I usually stay out of these, but this one is too weird not to mention. Law Prof Eric Muller, a mostly progressive blogger went after Michelle Malkin today. He tracked the times of her postings throughout the day and evening (actually, for 36 hours) and concluded that she doesn't write all her material and has other people writing in her name. Michelle responds here.

Eric probably got more comments on his blog from this post than any he's written in his several years of blogging. Almost all are very critical of his attack. Sure, some readers came over from Michelle's site, which does not allow comments, but there are lots of his own readers telling him how off-base he was.

Add me to the list. In fact, it's creepy, almost like cyber-stalking. (Although Michelle goes a little overboard in calling him "insanely obsessed" and "deranged.")

[Insert and Addition: I just want to make clear that I think what Eric did is creepy and like cyber-stalking, I don't think he is creepy or a cyberstalker. I understand he was trying to prove something about her writing. My concern is that it will give others the same idea to track bloggers' whereabouts, and I think that is a very dangerous path to go down from a privacy and security standpoint. End of Insert]

Here's my comment, which does not yet appear on Eric's site because it has to be approved:

Amnesty International today released a new, in depth report on the U.S. practice of extraordinary renditions -- where the CIA secretly flys detainees to overseas prisons for interrogation and confinement, including countries that practice torture. It's called "USA - Below the radar: Secret flights to torture and 'disappearance". I call it Ghost Air.

The human rights organisation has analysed the movements of airplanes directly linked to the CIA between 2001 and 2005, specifically, the aircraft that transported well known rendition victims such as Khaled el-Masri, Maher Arar and Abu Omar. The analysis shows that these airplanes often used European airspace, although it does not prove that they were always transporting prisoners.

Amnesty International has interviewed several victims of rendition. Their testimonies were coherent and plausible when checked against factual data such as flight information. Also consistent was the description, by every single one, of incidents of torture and other ill-treatment.

There's a curious article in yesterday's Insight News, a conservative publication, that reports that Libby's lawyers in court filings have named three possible sources at the State Department for the Valerie Plame Leak: former Secretary of State Colin Powell, former Deputy Secretary of State Richard Armitage and then-Undersecretary of State Marc Grossman.

I say "curious" because it is based on a pleading (pdf) filed three weeks ago, on March 17, 2006, and hardly breaking news. Why write a new article on this? A thorough read of the article suggests to me that Libby's lawyers want it out there.

Let's take a closer look. Insight reports:

On the heels of Murray Waas' great article last week revealing that Stephen Hadley had uncovered a classified document, the contents of were shared with Karl Rove, Scooter Libby and perhaps others in the inner circle, and of which Bush was aware, that cast doubt on the allegation that Saddam had aluminum tubes which were intended to be used to build weapons of mass destruction, American Prospect's Greg Sargent takes the story a few steps further. When it's all played out, it turns out to be a very big deal -- one which points to a gigantic coverup geared to preventing the truth from coming out, because had it come out, it may well have cost Bush the election.

It's only hard to figure out at first. Sargent breaks it down like child's play. He begins by recapping Murray's article and asking, why would Scooter Libby and Rove and perhaps Stephen Hadley lie to the grand jury? The answer: to prevent it from being known that Bush was aware in October, 2002 that experts doubted the aluminum tube story and yet he kept the claim in his State of the Union address.

Christy at Firedoglake thinks maybe the family squeeze got to DeLay. That's a distinct possibility. Rudy pleaded guilty and one of the concessions was his wife wouldn't be charged. I reported here on the closing of the Alexander Strategy Group and Buckham and on Isikoff's Newsweek piece about it:

The Washington Post has reported that in 2000, Abramoff and Buckham used their credit cards to pay for a trip to the United Kingdom for DeLay and his wife. Investigators are looking into Buckham's connection to DeLay's wife, Christine. She was paid $115,000 over three years by Alexander Strategy Group, a lobbying firm run by Buckham and Rudy, to identify the favorite charities of members of Congress.

TChris has more here.

The Washington Post points out that by resigning now, DeLay can use his campaign funds for legal fees.

This space is for you as I won't be back until this afternoon. Have fun, and let us all know what's on your minds.

This is pretty big news. Time Magazine has an exclusive interview with Tom DeLay who says he will not run for re-election and will leave Congress hopefully by the end of May. He will make the announcement tomorrow.

Taking defiant swipes at "the left" and the press, he said he feels "liberated" and vowed to pursue an aggressive speaking and organizing campaign aimed at promoting foster care, Republican candidates and a closer connection between religion and government.

"I'm going to announce tomorrow that I'm not running for reelection and that I'm going to leave Congress,"

The Pentagon today released 2,600 pages of documents pertaining to the Guantanamo detainees to the Associated Press. Amnesty International responds:

"Though we have not reviewed the 2,600 pages, it would be prudent to say that the Pentagon would not have released these documents if they were not innocuous or previously released in some form. Nevertheless, Amnesty International welcomes today's actions, as even the seemingly minor details in these documents may help shed light on the secrecy surrounding the detainees' cases. We do not believe the release of these documents indicates a fundamental shift by the Bush Administration towards transparency. Amnesty International continues to be very concerned about the detainees' lack of due process which violates fundamental human rights law, to say nothing of our highest values as a nation."

The jury verdict is in. Moussauoui has been found eligible for the death penalty. The jury found his lies to the FBI agents were directly responsible for at least one death in the 9/11 attacks. The jury was unanimous in its findings.

Moussaoui's response:

"You'll never get my blood, God curse you all."

The jury will now decide whether he lives or dies. They will hear victim impact testimony from the survivors of those who died.

The media has reported on some of the subpoenas Lewis "Scooter" Libby has issued to reporters and news agencies. Here's a list of those who are fighting them, and the federal docket numbers of the cases. In most cases, the recipients of the subpoenas generally were moving for more time to respond.

CASE #: 1:06-mc-00123-RBW: NBC NEWS & AFFILIATES
CASE #: 1:06-mc-00124-RBW: MATTHEW COOPER
CASE #: 1:06-mc-00125-RBW: JUDITH A. MILLER
CASE #: 1:06-mc-00126-RBW: ANDREA MITCHELL
CASE #: 1:06-mc-00127-RBW: TIM RUSSERT
CASE #: 1:06-mc-00128-RBW: TIME, INCORPORATED
CASE #: 1:06-mc-00129-RBW: NEW YORK TIMES COMPANY

The Court entered this order today (from the court's docket sheet):

TalkLeft hit a record today: I just posted the 400th post on the Valerie Plame investigation, which is the most I've written on any single topic.

The first was on July 29, 2003, Valerie Plame: Some Call it Treason. The 400th was today, Leopold: Fitz Close to Indicting Rove; Hannah Flipped Early

All of them are available here.

As you can imagine, this consumed huge amounts of time. I intend to go forward, and sincerely appreciate all financial contributions to TalkLeft as they help make it possible. If you're a regular follower of TalkLeft's Plame coverage, and would like to express your appreciation, this would be an excellent time.

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Jason Leopold breaks more news in the Valerie Plame investigation, confirming John Hannah cooperated early with Fitz and rolled on Libby and Rove. He also writes that Fitz is close to presenting an Indictment to the grand jury for Karl Rove.

As I've written many times, all roads lead back to the White House Iraq Group. Hannah was a member, as was Stephen Hadley and Libby. Rove attended most meetings. Props to Richard Sale of UPI who on February 5, 2004, identified Hannah as being in serious trouble and pressured to cooperate (Details here).

Jason writes Hannah was given a choice early on: