NOT ZAWAHIRI? NOT SO FAST!

AFP:

Egypt has provided the United States with DNA from Ayman al-Zawahiri's brother, which would allow officials to positively identify the fugitive al-Qaeda leader, Time magazine said Saturday. US Central Intelligence Agency sources said earlier they had unconfirmed indications that a high-level target, possibly Osama bin Laden's Egyptian number two, died in a raid by a US Predator drone in Pakistan early Friday. "We are investigating and as of now we are not in a position to say yes or no," Major General Shaukat Sultan, the spokesman for President Pervez Musharraf and for Pakistan's military, told AFP when asked to confirm whether Zawahiri was killed in the air strike.

Privately, senior Pakistani intelligence officials said it was unlikely Zawahiri was in the tribal village near the Afghanistan border when an alleged US airstrike killed 18 people there.

XINHUANET:

U.S. officials will conduct DNA tests on the dead bodies left by a U.S. airstrike in Pakistan that apparently targeted al Qaeda's No. 2 leader, U.S. media reported Saturday. The tests are aimed to determine whether Ayman al-Zawahri, deputy of al Qeada's top leader Osama bin Laden, was among the dead, U.S. media reported, quoting a U.S. law enforcement official who spoke on condition of anonymity. The DNA tests will be performed in the United States, probably in the FBI lab in Quantico, Virginia, which has extensive DNA research capabilities and expertise, said the official. However, Pakistani officials said Zawahri was not in a village near the Afghan border where a purportedly CIA airstrike on Friday killed at least 18 people, including women and children.

Denials from Pakistanis might be (a) correct; (b) disinformation to through off al Qaeda; (c) attempts (by al Qaeda symp's within the Pakistani military and intel services) to cover up FOR al Qaeda and make the USA look bad.

I find it VERY VERY curious that AS SOON as the attack was reported we announced that Zawahiri was the intended target and that we were testing the remains and wouldn't know for 48 hours. Then - ONLY 24 HOURS LATER - the Pakistanis announce that we were off-base and that they are pissed off at us for violating their airspace and killing civilians with bad intel.

I'm gonna wait until we hear something from OUR side before I believe anything - ESPECIALLY in view of these MOST RECENT reports. MUCH MORE HERE. And more HERE.

UPDATE - 1/15/06/"Reuters"; (hat tip JIHAD WATCH):

The Foreign Ministry said on Saturday that foreigners had been near the village of Damadola in the Bajaur region bordering Afghanistan and were the probable target. Pakistani intelligence officials said they were checking reports up to seven foreign militants had been killed and their bodies removed by local supporters. But they said there were no indications Osama bin Laden's deputy, Zawahri, was there. "He was invited for the dinner, but we have no evidence he was present," a senior intelligence official told Reuters.

ER um... the "evidence" might be splattered all over the dirt floor of the hut he was in! Sheesh. REMEMBER: We might NOT want al Qaeda to know that Zawahiri is dead - NOT FOR A WHILE. WHY?! SO we can use the laptops/phones the Egyptian had with him to round up other jihadoterrorists.

EXIT STRATEGIES

DOES ASSAD HAVE AN EXIT STRATEGY? (Saddam didn't.)
DOES ZAWAHIRI HAVE AN EXIT STRATEGY?
DOES ZARQAWI HAVE AN EXIT STRATEGY?
DOES KIM JONG IL HAVE AN EXIT STRATEGY?
DOES AHMADINEJAD HAVE AN EXIT STRATEGY?
DOES NANCY PELOSI HAVE AN EXIT STRATEGY?
DOES HARRY REID HAVE AN EXIT STRATEGY?
DOES TEDDY JO KENNEDY HAVE AN EXIT STRATEGY? (Mary Jo didn't.)

I think Bush can give them ALL exit strategies - and the sooner the better!

COPS BUSY IN LEBANON

THE DAILY STAR: Lebanese authorities arrest 13 Al-Qaeda suspects

Lebanese authorities have arrested 13 people suspected of belonging to the Al-Qaeda terror network, the official National News Agency reported on Friday. Military court prosecutor Ahmad Oweidat charged the 13 on Friday with "establishing a gang to carry out terrorist acts, forging official and private documents and possessing unlicensed arms."

The 13, three Lebanese, seven Syrians, a Saudi, a Jordanian and a Palestinian, were arrested in various Lebanese areas last week after they were put under surveillance by Lebanese security forces, court officials said, speaking on condition of anonymity. Asked if any of the 13 were members of Al-Qaeda, Oweidat told The Associated Press: "This information is not contained in the file referred to me." But he added that the group's possible Al-Qaeda link would be examined during further investigation by top military magistrate Rashid Mezher.

According to judicial sources, the 13 have given contradictory statements, claiming at times that they were part of Al-Qaeda and at other times part of "Jund Al-Sham," an Islamic radical organization which claimed responsibility for the assassination of former Premier Rafik Hariri shortly after his killing.

THE PENINSULA (AFP):

Syrian arrested in Lebanon over Hariri probe - Lebanese authorities yesterday arrested a Syrian national for giving false testimony to investigators trying to shed light on the murder of former Lebanese prime minister Rafiq Al Hariri, a judicial source said.

We are systematically getting all our ducks in a row...

BTW: almost exactly one year ago - to the day - I wrote this prescient post: THE ROAD TO DAMASCUS GOES THROUGH BEIRUT. Today, I'll go out on a limb and predict that before July Fourth, Assad will be living in exile and an interim government in Damascus will be planning elections in Syria.

HAS THE NYTIMES NSA LEAK LED TO A SURGE IN DISPOSABLE CELLPHONE PURCHASES?

ABCNEWS (hat tip DRUDGE):

Federal agents have launched an investigation into a surge in the purchase of large quantities of disposable cell phones by individuals from the Middle East and Pakistan, ABC News has learned.

The phones — which do not require purchasers to sign a contract or have a credit card — have many legitimate uses, and are popular with people who have bad credit or for use as emergency phones tucked away in glove compartments or tackle boxes. But since they can be difficult or impossible to track, law enforcement officials say the phones are widely used by criminal gangs and terrorists. ... "There's very little audit trail assigned to this phone. One can walk in, purchase it in cash, you don't have to put down a credit card, buy any amount of minutes to it, and you don't, frankly, know who bought this," said Jack Cloonan, a former FBI official who is now an ABC News consultant.

Law enforcement officials say the phones were used to detonate the bombs terrorists used in the Madrid train attacks in March 2004. The FBI is closely monitoring the potentially dangerous development, which came to light following recent large-quantity purchases in California and Texas, officials confirmed.

In one New Year's Eve transaction at a Target store in Hemet, Calif., 150 disposable tracfones were purchased. Suspicious store employees notified police, who called in the FBI, law enforcement sources said. In an earlier incident, at a Wal-mart store in Midland, Texas, on December 18, six individuals attempted to buy about 60 of the phones until store clerks became suspicious and notified the police. A Wal-mart spokesperson confirmed the incident.

RELIAPUNDIT: ALL of these large sales came RIGHT AFTER the NYTIMES NSA leak (12/15/05). Though this is circumstantial, it is HIGHLY SUGGESTIVE that the leak alerted the sleeper cells HERE (and perhaps elsewhere), and that they are adapting their SOP's as a result; thus, they are making it tougher for us to prevent an attack.

The jihdoterrorists might now each be using a series of phones (each only once or twice) to communicate with other jihadoterrorists who are also using a series of disposable phones - each only once or twice. All they have to do is tell their comrade which cellphone number to use next. NOW HOW ARE WE SUPPOSED TO GET WARRANTS ON THAT!? It's impossible. Which is why it's ABOSLUTELY necessary for the POTUS, as CinC, to use his Article II powers during wartime in order to get the foreign intelligence we need to DEFEND OURSELVES.

By exposing the NSA intercept program, the leakers and their comrades at the NYTIMES have CONFIRMED valuable information to the enemy, alerted the enemy to the information, and NOW - AS A RESULT - the enemy has adjusted. Therefore, the leakers and the NYTIMES have endangered the lives OF MILLIONS of Americans, and our entire economy and also the world's economy (which after all depends on the US economy). They should ALL be charged, tried, convicted, and executed for TREASON.

UPDATE 1/13/06: More discussion HERE and an excellent post HERE from THE ANCHORESS. MORE HERE AND HERE AND HERE AND HERE AND HERE.

And BY THE WAY: I WAS THE FIRST BLOGGER TO CONNECT THE NYTIMES "NSA LEAK" TO THE "DISPOSABLE PHONE PURCHASE SURGE".

8/14/06 UPDATE: here.

ALITO DEFEATS DEMOCRAT $LANDER MACHINE

Varifrank NAILS IT: THAT'S IT? ...

... Is this the "Big Bad Democrat Machine"? This is supposed to make me quake in my conservative right wing fanatic boots? Are you kidding me? It's like hearing Kerry is running for President again, you salivate for this sort of match. Ted Kennedy, Pat Leahy, Chuck Schumer and Joe Biden, the Mt. Rushmore of modern liberalism.... ( no wonder their party is going into the dumpster faster than undercooked airline food). Why would anyone ever give a dime to support these frauds? Its not like they get anything for their money, These guys arent even "good TV". ... Every public display of pompus bloviation from Teddy is worth another electoral vote for the Republicans. Everytime Biden smiles, its another 100,000 votes for Republicans. Everytime Schumer looks over his glasses, another Generation X kid says 'whoa, dude. Youre harshing my mellow..."

I was worried about Miers getting through the dreaded "Democrat Gauntlet" but after this pitiful display I think one of the Bush twins could get in.

There's plenty more: RTWT. Also check out RIGHTWING NUTHOUSE on the hearings.

MY READ: I think the MAIN culprit is the Democrat Party Leadership, and their greed for campaign money: Teddy Jo Kennedy (who did after all hand-pick the last presidential nominee), Reid, Pelosi, Dean, AND Schumer (who is raising money for the Dem Senate campaign). This so called leadership is EXPLOITING the rabidness of their extreme left-wing (and allowing a good man like Alito to be slandered) JUST FOR THE MONEY. This isn't surprising: They SLANDER the POTUS and the US ARMED FORCES everyday – for the campign contributons it raises from their rabid base – so why WOULDN’T they slander a SCOTUS nominee. If they were REAL LEADERSHIP, then they'd behave like the ADULTS in the room, and not like child exploiters!

LOOKIT: I’ve been a registered Democrat since 1974. I voted Gore 2000, (but Bush 2004). And I am so so so SO SO disgusted with virtually every Democrat in Congress, (except for Lieberman, Harman, Hoyer and maybe a few others). IT'S SIMPLE: The Democrat Party is veering Left and becoming the party of doves again like in 1972. It's becoming a party of McGovernites trying to relive their glory days of Vietnam and Watergate. This is an act of blatant denial -denial of what the REAL lessons of the 1970's REALLY are, and what the world is REALLY like NOW. And this return to the failed policies of the past (blatantly clothed in the rhetoric of the past) is simply suicidal for the Democrat Party. And the leadership doesn't even know it. But if this is what the party has become, then GOOD RIDDANCE!

SARKOZY LAUNCHES CAMPAIGN TO SAVE FRANCE

UK GUARDIAN:

Nicolas Sarkozy, France's most popular politician, yesterday set out his stall for the 2007 presidential elections, proposing major reforms to the country's power structure and declaring he was determined to "embody its future". In a new year's address to the media, the ambitious interior minister, freshly reunited with his wife and most valued aide Cecilia after an eight-month separation, also said EU enlargement should be frozen until the bloc has agreed a watered down and purely practical constitution. ... The interior minister, who turns 51 this month, said France's worst civil disorder since the 1968 student-worker uprising "reflected the extent of the failure of our public policies" over the past 30 years.

UK INDEPENDENT: Sarkozy launches presidency bid with assault on 'do nothing' Chirac

The French Interior Minister, Nicolas Sarkozy, has launched a campaign for the presidency in all but name, demanding radical changes in France's aloof style of government. His new year speech to the press yesterday amounted to a direct assault on the record and "feel-good" rhetoric of his nominal bosses, President Jacques Chirac and the Prime Minister, Dominique de Villepin. ...

Without mentioning him by name, M. Sarkozy also mocked a call by M. de Villepin the previous day for France to be happy and confident and not dwell on its economic or social problems. Such attempts to "jump-start" French "greatness" were inappropriate from a "powerless state... stuck in its own debt," M. Sarkozy said. Although the presidential election is not due until May 2007, this amounted to an early declaration of political war by M. Sarkozy on his own side. France now faces the bizarre prospect of a year of merciless electoral combat between the three most important figures in its centre-right government. ...

... M. Sarkozy went far beyond his briefs as Interior Minister and leader of the ruling UMP (Union pour un Mouvement Populaire) party. He called for the biggest shake-up in the structure of French government in almost 50 years. If he was elected President, he implied, he would turn the presidency into, in effect, a "super" prime ministership, directly accountable to parliament and responsible for the day-to-day running of the government. ... As President, M. Sarkozy implied, he would try to revive the first part of the proposed EU treaty, which set out to streamline European decision-making. This could be put to the French, and other national parliaments, without a new referendum, M. Sarkozy suggested. In the meantime, there should be a freeze on enlargement of the EU.

PEOPLE'S DAILY:

French Interior Minister Nicolas Sarkozy called on the European Union (EU) on Thursday to suspend its enlargement until the 25-nation bloc has reformed its institutions. "I think it necessary not to proceed with any new enlargements as long as new institutions have not been adopted," Sarkozy said in a policy speech at his traditional New Year gathering with reporters.

AP:

His feisty nature, straight-talk and policy proposals have set him apart from the mainstream left and right. Sarkozy says the French economic model no longer works; he champions strong policing and tougher immigration controls; he opposes Turkey's aspirations to join the European Union; he says France must adjust its secular foundations to better integrate its 5 million Muslims.

GO SARKO GO! VITE!

MORE PROOF THE NSA INTERCEPT BROUHAHA IS MERELY A RANK PARTISAN SMEAR

THE AMERICAN THINKER:

Echelon [See HERE - relipaundit] was, or is (its existence has been under-reported in the American media), an electronic eavesdropping program conducted by the United States and a few select allies such as the United Kingdom.

Tellingly, the existence of the program was confirmed not by the New York Times or the Washington Post or by any other American media outlet – these were the Clinton years, after all, and the American media generally treats Democrat administrations far more gently than Republican administrations – but by an Australian government official in a statement made to an Australian television news show.

The Times actually defended the existence of Echelon when it reported on the program following the Australians’ revelations.

“Few dispute the necessity of a system like Echelon to apprehend foreign spies, drug traffickers and terrorists….” And the Times article quoted an N.S.A. official in assuring readers “...that all Agency activities are conducted in accordance with the highest constitutional, legal and ethical standards.” Of course, that was on May 27, 1999 and Bill Clinton, not George W. Bush, was president.

Proving once again the BDS and NOT constitutional or legal principles are what's driving the NSA intercept brouhaha. WHAT MAKES IT WORSE THAN MERE PARTISANSHIP: These BDS afflicted Lefties have jeoparidized NATIONAL SECURITY in order to carry out their rank partisan smear - WHICH IS THE LOWEST, POOREST, SCHMUCKIEST REASON FOR LEAKING CLASSIFIED DATA EVER! It's nothing less than an attempted coup d'etat.

TERRORISTS BOMB PIPELINE IN PAKISTAN

PAKISTAN TIMES:

Suspected tribal insurgents blew up a gas pipeline in southern Pakistan, the latest act of sabotage in the troubled region, police said. The explosion happened near Kandh Kot in Sindh province, around 450 kilometres (279 miles) north of Karachi, local police officer Shahab Mazhar said. "We believe that this is an act of terrorism and the same group which has in the past been suspected of other attacks is thought to be behind this one," he added.

AP:

A powerful explosion early Thursday ruptured part of a state-owned gas pipeline in a restive southwestern Pakistan province, briefly disrupting supplies but injuring no one, police said.No group or individual immediately claimed responsibility for the attack in Kundkot, a town at the edge of Baluchistan province. An area police chief, Mazhar Shahab, said engineers had started repair work. Tribesmen often target gas pipelines in the resource-rich part of the country.

Thursday's attack came a day after Pakistani security forces killed 12 suspected tribal militants in a gunbattle near a gas field at Pir Koh, 240 miles east of Quetta, the capital of Baluchistan, said Abdul Samad Lasi, the provincial police chief. The gunfight followed a land mine explosion that killed three soldiers and wounded three.

Baluchistan is on the border with....AFGHANISTAN. Pakistan's government needs to do ONE thing: establish THE RULE OF LAW in their border/tribal regions. They should use WHATEVER and ALL NECESSARY means to do this - and the faster the better. Continuing tribalism in these eastern regions of Pakistan only retards Pakistan's evolution to true democratic self-rule and stability and prosperity.

ANOTHER OLD-TIME LEFTIE TRYING TO RELIVE THE 1970'S

Elizabeth Holtzman in THE NATION:

Finally, it has started. People have begun to speak of impeaching President George W. Bush--not in hushed whispers but openly, in newspapers, on the Internet, in ordinary conversations and even in Congress. As a former member of Congress who sat on the House Judiciary Committee during the impeachment proceedings against President Richard Nixon, I believe they are right to do so.

When will the Left realize that they are no longer living in 1970's and that Vietnam and Watergate were a long long long LONG time ago?! Iraq is NOT Vietnam, and The NSA intercepts program is NOT Watergate. Sheesh.

IAEA REFERRAL AGAINST IRAN: RICE GETS RUSSIA ON BOARD

WASHPOST (hat tip PRAIRIE PUNDIT):

The Bush administration, working intensely to galvanize international pressure on Iran, has secured a guarantee from Russia that it will not block U.S. efforts to take Tehran's nuclear case to the U.N. Security Council, American and European officials said yesterday.

The commitment, made in a Tuesday night phone call between Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov and Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice, will likely help the United States and its European allies win support from key countries weighing a tougher line in response to Iran's resumption of sensitive nuclear work.

Prairie Pundit adds: "The Russian's are not that helpful when you get to the bottom line. Like the Iraq vote, they agree to preliminary maneuvers but balk when it comes to actually doing something."

I AGREE. WE NEED TO PUT MORE PRESSURE ON PUTIN. One way of doing this is to him (and the France) is IGNORING THE UNSC - and taking direct action (perhaps pre-emptive) independent of the UN; (the basic source of Russian and France's international power is their UNSC veto power).

OPRAH'S POST MODERNIST BOOK CLUB: AUTOBIOGRAPHIES WHICH ARE FAKE BUT ACCURATE

CNN:

... Frey's memoir of alcohol and drug-induced mayhem sold 1.77 million copies last year after being chosen by Oprah Winfrey's book club in September, making it the best-selling nonfiction book in 2005. Only Harry Potter sold more copies.

... investigative Web site The Smoking Gun Sunday reported the book, published by Random House's Doubleday division, was full of exaggeration and inaccuracies.

CNN/THE LARRY KING SHOW: Author, James Frey: "I never expected the book to come under the type of scrutiny that it has," Frey told King. "Memoir -- the word literally means 'my story.' A memoir is a subjective retelling of events."

Oprah Winfrey: "... the underlying message of redemption in James Frey's memoir still resonates with me, and I know it resonates with millions of other people who have read this book." ... "To me, it [the controversy surrounding the fact that a BLOGOSPHERE researcher discovered the fact that the author lied and the work is NOT a memoir in a literal sense but a work of fiction] seems to be much ado about nothing," she added.

Typical Left-wing post modernist crap: "There is no such thing as a single truth; all truth is subjective." IN OTHER WORDS: "THE AUTOBIOGRAPHY IS FAKE BT ACCURATE." At least the Left is consistent on the issue: "The REAL truth doesn't matter to us." (More HERE and HERE.)

MAJOR SCIENTIFIC DISCOVERY: FORESTS ARE A MAJOR SOURCE OF GREENHOUSE GASES

BBC:

Scientists in Germany have discovered that ordinary plants produce significant amounts of methane, a powerful greenhouse gas which helps trap the sun's energy in the atmosphere. The findings, reported in the journal Nature, have been described as "startling", and may force a rethink of the role played by forests in holding back the pace of global warming. And the BBC News Website has learned that the research, based on observations in the laboratory, appears to be corroborated by unpublished observations of methane levels in the Brazilian Amazon.

Until now, it had been thought that natural sources of methane were mainly limited to environments where bacteria acted on vegetation in conditions of low oxygen levels, such as in swamps and rice paddies. But a team led by Frank Keppler of the Max Planck Institute in Heidelberg, Germany, stumbled upon this new effect when studying emissions from the leaves of trees and grasses in conditions similar to those they would encounter in the open air. To their amazement, the scientists found that all the textbooks written on the biochemistry of plants had apparently overlooked the fact that methane is produced by a range of plants even when there is plenty of oxygen.

WANT TO STOP GLOBAL WARMING?! THEN CUT DOWN THE AMAZON! Heh. Seriously, this should reinforce the fact that MAN-MADE global warming is a hoax - and that the science that the Left uses to bolster their ideologicial attack against America and industrialism is FAR from settled.

MORE GOOD NEWS FROM IRAQ: INSURGENCY BREAKING; MORE SUNNI TRIBES BATTLING AL QAEDA

EVEN THE NYTIMES HAS TO REPORT NOW:

...the split within the insurgency is coinciding with Sunni Arabs' new desire to participate in Iraq's political process, and a growing resentment of the militants. Iraqis are increasingly saying that they regard Al Qaeda as a foreign-led force, whose extreme religious goals and desires for sectarian war against Iraq's Shiite majority override Iraqi tribal and nationalist traditions.

While American and Iraqi officials have talked of a split for months, detailed accounts of clashes were provided by men claiming to be local insurgents. ... According to an American and an Iraqi intelligence official, as well as Iraqi insurgents, clashes between Al Qaeda in Mesopotamia and Iraqi insurgent groups like the Islamic Army and Muhammad's Army have broken out in Ramadi, Husayba, Yusifiya, Dhuluiya and Karmah. In town after town, Iraqis and Americans say, local Iraqi insurgents and tribal groups have begun trying to expel Al Qaeda's fighters, and, in some cases, kill them. ...

"The tribes are fed up with Al Qaeda and they will not tolerate any more," said a senior Iraqi intelligence official, who spoke on the condition of anonymity. The intelligence official confirmed reports that a Sunni tribe in Samarra had tried and executed Qaeda members for their role in assassinating a local sheik. "It was a beautiful mistake," the intelligence official said of the sheik's assassination by Al Qaeda. "Now the tribes will kill Al Qaeda. Now they have the courage."

THERE'S PLENTY MORE IN THIS FASCINATING ARTICLE. RTWT! This red-on-red VIOLENCE hasn't REALLY been reported on in the MSM since last summer, which means it must be picking up. IOW: WE ARE WINNING! (No thanks to Kerry and Murtha and Dean and Pelosi and Kennedy and Reid and Moran and McDermott and - of well, you get the idea!)

HOW TO OUST ASSAD: THE FIRST STEP SHOULD BE ESTABLISHING A GOVERNMENT IN EXILE

I think we should call a for an international congress of Syrians interested in forming a transitional, and transparent government in exile for Syria - modeled after the international conference on Afghanistan (held in Germany) AFTER we overthrew the Taliban.

By doing it BEFORE we might be able to make the transition - from the Assad regime to an elected Syrian constitutional assembly (and then to an elected constitutional government) - proceed much more smoothly in Syria than it did in Iraq.

I think that the former VP Khaddam might be a good contender for "transitional president" or chairman of the government in exile, and/or chairman of the constitutional drafting committee. Here's a good article on him - and how leading Syrian dissidents feel similarly about him. RTWT.

SEPARATED AT BIRTH: SAM ALITO AND MEL BROOKS?

I report you decide: Sam Alito. Mel Brooks.

BETWEEN ASSAD AND IRAN, THE UNSC WILL SOON BE VERY BUSY - and so might our military

(1) SYRIA -- "Reuters":

U.S. Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice threatened on Wednesday to send the inquiry into the murder of Lebanon's former prime minister back to the U.N. Security Council if Syrian "obstruction" continued. In a strongly worded statement, Rice also voiced grave concerns about what she said was Syria's "destabilising behaviour and sponsorship of terrorism" and said Damascus must stop interfering in the affairs of neighbouring Lebanon. "Syria must cease obstructing the investigation into the assassination of former Lebanese Prime Minister Hariri and instead cooperate fully and unconditionally as required by U.N. Security Council resolutions," said Rice in a statement.

(More HERE and HERE.)

(2) IRAN --FORBES/AFX: The dispute over Iran's suspected nuclear arms program is 'more likely than ever' to be referred to the UN Security Council, US State Department spokesman Sean McCormack said Wednesday.

The Christian Science Monitor (PARIS):

Iran's abrupt resumption of its nuclear program this week, throwing Tehran's clerical regime into open conflict with the rest of the world, appears to have doomed current diplomatic efforts to curb the country's nuclear ambitions.

"Reuters":

Britain called on Wednesday for the U.N. Security Council to consider action against Iran after it vowed to resume nuclear fuel research and Washington said a referral to the body was "more likely than ever".

QUESTION: (a) How long after sanctions are enacted by UNSCR will it become necessary to take military action against Assad and/or Iran? And, (b), what might trigger military action?

I think that after sanctions are approved by the UNSC that we will attack the command&control apparatus of the Assad regime as soon as there is (1) another assassination in Lebanon; and/or (2) another major incursion by "insurgents" fromn Syria. BOTH may srve as pretext for a MAJOR military strike, like Clinton's 1998 OPERATION DESERT FOX against Saddam.

I think we will preemptively attack and disable Iran's nuclear facilities (1) as soon as we document ANY interference by Iran in Iraq; or, (2) at any time after sanctions are approved.

I think EITHER OR BOTH of these attacks against islamofascism will happen NOT LATER THAN late summer 2006 IFF Bush and the GOP are TRAILING BADLY in polls regarding the mid-term elections - (because Bush will strike before the appeasing doves of the Democrat Party gain control and attempt to tie his hands as they did Reagan's vis a vis the CONTRAS and Nicaragua). If Bush and the GOP are leading comfortably then Bush will bide his time.

[This is based on my understanding of Lincoln's approach to the US Civil War in 1864: In October of 1864, it appeared to Lincoln (and most everybody else) that he was CERTAIN to lose the election to Democrat dove/appeaser McClellan; therefore, Lincoln ordered his War Cabinet to pull out ALL the stops and do WHATEVER they had to in order to win the war before McClellan would be inaugurated in March 1865 - whereupon McClellan would immediately carry out his campaign promise to cut a deal with the Confederacy - either allowing them to secede or to re-enter the Union WITH slavery intact. This order by Lincoln led DIRECTLY to the great battlefield victories for the United States of America and to utter defeat for the rebels.]

US CITIZENS ELECTRONICALLY SURVEILLED WITHOUT WARRANTS ALL THE TIME

AJ STRATA:

"American citizens are open to ‘warrantless’ surveillance all the time in the US. ... A warrant for surveillance identifies a target for monitoring. All who contact that target are monitored without a warrant to monitor them specifically. Same thing with NSA. They monitor terrorists and all who contact them."

Just one more reason this whole brouhaha is really totally bogus and nothing more than a partisan smear.

KIM JONG IL'S EXCELLENT CHINESE ADVENTURE: THE MYSTERY GROWS

TURKISH PRESS: China has refused to confirm or deny a visit by North Korean leader Kim Jong-Il, who had reportedly crossed the border on a special train earlier in the day. "Presently I am not empowered to release information on this," foreign ministry spokesman Kong Quan told reporters at a regular press briefing.

YOHAP (South Korea): North Korean leader Kim Jong-il arrived on Monday in the Chinese city of Shanghai by his plane, not a special train, an informed source here said Wednesday. The source, who requested anonymity, said Kim's first stopover in his reported China visit was Shanghai, though the real purpose of his visit was not known immediately.

DAWN (Pakistan): North Korean leader Kim Jong-il passed through China on Tuesday on the way to Russia, a source with knowledge of the stopover said. South Korean and Japanese media said Mr Kim was making a secret visit to China. “He passed through China. He left today for Russia,” the source said. “He did not meet any (Chinese) leaders,” the source said, adding that Mr Kim may stop over in China on his way home. There was unusually heavy security near the train station in the Chinese border city of Dandong and talk of a special train from North Korea passing through before dawn on Tuesday, South Korea’s Yonhap news agency said, quoting a source in the city. Japan’s Kyodo news agency had a similar report quoting diplomatic sources in Beijing.

INTERFAX (Russia): Moscow has not confirmed reports by a number of Western media outlets alleging that North Korean leader Kim Jong Il would visit Russia in the near future. "These reports don't have any grounds," a Russian Foreign Ministry source told Interfax on Tuesday. The North Korean Embassy in Moscow also refused to confirm that Kim might visit Russia in the next few days. "We don't know anything about this, we don't have such information," the North Korean Embassy press attache in Moscow told Interfax on Tuesday.

AP: The top U.S. negotiator for international nuclear talks with North Korea is visiting Japan, South Korea and China this week for consultations aimed at breaking the impasse in the stalled negotiations, Seoul's foreign minister said Wednesday. Word of Assistant Secretary of State Christopher Hill's visit comes amid reports that North Korean strongman Kim Jong Il traveled to China Tuesday, though his visit has yet to be officially announce. Hill was scheduled to arrive in South Korea late Wednesday after holding talks in Japan, Foreign Minister Ban Ki-moon told reporters. Hill is scheduled to leave for China on Thursday morning after consultations in Seoul, Ban said.

Strange reports made stranger and more mysterious by their conflicting accounts. SOMETHING IS UP. Stay tuned...

UPDATE/DONGHA : No Traces of Kim-

“This is a really top-secret visit to China. No traces of Kim in China have been found,” a South Korean Embassy official in Beijing said. “This visit is being conducted in a more clandestine manner than ones in the past.”

Kim’s fear of a possible second Yongcheon explosion incident may be another reason for the enhanced secrecy surrounding his visit. The Yongcheon Station explosion occurred right when Kim was going back to North Korea after completing his visit to China in 2004. The explosion took place just eight hours after the special train that Kim went aboard passed through Yongcheon Station. Because of this, speculation was rife that the incident was a premeditated attempt to kill Kim and not a mere accident.

ALSO IN CHINA: The USA's chief negotiator in the Six Party North Korean talks. IS THIS A COINCIDENCE, OR IS A SECRET DEAL BEING NEGOTIATED?

UPDATES (1/12/06):

IHT: The U.S. envoy to multiparty talks on North Korea's nuclear program arrived here Thursday in an effort to restart the stalled negotiations. Christopher Hill's visit coincided with continuing reports that Kim Jong Il, the North Korean leader, was also in China and may also intend to confer with Chinese leaders on efforts to dismantle the North's nuclear capabilities.

AP/CHICAGO SUN-TIMES: - The top U.S. negotiator on North Korea's nuclear programs said Thursday he had no plans to meet the isolated regime's leader while in China, where Kim Jong Il is widely believed to have traveled.

RELIAPUNDIT: BOTH ITEMS ARE TRUE. Note, the AP article merely says that Hill WON'T MEET with Kim - NOT that they aren't negotiating INDIRECTLY. China is probably the middle-man in secret two-way talks between Hill and Kim Jong Il. STAY TUNED...

PAKISTANI ARMY FIERCELY FIGHTING ON AFGHAN BORDER

BBC:

Seven Pakistani troops and 14 suspected militants have died in fierce fighting on the Afghan border, the army says. The soldiers died in a rocket attack on an army post in the North Waziristan tribal area. Troops returned fire, killing 14 militants, the army said. Military spokesman Maj-Gen Shaukat Sultan told the BBC the militants included locals and foreigners. Another 22 people have died in recent fighting, eight of them troops and eight villagers killed at the weekend. Reports said several soldiers were also wounded.

Maj-Gen Sultan told the BBC that the militants' local leader, Bilal, had been killed in the fighting. He said the authorities would continue their efforts "to expel foreigners from the area and neutralise local miscreants".

Tens of thousands of Pakistani soldiers are deployed in the tribal area to hunt for Taleban and al-Qaeda militants who fled the US-led invasion of Afghanistan in 2001. More than 200 Pakistani soldiers have lost their lives in the fighting while the military claims it has killed about 600 militants.

THIS IS GOOD NEWS. I'M VERY GLAD THE PAKISTANI ARMY IS STILL ON THE HUNT.

In semi-related news:

US has issued travel advisory warning its citizens against travel to Afghanistan in view of the security situation there. ... The Department of State strongly warns U.S. citizens against travel to Afghanistan. There is an ongoing threat to kidnap and assassinate U.S. citizens and Non-Governmental Organization (NGO) workers throughout the country. The ability of Afghan authorities to maintain order and ensure the security of citizens and visitors is limited, the statement issued by the US State Department said. Remnants of the former Taliban regime and the terrorist al-Qaida network, and other groups hostile to the government, remain active.

Maybe we should have nuked Torabora in 2001. Perhaps one small nuke then would have saved us - and the Pakistanis and the Afghanis - a lot of trouble ever since.

SHARON'S BRAIN HEMORRAGE CAUSED BY MEDICATION

HAARETZ:

Prime Minister Ariel Sharon received anticoagulant drugs despite suffering from a disease of the blood vessels in the brain which, if diagnosed, would almost certainly have prevented doctors from prescribing these drugs - which are known to increase the risk of strokes and brain hemorrhage. One doctor close to the situation told Haaretz Monday that the disease was diagnosed by doctors treating Sharon at Hadassah University Hospital during his current hospitalization.

The disease, cerebral amyloid angiopathy (CAA) could have greatly increased the risk of a brain hemorrhage, following the administration of the medication that he received after his first stroke Dec. 19, Haaretz has learned.

The diagnosis ocurred after examining CT scans Sharon has undergone, according to testimony presented Monday to Haaretz by a medical source involved in the treatment of the prime minister.

If his CAA had been diagnosed BEFORE he was prescribed the medication to prevent blood clots from forming in his heart, then he would be FINE today. They could have SIMPLY done this by examining CT scans. And then, they might have chosen to IMMEDIATELY give him the stent to close the small hole in his heart, instead of WAITING a month for the operation and giving him thinners prophylactically - to safeguard him for that month. WHAT A FREAKIN' SHAME.

UPDATE/HAARETZ:

Doctors at Hadassah University Hospital, Ein Karem, discovered that Prime Minister Ariel Sharon suffered from a vascular disease when he was hospitalized with his first stroke on December 18. Administering blood thinners to someone suffering from this disease greatly increases the risk of cerebral hemorrhaging. Despite their knowledge, Hadassah doctors decided to put Sharon on blood-thinning medication following the stroke. ...

Senior doctors told Haaretz that the revelation that Hadassah knew about Sharon's CAA raises more questions over the treatment he received. A senior doctor at Hadassah even described the decision to put Sharon on blood thinners, despite the knowledge that he had CAA, as a "major screw-up."

Another senior doctor, who serves as a department head at one of Israel's largest hospitals, said that the Health Ministry ought to set up a commission of inquiry to investigate Sharon's treatment. Based on newspaper reports and Hadassah's own statements, the doctor said, Sharon appears to have suffered from too much treatment - the blood thinners - and too little medical supervision.

IMHO: The doctors made a well-intentioned MISTAKE - one that may be very common, even a SOP.

GREENIES HIT NEW LOW: CHARGE POLLUTION CAUSES HERMAPHRODITISM IN POLAR BEARS

UK INDEPENDENT:

Wildlife researchers have found new evidence that Arctic polar bears, already gravely threatened by the melting of their habitat because of global warming, are being poisoned by chemical compounds commonly used in Europe and North America to reduce the flammability of household furnishings like sofas, clothing and carpets. ... Studies are still being carried out on what impact the chemicals might be having on the bears, but tests on laboratory animals such as mice indicate that their effects can be considerable, attacking the sex and thyroid glands, motor skills and brain function.

There is also evidence that compounds similar to the PBDEs have contributed to a surprisingly high rate of hermaphroditism in polar bears. About one in 50 female bears on Svalbard has both male and female sex organs, a phenomenon scientists link directly to the effects of pollution.

WHAT'S NEXT, CHARGING THAT POLLUTION CAUSES ERECTILE DYSFUNCTION IN PENGUINS!? Sheesh.

FOSSELLA DEMANDING LEBANON TURNOVER MURDERER

THE AMERICAN THINKER:

Congressman Vito Fossella is demanding that Lebanon hand over to the United States Mohammed Ali Hamdi, who brutally tortured and murdered U.S. Navy Petty Officer Robert Dean Stehem in 1985, helping to usher in the era of brutal Islamicist terror.

Germany released him to Lebanon, after serving only 18 years of life sentence, related to the hijacking of TWA flight 847, and the singling out of Stethem for cruel murder. No official reason for Germany’s release has been provided, but copincidentally or not, a German hostage in Iraq was released shortly after Hamdi was.

I hope Bush reads Merkel the RIOT ACT when she visits him at the end of the month.

GERMAN WOMAN BEHEADED BY SHEIKH IN INDIA

HINDUSTAN TIMES: A real estate agent has been arrested in connection with the murder of a 72-year-old German woman in Pune. Police said the German archeologist Dr Gudarun Korvinos was killed by a Sheikh who wanted to take control of her property. The beheaded body has been sent for post-mortem.

BEHEADING: the SOP of the ROP, (on duty or off, for personal, professional or religious puroses). Sheesh. BTW: this German woman WAS a REAL archaelogist.

KIM JONG IL ON A RARE SECRETIVE TRIP TO CHINA

BBC:

North Korean leader Kim Jong-il travelled to China on Tuesday in a special armoured train, reports said. The train carrying the secretive North Korean leader passed through the town of Dandong on the Chinese border before dawn, amid tight security. ... Kim Jong-il, who has ruled the Stalinist regime since the death of his father Kim Il-sung in 1994, rarely travels overseas. ... When travelling Kim Jong-il refuses to fly, instead travelling to foreign states by a special armoured train. ...

North Korea agreed at six-party talks in Beijing in September to abandon a nuclear programme in return for economic and security guarantees. But soon after, it said it would not scrap its nuclear deterrent until it was given a civilian nuclear reactor. Both Japan and the US have rejected Pyongyang's demand for a reactor.

[ASIDE: WHY DON'T WE - AND THE UN AND THE EU AND RUSSIA AND CHINA AND JAPAN (IOW - THE PARTY OF SIX+) BUILD A FRIGGIN' NUCLEAR POWER PLANT FOR THEM IN SOUTH KOREA - WHERE WE CAN CO-MANAGE IT, AND JUST SEND THEM THE POWER FOR FREE - IN RETURN FOR THEM SHUTTING DOWN THEIR WHOLE NUCLEAR PROGRAM!?]

YONHAP:

North Korean leader Kim Jong-il began a previously unannounced visit to China Tuesday, Chinese sources said, as Beijing was trying to revive stalled six-party talks on the North's nuclear weapons program.

There was no official confirmation of Kim's trip to China but Chinese sources in Beijing said a special train carrying Kim and his party passed through Dandong, a Chinese border city, at about 6:30 a.m. (2230 GMT), about an hour behind schedule.

WHY DON'T THE CHINESE JUST KEEP HIM?!

THE HAJJ AND BIRD FLU

FT:

Saudi Arabia has had to contend with the threat of bird flu as well as heightened security fears at the start of this year's hajj pilgrimage, which began yesterday.

Officials in the kingdom have been on high alert after warnings from health experts that the gathering at Mecca, Islam's birthplace, of more than 2m pilgrims from around the Muslim world could provide conditions for a deadly bird flu pandemic. ... So far the deadly H5N1 strain of avian influenza has killed only people in sustained and direct contact with infected poultry. But experts fear that in certain circumstances it could mutate into a form transmittable from human to human.

Victims of the disease have included three children from Turkey, who died last week, providing the latest evidence of the disease's progression from Asia to the fringes of Europe.

Other Cconfirmed H5N1 vitcims come from the most populated Muslim nation in the world, Indonesia. Other diseases have broken out at the Hajj - including polio. Saudi authorities say they're prepared - more HERE and HERE and HERE.

IRAN ESCALATES NUCLEAR STANDOFF, AGAIN

(Comtex Energy Via Thomson Dialog NewsEdge) TEHRAN, Jan 9, 2006 (Xinhua via COMTEX):

Iran said it was ready to remove UN seals from some unclear sites on Monday and the decision has drawn criticism from the West. Iran's decision was "the wrong step in the wrong direction and is a cause of very serious concern," warned Austrian Foreign Minister Ursula Plassnik, whose country currently holds the European Union (EU)'s presidency. Iran confirmed on Sunday it would implement the decision to resume nuclear fuel research on Monday and called on the EU to avoid the language of threats.

TICK... TICK... TICK... I hope we have all the targeting info we need and big enough inventory of missiles to match the target list...

ZARQAWI: BINLADEN ORDERED ATTACK ON ISRAEL

I predicted this on September 25, 2005. Now Zarqawi has PERSONALLY confirmed it (AFP):

AL-Qaeda's leader in Iraq, Abu Musab al-Zarqawi, said in an audio tape put onto the internet yesterday that rockets had been fired at Israel from Lebanon last month "on the instructions" of the network's overall chief Osama bin Laden.

"The rocket firing at the ancestors of monkeys and pigs from the south of Lebanon was only the start of a blessed in-depth strike against the Zionist enemy (...). All that was on the instructions of the sheikh of the mujahedeen, Osama bin laden, may God preserve him," said the voice attributed to the Jordanian extremist. His group, the Organization of al-Qaeda in Mesopotamia, had claimed responsibility for the rockets in an on-line statement on December 29.

"This commendable feat came in application by the mujahedeen of the oath by fighter sheikh Osama bin Laden, emir of the al-Qaeda network, may God preserve him," added the recording referring to repeated statements by Bin Laden that the Israelis should not enjoy security as long as Muslims were not safe.

I'm particularly concerned about the phrase, "only the start of a blessed in-depth strike against the Zionist enemy." I think that Zarqawi chooses his words carefully. He strikes me as the kind of psychopath who would enjoy giving clues - like all those incredibly over-the-top villains in Bond movies. Only thing is: Zarqawi is real.

*****UPDATE 1/9/06: ALARMING NEWS (hat tip ACE):

This doesn't sound good

Via Bridge and Tunnel Club:
A suitcase found Thursday morning in Brooklyn -- chock-full of photos of Big Apple landmarks and subway stations -- provoked a massive mobilization of antiterror units when it was finally opened two days later, police said. "The pictures had everything -- from Police Plaza to 26 Federal Plaza. It was scary," said Derwin McDuffie, 40, a security guard at Linden Plaza, where the bag was found. "The weird thing is if a tourist took those pictures, there would be people in them. There was nobody in these." ... Meanwhile, a man who went to pick it up Friday vanished when told it had been taken to Lost and Found, said McDuffie, who didn't see the man.

RELIAPUNDIT: Maybe - JUST MAYBE - Zarqawi meant "MAJOR NYC SUBWAY ATTACK (like London 7/7 - only BIGGER)" when he said, "in depth strike against the Zionist enemy."

RISEN & LICHTBLAU: NSA PROGRAM INTERCEPTED INTERNATIONAL CALLS OF AL QAEDA WITH 1.7 TEN-THOUSANDTHS OF A PER CENT OF THE U.S. PUBLIC

David Tell - writing for the editors of THE WEEKLY STANDARD - has penned a DEVASTATING analysis of the NYTIMES NSA LEAK. Here's an excerpt:

[According to the Risewn-Lichtblau NYTIMES article]... beginning in early 2002, the National Security Agency began monitoring telephone numbers and email addresses discovered in the computers, cell phones, and address books of captured al Qaeda operatives, and it has continued to do so, following resultant leads into an expanding, digital network of terrorism suspects. Even by Risen's account, an overwhelming majority of the program's targets are located overseas--currently "about 7,000 people" abroad, along with "about 500" other people they've contacted here in the States.

Just the same, because nowadays "many purely international communications--telephone calls and email messages from the Middle East to Asia, for example--end up going through telecommunications switches that are physically based in the United States," eavesdropping on any call so routed "might be a violation of the regulations and laws restricting the NSA from spying inside the United States."

... Risen repeatedly calls the program "illegal," but offers not a single word of serious statutory or constitutional analysis to sustain the conclusion. He complains that, "for the first time since the Watergate-era abuses, the NSA is spying on Americans again, and on a large scale"--a reference, once more, to those 500 al Qaeda email buddies he's mentioned, who together represent 1.7 ten-thousandths of one percent of the U.S. population.

