In the Gus Boulis murder trial (in which Jack Abramoff has been subpoened to a depositon) it has just been disclosed that the star defendant, alleged Mob Boss Anthony Moscatiello, has been playing both sides of the fence for years, doubling as an FBI mob snitch. It sounds like an episode of the Sopranos, but its real.

Moscatiello's outing as an FBI informant might cause some embarrassment for federal authorities. But its impact won't be entirely clear until more evidence surfaces about what he told FBI agents about his involvement in the Boulis murder and previous criminal investigations.

Sensitivity over Moscatiello's 15-year career as an FBI informant prompted the Broward State Attorney's Office to hold a closed-door meeting with defense attorneys in Circuit Judge Michael Kaplan's chambers on Friday. Some of the lawyers asked the judge to keep Moscatiello's statements given to the FBI after Boulis' murder under wraps.

Moscatiello ended his snitching after the Boulis slaying. But what about the mobsters he put in jail over that time period whose lawyers weren't told he was a snitch?

What's going on in your neck of the blogosphere? Here's what's happening in mine:

• A human rights group is alleging there is a secret death camp in Sujiatun, Shenyang City, Liaoning Province in China. The group charges that doctors at the camp are harvesting the organs of Falun Gong practitioners -- and in the cases of corneas, particularly the elderly and children, even while they are still alive. And that there are gas chambers on the premises and no one seems to come out alive. The Washington Times reported on the charges here.

• Christy at Firedoglake analyzes the Feb. 23 hearing transcript in the Scooter Libby case. (Transcript here.)

• The NORML Aspen CLE program for June 1 to 3 just keeps getting better and better. (I'll be one of the speakers, my topic is "Terrorism and the War on Drugs.") On Saturday afternoon, Hunter Thompson's widow, Anita Thompson, has invited the seminar attendees out to the fabled Owl Farm in Woody Creek to spend the afternoon. The Aspen Times has this writeup of NORML coming to town.

The New York Times reports that Joe Lieberman did not command the attention or respect of his audience at a fundraising event in Connecticut Thursday night.

Three times on Thursday night, Senator Joseph I. Lieberman asked the crowd of 1,700 for quiet during his remarks at the state Democrats' annual Jefferson Jackson Bailey fund-raising dinner. "Shhh," he told the guests. But rather than interrupting him with applause, many were ignoring him, having struck up conversations after finishing their chicken.

The inattentiveness -- as well as the scattered boos amid the supportive calls of "Joe" that welcomed Mr. Lieberman to the podium -- convinced some that the three-term senator, criticized for months because of his continued support for the war in Iraq, may be vulnerable in the primary challenge he faces.

Who came to his rescue? Sen. Barak Obama, with a ringing endorsement.

The right and left blogosphere, as well as the New York Times and the Washington Times, report differing interpretations of the testimony of five Judges at the Senate Judiciary Committee hearing this week on FISA and Bush's NSA warrantless surveillance program.

• Glenn Greenwald and Anonymous Liberal weigh in here.

• Right wing Powerline, which says the New York Times blew the story, is here and here.

Let's go to the transcripts. Since they are not yet available free, I've put them on TalkLeft, along with the transcript of the question and answer session that followed. They are in pdf format.

San Francisco criminal defense lawyer Tony Serra, a legend and the lawyer the movie "True Believer" was based on, got an extension of his jail surrender date last week so he can finish a murder trial. Tonywill be going to jail to serve a ten month sentence for tax evasion.

For any other lawyer, a jail term would mean financial ruin. For Tony Serra the 10-month sentence he starts this weekend for 20 years of tax evasion will be little more than a much-needed rest. With his long silver hair in a ponytail, his tie-dyed shirts and his admission that he smokes cannabis every day, Serra, 72, isn't like most lawyers, yet in a 40-year career he has built an unrivalled reputation of being able to win cases others dismiss as unwinnable.

What makes him remarkable is that, in a country where lawyers are among society's top earners, he has no credit cards, savings or bank account and owns no property. All his clothes are from charity shops or the Salvation Army. His net worth is whatever he happens to have in his pockets.

The UK papers get it right: Moussaoui was a hanger-on, a bumbling holy warrior, who was not connected to 9/11. Neither was Richard Reid.

The Times Online:

The notion that Moussaoui and Reid were central to the 9/11 conspiracy -- and had been entrusted with the task of destroying the White House -- was "pretty fantastical", one Washington official said. "If there had ever been any evidence that Reid was in any way connected to this, the Feds would be all over him," the official added. Another source said there were no plans to interview Reid about the allegations.

