Update: The Guardian has news of the latest police strategies for handling protesters.

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Slate's Dahlia Lithwick is a guest columnist this month for the New York Times. Today she tackles planned restrictions of protesters at the RNC in New York.

So it has come down to this: You are at liberty to exercise your First Amendment right to assemble and to protest, so long as you do so from behind chain-link fences and razor wire, or miles from the audience you seek to address.

The largely ignored "free-speech zone" at the Democratic convention in Boston last month was an affront to the spirit of the Constitution. The situation will be only slightly better when the Republicans gather this month in New York, where indiscriminate searches and the use of glorified veal cages for protesters have been limited by a federal judge. So far, the only protesters with access to the area next to Madison Square Garden are some anti-abortion Christians. High-fiving delegates evidently fosters little risk of violence.

Where, Dahlia asks, is the connection between protesters and terrorists? Nowhere, except in the minds of Bush and Ashcroft:

Wilton Dedge walked out of the Broward County Jail today, 22 years after being wrongfully convicted of rape. The reasons for his wrongful conviction: faulty eye-witness testimony and the testimony of a "notorious jailhouse snitch." The reason for his freedom: DNA testing proved his innocence:

A man who served 22 years in prison for rape was freed early Thursday after DNA evidence proved he was not the attacker. Wilton A. Dedge, 42, walked out of the Brevard County Jail with his parents just hours after the test results, which had been ordered last month by a judge. The state Legislature in 2001 passed a law that allowed DNA retesting in older cases.

There should be no time limits to obtaining DNA testing.

A Judge has had a motion to dismiss the convictions in the Ashcroft-heralded Detroit Terror trials under advisement for months. Prosecutorial misconduct is one issue. Now there's another:

The Bush administration's already troubled case against an accused terror cell in Detroit is being dealt another blow with revelations that a witness came forward after the trial to undercut a key piece of video evidence presented to jurors.
Lawyers and Justice Department officials said Wednesday night that a man shown in a videotape of landmarks in New York, Las Vegas and California has told investigators the tape was an amateur film and not surveillance as prosecutors portrayed at the trial of four suspected terrorists.

The witness interview was conducted in January, months after the trial in Detroit ended, and was turned over this summer to defense lawyers. It could deal a significant blow to the Bush administration's first major terror prosecution since the attacks of Sept. 11, 2001.

Here's a recap of the previously known problems with the case which are under investigation by the Justice Department:

Nathan Rudy is running for Freeholder in Somerset, New Jersey. He's doing some fundraising, if you can help him, please do.

The Rudy for Freeholder campaign is holding a fundraising drive called "A Thousand Fifties" where we are asking for a thousand people to donate just fifty dollars in the fifty days from August 11 to September 30, 2004. It follows the theme of our volunteer efforts that no one can do everything but everyone can do something.

Here are some of his positions on issues.

TalkLeft received an e-mail asking that it publicize a case of a wrongful conviction. I'm not familiar with it, so I submit it to you readers with the caveat, I'm reporting, you decide.

An Islamic website aired a new beheading video today, claiming that the man who was beheaded is a CIA operative. A U.S. spokesman says all CIA personnel are accounted for.

The Internet site, which Islamic extremists often use to post tapes and statements, displayed footage of eight militants surrounding a seated man. A sign around the man's neck showed his photograph and carried a message saying he was a CIA agent and what appeared to be an official pass bearing the word "visitor" written in English.

The footage, titled "Video of the beheading of an American CIA operative in Iraq," lasted more than four minutes and included several scenes, including a masked militant holding a large knife to the captive's throat. On the tape, a man was heard telling the captive in Arabic "put down your hand, this is the last time, next time I will gouge your eyes out." Then in English, he tells the captive, "open your eyes, open your eyes."

There are three Americans missing in Iraq: U.S. Army Spc. Keith M. Maupin and civilian contract workers William Bradley and Timothy Bell. Here are some of the gruesome details in the video:

U.S. officials are further refining the expected terror attack:

U.S. intelligence officials say a high-profile political assassination, triggered by the public release of a new message from Osama bin Laden, will lead off the next major al Qaeda terrorist attack...."The goal of the next attack is twofold: to damage the U.S. economy and to undermine the U.S. election," the official said. "The view of al Qaeda is 'anybody but Bush.' "

The officials also said the terrorist group has begun using female members for preattack surveillance and possibly as suicide bombers, thinking that women will have an easier time getting past security checkpoints at airports, borders and ports. The al Qaeda attack plans call for bombings using trucks and cars, and hijacked aircraft, including commercial airliners and helicopters. "There is a particular concern that chemical trucks will be used," one official said.

