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From the SF Chronicle:
Raiders owner Al Davis is locked in a nasty standoff with Lane Kiffin after informing the second-year head coach in a letter received by Kiffin early last week that he no longer has any control of coaching or personnel moves within the organization.

Angry over the team's 4-12 finish and furious at the success achieved this season by former Raiders receiver Randy Moss - Davis believes Kiffin forced 2007's giveaway draft day trade of Moss to New England for a fourth-round draft pick - the powerful owner is now doing all he can to pressure his hand-picked head coach to resign.

Kiffin hasn't been fired, NFL sources confirmed, because Davis does not want to pay him $4 million in salary, the remaining guaranteed balance of the five-year contract (three years plus two club option years) the coach signed when he was hired on Jan. 22, 2007 to replace Art Shell.

[...]Davis has gone on the offensive to force Kiffin to leave the Raiders on his own, stripping him of every bit of authority promised to the coach when he was hired on Jan. 22, 2007.

The letter submitted this week to Kiffin amounts to a "you are on notice" declaration, informing the coach that neither he nor his closest ally at the Raiders, director of football development Mark Jackson, will be involved in the scouting, planning or selecting of players in the NFL Draft.

Kiffin also was informed that he will not be involved in the free agent meetings and that he no longer is in charge of his own coaching staff. He may not hire or fire coaches, nor can he order anyone in the Raiders organization to do anything without the permission of the General Partner, that being Davis.

Said an NFL source with direct knowledge of the letter, "Now you know why that place is such a mess right now."