NEW DISCOVERY MOOTS EMBRYONIC STEM CELL DEBATE

BBC:

US scientists say they have discovered a new source of stem cells that could one day repair damaged human organs. Researchers successfully extracted the cells from the fluid that fills the womb in pregnancy and then grew them in lab experiments.

THIS MEANS THAT THERE IS NO NEED TO DESTROY ANY EMBRYOS IN ORDER TO EXTRACT THEIR STEM CELLS.

THIS NEWS MAKES INOPERATIVE THE ATTACKS AGAINST THOSE OF US WHO FAVORED USING ONLY ADULT STEM CELLS, AND DISFAVORED FARMING EMBRYOS.

I GUESS THIS MEANS THAT THE LEFTIES WILL HAVE TO COME UP WITH ANOTHER BOGEYMAN TO DEMAGOGUE US PRO-LIFERS WITH.

AND THEY'RE GONNA HAVE TO COME UP WITH ANOTHER REASON TO JUSTIFY DESTROYING EMBRYOS.

***NOTE: I BET YOU THAT THEY KNEW THIS BEFORE THE LAST ELECTION AND THAT THEY HELD BACK THE NEWS IN ORDER TO HURT THE GOP. IT IS LIKELY: SCIENTIFIC PAPERS LIKE THIS TAKE MONTHS TO WRITE.

(CAPT ED CHIMES IN HERE. CNN/AP here.)

[**Aside: I believe that science could also moot the abortion debate. HOW?! By finding a safe and economical way for women with unwanted pregnancies to terminate their pregnancy without aborting the baby; their pregnancy could be terminated by extracting the embryo - and freezing it for later re-implantation in themselves, or donating it for later adotpion by another women. I think this is my fourth post on this in the last two years. IS ANYBODY LISTENING!?]

AMERICA ALONE: BROWN PROMISING TO ABANDON THE USA IN IRAQ

GUARDIAN/AP:

Treasury chief Gordon Brown, expected to succeed Tony Blair as prime minister by September, suggested Sunday that he will pursue an Iraq policy that is more independent of Washington than the current government. Brown acknowledged that mistakes were made in the aftermath of the invasion and promised to be ``very frank'' with President Bush. He also said that Britain is likely to scale down its commitment of troops to Iraq over the next year - even as the White House is considering dispatching thousands more, at least temporarily.

BROWN SAID THIS ON THE BBC. HE SAID THIS BEFORE BUSH HAS ANNOUNCED ANYTHING. HE IS LEFTIST SCUM, MORE INTERESTED IN PANDERING TO HIS LEFT-WING, THEN IN DOING THE RIGHT THING. HE IS NOT TO BE TRUSTED.

Steyn is looking right on: America will have to face the enemy alone. There's no Churchill in England, no De Gaulle even! If Sarkozy doesn't win, and if Pope Benedict doesn't step up to the plate, then it's all over for Europe. I mean Eurabia.

*******UPDATE: Here's another reason to believe that it's all over for the UK (via PJM): the Muslims in England are building ...

a massive, intrusive — and bizarre — Sunni mosque complex to sit alongside the 2012 London Olympics centre. All the indications are that the go-ahead will be given.

The mosque is designed to be the largest religious structure in Britain. It will accommodate 70,000 people, of whom 40,000 can pray at any given time. According to the latest estimates, it will cost as much as £300 million to build. The complex will be known as the Markaz mosque, ‘markaz’ being the Arabic word for ‘centre’.

And, why d'ya suppose they want to build it so big, so imposing, so dominating a mosque? Duh. And the British are just rolling over and spreading their cheeks, so-to-speak. The Brits no longer seem to have what it takes - what they had in 1939 when they stood alone against Nazism - the lone defenders of the free world. Pity.

OUR LONG NATIONAL EGO-TRIP NIGHTMARE IS NOT OVER

Neil Steinberg, Chicago Sun-Times:

Is America frightened by women in power?

The issue was glimpsed last week, lurking in the shadows, when Rep. Nancy Pelosi took up her gavel as our nation's first female speaker of the House, though we haven't begun to confront it yet.

I thought we worked this all out in the 1970s. But women leaders must still be scary, at least to a portion of the electorate. Why else would the Drudge Report keep posting that photo of Pelosi brandishing a black leather whip? As if some have a hard time imagining a strong female beyond Cat-woman or Mistress Helga.

Complex. Freudian. Luckily, there's no need to fall over ourselves rushing to figure this out today. We have at least a year to wrestle with the issue, as Hillary Clinton's presidential campaign reaches its inevitable crescendo and flame-out.

No Mr. Steinberg, what frightens me is a person, man or woman, who goes on a huge ego trip like we've seen from Pelosi this week. My G-d... you won the Speakership, fine, now get over it and get to work.

I haven't seen this much self-aggrandizement since Terrell Owens was with the Eagles. It's like Rush Limbaugh always says: Liberals are bad losers, but they're even worse winners.

Either they're mad as hell that they don't hold every elected office in the country or they're going on a narcissistic binge like John McCain on speed.

President Bush, I really hope you have the courage to use your veto power, otherwise, it's only gonna get worse.

BARAK ASCENDENT? MAYBE, BUT HE'S PARTLY TO BLAME FOR MANY OF THE PROBLEMS ISRAEL NOW FACES

Ehud Barak, who was prime minister of Israel between 1999 and 2001, has announced that he will run again for head of the Labor party. Well as it so happens, he was the one whose actions led to the uprising by terrorists which erupted in 2000, in which two soldiers were lynched, and during which time, the al-Durah lie was perpetrated. Wesley Pruden of the Wash. Times rightfully panned Barak back in 2000 for these incredible errors.

So truly, is he a suitable candidate for prime minister, or even defense minister? The short answer is - no. But the MSM here, if anywhere, would rather you think otherwise.

THE EMOTIONAL JOYS THAT ARE THE ROOT OF LEFTISM: PART ONE -- EXPROPRIATION

What is the emotional fuel that powers the ideological engines of leftism? Is it an altruistic desire to help the downtrodden, as so many leftists would have us believe? Or is it something else?