Here is Jill Carroll's statement. Those who accused her of being a "Taliban Jane" should be ashamed.

As Crooks and Liars says, "Welcome home Jill and take the time you need to recover."

A new Time poll shows 79% support a guest worker program while only 47% support the Republican House bill.

There's also this discouraging news:

A substantial majority, 75%, say they should not be allowed to have government services, such as health care or food stamps, and 69% say they shouldn't be able to get a driver's license. A slight majority, 51%, think public schools ought to be off-limits.

And this encouraging news: Bush's favorable rating has sunk to 37%, it's lowest level yet.

• Nora Ephron at Huffpo

• Bush Twins to Enlist in High Tech Air Force Unit

First daughters Jenna and Barbara Bush will be assigned to a high-tech unit in Iraq, the Air Force Human Resources Command has confirmed. Having finished basic training at the Officer Training School (OTS) at Maxwell Air Force Base in Alabama, they are scheduled to receive advanced training in telecommunications at the School of Information Technology before deployment overseas with the USAF Information Operations Squadron. For security reasons, the exact dates have been withheld.

• Students for A Sensible Drug Policy: Congress Forces People with Drug Convictions to Attend College - Law that Stripped Aid from 200,000 Students Reversed

In a stunning reversal of federal policy, Congress passed a law yesterday that not only repeals the Higher Education Act Aid Elimination Penalty that has denied financial aid to nearly 200,000 students with drug convictions, but actually mandates that people with drug convictions attend college and that the federal government foot the bill.

For more information on the new law, have a HAPPY APRIL FOOLS DAY!!! If you would like to find out more about the real campaign to repeal the HEA Aid Elimination Penalty, please visit here.

There's a new filing in the Lewis "Scooter" Libby case. Tom Maguire has posted it here (pdf). It's a reply to Fitz's response to Libby's Motion to Dismiss the case on the grounds that (shorter version) Fitz' appointment as special counsel violated the federal appointment statute and the Constitution because he was not being supervised by the Attorney General. Pete Yost of the AP has more on the filing here.

The most interesting statement in the filing is the one that states Fitzgerald only recently disclosed that two months after his appointment, around February, 2004, he learned the identity of Robert Novak's source for his July, 2003 column outing Valerie Plame. However, the citation provided by Libby's lawyers is page 17 of Libby's Memorandum brief (pdf) in support of his original Motion to Dismiss.

I have searched through Fitzgerald's pleadings and affidavits and cannot find anything disclosing that Fitz knew Novak's source that early. I'm hoping some other Plame-a-holics will have better luck. One other reference may be contained in Exhibit E, a heavily redacted affidavit of Patrick Fitzgerald (although not explicitly.)

If it's true, which I assume it is, because Libby has quality, ethical lawyers, is it something that was disclosed to them in discovery that hasn't been made public? Why are they disclosing it? What does it mean in terms of the overall investigation?

The best coverage of the story so far: There was a party at a house rented by three Duke lacrosse team members. They hired two exotic dancers. The dancers were black and 46 of the 47 team members are white. Later, one of the dancers alleges she was raped by three white males at the party. Both allege racial epithets were hurled at them.

The 46 white players go in for DNA tests and deny any sexual activity occurred. Duke cancels team games until more is known. Many in the media are convinced the players are guilty and have elevated the story into one about "classism, racism and sexual violence." Even charges of a "blue wall of silence" among team players have been bandied about.

Bloggers are lining up to castigate the players. The latter is so hot to convict she even mistates the most basic fact of the case in the description of her blog.

Reporter Jill Caroll is kidnapped, held for months and then released. This is the kind of trash the being spewed at her (via Think Progress.) Watch this clip from the Don Imus show.

MCCORD: Put on 20 pounds while in captivity, yeah.
MCGUIRK: And why do we suspect?
IMUS: Well, why do you suspect?
MCGUIRK: She's carrying Zarqawi's baby. No doubt about it.
IMUS: Man, you are a such a, you're a...
MCGUIRK: Did you hear her comments yesterday? She's wearing the terrorist headgear. And everything points to that.
...
MCGUIRK: She's Taliban Janie, this girl. Taliban Jill or whatever.
IMUS: That's a little strong don't you think.
MCGUIRK: I don't think so. Well except for the fact that she seems overly sympathetic. There's something wrong. Something stinks.

Simply disgusting.