THE ASTUTE BLOGGERS

[According to Zogby polling in several Arab nations]: An Arab middle class with global values was emerging, and Arab populations seemed to be moving toward greater identification with their individual countries, rather than primarily expressing wider pan-Arab or pan-Islamic sentiments. ... one reason for this change was "disappointment and disillusionment with the results of pan-Arab policies and attitudes, ...

Like demanding an end to all legal misogyny in the region, and an end to polygamy and endogamy.

In a recent column, Michael Coren, my colleague here at the Sun, demanded Muslims apologize for wrongs too numerous to list. Coren is right. I, as a Muslim, apologize without equivocation or reservation for the terrible crimes -- small and big -- committed by Muslims against non-Muslims and against Muslims, as in Darfur, who are weak and easy prey to those who hold power in the name of Islam.

I imagine, however, Coren is not seeking an apology from a person of Muslim faith such as I, who maintains no rank and cannot speak on behalf of the institutionalized world of Islam. Like many others who share his frustration and legitimate anger, Coren is asking to hear a contrite voice from within institutionalized Islam -- to repent for Muslim misconduct, past and present, that is indefensible by any standard of civility and decency, and seek forgiveness.

Abu Omar ... began distributing the latest video by Al Qaeda, alerting friends and occasionally adding commentary. “We are the energy behind the path to jihad,” Abu Omar said proudly. “Just like the jihadis reached their target on Sept. 11, we will reach ours through the Internet.” Abu Omar, 28, is part of an increasingly sophisticated network of contributors and discussion leaders helping to wage Al Qaeda’s battle for Muslim hearts and minds. ...

In recent years, Al Qaeda has formed a special media production division called Al Sahab to produce videos about leaders like Mr. bin Laden and Mr. Zawahri, terrorism experts say. ... Al Qaeda has been turning itself ... into a propaganda organization,” ... “They now appear to be focused on putting out disinformation and projecting the strength of the mujahedeen....

... Though he does not appear to be directly connected to Al Qaeda, Abu Omar does seem to be on a direct e-mail list for groups sympathetic to Al Qaeda, making him a link in a chain that spreads the organization’s propaganda using code and special software to circumvent official scrutiny of their Internet activity.

... from the beginning, our actions in Afghanistan have had a clear purpose... And from the beginning, the American people have heard the critics say we're failing -- but their reasons keep changing.

In the first days of Operation Enduring Freedom, the critics warned that we were heading toward a "quagmire." And then when the Taliban fell, and operations began in Iraq, the critics held up the multinational coalition in Afghanistan as a model, and said it showed that everything we were doing in Iraq was wrong.

And now some of the critics who praised the multinational coalition we built in Afghanistan claim that the country is in danger of failing because we don't have enough American troops there.

...Iraq is not the reason the terrorists are at war against us. ... This argument buys into the enemy's propaganda that the terrorists attack us because we're provoking them. I want to remind the American citizens that we were not in Iraq on September the 11th, 2001. ... You do not create terrorism by fighting terrorism.

If that ever becomes the mind set of the policymakers in Washington, it means we'll go back to the old days of waiting to be attacked and then respond. Our most important duty is to protect the American people from a future attack, and the way to do so is to stay on the offense against the terrorists.

"Got a tough, but heartwarming story and a picture of John Gebhardt in Iraq. For those that did not know John, he was our former Med Group Chief.

Anyway, his wife talked with mine last evening and sent this picture. Mindy related that this little girl’s entire family was executed…they intended to execute her also and shot her in the head…but they failed to kill her.

She was cared for by John’s hospital and healing up, but has been crying and moaning. The nurses said John is the only one she seems to calm down with, so John has spent the last four nights holding her while they both sleep in that chair. "

...The total count reaches about 60,000 Arabs killed in the framework of the Israeli-Arab conflict. Among them only several thousand Palestinians, although it is because of them, and only them, that Israel is the target of the world’s anger. Every Arab and Muslim death is regrettable. And it is okay to criticize Israel. But the obsessive and demonic criticism emphasizes a far more amazing fact: The silence of the world, or at least relative silence, in the face of the systematic extermination of millions of others by Muslim and Arab regimes.

more Arabs were killed by other Arabs - in Algeria alone at least 500,000 have been killed; more Arabs were killed by Persians - in the Iran-Iraw War; more Muslims were killed by Hindus in India; and more Shias were killed by Sunnis in Iraq alone.