One way to answer that question is to look at the pronouncements of leftists themselves. Let's return to Hillary Rodham Clinton's celebrated 2004 comments to a hotel ballroom full of wealthy women donors to the Democratic Party:

"Many of you are well enough off that ... the tax cuts may have helped you. We're saying that for America to get back on track, we're probably going to cut that short and not give it to you," she said at a fund-raiser for radical Sen. Barbara Boxer. "We're going to take things away from you on behalf of the common good," the former first lady admitted.

(The Astute Bloggers commented on this statement in October, 2006.) Now let's look carefully at that key sentence:

"We're going to take things away from you on behalf of the common good."

The sentence has two parts, an active part and an abstract part. One part of the sentence has a real subject and a real object, the other part refers to an abstract idea in a vague, abstract way.

It is obvious that the really important part of that sentence, to the mind that spoke it, is the active part, which has a real subject and a real object. It reads:

"We're going to take things away from you."

"We" is a real subject that refers to real people. THE LEFT.

"Take things" refers to a real action, involving real direct objects. TAXES.

"You" again refers to real people, the real indirect objects of the taking. THE PUBLIC.

Everything in this part of the sentence is quite concrete. Real world actions are described. Actions within the power of an elected majority.

The second part of the sentence is entirely abstract:

"On behalf of the common good."

First of all, "the common good" is an abstraction. It is an idea, or an ideal. It is not a tangibly real subject or object.

Further, what does it mean to do something "on behalf" of the common good? That again is a purely abstract notion characterizing some unidentified, unspecified actions.

In contrast, again, that "we" are going to "take things away" from "you" is a very real and very concrete action. There are real things that Hillary plans to take away from real people.

The emotional energy that fuels the leftist agenda is in the taking, not in the giving.

In fact, a recent comprehensive survey of charitable giving in the United States showed beyond the shadow of a doubt that conservatives are far more personally generous than leftists:

Why has America split into two nations: givers and non-givers? Arthur Brooks, a top scholar of economics and public policy, has spent years researching this trend, and even he was surprised by what he found.

In Who Really Cares, he demonstrates conclusively that conservatives really are compassionate-far more compassionate than their liberal foes. Strong families, church attendance, earned income (as opposed to state-subsidized income), and the belief that individuals, not government, offer the best solution to social ills-all of these factors determine how likely one is to give. Charity matters--not just to the givers and to the recipients, but to the nation as a whole.

It isn't just money:

The differences go beyond money and time. Take blood donations, for example. In 2002, conservative Americans were more likely to donate blood each year, and did so more often, than liberals. If liberals and moderates gave blood at the same rate as conservatives, the blood supply in the United States would jump by about 45 percent.

And as Jim Lindgren points out, the differences also involve other factors:

My first post related to Brooks’s book concerned, not liberals, moderates, and conservatives, but those who favor income redistribution v. those who don’t. Here the answer is more consistent: those who oppose income redistribution tend to be less racist, more tolerant of unpopular groups, happier, less vengeful, and more likely to report generous charitable donations.

This all ties in with the demonstration that the action which emotionally motivates even soft bolshevists like Hillary Clinton is the taking and not the giving.

The flowery language leftists use to justify their actions - (all that talk about income redistribution and providing universal health-care benefits for the downtrodden) - conceals their real motivation, which is simply to take other people's property away from them. It's the thrill of the grab that motivates the left, which is one reason that leftists have a spontaneous and visceral sympathy for robbers, muggers, and thieves. Which again is why the execution of a murderer and thief like Saddam Hussein so affronts their leftist sensibilities.

In the second part of this post, I will address the fact that when faced with a problem in their world, leftists never seek to change their own behavior, but rather strive to force other people to change theirs.

TRIUMPHS FORSAKEN: THE CUT & RUN REDS WANT TO ABANDON IRAQ LIKE THEY ABANDONED SOUTH VIETNAM

If the CUT & RUN REDS had not pulled the plug on the South Vietnamese government, then South Vietnam would be today as prosperous and free as South Korea is - instead of being an impoverished totalitarian state.

The CUT & RUN REDS did this to the democratic South Vietnamese government - OUR ALLIES - despite the fact that there were NONE/ZERO/ZILCH/NADA US ground troops serving in combat in Vietnam. Vietnam-ization had WORKED.

Now, while the USA and our allies are VALIANTLY trying to make Iraqi-ization work, the CUT & RUN REDS are essentially trying to do the same thing and pull the plug on our Iraqi allies.

At the present time, they are merely trying to tie the hands of our Commander In Chief and prevent him from ordering our military to do what must be done to help Iraqis defeat the enemy. Now, they are openly threatening to prevent the POTUS from ordering a Rapid Deployment Surge to assist our Iraqi allies halt the mayhem in Baghdad. But ultimately their aim is to force the USA to withdraw from Iraq on a predetermined and published timetable - something which ONLY aids the enemy.

This type of defeatism and appeasement has been standard Democrat Policy for decades. If you don't belive me, then read these three things:

First, read this column.

THEN READ THIS BOOK, "TRIUMPH FORSAKEN" (from Cambridge University press) - to find out how the our side was consistently WINNING THE VIETNAM WAR.

And then read THIS BOOK, "FAILING TO WIN" (from Harvard University Press) - to find out how the MSM and the CUT & RUN REDS succeeded in destroying our victory and handing it to our enemies.

(I will be excerpting key bits of these book in the next week or so.)

BOTTOM LINE: We should NOT have abandoned South Vietnam to totalitarianism - doing so condemned MILLIONS of people there - and in Laos and Cambodia - to concentration camps and genocide. There is no good reason we should repeat the defeatist and appeasing policies of the CUT & RUN REDS, and abandon the Iraqis and the Middle East to the same thing.

HOW TO WIN THE WAR: don't use half-measures

JACK KELLY:

The Ethiopian example -

How to win a war: Unapologetically use force against the bad guys

It's hard to win a war if you quit fighting in the middle. That's the lesson we should learn from Ethiopia's New Year's message to us. ... Ethiopia won in short order because it unapologetically used force against vicious killers who understand only force. They killed the people they needed to kill without worrying overmuch about collateral damage, and not at all about world opinion. And though the Ethiopian soldiers are Christians, they were hailed as liberators in this overwhelmingly Muslim country.

