The Second Circuit Court of Appeals has denied Albany, NY defense lawyer (and TalkLeft commenter) Terry Kindlon's appeal of a secret court order refusing to make the Government admit or deny that it engaged in illegal warrantless electronic surveillance of his client, an Iman at a mosque charged with money laundering. You can read the opinion here.

As background, Terry was the first lawyer in the U.S. to challenge the NSA warrantless surveillance program. His motion alleged:

Yesterday's Duke thread is filled to the brim. Lots of talk about the police report in which the accuser said she was raped by five men at the party and that there were four dancers, not two. More details here.

And how about this? The accuser's cousin claims the accuser turned down $2 million to walk away from the case. (hat tip La Shawn Barber.)

Also: Sports Illustrated: The Damage Done

Arnold refuses Bush, who would have thought? The Associated Press reports that California Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger has rejected Bush's request to send an additional 1,500 California National Guard troops to the Mexican border to fight illegal immigration.

Arnie says California needs them more.

Schwarzenegger said the request would stretch the California Guard too thin in case of an emergency or natural disaster.....Schwarzenegger spokesman Adam Mendelsohn....said the governor believed sending more troops would create an inappropriate burden on the state and disrupt the guard's training schedule.

Earlier, Schwarzenegger agreed to send 1,000 troops to the border by July 31. 250 are there now. Under his executive order, they must leave by the end of 2008.

Journalist Matt Cooper is leaving Time Magazine to become the Washington editor of a new Conde Nast business publication, Portfolio, scheduled to debut in April, 2007.

Time is a great American institution and Time.com, where I've worked the last few months, a great site and I know they'll get stronger under my friend, [Time managing editor] Rick Stengel," said Cooper in a statement on his move. "The company also stood by me, personally and financially, during the Plame case and I'll always be grateful for that. But startups are rare and the chance to be present at the creation of something new was impossible to resist."

Sorry for the less frequent posting today, I guest-hosted again at Eric Alterman's Altercation. Today's topic is Hold the Story, the Treasury Department's request to the New York Times and LA Times not to publish their reports on the Administration's program to obtain international bank records using administrative subpoenas issued without court authorization.

My view:

The newspapers were right to publish reports on the program. We have an Administration that operates in incredible secrecy and a President who believes he can trump the will of Congress and bypass the Courts. Given the NSA warrantless electronic surveillance program and the huge surge in the use of national security letters to obtain our phone records and more, we cannot just take them at their word.

VP Dick Cheney told CNN he may be a witness at the Scooter Libby trial.

Libby is "one of the finest men I've ever known," Cheney said, then declined further comment. "I may be called as a witness."

There's a lot of discussion about Cheney in this May 5 Libby hearing transcript.

Attorney General Alberto Gonzales outlined the case against the wannabe warriors busted yesterday in Liberty City, Florida. You can watch the video here. The only al-Qaeda member they met with was an undercover informant posing as one.

According to the court documents, a man identified as Narseal Batiste was the recruiter who wanted to organize "soldiers" to build an Islamic army to wage holy war. The others were identified as Patrick Abraham, Stanley Grant Phanor, Naudimar Herrera, Burson Augustin, Lyglenson Lemorin, and Rotschild Augustine.

The New York Times reports on Operation Swift, through which the Bush Administration in the aftermath of 9/11 obtained bank records without court authorization:

Under a secret Bush administration program initiated weeks after the Sept. 11 attacks, counterterrorism officials have gained access to financial records from a vast international database and examined banking transactions involving thousands of Americans and others in the United States, according to government and industry officials.

FBI agents today, armed with search and arrest warrants, busted 5 or 7 people in Miami's Liberty City for involvement in a domestic terrorism group.

Authorities are saying those arrested posed no immediate danger to Miami. Attorney General Alberto Gonzales and the FBI will explain tomorrow at a press conference.

No explosives or weapons were seized in the raid. Judging from the repeated references to a "domestic terror scheme" and the comments of neighbors who said they recognized photos of the 8 men shown to them by agents, it sounds like those arrested are homegrown, not middle-Eastern or al-Qaeda.

CNN tv report: One of those arrested had a Haitian background. It was a preventive bust, after a year's investigation. They were not at a stage to act. The Sears Tower in Chicago and FBI building in Miami were long range targets. There was an undercover informant who convinced the group that he was an Islamic radical.

Update: A local teenager interviewed in a Fox News report who recognized the arrested men said they were "black men" whom he thought were opening a karate studio. In other words, these are Americans not middle-easterners. The AP: Suspects mainly American with no apparent connection to al-Qaeda.

There was a hearing in the Duke lacrosse players' alleged rape case today. Reade Seligman's bond was reduced.

DA Mike Nifong confirmed he had not turned over a toxicology report to the defense -- but he refused to say whether toxicology tests had been performed. Update: Fox News is reporting Nifong said no toxicology tests were conducted. So why did Nifong put out the date rape drug theory?

Among the items Nifong has yet to turn over is an analysis of the accuser's computer, which he said was still pending, and records from the mental health facility where authorities took the woman before she told police she had been raped. The only record from the facility, Nifong said, is a single page from a log book he is still working to obtain.

Also, the judge ordered Nifong to turn over reports from the accuser's 1993 gang rape allegation.

Jane Hamsher of Firedoglake has been in Oklahoma all week at her mother's bedside in the hospital. Her mother passed away this afternoon. If you are a reader of FDL (and what progressive blog reader isn't), it would be nice to visit FDL and leave her your condolences. Christy says she is (quite understandably) devastated.

The ACLU filed a freedom of information lawsuit request today seeking information on the Haditha killings of 24 Iraqi civilians, including women and children.

The request seeks information about the Haditha incident, about the alleged cover-up of that incident by senior officers, and about other incidents involving the killing of civilians by U.S. forces in Iraq and Afghanistan. The request also seeks to ascertain whether military officers attempted to suppress information about these deaths.

Specifically, the request seeks the release of all records relating to the killing of civilians by U.S. forces in Iraq and Afghanistan since January 1, 2005, including death certificates, autopsy reports, investigative files, documents related to criminal and administrative proceedings, witness interviews, statistics, policy documents (including "rules of engagement"), paperwork for compensatory payments to relatives of victims, photographs and videos.