[Swift’s chief executive, Leonard Schrank, said,] “We are caught between complying with the U.S. and European rules, and it’s a train wreck. But what we have done saves lives in the U.S. and Europe, and we must not lose sight of that.”

The fact that Swift did not notify European authorities about the data transfers until after their existence was revealed in an article in The New York Times prompted criticism of Swift by the Belgian commission.

Mr. Schrank said that Swift had satisfied the relevant disclosure rules, but had decided “not to notify broadly” for fear of tipping off terrorists to security tactics.

... those of us who ... understand the nature and importance of today’s War on Terror, should not rest until the government calls to account The New York Times—in a court of law, with an indictment and hopefully a conviction, under the Espionage Act.

Islam has to be treated with unusual deference, like a 3-year-old child with anger management problems.

... the same people who have for years been more protective of criminals than of their victims who are now more protective of captured terrorists than of those who are their targets. When such attitudes became ascendant in our courts during the 1960s, the declining trend in crime rates suddenly reversed and skyrocketed, as liberal judges created new "rights" for criminals out of thin air and called it constitutional law.

But this goes far beyond judges and far beyond our own times. The political left has been weak on protecting society from criminals for more than two centuries.

Saudi Arabia is pushing ahead with plans to build a fence to block terrorists from crossing its 560-mile border with Iraq _ another sign of growing alarm that Sunni-Shiite strife could spill over and drag Iraq's neighbors into its civil conflict.

The barrier, which hasn't been started, is part of a $12 billion package of measures including electronic sensors, security bases and physical barriers to protect the oil-rich kingdom from external threats, said Nawaf Obaid, head of the Saudi National Security Assessment Project, an independent research institute that advises the Saudi government.

Iva Toguri D’Aquino, the Japanese-American convicted of treason in 1949 for broadcasting propaganda from Japan to United States servicemen in World War II as the seductive but sinister Tokyo Rose, died Tuesday in Chicago.

... Up to the end of World War II, there had only been some 30 treason cases in United States history. When Mrs. D’Aquino [Tokyo Rose] went on trial, five Americans had been convicted of treason for actions in the war, four having broadcast for Nazi Germany, most notably Millard Gillars, known as Axis Sally.

Tom DeWolfe, a special assistant attorney general, told the jury that Mrs. D’Aquino had engaged in “nefarious propagandistic broadcasts” without being under duress.

Egypt has demanded that Hamas immediately release kidnapped IDF soldier Cpl. Gilad Shalit to avoid a worsening crisis in the Gaza Strip, Palestinian officials and Arab diplomats said.

The Egyptian demand came in a "strongly worded letter" from Egypt's powerful intelligence chief Omar Suleiman to the Syrian-based Hamas leader Khaled Mashaal, the officials said Tuesday.

Western Europe was better for people than Eastern Europe; South Korea was better for people than North Korea; Japan and the Philipines and Taiwan and Singapore - and South Vietnam and Thailand - were better for people than China and Cambodia and Laos. REPEAT: Hong Kong was better than China. Puerto Rico and the DR are better off than Cuba. Even India sucked until - like China - they abandoned Marxism and opened up to economic ties with the "evil greedy capitalistic USA!"

The last 2 decades of trade with the "evil greedy capitalistic " USA has lifted more Chinese out of poverty than the previous 5 decades of Marxist/Maoist idealism. We have exploited them right into the 21st century!

Eight CITGO stations may have to pay the price for Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez's statement last week about U.S. President George W. Bush. A south Florida legislator wants the state to cancel its contracts with the stations that reside along the Florida Turnpike, the Tallahassee Democrat Capitol reported.

Rep. Adam Hasner (R-Delray Beach) has written a letter to the state's Department of Transportation secretary, Denver Stutler, asking for the contract's cancellation.

"As you are aware, CITGO is wholly owned by Petroleos de Venezuela, the national oil company of the Bolivarian Republic of Venezuela," Hasner wrote last week to Stutler. "We must send a clear message to Chavez and the current government of Venezuela that the state of Florida and our citizens will not support institutions that seek the destabilization of America and our institutions and freedoms."

... when pressed on how he could stop the war even if Democrats control the House during the last years of President Bush’s second term, Rangel [WHO WOULD BECOME CHAIRMAN OF THE POWERFUL HOUSE HAYS AND MEANS COMMITTEE] paused before saying, “You’ve got to be able to pay for the war, don’t you?”

Rangel’s views on funding the war are shared by many of his colleagues – especially within the 73-member Out of Iraq Caucus.

Some Democratic legislators want to halt funding for the war immediately, while others say they would allocate money for activities such as reconstruction, setting up international security forces, and the ultimate withdrawal of U.S. troops.

“Personally, I wouldn’t spend another dime [on the war,]” said Rep. Lynn Woolsey (D-Calif.).

Woolsey is among the Democrats in Congress who are hoping to control the power of the purse in 2007 to force an end to the war. Woolsey and some of her colleagues note that Congress helped force the end of Vietnam War by refusing to pay for it.

South Vietnam would be as free and prosperous as South Korea today (instead of almost as tyannized and poor as NORTH Korea) if the doves of the Democrat party hadn't ABANDONED them in 1975, (effectively).

Summary: "During Richard Nixon's first term, when I served as secretary of defense, we withdrew most U.S. forces from Vietnam while building up the South's ability to defend itself. The result was a success -- until Congress snatched defeat from the jaws of victory by cutting off funding for our ally in 1975. Washington should follow a similar strategy now, but this time finish the job properly."

The Shiite radical cleric Moqtada al-Sadr seems to be willing to compromise and is urging his followers not to use force in opposing the Iraqi government and the presence of U.S. troops. ... Sadr said his call for comprise and civil resistance was for the sake of sparing Iraqi blood.

The Star-Spangled Mirror [Richard Kerry's book] is a critique of moralism in America's foreign policy -- and, more than that, it is a critique of America's national character.

"Americans," he writes, "are inclined to see the world and foreign affairs in black and white." They celebrate their own form of government and denigrate all others, making them guilty of what he calls "ethnocentric accommodation -- everyone ought to be like us." As a result, America has committed the "fatal error" of "propagating democracy" and fallen prey to "the siren's song of promoting human rights," falsely assuming that our values and institutions are a good fit in the Third World. And, just as Americans exaggerate their own goodness, they exaggerate their enemies' badness.

The Soviet Union wasn't nearly as imperialistic as American politicians warned, [Richard] Kerry argues. "Seeing the Soviet Union as the aggressor in every instance, and the U.S. as only reacting defensively, relieves an American observer from the need to see any parallel between our use of military power in distant parts of the world, and the Soviet use of military power outside the Soviet Union," he writes.

EXAMPLE: In WW2, the Japanese use of kamikazis did not even begin until March 1945! The Japanese became more angry and desperate the closer we got to defeating them, to pulverizing them into unconditonal surrender. The enemy will save their worst most horrible heinous weapons for when they need them most - as they sense that they're getting closer to their defeat.

Two top aides to radical Shiite cleric Muqtada al-Sadr were detained early Thursday by U.S. forces in the southern city of Najaf, a spokesman for al-Sadr said.

Salah al-Obeidi, a spokesman for al-Sadr who delivers Friday prayers on behalf of the cleric in the nearby city of Kufa, and Muayed al-Khazraji, a leading aide from Baghdad, were taken in a raid by U.S. and Iraqi forces at about 1 a.m. local time, said Muhammed Jamil, a spokesman in the city some 160 kilometers (100 miles) south of Baghdad.

... foreign reporters' armored vehicles may (may?) be used to ferry terrorists to carry out terror attacks in Israel. ... [YNET]:

Armored vehicles that were given to foreign news agencies operating in the country with the authorization of the State of Israel, may be used by hostile groups to carry out terror attacks against Israel, Director of the Government Press Office Danny Seaman warned in a letter addressed to Shin Bet Head Yuval Diskin.

On August 27 an Israel Defense Forces helicopter hit an armored vehicle that belonged to the Reuters news agency in Gaza. According to Seaman, the incident illustrated the failures in overseeing the use of armored vehicles granted to the foreign media agencies with the permission of the State.

The vehicle's presence in Gaza in itself constituted a violation of its license terms, and moreover, the jeep was carrying only Palestinians – one with links to Hamas who was not a Reuters employee.

Palestinian leader Mahmoud Abbas has said any unity government negotiated with militant group Hamas would recognise Israel and renounce violence. ... Mr Abbas is seeking a government which includes his Fatah movement and Hamas, which won elections in January. ....