When, during the march on Baghdad, we unapologetically used force in Iraq, we also had rapid success with minimal casualties. But since the statue of Saddam fell in Firdous Square in April 2003, we've acted as if the war were over. Our focus shifted to peacekeeping and nation-building, though it's hard to be a peacekeeper when there is no peace to keep, and it's hard to rebuild a nation when the bad guys are still out there blowing things up.

We've become a Gulliver bound by our own politically correct strictures. ... Half-measures in war typically produce half-baked results. If the military measures we take in Iraq must first be approved by Iraqi politicians and the editorial board of The New York Times, we will not succeed even if we double the number of troops. But if we remember -- as Ethiopia did -- that the surest way to win in war is to kill the enemy, we may yet match Ethiopia's success.

TAB argued that half-assery ALWAYS sucks in war HERE - on 07/19/06.

MONDAY NIGHT ON PBS: "Anti-Semitism in the 21st Century: The Resurgence"

From the PBS web site:

"Anti-Semitism in the 21st Century: The Resurgence"

Monday, January 8, 2007 - 10 - 11:00 pm

Sixty years after the Holocaust, many parts of the world are experiencing a dramatic resurgence of anti-Semitism. This documentary explores the roots of anti-Semitism and examines how and why it continues to flourish today. (CC, Stereo)

Watch the broadcast to see how PBS deals with this topic. [Hat-tip to Nanc]

"PC" = POLITICAL CENSORSHIP: The Open Call - by the Left - For Political Censorship Is Now Widespread

The idea that saying negative things about certain selected groups of people is "hate speech", and is so very bad that it is not entitled to free speech protections, now seems to be widespread.

In the USA, the First Amendment limits what governments can do to restrict so-called "hate speech", but the government is in fact a small player in the mass communications market. Note the report below for instance:

Google insisted it already had complied with court requests to identify individuals accused of using Orkut to spread child pornography and engage in hate speech against blacks, Jews and homosexuals

Not only is "hate speech" forbidden but people who engage in it can be tracked down and legally pursued in various ways. The day would seem to be not far off when saying negative things about Leftist politicians is declared "hate speech" -- with a Left-leaning mass media gleefully enforcing suppression of such speech.

Never have blogs been more needed. That Google also owns the biggest blogging service -- blogspot -- is therefore a source of some concern for the future. Since I use blogspot, I once again encourage people to bookmark my list of mirror sites.

I have just put up on PC Watch an extended argument about why "hate" speech should not be censored.

(For more postings from me, see TONGUE-TIED, EDUCATION WATCH, GREENIE WATCH, POLITICAL CORRECTNESS WATCH, FOOD & HEALTH SKEPTIC, GUN WATCH, SOCIALIZED MEDICINE, AUSTRALIAN POLITICS, DISSECTING LEFTISM and EYE ON BRITAIN. My Home Page. Email me (John Ray) here.)

Reliapundit adds: This is not something merely to fear from Google/blogspot: Leftist politicians right here in America are trying to make certain types of speech - types they don't like - criminal. More here and here and here.

Now, I MIGHT support a well-crafted bill which would ban "organized efforts to inculcate GENOCIDE." This law would be akin to the one which already makes it a crime to INCITE violence. I think that inculcating genocide - (writing, publishing teaching and directing people to commit genocide) - MIGHT be a good thing to ban - IF it would lead to the banning the Koran and of Islam, which - IMHO- is able to spread its vile genocidal, misogynist, xenophobic, martial creed only because it is protected by the the 1st Amendment. Actually, in Germany - where they DO have "anti-hate speech laws", (because of their history with Nazism) - someone was trying to get the Koran banned on this basis. (Am I trying to eat my cake and have it too? Please lemme know in the comments section)

THE ABU GHRAIBING OF SADDAM'S HANGING

• The NYTIMES has a huge article which calls the hanging a DISASTER!
• The next Leftie Labor PM of the UK called it DEPLORABLE.
• Germans say hanging him made Saddam a her and a MARTYR.
• Ban Ki Moon the next UNSG of the USELESS CESSPOOL of corrupt child molesters has called for an end to executions in Iraq.
• Rome - home of Italy's Left - lit up the Colosseum to protest the hanging.

This short list - (I could have made a thousand times longer!) - all adds up to nothing less than a concerted effort by Leftists worldwide - by folks worldwide who hate Bush - to make the execution of one of the last century's worst genocidal tyrants into a bad thing. Sheesh. It was after all an execution carried out after a lengthy trial, undertaken by a sovereign nation's legal, constitutional, democratically elected government - a government which IS COMPLETELY RECOGNIZED BY THE UN.

What does the democratically elected PM of the democratic republic of Iraq think of all the criticism? He has condemned the criticism.

I think he's right. It was a good day when Mussolini was shot and hung by his feet. It was a good day when Ceausescu was shot. Sadly, most of the last century's tyrants died of natural causes. It would be better for future generations - it would send a better message to future generations - if they'd ALL been executed.

AND HOW ABOUT THE PREDICTION BY THE LEFTISTS, THAT THIS EXECUTION WOULD LEAD TO A SURGE IN VIOLENCE!?! It hasn't happened. (The predicted surge is a bogeyman as idiotic as man-made global warming.)

So, why is the Left so eager to come to the defense of Saddam, AGAIN!?!? Listen to this PODCAST by THE SANITY SQUAD - (a group of psychoanalysts.) They nail it. (Short answer: they hate Bush and the traditional Judeo-Christian West as much as the jihadists do.)

NOTE: Mubarak criticized THE TIMING of the execution. (And this too was a point of contention between the USA and Iraq.) The day of Saddam's execution was a SUNNI holiday - and it is believed by many that executing Saddam (a Sunni) on this date was a deliberately provocative act by the Iraqi Shia's who make up majority in Iraq, and therefore naturally control the government. FACT: the Shias and the Sunnis have been KILLING each other for 1300 YEARS! Their sectarian strife and violence has NOTHING to do with Bushitlerburton McChimpy or the JOOOOZE. In fact, MOST of the Muslim criticism about the execution of Saddam is emanating from Sunnis who consider Shia's apostates.

COMPLETE ROUND UP HERE AT MEMEORANDUM.

*******UPDATE: Joe Biden said on MTP today that Sadam's execution was like Abu Ghraib. Lindsey Graham countered properly: arguing that Saddam got what he deserved, though in a less than ideal way, and that this "controversy" will pass. I agree with Lindsey: it will pass - -if the Leftists in the MSM let it. I feel they will keep harping on it the way they did Abu Ghraib.

