Ending the longest jury deliberation in California history, jurors in the year long corruption trial of three former Oakland cops delivered verdicts of not guilty on 8 counts. They were unable to reach a verdict on 27 remaining counts and a mistrial was declared on those counts. The jury deliberated for four months.

The former officers, who called themselves the "Riders" and worked the night shift in one of Oakland's roughest areas, were charged with beating suspects, wrongfully accusing them of crimes, planting drugs and covering it all up by falsifying police reports.

....Oakland Police Chief Richard Word said jurors were "clearly troubled by the evidence" and stood by his decision to fire the officers.

Via Atrios: The Guardian's Julian Borger says that journalists are privately naming Karl Rove as the source of the CIA-Valerie Plame leak.

And, Kicking Ass notes it looks like the Justice Department gave the White House Counsel's office a heads-up and 12 hour pass on its order to preserve documents.

The department notified the counsel's office about 8:30 p.m. Monday that it was launching an investigation but said the White House could wait until the next morning to notify staff and direct them to preserve relevant material, McClellan said.

It's just silly to say this Administration can investigate itself. Left Coaster has a wrap-up of the reasons the Conservatives have given for appointment of special counsel. Now, of course, they try to wiggle out from under.

The FBI says it regrets labeling Dr. Steven Hatfill a "person of interest" in the Anthrax probe.

[FBI Anthrax probe leader Michael] Mason told reporters Monday that giving out "person of interest" information publicly "leads to the same sort of calamity" that occurred when Richard Jewell was wrongly accused in the 1996 bombing at the Atlanta Olympics. "It's very hard to take that back if you're wrong," Mason said.

Meanwhile, Hatfill's suit against the FBI and Ashcroft, "accusing the government of "a campaign of harassment" and unfairly singling him out," is pending.

So "person of interest" now becomes a justly deprecated term. We hope "under the umbrella of suspicion" is next.

We think this Cincinnati Judge went a little overboard here...he jailed an alleged rape victim for five days because she refused to testify against the man she said raped her. The case doesn't appear to involve an issue of a fabricated complaint. The accuser has said she was threatened and afraid to testify.

In citing the woman for contempt of court last week, [Judge] Dinkelacker said, "If victims don't participate in the system, we don't have justice." The woman, who had missed a hearing as well as the two trial dates, told the judge that neighbors threatened her and her children, calling her a snitch.

Actually, the Judge jailed her for ten days but she's now agreed to testify so he cut it to five.

Wouldn't it have been a better idea for the Judge to order the prosecution to investigate her claim of threats? And, if true, provide protection? The defense lawyer will have a field day cross-examining the accuser now: she'd do anything to get out of jail--even stick to a story that wasn't true.

From the Bill of Rights Defense Committee newsletter:

Please ask your House member and Senators to demand that Attorney General Ashcroft abandon his taxpayer-funded, politically motivated tour (which can no longer be labeled a "charm offensive") and engage in productive dialogue with Congress and others to fix the Patriot Act and other regulations enacted since September 11, 2003. See the letter to the GAO (PDF) from Rep. John Conyers Jr. and Sen. Patrick Leahy, ranking members of the House and Senate Judiciary Committees, respectively.

Also, there will be a grass roots conference on civil liberties and anti-terror legislation Act in Silver Springs, MD on October 18-19. Details here. Confirmed speakers & panelists include Laura Murphy, Ralph Neas, Nancy Chang, Grover Norquist, Alec Baldwin and more.

David Corn was the first jounalist to report on Robert Novak's column about White House officials outing Valerie Plame as a CIA operative in The Nation. He follows up with this report on the White House's handling of the CIA's request to have the Justice Department investigate the leak.

Here is a compilation of Corn's earlier coverage of the Valerie Plame affair:

7/16/2003 - "A White House Smear"

7/23/2003 - "White House Ducks Smear Inquiry"

8/16/2003 - "Will the CIA Protect the White House?"

David Corn's new book, The Lies of George W. Bush: Mastering the Politics of Deception, is out today.

The Lies of George W. Bush: Mastering the Politics of Deception
by David Corn

People for the American Way has an online petition calling for an independent investigation into the leak of CIA operative Valerie Plame Wilson's identity. Go sign. [Thanks to Renee for the tip.]

Late Monday the Justice Department notified the White House via e-mail that it was moving from a "preliminary probe" to opening a full-blown investigation into the alleged leak by Administration officials of the identity of CIA operative Valerie Plame, wife of former Ambasador Joseph Wilson.

The White House staff was notified of the investigation by e-mail after the Justice Department decided late Monday to move from a preliminary investigation into a full probe. It is rare that the department decides to conduct a full investigation of the alleged leak of classified information.

White House counsel Alberto R. Gonzales told the staff: "You must preserve all materials that might in any way be related to the department's investigation." Presumably that would include telephone logs, e-mails, notes and other documents.

Stay tuned....

The case is growing quickly. A doctor who worked as a translator at Guantanamo was arrested yesterday in Boston as he made his way back from Cairo.

Defense Department officials described [Ahmed] Mehalba as a civilian contractor who provided translation services, but it was unclear if he had fulfilled his contract or was still working at the camp.

Agents with Customs and Border Protection noticed documents that appeared to have come from the prison camp and that they suspected of being classified. The FBI was called in to interview Mehalba, who denied the documents were his, the official said. (Emphasis our's)

After the interview, the FBI arrested Mehalba on charges of making false statements. He was being held in Boston and further charges are possible, said the official, who declined to describe the nature of the documents in Mehalba's possession.

Making false statements? Sounds to us like needed something to justify the doctor's continued detention as they continue to investigate more serious charges. Making false statements to a federal offical is a catch-all type crime carrying a maximum of five years in prison.

One of the reasons we love The Poor Man is he is just about the funniest person in the blogosphere--go read An Internal Dialogue --pertaining to right- wing punidtry reaction to the Valerie Plame Affair.

Buzzflash interviews John Dean on Attorney General John Ashcroft...the genesis of the interview is Dean's column here, discussing whether lying about wmd is an impeachable offense.

Today, we are interviewing Dean --a noted author, political and legal analyst, and FindLaw columnist -- on the efforts of John Ashcroft to create a de facto policy of prosecuting Americans for disclosing government information, even if it is not classified. It is another example of Ashcroft, on behalf of Bush and Cheney, seeking to turn America into a Soviet style state, where an elite group of rulers control all the information that belongs to the American people.

Dean's column comes at an ironically timely moment. Right now, the White House is furiously trying to spin its way out of a traitorous act of betrayal, exposing a CIA operative who specialized in tracking legal and illegal trafficking in weapons of mass destruction. Ashcroft is no doubt spending time with his staff trying to find inventive ways to AVOID holding anyone at the White House accountable. At the same time the Department of Justice is probably conspiring to let an act of treason go unprosecuted at the White House, it is also, according to Dean, trying to figure out ways for sending American to jail for disclosing or transferring information that belongs to the American people, not the Bush Cartel.

Go read.

We are as intrigued by the Plame affair as the next person, but we don't want to forget other important events of the day. Mississippi's Charles Pickering should be winding his way through the House Judiciary Committee very soon in his quest for a lifetime seat on the 11th Circuit Court of Appeals.

Read the new Statement Of Senator Patrick Leahy on Pickering's re-nomination. Register your disapproval of Pickering's confirmation with your Senator.