corrente

In our own Inky:

When Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld reached for judges to hear legal appeals of terrorism suspects, he chose a Bucks County senior judge who has been a good friend and sometime neighbor.

In the week before he turned 73 on Jan. 5, Edward G. Biester Jr. was among four lawyers whom Rumsfeld selected to form the Pentagon's Military Commission Review Panel.

"He is very friendly with Rumsfeld," Leonard B. Sokolove, 78, a former judge, said in an interview early last month. Sokolove served on the Bucks County bench with Biester from 1981 to 1999 and is now in private practice in Doylestown.

Biester has told him that he and Rumsfeld are neighbors in Taos, N.M., Sokolove said.

The Taos County Tax Assessor's office said that Biester owns a home and guest house on Atilano Road in El Prado, outside the city of Taos.

Rumsfeld owns so many Taos properties it is difficult to tell which is his residence, an official said. "I think it is on the same road [as Biester's home], but I can't tell you 100 percent."

The Taos County Clerk's Office said that a record shows that in 1985 Biester "bought a piece [of property] from Donald Rumsfeld, Secretary of Defense."

Better yet, Beister is under a gag order

Deborah French, secretary to Biester and the other Bucks senior judges, said federal officials required, as part of Biester's appointment, that "he had to agree not to do interviews with reporters."

Yawn. Business as usual. I mean, it's not like they go duck hunting together.