Officials say we will hear from bin Laden soon:

Regarding the new bin Laden message, the officials said there are intelligence reports, some of them sketchy, that a new tape from the al Qaeda leader will surface soon.

[thread got hijacked, comments closed]

This is not a good omen. While the Administration claims this is being done for the purpose of preventing terrorist attacks, remember, that once the Government gets new power, it rarely gives it back.

Citing concerns about terrorists crossing the nation's borders, the Department of Homeland Security said on Tuesday that it planned to give border patrol agents sweeping new powers to deport illegal aliens from the frontiers with Mexico and Canada without providing them the opportunity to make their case before an immigration judge.

The move, which will take effect this month, represents a broad expansion of the authority of the thousands of law enforcement agents who patrol the nation's borders. Until now, border patrol agents typically delivered undocumented immigrants to the custody of the immigration courts, where judges determined whether they should be deported or remain in the United States.

The ACLU has every right to be concerned as the Govenment seeks to expand the no-fly list:

The Sept. 11 Commission wants the government to expand the no-fly list airlines now check to keep suspected terrorists off planes, consolidating as many as 12 secret lists maintained by different intelligence agencies. That worries the American Civil Liberties Union, which has already sued the government, saying the airlines' effort to keep terror suspects and other dangerous people off planes ensnares innocent passengers and subjects them to unnecessary searches and delays. Also, the government provides no way for those wrongly named to get themselves removed.

"Right now, if you're on the list, you're in a no-fly jail. There is now no way out of this," said Barry Steinhardt, the director of the ACLU's Technology and Liberty Project.

Cheers for Denmark, which is refusing to hand over prisoners to the new Iraqi Government because of its reinstatement of the death penalty.

For now, Danish troops, who operate in southern Iraq under British authority, have an informal agreement that prisoners won't be handed over to the Iraqis without Danish consent, Defense Ministry spokesman Jakob Winther said. Until that agreement becomes official, Danes will not hand over suspects they apprehend.

"We wish to know for certain that people in our custody won't be handed over to face the death penalty," Danish Defense Minister Soeren Gade said late Monday in Washington, where he met with U.S. Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld to discuss Denmark's participation in peacekeeping missions in Iraq and Afghanistan.

For the real scoop on Bush's nomination of House Intelligence Committee Chairman Porter Goss as Director of the CIA, you need only go one place--Billmon at Whiskey Bar.

Fred Kaplan at Slate has more.

Update: The accuser's lawyer sought advice on filing a civil suit over a year ago--from former NY sex crimes prosecutor Linda Fairstein:

But a civil action has also apparently been contemplated for much longer than only a few days. One of the woman's lawyers, John C. Clune, who filed the civil suit, called a prominent former sex crimes prosecutor, Linda Fairstein, more than a year ago to solicit her advice about a possible civil case, Ms. Fairstein said in an interview today.

Ms. Fairstein, who led the sex crimes unit of the Manhattan District Attorney's office for 26 years, said that Mr. Clune had not asked that their conversation be kept confidential. But she said that she had not publicly discussed her two conversations with Mr. Clune in July 2003 until a reporter contacted her this afternoon seeking her views on the lawsuit. Mr. Clune did not return telephone calls seeking comment.

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Original post:

Kobe Bryant's accuser had made good on her intentions and filed a civil suit for compensatory and punitive damages against him in federal court. In the lawsuit, she describes the encounter with Kobe as a rape, similarly to the way the prosecution in the criminal case does.

What does the filing of the civil suit mean? For one, it's more fodder for Kobe's lawyers on cross-examination of the accuser--now there is no question she is after big bucks. It may make the criminal case less likely to go forward. It gives the prosecution an out--they may say her reluctance to continue to participate in the criminal case combined with her filing a suit for money reduces the chances of a conviction. Well, the chances were only borderline before, so who can blame them if they bail?