*** UPDATE#2 - 18 HOURS AFTER THIS POST BY THE ASTUTE BLOGGERS : POWER LINE AGREES.

Proving once again that TAB is the place to be for the most current and incisive news and analysis and commentary.

BLOGROLL US!

SPREAD THE WORD!

CITIZEN BOLTON UNPLUGGED

ATLAS SPOKE WITH CITIZEN BOLTON .

RTWT.

RALPH PETERS AGREES WITH THE ASTUTE BLOGGERS: NEW CENTCOM CHIEF SENDS SIGNAL TO IRAN

RALPH PETERS IS GETTING A LOT OF ATTENTION FOR A COLUMN IN TODAY'S NEWSPAPERS WHICH SAYS WHAT WE SAID DAYS AGO.

AND WHICH GOT US BEAUCOUP LINKS!

YUP WE WERE FIRST. WE USUALLY ARE!

SPREAD THE WORD: TAB IS THE PLACE TO BE FOR THE BEST IN NEWS ANALYSIS AND COMMENTARY.

DRUDGE: ISRAEL PLANS NUCLEAR STRIKE ON IRAN

The Drudge Report is being told by sources with the UK Sunday Times that the paper will be dropping a story that Israel is drawing up plans for a nuclear strike on Iran's uranium enrichment facilities. Before we get too excited, let's give this a thorough look.

I'm a great believer that the lion's share of leaks to the media are done on purpose by the governments in question to send a message to the enemy. It could be that a peacenik in the Israeli government leaked this info in order to try and stop it, but I think more likely the Israel government (or the American/British governments) leaked this information as a way to send a message to Iran: if the U.N. fails to stop you (which of course they will), there's always the Israeli nuclear option. A sort of second-coming of Menachem Begin. You also have to look at the timing. The Ayatollah is either dead or dying. A power-struggle in Iran is going on as we speak... this would give them plenty to think about.

Reliapundit adds: I think that there is GREAT concern that many of the nuclear sites in Iran are very deep and very well reinforced and that NOTHING short of a nuke can destroy them. If it takes a nuke to do it, then I am all for it. Before Iran gets any nukes would be a big plus...

My gut tells me that - based on how things have gone the last year or so --- (what with Olmert pansy-assing out against Hizballah, and Bush failing to get tough enough against NOKO, IRAN or ASSAD or Mookie al Sadr) - -- that nobody on the our side HAS BALLS BIG ENOUGH TO NUKE IRAN. Which is sorta what the mullahs are counting on. Arik Sharon had big enough balls. And so did FDR and Truman and Churchill. So you are right Popinjay: this is probably PR/BS designed to send Iran a signal. One they will snicker about and ignore.

UPDATE: Reliapundit adds - MEMEORANDUM has a complete round up. And they now have a link to the TIMES ARTICLE. EXCERPT:

Israeli military commanders believe conventional strikes may no longer be enough to annihilate increasingly well-defended enrichment facilities. Several have been built beneath at least 70ft of concrete and rock.

Exactly what I said above.

THE "CUT & RUN" DEMS NOW PROMISE TO SHUT DOWN ALL OFF-SHORE ENERGY EXPLORATION

DETAILS AT GATEWAY.

The Left either desires we continue to pay through the nose to Middle East oil cartels, or that oil prices go higher.

KATRINA proved that off-shore exploration IS ENTIRELY SAFE: there were NONE - ZERO - ZILCH accidents involving off-shore rigs even though one of the STRONGEST HURRICANES OF ALL TIME ran right through hundreds of them in the Gulf of Mexico. That's why there is NO EXCUSE for disallowing more exploration for oil and gas off ALL THE COASTS OF THE USA.

So why do the Dems oppose it? Because they are post modern Leftists who are basically opposed to industrialism and capitalism. This is the core reason why they oppose energy exploitation, and why they believe that global warming is man-made/a by-product of industrialism and consumerism - WHICH IT IS NOT. (See below.)

The Dems are controlled by Leftists who'd like to see us all consume less, make less, and get taxed MORE. For our own good, of course. Or the common good. Whatever - it's the same collectivist BS.

20TH CENTURY CLIMATE CHANGES CAUSED BY THE SUN

As reported in the National Post (Hat Tip: Tim Blair), Henrik Svensmark, Director of the Centre for Sun-Climate Research at the Danish Space Research Institute, has recently published experimental evidence supporting his 1996 theory that "the sun and the stars could explain most if not all of the warming this century":

Svensmark and his colleague had arrived at their theory after examining data that showed a surprisingly strong correlation between cosmic rays --highspeed atomic particles originating in exploded stars in the Milky Way -- and low-altitude clouds. Earth's cloud cover increased when the intensity of cosmic rays grew and decreased when the intensity declined.

Low-altitude clouds are significant because they especially shield the Earth from the sun to keep us cool. Low cloud cover can vary by 2% in five years, affecting the Earth's surface by as much as 1.2 watts per square metre during that same period. "That figure can be compared with about 1.4 watts per square metre estimated by the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change for the greenhouse effect of all the increase in carbon dioxide in the air since the Industrial Revolution," Dr. Svensmark explained.

The Danish scientists put together several well-established scientific phenomena to arrive at their novel 1996 theory. The sun's magnetic field deflects some of the cosmic rays that penetrate the Earth's atmosphere, and in so doing it also limits the immense amounts of ions and free electrons that the cosmic rays produce. But something had changed in the 20th century: The sun's magnetic field more than doubled in strength, deflecting an extraordinary number of rays. Could the diminution of cosmic rays this century have limited the formation of clouds, making the Earth warmer?

That was a plausible theory. But exactly how cosmic rays might create clouds was a mystery -- an unprovable theory, many said. Some even claimed that it was inconceivable for cosmic rays to influence cloud cover.

To discover a mechanism, a team at the Danish National Space Center assembled by Dr. Svensmark undertook an elaborate laboratory experiment in a reaction chamber the size of a small room. The team duplicated the chemistry of the lower atmosphere by injecting the gases found there in the same proportions, and adding ultraviolet rays to mimic the actions of the sun.