Shifting gears, Risen next raises alarm over the possibility that NSA could begin domestic spying on a large scale if it wanted to; "there seems to be no physical or logistical obstacle" preventing it at present. Neither does there seem to be any physical or logistical obstacle preventing NSA from sneaking into James Risen's bathroom and stealing his toothbrush, of course. The question remains: Why on earth would they want to?

RTWT.

GALLOWAY FINDS A HOME

George Galloway - socialist MP, foe of BusHitlerburton (and his poodle Blair), appeaser of islamofascists like Assad and receiver of bribes from Saddam - is a contestant on the UK's BIG BROTHER TV show. Here's the latest:

THE GUARDIAN:

George Galloway's hopes to use his residency in the Big Brother house to denounce the Iraq war and Tony Blair may be thwarted after Channel 4 vowed he would not be allowed to use the show as a soapbox. Mr Galloway, MP for Bethnal Green and Bow in east London, tried to head off criticism that he was letting his constituents down by devoting up to three weeks appearing in the show, by saying he was trying to bring politics and his ideals to an audience who are usually uninterested. His decision to swap the House of Commons for the Big Brother house alongside celebrities whose star has waned was yesterday condemned by Labour and some of his constituents.

LONDON TIMES:

GEORGE GALLOWAY’S decision to appear on Celebrity Big Brother has divided the Muslim voters who helped him into the House of Commons at the last election. Muhammad Abdul Bari, the chairman of the East London Mosque in Mr Galloway’s Bethnal Green & Bow constituency, said that he had been puzzled to discover that his MP was now appearing on a show that many Muslims would consider indecent. “A lot of Muslims find it very unpalatable that their MP would consider doing this sort of show,” he said. Dr Bari was considered instrumental in helping Mr Galloway to secure the support of Muslim voters, who make up 40 per cent of the constituency.

THE SCOTSMAN:

WITHIN minutes of entering the Big Brother house, the Member of Parliament for Baghdad East was making his demands known. "Water," George Galloway commanded, "in a champagne glass". ... "My name's George Galloway," he said. "I'm a Member of Parliament. I have been for 20 years, and I'm one of the leaders of the anti-war movement in Britain. On the left."

... Rula [famous TV actress Rula lenska] had told the Diary Room that Galloway was the housemate she would most like to explore, saying: "He is an intelligent, erudite man whose eyes show remorse and care and a lot of goodness."

"Have you seen the spiders on his nipples?" Rula says, speaking of [former NBA star, American Dennis] Rodman's tattoos. "I don't go for that myself," replies Galloway.

The question of snoring is raised. "I did a double whammy," says the MP. "I had a nose ring. And my snory strips. I don't know why I didn't bring ear-plugs. It's such an obvious thing to do." Moments later, he bursts into a chorus of 'Bare Necessities' from The Jungle Book. At 11.30, on Day Three in the Big Brother house, Galloway lit up a cigar and resumed his campaign of mass enlightenment.

"Seven out of 10 people in the world are Asians," he told the house, gazing round the room like a captain with no sea to sail, and no idea of where he parked the boat.

LETTER TO THE LONDON TIMES:

Sir, George Galloway is spending yet more time away from the needs of his constituents in Bethnal Green and Bow by appearing on Celebrity Big Brother. As one of the poorest areas in Europe, our local community is in dire need of decent parliamentary representation. Having an MP who spends his time flitting from US Senate hearings to appearances on reality TV (for what could be many weeks) is a major disservice to his hard-working constituents.

ALEX CORONATION - London E1

NICK COHEN/THE GUARDIAN:

Galloway's new Big Brother

In the 1990s, George Galloway flew to Saddam's Iraq and greeted a genocidal tyrant with: 'Sir, I salute your courage, your strength, your indefatigability!' Since the war, he has joined with European Holocaust-deniers to demand the release of Tariq Aziz, and said that Syria 'represents the last castle of the Arab dignity'. If this makes him sound like a neo-fascist, I should add in fairness that he's a walking Hitler-Stalin pact. He described the fall of Soviet communism 'as the worst day of my life', and said of Fidel Castro, the dictator of Cuba: 'He's not a dictator.'

After saluting so many big brothers, it is no surprise that he is now on Celebrity Big Brother. What remains incredible over the years has been the refusal of all the nice, respectable liberals in the media to scrutinise the leader of the anti-war movement.

Say no more. Say no more. ['Cept: previous post HERE.]

DEMOCRAT HARMON SUPPORTS NSA INTERCEPT PROGRAM; DERIDES LEAKERS AND NYTIMES

LEXIS-NEXIS/FOXNEWS:

HUME: The Bush administration has been sharply criticized recently for its surveillance program that monitors communications between suspected terrorists overseas and some people in the United States. Some Democrats charge that limited briefings of Congress violated the National Security Act.

Here to discuss concerns over that program is Congresswoman Jane Harman, to[p] ... [ranking] Democrat on the House Intelligence Committee, who joins us from Los Angeles. [...]

HUME: On December 21st when this program first came to light, you issued a statement that said, and I quote, "I believe the program is essential to U.S. national security and that its disclosure has damaged critical intelligence capabilities." More recently, however, you have been critical of this program, saying -- or at least critical of the way that Congress has been briefed on it.

HARMAN: Right.

HUME: You were among those briefed, correct?

HARMAN: I was in the so-called gang of eight, which is the chairman and ranking member on the House and Senate side of the Intelligence Committees, and the leadership of the House and the Senate.

HUME: And outline, if you will, your concerns about those briefings.

HARMAN: All right. Well, first of all, the program we were briefed on in a very closed environment in the White House, with no staff present, on a basis that we could not discuss it with anyone, was basically a foreign collection program. I still support that program. And I think the leak of that program to the New York Times and maybe elsewhere compromises national security... [...] in hindsight ... perhaps I should have had more information at the time. But now that I have been able to discuss this program with legal scholars -- not the details of the program, but the existence of the program -- since it was disclosed by the president, I now believe that under the National Security Act of 1947 the full committee should have been briefed. And that's what I'm asking for. And I believe that that is what the law requires. I also believe that members of Congress should exercise oversight over programs like this. And there are questions about whether this program complies with the domestic laws we have. And if it doesn't, either it should be changed or they should be changed.

HUME: Do you think, then, that perhaps this program, which you say you support -- are you suggesting that it may, indeed, be illegal?

HARMAN: Well, the foreign collection program that I know about I believe is legal and necessary. If in fact, as some of the newspaper stories allege, there is a domestic surveillance program going on, my view is that the law requires that domestic surveillance only be done pursuant to a court order, either with the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Court or the criminal court.

IN FACT, the NYTIMES itself has only alleged that entirely domestic calls from and to US Persons was done ONLY by accident and ONLY a dozen or so times. THIS IS HARDLY A BIG DEAL. As I have said before: The brouhaha over the legality/constitutionality of the NSA intercept program is drizzle in a teacup. The real scandal is the leak: The leak was an attempt by unelected bureaucrats (who don't like the presdient's policies) and their comrades at the NYTIMES, to HIJACK national security from the elected POTUS, to hurt the president and stop the program.

MAKE NO MISTAKE ABOUT IT: THE REAL SCANDAL IS THE LEAK - which not merely a partisan dirty trick, or an attempted "virtual coup d'etat" but a treasonous crime.

72 HOURS IS NOT ENOUGH TIME TO GET EX-POST FACTO FISA WARRANTS

Byron York/NRO;(HAT TIP THE INVALUABLE AND BRILLIANT POWERLINE):

People familiar with the process say the problem is not so much with the court itself as with the process required to bring a case before the court. "It takes days, sometimes weeks, to get the application for FISA together," says one source. "It's not so much that the court doesn't grant them quickly, it's that it takes a long time to get to the court. Even after the Patriot Act, it's still a very cumbersome process. It is not built for speed, it is not built to be efficient. It is built with an eye to keeping [investigators] in check."

