Senators Patrick Leahy, Charles Grassley and Arlen Spector have called for an FBI inquiry over the use of informants in the Katrina Leung case.

If even a portion of the allegations raised in the public affidavit are true, we cannot afford to wait until yet another breach of national security occurs before we work with the FBI to improve security and the handling of confidential informants," said a letter signed by Sens. Patrick Leahy, D-Vt.; Charles Grassley, R-Iowa; and Arlen Specter, R-Pa.

Attorney General Ashcroft also comes under fire for his revised FBI informant guidelines that went into effect in May, 2002.

The senators' letter notes that Attorney General John Ashcroft, on May 30 of last year, issued a 34-page revision to the confidential informant guidelines used by FBI agents and other federal law enforcement officials.

The revisions were intended to improve the gathering of intelligence from human sources, especially in terrorism investigations following the Sept. 11 attacks. Some rules were relaxed, such as how soon an agent must inform superiors in writing about recruitment of a new source.

There may be "a need to revisit those decisions" in light of the Los Angeles spy case, the senators said."

Here is a description of the relaxed rules.

Dumb law of the week (granted, it's only Monday): The California city of Lancaster is considering a law to banes and those on probation from one of its rough neighborhoods. A state prison is located in Lancaster, and many of those released from jail apparently want to make it home. Under the proposed Lancaster Community Appreciation Project,

...ex-convicts on or probation from the drug dealer to the writer of bad checks would be barred from visiting, renting or owning property in a 20-block area. Signs would notify them that the area is off limits. Current residents would be exempt. If successful, the project would be expanded to other neighborhoods.

Is Lancaster not in America? Haven't they heard of the First Amendment right to freedom of association?

In 1996, Cincinnati barred those convicted of drug offenses from certain ''drug exclusion zones.'' Six years later, a federal appeals court ruled that the ordinance was unconstitutional.

A Deputy District Attorney named David Berger designed the plan to cut down on crime. But what does this remind you of?

''The issue will be very simple: You were there (in the excluded zone), and you weren't supposed to be,'' Berger said.

Speaking of the dumb law of the week, it would be nice to have a small graphic or button to display with these posts that people could put on their blogs when referring to them and would be instantly recognizable. If any artistic folks would like to create one, we think that would be great. Put it up on your blog for now, and send us the url--maybe we can even do a contest.

The London Observer covers the GeorgeGalloway story and says the Labour Party Minister may face criminal charges over his anti-war comments:

George Galloway, the anti-war Labour MP who is suing over allegations he secretly took money from Saddam Hussein, faces the prospect of a criminal prosecution for treachery. The Observer can reveal that the Director of Public Prosecutions is considering pursuing the Glasgow politician for comments during the Iraq war when he called on British troops not to fight.

In an interview with Abu Dhabi TV during the Iraq conflict, Galloway said: 'The best thing British troops can do is to refuse to obey illegal orders.' Lawyers for service personnel claim his call for soldiers to dis obey what he called 'illegal orders' amount to a breach of the Incitement to Disaffection Act 1934. The maximum penalty is two years in jail.

Galloway dismissed attempts to prosecute him, but said: 'I hope to have chiselled on my gravestone: "He incited them to disaffect."'

Human Rights Groups side with Galloway on his comments.

Roger Bingham of the civil rights group Liberty said 'Galloway's statement is an expression of opinion. We live in a free-speech, democratic society and elect MPs to speak out on national issues.' Andrew Burgin, of the Stop the War Coalition denounced the move. He said: 'This war was immoral and illegal and should never have been fought. This proposal to prosecute is part of an ever-expanding witch-hunt against George Galloway because he was the most vocal anti-war voice.'

Other issues now are emerging regarding Galloway and his alleged ties to fundamentalists. No question Galloway is fighting for his political life.

The News And Observer editorializes Sunday on credibility issues inside North Carolina's legal system after another murder conviction is thrown out:

Jerry Lee Hamilton is for now off North Carolina's death row, thanks to a judge who recognized an appalling flaw in his prosecution. Superior Court Judge Michael Beale of Wadesboro ruled last week that evidence that should have been available to Hamilton's defense attorneys was withheld by prosecutors or police. The ruling echoes one from December, when another judge tossed out the death sentence of Alan Gell of Bertie County, criticizing prosecutors for withholding evidence that supported Gell's claim of innocence in a 1995 murder. The credibility of the system of justice rests on one principle: fairness. And that depends on prosecutors and police who understand that their duty is to find the truth, not to win a case. Justice is not a competition. Withholding evidence is withholding justice -- it is not akin to stealing a baseball catcher's signs.

Check out the paper's excellent series, Time of Death, examining the cases of Alan Gell and Jerry Lee Hamilton.

Update: We are fully up and restored now as is Daily Kos.

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TalkLeft has been down since Friday, due to problems encountered by our hosting company, which were not its fault. We need to have our database replaced, which should occur sometime Monday.

Thanks for your patience, and we recommend you read the excellent sites on the right until then.

Daily Kos, which is hosted by the same company, also should be back up very soon---there is no conspiracy or hacking involved, just a server glitch.

We are pretty shocked by the announcement this afternoon that the District Attorney in Stanislaus County will seek the death penalty for Scott Peterson.

We heard the D.A. say just a few days ago he would provide Scott's lawyers an opportunity to confer with his death penalty committee before making the decision.

Allowing the defense to confer with the committee is standard practice. It's law in the federal system. Scott's lawyers have been on the case for five days. They haven't seen the evidence against Scott and they certainly haven't had time to gather mitigating evidence.