What they found left them agape: A vast number of floating microscopic droplets soon filled the reaction chamber. These were ultra-small clusters of sulphuric acid and water molecules -- the building blocks for cloud condensation nuclei-- that had been catalyzed by the electrons released by cosmic rays.

Read the Whole Thing!

SHE NAMED A FREAKING STREET AFTER HERSELF

'Nuff said.

LITVINENKO: A $30 MILLION MURDER?

According to this source, an unnamed source familiar with the post-mortem examination of Alexander Litvinenko has revealed that the dose of Polonium which killed Alexander Litvinenko would have cost $30 million. Wow, that's an expensive hit, isn't it?

Lends more credence to my theory that the Litvinenko death was not a murder, but was instead the result of a messy smuggling operation by Alexander Litvinenko himself.

UPDATE: The London Times says the dose cost $10 million, and they are still going with the theory that it was a murder. Good luck with that. UPDATE: The Guardian says $20 million.UPDATE: The Australian says $12 million.

Reliapundit adds: Pastorius, it wouldn't actually COST Putin a penny - he could order it just to be taken. And answer me this: How could ANYBODY else get it out of Russia!? Or do you think that Putin's KGB wouldn't notice!? Lugovoi and/or Kovtun and/or Scaramella could EASILY be double agents actually working for Putin. Or do you think that Berezovky bankrolled it because he was DUPED by the Chechens and Litvinenko? Occam's Razor says it was Putin, and that he used polonium because it sends a powerful message. The polonium as suitcase-nuke trigger theory is too complicated and rests on the BELIEF that al Qaeda has one or more in London. ALL the other radioactive components of a nuke are more readily detectable than polonium - and I think that at this point the UK authorities would've fond them if they existed. In fact, polonium is NOT very easy to detect, and this might have led Putin's KGB to think that they'd get away with it.

GUN DEALER IN AUSTRALIA ARRESTED FOR SELLING STOLEN WEAPONS TO TERRORISTS

The Sydney Morning Herald, which reported this, doesn't actually say he's a Muslim, but the name does tell something:

Counter terrorism police have arrested and charged a 28-year-old Sydney gun dealer over the theft of seven rocket launchers from the Australian military allegedly for sale to a major underworld figure and suspected terrorist.

Taha Abdul Rahman was arrested at a house in Leumeah, in Sydney's south-west, early this morning in a joint operation by NSW Counter Terrorism Police, AFP and ASIO. He was charged with 17 offences. Police say Abdul Rahman, 28, supplied five of the Light Anti-Armour Weapons to one of the men arrested in anti-terrorism raids in Sydney last November over a plot to blow up the Sydney Harbour Bridge and Lucas Heights nuclear reactor.

[...] The theft of the rocket launchers was revealed exclusively by The Sydney Morning Herald last month. The story triggered a top-level national inquiry by security services into the theft of military weapons including an audit of arms stockpiles. In addition, all use of hand-held rocket launchers by the military has been suspended pending the outcome of the inquiry. "The person who received five (launchers) is currently facing terrorism-related charges on another matter,'' Australian Federal Police (AFP) Assistant Commissioner Frank Prendergast told reporters in Sydney.

The other weapons were supplied to another man who is facing criminal charges not related to terrorism.

It's clear that Muslims cannot be allowed to run businesses as gun merchants, as they're likely to smuggle some of the wares to terrorists under the table, or, as in the case of the suspect here, to steal weapons from the army to give to terrorist gangs. (Via David Frum.)

UPDATE: INDONESIAN JET DISAPPEARANCE... it's still missing!

According to this report from the BBC, THEY STILL HAVEN'T FOUND THE WRECKAGE. NOW, THE USA IS GOING TO HELP TRY TO LOCATE IT.

More and more this is looking to me like the result of a jihadoterrorist mid-air explosion over water.

An explosion over water would explain the suddenness of the disappearance and the lack of any debris - or evidence of exactly how it was done.

As I posted before, perhaps the jihadis did this in Indonesia as a test for future attacks in the West. This would also explain why they have NOT taken "credit."

UPDATE - from THE SCOTSMAN:

A PLANE with 102 people aboard that disappeared in high winds over Indonesian waters twice changed course, an official said, as authorities widened the search for the Boeing 737. A US National Transportation Safety Board team arrived to help investigate the apparent crash of Adam Air Flight KI-574, which disappeared from radar screens on Monday near the Sulawesi coastal town of Majene without issuing a mayday. "Whatever happened to the plane, it was likely rapid and catastrophic," said Patrick Smith, a US-based pilot and aviation commentator, pointing to a possible massive structural failure due to metal fatigue or an onboard explosion.

YUP: EXPLOSION. Just like I said... Stay tuned...

THE BOTTOM-LINE ON THE "KERRY LONELY" PHOTO FLAP

From GATEWAY.

THE UNDENIABLE DHIMMITUDE OF THE FRENCH LEFT

As I mentioned on October 2 last year, a French philosophy teacher, Robert Redeker, wrote an article that was critical of Islam. It was published in the mainstream French newspaper Le Figaro. It led to a torrent of threats against him from Muslims, which led to him leaving his home under police protection.

But was the reaction of other people in the nation of Voltaire? A defence of Redeker's right to free speech? A recent summary of the response below:

"But the vast majority of responses, even when couched as defenses of the right to free speech, were in fact hostile to the philosophy teacher. The Communist mayor of Saint-Orens-de-Gameville, echoed by the head of Redeker's school, deplored the fact that he had included his affiliation at the end of the article. France's two largest teachers' unions, both of them socialist, stressed that "they did not share Redeker's convictions." The leading leftist human-rights organizations went much farther, denouncing his "irresponsible declarations" and "putrid ideas."

... Among members of the media, Redeker was scolded for articulating his ideas so incautiously. On the radio channel Europe 1, Jean-Pierre Elkabach invited the beleaguered teacher to express his "regret." The editorial board of Le Monde, France's newspaper of record, characterized Redeker's piece as "excessive, misleading, and insulting." It went so far as to call his remarks about Muhammad "a blasphemy," implying that the founder of Islam must be treated even by non-Muslims in a non-Muslim country as an object not of investigation but of veneration.

Above post cross-posted from Tongue Tied.

Reliapundit adds: When people are afraid to speak their mind - they are slaves. The jihadists seek to enslave ALL of us to their ideology; they have succeeded already with the French Left - the people who support Segolene Royal.

