may exercise its jurisdiction if one or more States in which the conduct in question occurred has accepted the jurisdiction of the Court. Furthermore, the forced disappearance of persons and torture in deemed by the Rome Statute as a Crime against Humanity, one which is still ongoing.

The Exercise of Jurisdiction may be activated under Article 13, with respect to a crime committed under Article 5 if the Prosecutor has initiated an investigation. Professor Boyle, in his issue of complaint, respectfully requested that such an investigation be initiated.

The issue of complaint states “about 100 human beings have been subjected to enforced disappearances and subsequent torture by the Accused”, adds that some of them could still be alive today, and that an investigation could save these lives. Regarding those whose enforced disappearances led to their deaths, the Complaint requests a process of explanation and clarification for what would be a murder investigation.

Jack Straw denounced Tony Blair’s slavish backing for President Bush over the Iraq War yesterday and revealed a deep split on whether regime change to topple Saddam Hussein was legal.

The former Foreign Secretary told the Iraq Inquiry that, unlike Mr Blair, he would not have written cosy letters to the U.S. President promising that Britain would ‘be there’ when America went to war.

In an explosive day of evidence, Mr Straw said the dodgy Downing Street dossier was an ‘error’ that has ‘haunted us ever since’.

A Maine defense contractor who bribed officials at the Army’s Space and Missile Defense Command in Huntsville, Ala., has been sentenced to eight years in prison.

Sixty-five-year-old Maurice “Moe” Subilia Jr. of Kennebunkport was described by prosecutors as one of the masterminds of the scheme. His brother and his son-in-law received lesser sentences of two and three years on Friday.

They pleaded guilty to charges including conspiracy, money laundering and bribery.

Subilia had faced up to 40 years in prison. But attorney Toby Dilworth sought a penalty similar to the five-year sentence given to the government official accused of proposing the scheme. Dilworth says Subilia has cooperated and given up virtually everything he owns. He also suffers from heart problems and had a coronary bypass in October.

More money for the Pentagon, CBS News Correspondent Vince Gonzales reports, while its own auditors admit the military cannot account for 25 percent of what it spends.

“According to some estimates we cannot track $2.3 trillion in transactions,” Rumsfeld admitted.

$2.3 trillion — that’s $8,000 for every man, woman and child in America. To understand how the Pentagon can lose track of trillions, consider the case of one military accountant who tried to find out what happened to a mere $300 million.

“We know it’s gone. But we don’t know what they spent it on,” said Jim Minnery, Defense Finance and Accounting Service.

A Maine businessman was charged today in a Birmingham federal court with bribing two missile defense officials at Redstone Arsenal in Huntsville in exchange for millions of dollars in no-bid contracts.

Maurice Subilia is charged with paying Michael Cantrell $1.2 million over a six-year period ending in 2007, court records show. Cantrell served as the director for the Joint Center for Technology Integration at U.S. Army Space and Missile Defense Command.

Cantrell’s deputy, Douglas Ennis, was also charged as part of the conspiracy.

Subilia operated Fiber Material, a Maine-based composite material manufacturer that made a carbon product for the nose cones of missiles. He also operated companies — Lealagi Inc. and Sage Technologies LLC — that got subcontract work from the missile defense program in Huntsville.

Court records said Ennis traveled to Reagan National Airport in April 2004 where he received a suitcase containing $75,000. He was paid in cash, checks and wire transfers during the six-year period, authorities say.

“The integrity of our government contracting system is threatened by those who would pay bribes under the table to influence government actions,” U.S. Attorney, Alice Martin said. “My office will aggressively prosecute those threats.

“We anticipate that this case will be transferred to the District of Maine for disposition.”