A Hamas official responded that there would be no explicit recognition but said it was prepared to agree to a 10-year truce with the Jewish state.

Insurgents are now using unwitting kidnap victims as suicide bombers -- seizing them, booby-trapping their cars without their knowledge, then releasing them only to blow up the vehicles by remote control, the Defense Ministry warned Thursday. ... first "a motorist is kidnapped with his car. They then booby-trap the car without the driver knowing. Then the kidnapped driver is released and threatened to take a certain road."

The kidnappers then follow the car and when the unwitting victim ''reaches a checkpoint, a public place, or an army or police patrol, the criminal terrorists following the driver detonate the car from a distance." ...

It was unclear from the Defense Ministry's statement whether the insurgents are using kidnap victims because they are having trouble finding recruits for suicide missions. ...

Although roadside bombs are the main weapon used by insurgents, suicide car bombers are often their most effective one -- designed to maximize casualties and sow fear among the population.

[After his UN diatribe, Chavez] spoke to hundreds of New Yorkers who filled a college hall Wednesday night...

He drew a standing ovation when he said Bush committed genocide during the war in Iraq. "The president of the United States should go before an international tribunal," Chavez said as applause filled the hall at The Cooper Union for the Advancement of Science and Art.

He compared the Bush administration's actions to those of the Nazis. ...

The Venezuelan has become Latin America's leading voice against the U.S. government, and his speeches were reminiscent of crusading addresses by his mentor Fidel Castro of Cuba and the late Argentine revolutionary Ernesto "Che" Guevara. ...

He also referred to his past threats that he could cut off oil exports to the U.S. if it tries to oust him.

"Believe me, if I were to decide tomorrow to stop sending oil to the United States ... the price would go up to $150, $200 a barrel. But we don't want to do it, and we aren't going to do it," Chavez said. "We ask only for respect."

... Singer and activist Harry Belafonte introduced Chavez at the event, while former U.S. Attorney General Ramsey Clark also attended, among supporters who waved Venezuelan flags and chanted Chavez's name.

The Venezuelan leader signed autographs as a crowd rushed to him after the speech.

THE former Archbishop of Canterbury Lord Carey of Clifton has issued his own challenge to “violent” Islam in a lecture in which he defends the Pope’s “extraordinarily effective and lucid” speech.

Lord Carey said that Muslims must address “with great urgency” their religion’s association with violence. He made it clear that he believed the “clash of civilisations” endangering the world was not between Islamist extremists and the West, but with Islam as a whole.

“We are living in dangerous and potentially cataclysmic times,” he said. “There will be no significant material and economic progress [in Muslim communities] until the Muslim mind is allowed to challenge the status quo of Muslim conventions and even their most cherished shibboleths.”

... Lord Carey, who as Archbishop of Canterbury became a pioneer in Christian-Muslim dialogue, himself quoted a contemporary political scientist, Samuel Huntington, who has said the world is witnessing a “clash of civilisations”.

Arguing that Huntington’s thesis has some “validity”, Lord Carey quoted him as saying: “Islam’s borders are bloody and so are its innards. The fundamental problem for the West is not Islamic fundamentalism. It is Islam, a different civilisation whose people are convinced of the superiority of their culture and are obsessed with the inferiority of their power.”

Lord Carey went on to argue that a “deep-seated Westophobia” has developed in recent years in the Muslim world.

PAKISTANI President Pervez Musharraf today called for a ban on the "defamation of Islam" in a speech to the UN General Assembly in which he took a veiled swipe at Pope Benedict XVI for his remarks linking the Muslim faith to violence.

"We also need to bridge, through dialogue and understanding, the growing divide between the Islamic and Western worlds," General Musharraf told the 192-member assembly.

Friday's Good Morning America featured a segment with Robin Roberts in Memphis with three Southern women, identified as Republicans, who are all supposedly "having second thoughts about their party" and now plan to vote for Democrats. But a quick Internet search found that two of the three have backgrounds which raise questions about their fidelity to the GOP.

To the people of Iran: The United States respects you; we your country. We admire your rich history, your vibrant culture, and your many contributions to civilization.

You deserve an opportunity to determine your own future, an economy that rewards your intelligence and your talents, and a society that allows you to fulfill your tremendous potential.

The greatest obstacle to this future is that your rulers have chosen to deny you liberty and to use your nation's resources to fund terrorism, and fuel extremism, and pursue nuclear weapons.

The United Nations has passed a clear resolution requiring that the regime in Tehran meet its international obligations. Iran must abandon its nuclear weapons ambitions.

Despite what the regime tells you, we have no objection to Iran's pursuit of a truly peaceful nuclear power program.

We're working toward a diplomatic solution to this crisis. And as we do, we look to the day when you can live in freedom -- and America and Iran can be good friends and close partners in the cause of peace.

The mufti of Jerusalem, Mohammed Hussein, urged Palestinians to stop their attacks on churches, but held the pontiff responsible for the outpouring of Muslim anger.

When you enter a boxing ring, you agree to abide by the rules of boxing. But when you are attacked from behind in a dark alley, you would be a fool to abide by the Marquis of Queensbury rules. If you do, you can end up being a dead fool.

Already, graffiti is appearing on the Mariperez synagogue with increasing frequency. As a safety precaution, Levy skipped out on an office visit to the synagogue last Monday to avoid colliding with a pro-government march.

Critics claim that Chavez owes his anti-Semitic credentials to his late mentor, Norberto Ceresole, an Argentine ideologue who was well-known for his neo-Nazi views. But Chavez has only recently aimed his vitriol at Israel as he seeks friends in the Middle East, especially in Damascus and Teheran, both of which he visited in the last two months.

The recent wave of anti-Semitism has Venezuelan Jews, used to acceptance, rather nervous. Some even accuse Chavez of bringing in Hizbullah to indoctrinate Wayuu Indians in the west of the country.

"The government has adopted an anti-Semitic policy," explained Eppel.

French President Jacques Chirac has said referring Iran to the UN Security Council is not the best way to resolve a crisis over its nuclear programme.

"I don't believe in a solution without dialogue," Mr Chirac told Europe-1 radio, urging countries to remove the threat of sanctions against Iran. ... he said. "I think that Iran is a great nation and that we can find solutions through dialogue."

The US is leading calls for sanctions to be imposed on Iran if it refuses to suspend uranium enrichment.

Governor Mitt Romney of Massachusetts, said in an interview that he disagreed with Mr. McCain, and offered a forceful endorsement of Mr. Bush.

“I am foursquare behind the president on this,” Mr. Romney said. “I believe that we should do everything possible to support those people at the front line who are responsible for enforcing the war on terrorism.” ... Mr. Romney has been making an increasingly vigorous challenge for conservative votes and is viewed by many Republicans as the strongest challenger to Mr. McCain, at least for now. He saw the interrogation debate as an opportunity to draw contrasts with Mr. McCain among conservative voters.

Asked if this was his sharpest difference with Mr. McCain, Mr. Romney said: “No. There are a number of things. We have different views on McCain-Feingold, differing views on immigration policy, differing views on the interrogation of terrorists. There are also many other areas where we see eye to eye.”

Told about Governor Romney’s position on the treatment of terrorism suspects, Mr. McCain noted tartly, “He doesn’t have a vote.”

Protesters demanding an end to conflict in Sudan's Darfur region are staging a day of demonstrations around the world.

Activists are rallying in several capitals, calling on Sudan to allow UN peacekeepers into Darfur, where tens of thousands of people have been killed.

On arrival at Caracas airport, President Ahmadinejad took Mr Chavez's hands and said: "I salute all the revolutionaries who oppose world hegemony." He added: "The distance between our countries may be a bit far, but the hearts and thoughts are very close. "We have a common thinking, common interests."

... Opinion polls have put the centre-right alliance, headed by the conservative Moderate party, consistently neck-and-neck with Prime Minister Goran Persson's Social Democrats. The latest poll, published before voting began, put the challengers a few points ahead.Fredrik Reinfeldt, urged supporters to turn out and vote: "Don't believe the opinion polls. Persuade neighbours and friends to go vote."

... The opposition says changes to Sweden's rigid labour market and high cost welfare system are long overdue, and promises to cut both employer taxes and unemployment benefits. It also wants to cut the large social sector, which currently employs 30% of the Swedish job force.

Mr Reinfeldt, the Moderate leader, has accused the government of disregarding the high unemployment rate, and for not making sure the country can continue to compete in a global market. The government maintains the unemployment rate is a low 6%, while the opposition says it is around 10%, taking into account the many people on sick leave and in job training schemes.

Gunmen have shot dead an Italian nun in the Somali capital Mogadishu, witnesses and medical workers have said.

The attackers shot the nun three times in the back in a hospital in the south of the city, also killing her bodyguard before fleeing the scene.

The nun, who has not been named, is believed to be in her seventies.

It is unclear whether the shooting is connected with strong criticism by radical Somali clerics about the Pope's recent comments on Islam.

Hardline cleric Sheikh Abubakar Hassan Malin on Friday told worshippers at his mosque to hunt down and kill whoever offended the Prophet Mohammed.

Shots were fired at a synagogue in central Oslo early on Sunday and police said they were investigating whether the incident was linked to religious hatred. ... "It seems some of the shots hit the synagogue,'' said Bjoern Christian Joergensen, a police spokesman. Asked if the shooting was connected to religious intolerance, he said: "We are keeping all options open and investigating this possibility."

The Mosaic Religious Community, which owns the synagogue, had asked for better protection of its property following threats and after the site was vandalised in early August. ... "This is the last in a series of incidents this summer whose purpose, it seems, is to scare us," Anne Sender, the leader of the Mosaic Religious Community, told Reuters. She said Oslo had an active Jewish community of around 800 members and the same number of non-practising Jews.

The supposition that the kind of people who call publicly for beheadings, or tell Europe to prepare itself for the real holocaust (the connection between Muslim extremism and Holocaust denial being a very strong one), will feel placated by a few expressions of sympathy for their supposedly offended feelings is psychologically preposterous and demonstrably false empirically. It is the reductio ad absurdum of the Clintonian propensity to feel other people’s pain as a substitute for a policy.

At some point, we shall have to confront the threat directly, unapologetically and vigorously. If we don’t, it will be our own pain that we shall feel, not the pain of other people. And, in a sense, we shall have got what we asked for.

You will know them by their fruits. Grapes are not gathered from thorn bushes, nor figs from thistles, are they?

Even so, every good tree bears good fruit; but the bad tree bears bad fruit. A good tree cannot produce bad fruit, nor can a bad tree produce good fruit.

Every tree that does not bear good fruit is cut down and thrown into the fire. So then, you will know them by their fruits.

I feel less alone when I read the books of Ratzinger.

Faced with the possibility of an American Hiroshima, many are paralyzed by a combination of denial and fatalism. Either it hasn't happened, so it's not going to happen; or, if it is going to happen, there's nothing we can do to stop it. Both propositions are wrong. The countdown to a nuclear 9/11 can be stopped, but only by a combination of imagination, a clear agenda for action, and fierce determination to pursue it.

Graham Allison is director of the Belfer Center for Science and International Affairs at Harvard's John F. Kennedy School of Government. He is author of Nuclear Terrorism: The Ultimate Preventable Catastrophe (2004).

... there are 154 Democrats in the House of Representatives who get a 100% rating from the terror apologists at CAIR. Currently there are 201 Democrats total in the House, which means that a full 76%, more than 3/4’s, of them get the CAIR stamp of approval.

On the flip side, there’s only 8 Republicans who get CAIR’s approval out of the 231 GOP’ers in the House. That’s 3.5%.

JPOST: "... opinion in the Arab world has shifted to more sober analysis, as Lebanon, Hizbullah and the Shi'ites face the daunting task of what will probably be years of multi-billion dollar reconstruction.

Even a cursory perusal of the Arab press, will reveal that Hizbullah's status in Lebanon has changed for the worse, as many Lebanese come to the rather shocking realization that the south of their country, unknown to them, had in fact been transformed into an Iranian and Syrian launching pad against Israel posing an existential threat to their own livelihoods and to their entire country.

Our real enemy is within us, in the immense constituency of the half-educated narcissists pouring from our universities each year -- that glib, smug, liberal, and defeatist "victim culture" itself, that inhabits the academy, our media, our legal establishment, the bureaucratic class. The opinion leaders of our society, who live almost entirely off the avails of taxation, make their livelihoods biting the hands that feed them, and undermining the moral order on which our solidarity depends.

"He was one of the originators of public statements that misled the American people into believing that the Iraqi war was justified," the former Democratic president said on CNN's "Larry King Live."

... repeated U.S. administrations came to power predisposed to associate with the Arab world and to disassociate from Israel. In the end, they all recognized that relations with the Arab states were not the inverse of those with Israel. Most came to acknowledge the worth of Israel as a steadfast ally in a volatile region.

The irony is that Israel was and is such a reliable ally because of shared cultural, religious, and intellectual affinities, the very qualities that so many "realist" officials in Washington downplay with pride and on principle when making decisions and devising policy on the Middle East.

... the importance of U.S.-Israeli relations is not the consequence of the strength of the Israel lobby, but rather the strength of the Israel lobby is a consequence of the importance of U.S.-Israeli relations.

BY CARTER (who let the jihadists takeover Iran in 1979, and was inept in his handlng of the hostage crisis and of Afghanistan);

BY REAGAN (who let Hizballah get away with mass murder in Beirut in 1983);

BY GHW BUSH (who let Saddam off the hook in 1991);

AND BY CLINTON (who missed the most chances: after the 1993 WTC attack, after Khobar, after the embassy bombings, after the USS COLE attack).

"... we certainly could have saved ourselves a lot of trouble if we'd acted more vigorously in the last 8 years. But hindsight is always 20/20."

On June 6, Cheryl Smith took her last $600 and drove her teenage daughter from Baltimore to Severna Park to get an abortion. When they got there, a receptionist told them the clinic had changed hands. The abortion provider had moved a few miles away, she said, but the new clinic would offer a pregnancy test and sonogram for free.

The Smiths stayed. After they saw a picture of the fetus at 21 weeks with arms and legs and a face, their thoughts of termination were gone.

... ultrasound exams have proven effective in convincing women to stay pregnant. A 2005 survey by Care Net, a Sterling-based network of about 1,000 antiabortion pregnancy centers in the United States and Canada, found that 72 percent of women who were initially "strongly leaning" toward abortion decided to carry their pregnancies to term after seeing a sonogram.

A severely brain-damaged woman in an unresponsive, vegetative state showed clear signs of conscious awareness on brain imaging tests, researchers are reporting today, in a finding that could have far-reaching consequences for how unconscious patients are cared for and diagnosed.

In response to commands, the patient’s brain flared with activity, lighting the same language and planning regions that are active when healthy people hear the commands. Previous studies had found similar activity in partly conscious patients, who occasionally respond to commands, but never before in someone who was totally unresponsive.

Thawing Siberian bogs are releasing more of the greenhouse gas methane than previously believed, according to new scientific research. Scientists from Russia and the US measured methane bubbling from a number of thawing lakes. ... Methane's contribution to present-day global warming is second only to CO2.

The Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) estimates that atmospheric concentrations are about two and a half times those seen in pre-industrial times. "Thaw lakes in north Siberia are known to emit methane, but the magnitude of these emissions remains uncertain," the scientists write.

"We show that methane flux from thaw lakes in our study region may be five times greater than previously estimated." ... Using radiocarbon techniques, the researchers showed that some of the escaping methane molecules had been formed more than 40,000 years ago.

IS THAT WHAT THIS NATION NEEDS RIGHT NOW!? WILL THESE ACTIONS HURT THE ENEMY, OR AID AND ABET THE ENEMY!?

Foreign Ministry spokesman Mark Regev said on Wednesday that Hezbollah's continued detention of Israeli soldiers violated the Security Council resolution, and that Lebanon must act to release them unconditionally. "UN Security Council Resolution 1701, on which the cease-fire is based, calls unequivocally for an unconditional and immediate release of the soldiers being held hostage," he said.

"The continued holding of our soldiers is a grave violation of the cease-fire. A continuation of this violation will have consequences."

... a NATO spokesman, Major Quentin Innesm said allied forces are closing in on Taleban guerrillas, pushing them into what he called "a bit of a trap."

• The NATO op - which they define as a trap - is a very large op and it's coming up against a very determined and very large contingent of Taliban. Perhaps they are defending Osama and or Zawahiri.
• The Pakistan deal with the jirga/tribes of Waziristan has been portayed by many as a bad deal for us, but perhaps it isn't. If the tribes won't give safe haven to alQ then alQ must go to Afghanistan where NATO is waiting. If the tribes do not expel alQ then the deal is broken. In which case there is NO LOSS for us.
• Musharraf is meeting with Karzai - this rapprochement is essential and good for our side; it would not occur if Karzai thought Pakistan was making a destabilizing deal with the Waziri tribes.
• And don't forget that this big NATO action comes on the heels of numerous alQ biggies being taken down in the last 6 weeks. Which probably means that very good intel was acquired and is being exploited everywhere - even Pakistan and Waziristan and Afghanistan.