This is a move to (a) make sure Scott doesn't get bond at his bond hearing May 6, (2) avoid a change of venue to a more liberal California county that doesn't pursue the death penalty and (3) further prejudice the potential jury pool by reinforcing the negative portrayal of Scott.

Yes, the crime was heinous, but justice requires that the history and character of the defendant be part of the decision process. Scott is 30 years old with no prior record. We doubt the prosecution has evidence that this was a planned killing.

In fact, we haven't heard one bit of evidence that directly links Scott to the crime. The D.A. says they don't have a definitive crime scene--they can't say for sure where the killing took place. No cause of death has been determined. No forensic evidence results have been acknowledged.

This decision is premature. They are jumping to a conclusion that Scott deserves death, the same way they jumped to the conclusion that he killed his wife with premeditation.

We'll be debating these issues Sunday on Fox News, at 11:30 a.m., EST.

President Bush today asked a congressional panel to make harming a fetus during an assault on the mother a federal crime.

The assault we see here is the one on state's rights.

Of course, this is coming about now due to the Laci Peterson murder. Scott Peterson is charged with two counts of homicide, one for his wife and one for their unborn child. The latter charge, allowable under California law, makes him eligible for the death penalty.

We should not pass legislation out of grief and passion in response to a singular event, no matter how horrific. Whichever advisor told Bush that now would be a good time to re-introduce this proposal (it was passed by the House in 2001 and died in the Senate) is a crass opportunist.

Most murders are state crimes. Let each state deal with the issue as its citizens see fit. We don't need more meddling by the federal government in our criminal laws--particularly those without an interstate connection.

Anyone but Bush in 2004.

New From Uggabugga: Bush Regime Playing Cards

Categories include:

Looting Social Security trust funds Taking the country to war under false pretenses
Ripping up the safety net
Eviscerating democracy
Strangling civil rights
Assaulting the New Deal
Being a partisan hack
Peddling economic snake oil
Perverting the Fourth Estate

As Kos says, "simply brilliant."

The White House came out today with support for Sen. Rick Santorum .

In a lawsuit filed by the ACLU on behalf of Mississippi death row inmates, conditions are so bad they are driving inmates insane.

A federal lawsuit filed on behalf of six inmates by the American Civil Liberties Union says the stifling heat, filth, insects and other conditions could explain why some of those on death row are suffering from mental illness.

At a hearing on the lawsuit earlier this year, James Balsamo, the director of environmental health and safety at Tulane University, said he took temperature, humidity and air volume readings in about 15 cells at Parchman last August, and found the heat index exceeded 100 degrees

Many inmates keep their windows closed to protect themselves from spiders and insects, he said, which adds to the heat and ventilation problems.

Another witness, Dr. Terry Kupers, a California psychiatrist who has written a book on prison madness, said he found several inmates with mental problems in a tour of death row last August.

''They mess up their cell, they're totally disheveled, they scream day and night, they smear feces, they throw feces and urine down the hall, they flood the tier,'' Kupers testified.

In a recent telephone interview, Kupers said conditions at Parchman were worse than any he's seen at death rows in six states and they directly contribute to severe emotional and mental problems.

More information on the lawsuit is available here.

“When we brought this case in July we knew that prison conditions were terrible,” said Margaret Winter, Associate Director of the ACLU's National Prison Project. “The expert reports we have now received are so disturbing that we are asking the court to move this case up on the docket before prisoners suffer further harm or even death.” In a civilized society, Winter said, “no one should be subjected to treatment like this. The state may be authorized to execute death-sentenced prisoners, but it may not torture prisoners to death while they are pursuing their rights to appeal their sentences.”

Since the death penalty was reinstated in Mississippi, 41% of the death sentences have been overturned.

Today is the deadline for immigrants from five Muslim countries to register with the Bureau of Immigration and Customs Enforcement. Immigration advocates charge that the Government program is a catch-22.

Many aliens who registered have overstayed their visas or are otherwise in the country illegally, although many have applications pending to legalize their status. Illegal status brings the risk of detention.

The new rule has put immigration lawyer Kamal Nawash's clients in an awkward position. They are among the 640,000 illegal immigrants who took advantage of a special visa offered before the Sept. 11, 2001 attacks that allowed them to stay in the United States and seek permanent residency.

Those immigrants paid a $1,000 fine -- imposed as punishment for their illegal status -- and often thousands of dollars in legal fees to obtain the visas. Then, after the terror attacks, the federal government imposed the special registration requirements.

Nawash advised his clients to register, based on the assumption that immigration officials would allow latitude for people who were in the process of adjusting their immigration status to become legal.

He was mistaken.

The New York Times has more on the program here.

...more than 9,000 illegal immigrants have registered so far, hoping, perhaps, for leniency. They have all been issued notices to appear in court, often the first step toward deportation; about 2,300 have been detained for further questioning, for anywhere from a few hours to three days, lawyers and officials said. Immigration officials emphasized that the detainees represented only a small minority of those questioned.

There has to be a better way. We're reminded of the opening scenes in The Pianist, where day by day the restrictions increased against Jews in Poland--first registration, then armbands, then curfews, then the ghetto.

If you or a client or a family member have been through the process, the American Immigration Lawyers' Organization is seeking your input. Go here and fill out the form. Help them keep track of what is happening--we can't count on the Government to tell us.

Judges are beginning to voice their opinions on a law Congress passed earlier this month that will restrict judicial discretion in sentencing criminals. Most are decrying the move.

For our coverage on the bill, tacked on to the Amber Alert bill without congressional hearings, go here. For full coverage on the bill and what it means, go here.