At a press conference held at the government's airplane hangar in Mexico City around 10 pm MT last night(available here), both Osorio Chong and Attorney General Arely Gomez spoke. Gomez said El Chapo was being sent back to Altiplano, the prison from which he escaped. (He has since arrived there.)

As for extradition, I don't expect it to happen anytime soon. Last July, he was granted a Writ of Amparo prohibiting his extradition to the U.S. without first being provided a hearing and due process. In October, another court granted his writ. (News article in Spanish here.) [More...]

Mexican President Enrique Pena Nieto announced on his twitter feed today that Joaquin "El Chapo" Guzman-Loera has been arrested.

Details to follow once I've found and translated them.

Update: The NY Times says the arrest followed a shoot-out in Los Mochis. The operation was conducted by the Mexican Navy.

The raid followed a "tip" about persons at a certain residence being armed. Also at the residence: Orso Ivan Gastelum Cruz, a northern Sinaloa leader. It appears he was able to escape. Five others at the home were killed and six were detained.

The FBI cannot account for 18 minutes of Syed Farook and Tashfeen Malik's activities after the shootings at San Bernadino.

Agents said Tuesday they have yet to figure out what the couple were doing for a critical chunk of time — 12:59 p.m to 1:17 p.m. When Farook and Malik resurfaced, they were a mile from the center, which at that time was flooded with paramedics, police, reporters and family members frantically searching for loved ones.

They remain convinced, however, the shootings were terror-inspired but not terror-directed:

During a news conference Tuesday, Bowdich said the investigation had turned up no evidence that the attack was orchestrated from abroad. “This seems to be an inspired terrorist act,” he said.

When the powers that be decide to target you, there's very little that can be done to change their mind. An arrest warrant has been issued for Bill Cosby, for an incident that allegedly took place in 2004. You can read the Complaint here.

I continue to have zero interest in this story, and I doubt I'll write more about it. For those who feel differently, here's a place to discuss it.

A drug cop in Ponce, Puerto Rico took three of his fellow cops hostage and shot and killed them today.

Our condolences to the families and loved ones of the slain officers.

Pointing out the obvious: Stricter gun laws wouldn't have prevented this tragedy.

One of the slain officers is believed to have shot the alleged killer officer in the arm: [More...]

The House Judiciary Committee has released Tashfeen Malik's immigration application saying her visa vetting was insufficient. The 21 page document is available here.

I don't really see the reason for the Committee's criticism of her visa vetting (other than the obvious that after the fact we know she was a terrorist.) Her story on the application is fairly consistent with what Syed's now estranged parents claim. [More...]

Update: My thoughts: The U.S. just got handed a price tag of $120,000. a year to warehouse these four men should they be convicted. (Per Administrative Office of U.S. Courts, June 16, 2015, the annual cost of housing a prisoner at a Bureau of Prisons facility is $30,621.00.) For what? Creating and running the most successful file uploading and sharing business ever? Yes, some people, including Dotcom and his partners, may have improperly allowed site users to share copyrighted material, for which Hollywood is owed money. So sue them. Prison is not the answer to every conceivable economic and social ill.

Update: Summing up:Kim Dotcom can be extradited. The court decision must be approved by Justice Minister Amy Adams (requirement of the Extradition Act.) Once the decision is signed off on, Kim Dotcom and the others have 15 days to appeal. {More...]

Update 12/22: Judge approves extradition. Bail continued. Appeals next.

The New Zealand courts tweeted a few hours ago that the decision on Kim Dotcom's extradition will be released tomorrow afternoon. More from the New Zealand Herald here.

I'm sending good thoughts his way. [More...]

Oscar Pistorius has been granted bail pending the outcome of his new appeal and should that fail, his sentencing. His next court date is in April. He is appealing the recent appeals court decision changing his manslaughter conviction to murder to the Constitutional Court.

From reporters covering the hearing on Twitter: He will remain on house arrest, but is free to leave the house between 7 am and midnight. He will be allowed to travel within 20km of (his uncle's house in Waterkloof, Pretoria.

The Judge said, ""I am of the view that it would not be in the interests of justice that the applicant should not leave the house at all" [More...]

At the press conference on San Bernadino today, the FBI was emphatic:

At the news conference, Mr. Bowdich said that at this point, the authorities did not believe that forces beyond the nation’s borders had been involved in orchestrating the attack.

“I want to be crystal clear here — we do not see any evidence so far of a plot outside the continental U.S.,” he said. “We may find it someday, we may not; we don’t know. But right now we’re looking at these two individuals.”

Shhh....don't tell Donald Trump. It will probably ruin his day.

Also, apparently authorities no longer view the wife was the primary radicalized one. They say Syed had been radicalized long before he met her. [More...]

President Obama said today the San Bernadino shooters were not affiliated with a specific terrorist group or part of a bigger cell.

The President's team also affirmed that they had as of yet uncovered no indication the killers were part of an organized group or formed part of a broader terrorist cell.

Obama will address the nation on the shooting and our response to terror threats tomorrow night.

Yesterday, an unofficial ISIS news account praised the couple as supporters. Today, ISIS official radio station, al Bayan, referred to them as supporters in Arabic. The English audio version refers to them as "soldiers of the Khalifah" (available here at 3'20" in.) The French version says sympathizers. If supporters rather than soldiers is correct, which most analysts on Twitter seem to think is the case, the attacks may have been inspired by ISIS but not directed by ISIS (or al Qaida.)

[More...]

The South African appeals court has ruled the trial judge in the Oscar Pistorius case erred in dismissing the murder charge. He won't get a new trial. He now stands convicted of murder, and the case will be sent back to the trial court for resentencing.

Bad ruling as I've opined many times.