Update: The State Attorney General, Roy Cooper, announced Saturday his office will take the case from Nifong.

Mike Nifong, the prosecutor in the Duke lacrosse player's alleged sexual assault case has asked to be removed and for the appointment of a special prosecutor.

Noelle Talley, a spokeswoman for the attorney general, said Friday in an e-mail that District Attorney Mike Nifong sent a letter requesting the special prosecutor.

As to what this means for the case, I'd say delay, a long one.

A hearing on the defense motion to suppress the accuser's identification of the players is scheduled for February 5. The state attorney general must now appoint a special prosecutor who will need a substantial amount of time to familiarize himself or herself with the case.

The intrepid reporter Murray Waas has a new article in the National Journal exposing what transpired at the grand jury investigating the leak of the identity of former CIA operative Valerie Plame.

In attempting to determine Libby's motives for allegedly lying to the FBI and a federal grand jury about his leaking of Plame's CIA identity to journalists, federal investigators theorized from the very earliest stages of the case that Libby may have been trying to hide Cheney's own role in encouraging Libby to discredit Wilson, according to attorneys involved in the case.

Key among the details is the July 12, 2003 plane trip that Cheney, Libby and Cheney aide Cathie Martin took to Norfolk. I wrote some extensive posts on it here and here.

Murray theorizes, as have many others, myself included, that Libby may have lied to the grand jury to protect Cheney. Murray writes that a senior official has confirmed to him in an interview:

Good news on the Jose Padilla front: His federal court trial has been continued from January 22 until April, so that a full mental evaluation can be performed.

Background here and here.

Oral argument on the judge's decision dismissing the most serious count against him was held before the 11th Circuit Court of Appeals this week. The judges were less than hospitable to the defense arguments, but one can never predict how an appeals court will rule.

Colorado Rep. Tom Tancredo, the one issue politician, is headed to Iowa to test the waters for a possible presidential run in 2008.

Tancredo, known for his outspoken criticism of illegal immigration, will meet with Iowa GOP leaders and grassroots activists to see how they would respond if he ran, Tancredo spokesman Carlos Espinosa said.

....Tancredo views the trip as vital in his decision whether to run, Espinosa said. "A lot hinges on this — this weekend will determine a lot," Espinosa said.

He's also promoting his latest book. And in case you already didn't know this, John McCain also opposes a guest worker program. Just another strike against him in my book.

CNN has released a new poll showing that 2/3 of Americans oppose President Bush's plan for a troop escalation in Iraq. It's the first poll since President Bush's speech Wednesday night.

Two out of three Americans oppose President Bush's plan to send more troops to Iraq, a CNN/Opinion Research Corp. poll released Friday indicates. Nearly two-thirds of those polled also say Bush has no clear plan for Iraq.

....Asked whether they believe additional troops will help the United States achieve its goals, 48 percent who answered the poll said it will make no difference; 31 percent said it would help, and 18 percent said the United States would be less likely to accomplish its goals in Iraq.

For your Friday entertainment, you may want to read the police reports and documents (linked at Brad Blog) outlining the three crimes (two of them felonies) that might be charged against Ann Coulter, who misrepresented her address when she applied for a driver's license, when she registered to vote, and again when she voted.

Residing in the United States without proper immigration papers isn't usually a crime. Local police have enough actual crime on their hands without worrying about undocumented immigrants. Expecting local police to enforce federal immigration laws is a waste of resources, so it isn't surprising that the Governor of Massachusetts rescinded his predecessor's agreement to use state police to arrest violators of federal immigration laws.

Mr. Patrick said doing away with the arrangement negotiated by Mr. Romney would allow state troopers to maintain a focus on gun-, drug- and gang-related crime. “The wisest and most practical course,” he said, “is for state troopers to focus on enforcing Massachusetts laws.”

The governor was joined at the news conference by the Massachusetts secretary of public safety, Kevin M. Burke, who said state police officials had expressed concern that the increased responsibilities would overburden their officers. “It would definitely have affected, according to their analysis, their ability to deal with their core mission” of enforcing state law, Mr. Burke said.

Kudos to Gov. Patrick for resisting the federalization of local law enforcement.

The facts were bad enough when it seemed that Kathryn Johnston's death was the result of unnecessarily aggressive tactics in executing a search warrant. Now we learn that the warrant was based on lies. Will the officers involved be held accountable?

As TalkLeft reported here and here, Atlanta police officers broke down an elderly woman's door. The frightened woman fired a gun at the intruders, not realizing who they were. The police returned fire and killed Johnston.

The police obtained a warrant to search Johnston's property by claiming that a confidential informant had purchased drugs at her house. That assertion was a lie, invented by a police officer who otherwise had no probable cause to search. A second lie -- that the "dealer" resident had security cameras outside the house -- was used to justify the request for a no-knock warrant.

Lying under oath is perjury. The officer's crime led to the death of Kathryn Johnston. Will Georgia hold him accountable?

There's lots of news in the Duke lacrosse player's alleged sexual assault case, which continues to crumble at an astonishing rate.

• The accuser told yet another version on Dec. 21. The statement was turned over to the Defense on Jan. 4. In it, she says Reade Seligman was not one of those who sexually assaulted her. DA Mike Nifong knew this before he dropped the rape charges, yet didn't drop charges against Seligman. And that's just the beginning of the new inconsistencies. You can read the original suppression motion here and yesterday's supplement here.

• "60 Minutes" will do a follow-up story on the case Sunday night (Jan. 14).

The U.S. is beginning preparations for trials of the 14 terror suspects flown from secret prisons abroad to Guantanamo. It has set up a secret war room in a suburb of Virginia.

The Bush administration has set up a secret war room in a Virginia suburb where it is assembling evidence to prosecute high-ranking detainees from Al Qaeda including the man accused of being the mastermind of the September 2001 attacks, Khalid Shaikh Mohammed, government officials said this week.

What kind of room do the detainees' lawyers get? If you answered "none," I suspect you are correct.

Update: Check out this great editorial in the Washington Post today.

A rocket hit the U.S. Embassy in Greece. Shorter version: There were no injuries. It landed in the toilet.

Sounds like a home grown operation to me.

The 4th snowstorm in a month has hit Denver, this time with freezing temperatures in the teens and below. I'm really getting tired of this.

If any of you have a suggestion for a destination, anywhere in the world, with:

• a beach at least 1 mile long, to walk along at dawn and sunset
• a great spa, hiking, yoga classes, etc.
• restaurants serving primarily fresh vegetables, fruit and fish, as well as spirits
• wi-fi to be able to blog while I'm there
• that doesn't cost an arm and a leg

please let me know in the comments.