SIX JIHADISTS KILLED IN THE PHILIPPINES

THE PHILIPPINES?!?! BUT THAT'S SO FAR FROM GAZA, AND BAGHDAD?!?

NYTIMES/AP:

Philippine troops on Saturday killed six members of the al-Qaida-linked Abu Sayyaf group, including one wanted by the United States for involvement in the kidnapping of Americans, a military spokesman said. Philippine navy and army special forces troops backed by marines clashed with a group of rebels in waters off Panglima Sugala, southern Tawi-Tawi province Saturday, killing all six gunmen on a boat, said Lt. Col. Bartolome Bacarro. One of those killed, Judnam Jamalul, is among 17 Abu Sayyaf leaders and members who are wanted by the United States for involvement in attacks on American citizens.

Many of these attacks occurred on Clinton's watch. This is just more proof that global jihad has nothing to do with Bush or Iraq or Israel, and everything to do with the jihadists desire to reestablish The Caliphate under Wahhabist sharia.

CALDERON'S ANTI-DRUG SWEEP MAKES GRIM DISCOVERY

BBC:

Nine bodies have been found in a mass grave in Uruapan, in the western Mexican state of Michoacan. A state official said the bodies were found buried with their feet and hands tied and their mouths covered with tape in a warehouse in the city. President Felipe Calderon sent 7,000 soldiers to Michoacan state last month in an attempt to curb drug violence.

Drugs gangs have been blamed for more than 2,000 murders in Mexico last year, including some 500 in Michoacan state. ... President Calderon, who was sworn in last month, has vowed to curb drug-related violence.

BRAVO CALDERON! These bold military actions may eventually do the trick. The Leftist candidate - Obrador, who declared himself "the legitimate president of Mexico and held his own swearing in ceremony! - wouldn't have dared to undertake these bold military actions against the drug cartels in Michoacan, (and Tijuana); Leftist politicians like Obrador, Morales and Chavez blame the demand-side and generally seek legalization of the cultivation of the drug crops. At best the Left would seek to continue to treat the ant-drug war the way they treat the anti-jihad war: with feeble law enforcement tactics.

[Note this is our third post on this matter; TAB will continue to follow this and other stories of Calderon's bold progress.]

THE CUT & RUN REDS OF THE DEMOCRAT PARTY HAVE OUTTED THEMSELVES!

They are nothing but a bunch of jihadoterrorist appeasing scum:

Top Democrats Oppose More Troops in Iraq

As President Bush prepares to present his new strategy on Iraq to the American people, Democratic Congressional leaders said today they will fight any approach that calls for deploying more United States troops there.

QUOTE:

"Rather than deploy additional forces to Iraq, we believe the way forward is to begin the phased redeployment of our forces in the next four to six months, while shifting the principal mission of our forces there from combat to training, logistics, force protection and counter-terror."

Running away - on a predetermined and public time-table, no less! - will send the same BAD signal we sent to our enemies in 1975. It is cowardly, It is wrong. It is typical Democrat policy. More HERE.

BTW: AJ Stata aptly calls this Congressional Democrat policy "OUR CONTRACT WITH AL QAEDA." Heh.

SOMALIA PROVES THAT IT'S BETTER IF WE FIGHT THEM "OVER THERE"

Bush has been right all along:

Bush has repeatedly said that we are fighting the enemy over there - (meaning Iraq, Afghanistan, the Philippines, the Horn of Africa, etc.) - so we don't have to fight them over here.

ABC's THE BLOTTER (hat tip DRUDGE) reports PROOF that this is true for the USA, (and just as true for other nations in the West - in the Free World):

A senior official in the Somali government's new Ministry of the Interior tolzad ABC News government forces had recovered "dozens of foreign passports," including several American passports, on the bodies of al Qaeda fighters killed in combat between forces affiliated with the Union of Islamic Courts (UIC) and Ethiopian forces in Somalia.

These jihadists did NOT become radicalized in Somalia - or because of Iraq, (or Afghanistan). Like the 9/11 perp's, they were likely radicalized long before OSLO collapsed.

If we were not fighting them in Iraq and elsewhere, then they'd be free to attack us here - as many others already have. And every one we kill makes us a little safer.

Let's kill more or these jihadists. Let's kill as many as we have to to get them to unconditionally surrender. Let's kill them all if we have to. FDR would've.

NICK GRIFFIN, THE BNP, AND HOLOCAUST DENIAL

We had an interesting discussion here at this blog last week about whether the British National Party (BNP) is a racist party or not. I made a guilt-by-association argument that they were in fact, racist because they accept advertising for White Power books and records on their website. Reliapundit made the argument that, instead, the BNP is simply a party which is interested in keeping Britain ethnically British.

I stated that I am sypathetic to such an argument, but I don't buy it, because of the aforementioned guilt by association. My point was, admittedly, weakly supported. So, I've decided to dig a bit deeper into the history of Nick Griffin and the BNP. It ain't pretty:

Even by the standards of the extreme Right, he's (Nick Griffin) something of an extremist. He raged at David Irving when the fascist historian admitted that the Nazis had killed a few Jews (although not, for I wouldn't wish to offend the litigious Irving, in the mythical gas chambers of Auschwitz). The modest concession was a shameful betrayal of Holocaust denial, said Griffin. 'True Revisionists will not be fooled by this new twist to the sorry tale of the Hoax of the Twentieth Century.'

Griffin's mentors are from the terrorist wing of Italian fascism. He's a supporter of Colonel Gadaffi. In the 1990s, after transient success in the East End of London, he defined the party's alleged appeal and philosophy thus: 'The electors of Millwall did not back a Post-Modernist Rightist Party, but what they perceived to be a strong, disciplined organisation with the ability to back up its slogan "Defend Rights for Whites" with well-directed boots and fists. When the crunch comes, power is the product of force and will, not of rational debate.'

Rationality certainly has no place in the BNP's account books. The party's treasurer, Michael Newland, resigned in disgust after Griffin used party funds to add an extension to his house. West Midlands fascists who complained that calling in interior designers was not the most effective way to create a new fatherland were purged. Yet for all his hard words about boots and fists, Griffin has become a touch post-modern. He saw the gains made by Haider in Austria and the Armani-clad 'post-fascists' in Italy and decided to rebrand the party.

The policy of expelling blacks and Asians from Britain and the Hitler-worship were hidden from public view and Griffin tried to become a semi-respectable politician with broad appeal. The partial realisation of his dream tells you all you need to know about the state of British politics.

Yes, it sure does. Brits who join the BNP simply because they agree with their perceived position vis a vis Muslim immigration need to know they are throwing their lot in with a Jew-hating, Ghaddafi-supporting party of proud fascists.The kinder, gentler BNP is only a ruse. The mask will come off when they attain real power, and then, Britain will find that they have elected their version of Hitler.

Reliapundit adds: I do not know enough about this BNP to have a good opinion one way or another. I do know that the OBSERVER is very LEFT-WING, and I would no more take what they say about the BNP to be true, then I would what the DU - or Reid & Pelosi or Dean or Franks or McKinney - say about our president.

And I VERY strongly believe that unless and until either Labor or the Tories take a REAL hard-line against islamicization, that the BNP will grow in popularity REGARDLESS of any unsavory or even racist views they hold on ancillary matters. IOW: if you really want to prevent either the Muslims or the BNP from taking over the UK, then you have to agitate for a much more robust anti-islamicization/pro-British policy from either Labor or the Tories. The current PC/ostriche path of both of the "mainstream" parties will not halt their slide into Eurabia.

******* UPDATE - from PASTORIUS:

From the Anti-Defamation League:

UPDATE
Over three hundred white supremacists gathered in New Orleans for the "2005 European American Conference," convened May 20 - 22 by David Duke. The theme of the conference was the unification of Europeans and Americans in opposition to Jews, who were demonized as blood suckers and parasites who dominate media and government around the world.

A significant number of politically affiliated European racists addressed the crowd, including Nick Griffin and Simon Darby from the far-right British National Party, Karl Richter and Marcus Haverkamp from Germany's far-right National Democratic Party (NPD), Vavra Suk and Lennart Berg of Sweden, Jean-Michel Girard of France's far-right National Front, and Deirdre Fields of South Africa.

It remains unclear whether these disparate American and international white supremacist groups will be able coordinate their anti-Jewish rhetoric and cooperate in their activities, but the simple fact of their participation in Duke's New Orleans meeting is a significant development in the world of white supremacy and anti-Semitism.

Go read the whole thing.

Reliapundit adds: You make a much better case for the racism of Griffin and his BNP, but I stand by my final comment (above): Both Labor and the Tories have abdicated and are not adequately preventing the islamicization of the UK. Neither is as tough as the Danish are under Rasmussen. As long as both the mainstream parties in the UK fail to adequately defend the UK, then people will gravitate to the BNP. This may very well end up the same way as it did in Weimar Germany - where anti-Bolshevism trumped fear of Nazism. All the more reason we should be pressuring both Labor and the Tories to get tough, (and not harp on the BNP, which is after all not a major factor. Yet.)

THE INFIDEL BLOGGERS ALLIANCE RADIO SHOW

"And now, coming to you live from a nuclear submarine in the Persian Gulf, it's the Infidel Bloggers Alliance Radio Show."

Heh. Tonight the Fu2rman and I recorded a new version of the Infidel Bloggers Alliance Radio Show. We began with an interview (satire) with Dominique Pussois, anti-war activist and head of the United Nations Council of Unity, Neutrality, and Tolerance (UN-CUNT). Dominique declared to us that he is a "Pussyfist" and explained his philsophy of appeasement. It was very enlightening.

Then, we did a very serious interview with Dr. Paul Williams, the noted author and Terrorism-Expert. We talked with Dr. Williams about the possibility that the Polonium which killed former Soviet-spy Litvinenko was being smuggled into Britain in order to maintain an actual nuclear bomb. Indications are that this is true, because police have recently, according to Dr. Williams, ordered 80,000 special radiation body bags. Terrifying.

GERMANS NEED HATE SPEECH -- AGAIN

From Davidsmedienkritik critic we read:

In the introductory headline to a series on American history that the publication has had online since at least 2002, Stern magazine (one of Germany's most widely-read weeklies) writes:

"The History of the USA: No nation has ever dominated the globe like the USA. And its people could care less about the rest of humanity."

Really? Is that why the USA sacrificed the lives of hundreds of thousands of its sons and daughters to liberate Germany from National Socialism? Is that why the United States spent billions to defend and rebuild West German democracy for decades on end? Is that why the United States helped Germans to establish the very democracy that guarantees German journalists the freedom to make outrageous, dehumanizing, sweeping anti-American statements like the one above?....

Now for some bad news: This won't end anytime soon. Stern's readers can't go without a steady diet of America-baiting. Hatred is a part of their ideological existence and they expect the magazine to deliver the goods.

America seems to have replaced the Jews as the hate-object of socialistic Germans. It fits in with a recent post of mine elsewhere: Americans as the new Jews. The whole post that I have excerpted above is well worth reading.

(Technical note: The original German in "Stern" reads: "Dem Volk is der Rest der Menscheit egal", which I would translate as: "To the American people the rest of humanity is a matter of indifference". The translation I have quoted above could be seen as ambiguous)

Above post crossposted from Tongue Tied

WILL BRITAIN BAN HUMAN-ANIMAL CHIMERAS?

BBC:

UK scientists planning to mix human and animal cells in order to research cures for degenerative diseases fear their work will be halted. They accuse the body that grants licences for embryo research, the HFEA, of bowing to government pressure if it fails to consider their applications. Ministers proposed outlawing such work after unfavourable public opinion.

... The creation of hybrid human-animal embryos was first suggested as a way of addressing the shortage of human eggs available for research. But the HFEA says it is unresolved whether this type of controversial work is permissible under existing laws - or even whether it falls under the HFEA's jurisdiction to grant a licence. The resulting embryos made are more than 99% human, with a small animal component. Opponents say this is tampering with nature and is unethical.

TAB first discussed this issue HERE. I think people who feel that there is nothing wrong with HARVESTING human eggs and then blending their human DNA with the DNA from cows or pigs or mice are amoral, or morally impaired. These are the same folks who see nothing wrong with abortion or euthanasia. WHY? Because they view humans as merely a collection of protoplasm momentarily animated by a culturally derived ego. They don't believe in the sanctity of human life. The believe humans are soulless. Perhaps they are projecting their feeling about themselves?