Lawmakers of both parties recognized the problem in the months after the September 11 terrorist attacks. They pointed to the case of Coleen Rowley, the FBI agent who ran up against a number roadblocks in her effort to secure a FISA warrant in the case of Zacarias Moussaoui, the al Qaeda operative who had taken flight training in preparation for the hijackings. *** Rowley wrote up her concerns in a famous 13-page memo to FBI Director Robert Mueller, and then elaborated on them in testimony to Congress. "Rowley depicted the legal mechanism for security warrants under the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act, or FISA, as burdensome and restrictive, a virtual roadblock to effective law enforcement," Legal Times reported in September 2002.

I do NOT think that the American electorate wants the nation to be as poorly defended NOW as we were BEFORE 9/11. If it takes a legal and constitutional presidential executive order (three dozen meticulously followed orders, I might add) to insure that we intercept al Qaeda communications IMMEDIATELY - MEANING AS SOON AS WE GET PHONE NUMBERS AND EMAIL ADRESSES AND NOT A MOMENT LATER, then so be it. National defense is job one.

And the current Democrat Party can't be trusted with national defense. This isn't merely me ranting; it's JOE KLEIN of TIME:

Democrats are on thin ice here. Some of the wilder donkeys talked about a possible Bush impeachment after the NSA program was revealed.

The latest version of the absolutely necessary Patriot Act, which updates the laws regulating the war on terrorism and contains civil-liberties improvements over the first edition, was nearly killed by a stampede of Senate Democrats.

Most polls indicate that a strong majority of Americans favor the act, and I suspect that a strong majority would favor the NSA program as well, if its details were declassified and made known. [...]

and until the Democrats make clear that they will err on the side of aggressiveness in the war against al-Qaeda, they will probably not regain the majority in Congress or the country.

THE NSA INTERCEPT LEAK DAMAGED USA SECURITY - AND WAS THEREFORE AN ACT OF TREASON

Many on the Left have criticized folks like me for claiming that the NYTIMES NSA intercept leak damaged our national security and is therefore not only a crime under the Intelligence Whistleblower Protection Act, but TREASON.

They argue - as theater maven Frank Rich (and now national securtiy expert) does in today's NYTIMES - that terrorist already presumed all of this, so it's NOT news. The only newswprthy part of this leak - according to Rich& Co. - was that the intecepts were done without a court-order. And the terrorists couldn't care less about that.

I disagree. Below I argued that CONFIRMING what terrorists merely SUSPECT does obviously give a new advantage to the terrorists that they otherwise would NOT have had. (As anyone who paid any attention to the WMD issue must admit: CONFIRMED intel is better than inferred/suspected/deductive intel!) And this confirmation/certitude tips off the terorist and enables him - YEA INSTRUCTS HIM - to re-allocate resources in order to change their SOP when communicating to agents in the USA - in order to make them less suspectible to interception. This is irrefutable. And it means that the leak damged our security and aided the enemy - hence it was treason.

But the NYTIMES NSA intercept leak actually hurt USA security in a MUCH more potentially damaging way: It alerted US PERSONS (including US citizens) that their electronic communications with overseas al Qaeda agents (or their affiliates) was subject to interception.

AND, these US persons might very well include some of al Qaeda's least suspicious, most valued and most sophisticated agents - AND EVEN SOME double agents in the police, the FBI, the CIA, the MSM, even some M.E.S. college professors, and even members of the US armed forces (all with good access to the ACLU!).

These US agents of al Qaeda would probably be relatively very well-informed people who would have assumed that their communications wouldn't be subject to interception unless and until their overseas contact was captured or killed, AND they probably assumed - PRIOR TO THE NYTIMES NSA LEAK - that they would hear that their contact was captured or killed BEFORE any intercept could be arranged with the FISA court. The enemy might even have had agents with access to to the FISC surveillance warrants list. (MAYBE THEY GOT THIS FROM ONE OF THE LEAKERS?)

Maybe that's why the POTUS decided that he had to use his Article II powers to circumvent the FISC ON THE MOST SENSITIVE AND IMPORTANT TARGETS. (After all, the POTUS did ask for and receive thousands of FISA warrants over the last four years while also pursuing these focused/selective court-orderless NSA intercepts.) That's why this leak CHANGES EVERYTHING.

As a result of this leak, it is reasonable to expect that all of the electronic communications of the enemy - (including the most dangerous communications they have: BETWEEN OPERATIVES OVERSEAS AND OPERATIVES HERE!) will become MUCH less suspectible to interception. This makes us more vulnerable to an attack. Which means the leak helps the enemy and is TREASON.

UPDATE: JOE KLEIN of TIME corroborates my analysis (hat tip the invaluable and brilliant POWERLINE):

It would have been a scandal if the NSA had not been using these tools to track down the bad guys. There is evidence that the information harvested helped foil several plots and disrupt al-Qaeda operations.

There is also evidence, according to U.S. intelligence officials, that since the New York Times broke the story, the terrorists have modified their behavior, hampering our efforts to keep track of them—but also, on the plus side, hampering their ability to communicate with one another.

EXACTLY as I said. EXACTLY. Which is why leaking was not only a crime it was TREASON. As was publishing the leak. TREASON. Find them; charge them; try them; convict them, and then, execute them. That will end the problem of leaks of classified information for a while.

HAS ASSAD JUST ARRANGED HIS EXILE?

These two news items caught my eye:

(1) JEDDAH ("Reuters") -

Syrian President Bashar al-Assad flew to talks on Lebanon with Saudi Arabia's king on Sunday, a day after diplomats said Assad had rejected a U.N. request to interview him about a former Lebanese prime minister's murder. Saudi Foreign Minister Prince Saud al-Faisal announced the summit during a surprise visit to Damascus earlier on Sunday, in what analysts said was a Saudi effort to persuade Syria to cooperate with a U.N. probe and prevent international isolation.

(2) RIYADH, Jan 8 (KUNA) --

Syrian President Bashar al-Assad left Jeddah on Sunday wrapping up an official visit during which he had talks with Saudi King Abdullah bin Abdelaziz. He was seen off at the International Airport by King Abdallah, Crown Prince Sultan bin Abdelaziz as well as senior Saudi military and civilian officials. The Saudi-Syrian summit concluded in Jeddah earlier today underlined need for enhancing the Syrian-Lebanese ties, call for pull out of the Israeli troops from the occupied Arab territories and activating the activities of the joint Saudi-Syrian committee.

I don't think that this visit was all about the UN and Lebanon. I think that maybe the Saudis have offered Assad political asylum. WHY!? They are a good ally of ours and we want Assad GONE. AND, after all, IDI AMIN, the genocidal Muslim tyrant of Uganda, lived out his days in the Kingdom - TWENTY YEARS WORTH OF DAYS, only dying in 2003.

It's just a guess. Or wishful thinking, maybe. STAY TUNED...

UPDATE/AP:

Syrian President Bashar Assad made surprise journeys to Egypt and Saudi Arabia Sunday, seeking support from Arab leaders as he faces an unprecedented challenge from a defecting ex-vice president and alleged Syrian involvement in the assassination of a former Lebanese leader.

Arab diplomats said the efforts were focused on finding a face-saving way for Assad to deal with the most recent interview request by the U.N. team investigating the assassination of former Lebanese Prime Minister Rafik Hariri.

The diplomats, who refused use of their names because of the sensitivity of the talks, said one proposal being put to Assad called for him to send an envoy to take the investigators' questions. Assad would then provide written answers and send them back to investigators.

That's their story and they're sticking to it.