On flights across the country, there are passengers who yak too much, or lean their seat way too far back or take up your elbow rest.

And there’s Kyle Pearce, 25, in a category all to his own.

The FBI arrested the Florida man last Thursday at the Denver airport after he flew on a United flight from Spokane to Denver and masturbated on the flight “to the point of ejaculation”, according to The Smoking Gun.

He was charged with making an “obscene and indecent exposure of his person” on an aircraft, The Smoking Gun reported.

“I heard a noise and looked over and saw his penis,” said one female witness in a written statement according to The Smoking Gun. She added, “He ejaculated & got some on the seat.”

OTHER STORIES OF INTEREST

• Ex-IMF chief may use tried, tricky consent defense (AP)
• Ex-Atty. Gen. Gonzales Says “I’m Ultimately Responsible” For Politicized Hiring (Main Justice)
• U.S. Attorney Preet Bharara Says “I’m Not the Sheriff” (Main Justice)
• Rahm  Emanuel Could be First Defense Witness in Retrial (NBC)

Ex-Gov on NBC's Celebrity Apprentice

Ex-Gov. Rod Blagojevich was once known for his political prowess. But in the past 18 months or so he’s been known more for being an entertaining sort.

He’s appeared on Letterman. And the Daily Show. And he did a commercial promoting pistachios. And he went on The Celebrity Apprentice with The Donald.

Now brace yourself for more entertainment.

The Chicago Tribune reports that Blago plans to testify in his own defense at his corruption retrial. The paper cites “several sources familiar with the former governor’s decision.”

“Blagojevich has been preparing to take the witness stand for several days and worked in depth on his possible testimony over the weekend, sources said. It was unclear how soon he could be called to testify, but the defense is scheduled to begin presenting evidence Wednesday at the Dirksen U.S. Courthouse,” the Trib reported.

Too bad cameras aren’t allowed in the federal courtroom in downtown Chicago. This may well be his best performance.

Blago passed on testifying in his first trial, which for the most part, was a major embarrassment for U.S. Attorney Patrick Fitzgerald. Blago was convicted on only 1 of 24 counts — lying to an FBI agent.

http://youtu.be/SH6B5s4uWEQ

The Justice Department and the New York Times have had their fair share of battles in court over testifying.

The latest: Fed prosecutors in Alexandria, Va.,  have subpoenaed Pulitzer Prize winning New York Times reporter James Risen to testify against a former CIA operative who is awaiting trial, Carrie Johnson of NPR reported.

NPR reported that ex-CIA operative Jeffrey Sterling is accused of leaking classified info which wound up in Risen’s book “State of War.”

The subpoena was filed Monday night in Virginia, NPR reported. The Justice Department court filing calls Risen a “critical” eyewitness. Authorities expect Risen to fight the subpoena.

The government wrote in its motion: “As we describe in the following pages, the Supreme Court has held that absent a showing that a criminal proceeding is being conducted in bad faith or for the purpose of harassment, there exists neither a First Amendment nor a common law reporter’s privilege that shields a reporter from his obligation to testify, even if the reporter’s testimony reveals confidential sources and information.”

“Moreover, the Government is unaware of any case in which a court has excluded from a jury’s consideration the testimony of a reporter who personally witnessed a crime, let alone crimes like the ones charged here that are alleged to have endangered the nation’s security. Accordingly, to resolve this issue as expeditiously as possible, we move for the admission of Mr. Risen’s testimony.”

To read more click here.

Read Government Motion

By Allan Lengel

Three weeks after Osama bin Laden was killed, and Americans accused Pakistan of knowing of his whereabouts,  damaging evidence against Pakistan’s intelligence agency has surfaced.

The New York Times reports that the government’s leading witness in a federal trial in downtown Chicago involving the Mumbai, India attacks in 2008 implicated the Pakistan intelligence agency in the plot during testimony on Monday.

Government witness David C. Headley testified that he trained with the Islamist militant group Lashkar-e-Taiba between 2002 and 2005 in preparation for scouting locations to attack in India, the New York Times reported.

In 2006, Headley testified that he met with a Pakistan Inter-Services Intelligence Agency officer, who offered financial support for the surveillance.

To read more.

Latest model of Ferrari F50

DETROIT –– A Michigan insurance company insists it’s still not getting justice from the Justice Department.

The Associated Press reports that the Justice Department is still refusing to pay $750,000 to a Michigan insurance company for a stolen Ferrari F50 that was recovered, but then was wrecked while being driven by an FBI agent in Kentucky. The Justice Department has refused to release many documents to the insurance company about the incident involving the car that was stolen from a dealership in Rosemont, Pa.

A hearing on the matter is set for June 13 in Detroit.

The Justice Department claimed in a lawsuit filed by the Southfield, Mi. insurance company, Motors Insurance,  that it was immune to tort claims when law enforcement possesses certain goods, AP reported.

The rare car was stolen in 2003 and recovered five years later in Kentucky, AP reported. It became evidence in an ongoing probe.

In May 2009, FBI agent Fred Kingston was moving the car when he lost control and crashed into a curb.

Ibrahim Hassan Al-Siri

The hand of al Qaeda is on key evidence involving attempted terrorist attacks against the U.S.

The Associated Press reports that the fingerprints of al-Qaida’s top bomb maker Ibrahim Hassan al-Asiri in Yemen has been linked to the bomb hidden in the underwear of  a Nigerian man on Christmas day on a Detroit-bound flight in 2009.

And AP reported that the underwear bomb is chemically identical to the bombs hidden inside two printers that were shipped from Yemen to the U.S.

The wire service said the original fingerprint used for the match probably came from Saudi Arabia where al-Asiri and his brother were once arrested for terrorist activity.  AP reported that they were released and eventually fled to Yemen in 2006.