An enduring mystery of the C.I.A. leak case has been solved in recent days, but with a new twist: Patrick J. Fitzgerald, the prosecutor, knew the identity of the leaker from his very first day in the special counsel’s chair, but kept the inquiry open for nearly two more years before indicting I. Lewis Libby Jr., Vice President Dick Cheney’s former chief of staff, on obstruction charges.

Now, the question of whether Mr. Fitzgerald properly exercised his prosecutorial discretion in continuing to pursue possible wrongdoing in the case has become the subject of rich debate on editorial pages and in legal and political circles.

Accounts of American valor are dismissed by the press as propaganda, yet accounts of American difficulties are heralded as objectivity. It makes you wonder if the role of the media is to inform or to depress - to report or to deride. To tell the truth, or to feed us lies.

LOYOLA/NRO: Churchill understood, as so many pseudo-pacifists did not, that allowing Germany to alter the status quo in a way that gave it a huge offensive advantage guaranteed that the Nazis would attack when they were ready. He understood that the last moment for effective self-defense was Munich in 1938—when there was no imminent attack. The choice was preemption or appeasement. And likewise the choice Bush faces now. Waiting until an attack might be imminent is suicide.

"As America claims to be fighting terrorism, it implements policies that cause the intensification of terrorism and institutionalised violence,"

they favor abortion on demand; they favor euthanasia, and they favor life sentences for convicted MURDERERS.

[Critics say that...] It raises the specter of eugenics, they say, in the most personal terms. “It’s like children are admitted to a family only if they pass the test,” said Denise Toeckes, 32, a teacher who tested positive for a BRCA mutation. “It’s like, ‘If you have a gene, we don’t want you; if you have the potential to develop cancer, you can’t be in our family.’ ”

Other critics oppose preimplantation diagnosis on the grounds that it could be used to select against homosexuals, women or people with disabilities. It reduces people to their genes, they say, and paves the way for the pursuit of children designed to suit parental ideals and for discrimination against those born with perceived imperfections.

THE world's top climate scientists have cut their worst-case forecast for global warming over the next 100 years. ... The new projections put paid to some of the more alarmist scenarios raised by previous modelling, which have suggested that sea levels could rise by almost 1m over the same period. The report projects a rise in sea levels by century's end of between 14cm and 43cm, with further rises expected in following centuries caused by melting polar ice.

End of an Affair: It turns out that the person who exposed CIA agent Valerie Plame was not out to punish her husband.

WE'RE RELUCTANT to return to the subject of former CIA employee Valerie Plame because of our oft-stated belief that far too much attention and debate in Washington has been devoted to her story and that of her husband, former ambassador Joseph C. Wilson IV, over the past three years. But all those who have opined on this affair ought to take note of the not-so-surprising disclosure that the primary source of the newspaper column in which Ms. Plame's cover as an agent was purportedly blown in 2003 was former deputy secretary of state Richard L. Armitage.

Mr. Armitage was one of the Bush administration officials who supported the invasion of Iraq only reluctantly. He was a political rival of the White House and Pentagon officials who championed the war and whom Mr. Wilson accused of twisting intelligence about Iraq and then plotting to destroy him. Unaware that Ms. Plame's identity was classified information, Mr. Armitage reportedly passed it along to columnist Robert D. Novak "in an offhand manner, virtually as gossip," according to a story this week by the Post's R. Jeffrey Smith, who quoted a former colleague of Mr. Armitage.

It follows that one of the most sensational charges leveled against the Bush White House -- that it orchestrated the leak of Ms. Plame's identity to ruin her career and thus punish Mr. Wilson -- is untrue.

U.N. Secretary-General Kofi Annan said Friday that Syria would step up border patrols and work with the Lebanese army to stop the flow of weapons to Hezbollah. Syria will increase its own patrols along the Lebanon-Syria border, and establish joint patrols with the Lebanese army ''when possible,'' Annan said after meeting with Syrian President Bashar Assad in Damascus. Assad made no public comments after their meeting, but Annan spoke with reporters at the Damascus airport before he departed midday for Qatar.