More on chimeras HERE.

THE LT DAN BAND SALUTES AMERICAN HEROES

Received last month, via email, with links and a graphic added:

We just got back from the 3rd Annual Coalition to Salute America's Heroes Road to Recovery Conference. The girls and I missed the first three days of the conference due to classes and finals, but Dave said the speakers and the sessions were unbelievable.

We all were able to attend the closing banquet, where Gary Sinise provided the entertainment. What an awesome guy! You could just see how much he enjoyed playing for these wounded and disabled heroes....

Read the rest.

Reliapundit adds: Sinise is GREAT. Here's what he writes at the band's web-page:

... our troops and their families are making sacrifices each day so that we can continue going about our daily lives enjoying the precious freedoms that we have here in this country.

There are many ways that you can help them out or let them know that they are not forgotten. Truly one of the best things I do is reaching out to these fine men and women. Especially in this dangerous time we live in. They do their jobs voluntarily and we are fortunate to have people who, knowing how dangerous that work can be, are still willing to do what is necessary to defend our nation.

Right on!

WHY DID BUSH APPOINT A NAVY MAN TO LEAD CENTCOM?

NYTIMES:

President Bush has decided to name Lt. Gen. David H. Petraeus as the top American military commander in Iraq, part of a broad revamping of the military team that will carry out the administration’s new Iraq strategy, administration officials said Thursday. In addition to the promotion of General Petraeus, who will replace Gen. George W. Casey Jr., the choice to succeed Gen. John P. Abizaid as the head of the Central Command is expected to be Adm. William J. Fallon, who is the top American military officer in the Pacific, officials said.

Petraeus was in charge of training Iraqis. This might indicate that making them defend themselves is our highest priority. GOOD.

BUT WHY APPOINT A NAVY MAN TO RUN CENTCOM - after all.... all the troops in iraq are Army and Marines.

Could it really be because the NAVY would lead any military move - like an embargo - against Iran, and also launch any preemptive military attack on IRAN? I think so.The Navy would likely be our lead force against Iran: The Gulf Cooperation Council plans to launch its largest ever military exercise:

GCC sources said the six Gulf Arab members would conduct an exercise by the regional Peninsula Shield force over the next two months. They said the exercise, hosted by Oman, would contain air, ground and naval components in the Gulf region. "The exercise is designed to begin a serious effort at interoperability and regional defense," a GCC source said. "We have been planning this exercise carefully with our allies."

The source said Britain and the United States have been advising Peninsula Shield on the forthcoming exercise. The six GCC militaries employ mostly U.S. and British weapons platforms and also receive training from London and Washington.

In fact, this will be the largest naval exercise ever run over there. (More here - and more HERE. And here.)

Complete round up on the personnel change HERE at MEMEORANDUM.

1/11/07 UPDATE: Welcome AMERICAN THINKER readers.

BTW: if you check the time-stamps you'll see that TAB was FIRST to publish this reading of the Fallon appointment - before anyone else in the blog0sphere - or Ralph Peters.

WAS THE INDONESIAN JETLINER BLOWN UP BY JIHADOTERRORISTS IN A TEST?

IC-WALES: Indonesian jetliner ‘no distress signals sent'

A plane missing over Indonesia with 102 people on board did not send out distress signals or report mechanical problems before disappearing, a top aviation official said today, as search teams intensified their hunt for the Boeing 737.

SO/SD:

An hour after Adam Air Flight KI-574 took off on New Year's Day with 102 passengers and crew for what should have been a short hop between islands, the pilot reported heavy winds. Then, the plane disappeared, seemingly into thin air.

HERALD (UK):

"We know nothing, whether it disintegrated in midair, flew into a storm or there were technical problems," said Nicholas Ionides, managing editor for Flight International Magazine in Asia. A top aviation official said the Adam Air plane that left Java island on Monday for Manado on Sulawesi island did not issue distress signals or complain of mechanical problems. The statements contradicted earlier reports and capped days of confusion.

If this was not a equipment malfunction, or weather related, then it MAYBE it was an act of JIHADOTERROR? But... if it was an act of jihadoterror, why would jihadoterrorists choose to attack a jetliner within Indonesia, and why wouldn't they take "credit"?

Well, maybe it was a TEST? Maybe the jihadoterrorists have developed a new way to smuggle explosives on board, and maybe this was a test? That would explain why they have NOT taken "credit": they don't want to tip off the authorities.

COULTER EXPOSES THE LARGEST SLEEPER CELL IN THE USA!

I have called them a Fifth Column, and exposed them as willing collaborators of the jihadists in my series called BIRDS OF A FEATHER; (there are 24 posts in that series - Google "birds" here at TAB and read a few).

It's why I have written over and over again that to defeat the jihadist enemy abroad we have to defeat the Leftist enemy at home.

Coulter makes the same point - in her most recent and entirely factually accurate, iron-clad column: The Democratic Party: A Vast Sleeper Cell.

She retells the story of Nixon, Watergate, Ford and the Democrat Party's betrayal of our South Vietnamese allies - a betrayal which directly led to genocide in Vietnam, Cambodia, and Laos. And also to the fall of Iran to jihadism, and of Afghanistan to the USSR.

RTWT.

REPORT: AYATOLLAH ALI KHAMENEI DEAD

Just breaking on Pajamas Media. (Could be a huge journalistic coup for Roger and the gang.)

A source close to Pajamas Media has learned that Iran’s Supreme Leader, Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, has apparently succumbed to the cancer that hospitalized him last month, as exclusively reported by Pajamas Media, at age 67. He has been Iran’s most powerful figure since replacing Ayatollah Khomeini in the role of Supreme Leader in 1989.

UPDATE: Not surprisingly, reports out of Iran are sketchy at best. PJMedia has spoken to the son of the late Shah who is still trying to confirm the report. More at Jim-Rose.com.

BBC PREDICTS 2007 WILL BE HOTTEST EVER!

THE BBC ASSERTS THIS HAS BEEN PREDICTED BY THE MET OFFICE. (MORE ON THEM HERE.)

PERHAPS IT WILL DEPEND ON WHERE THEY STICK THE THERMOMETER:

THE SOUTHERN HEMISPHERE IS ALREADY HAVING ONE OF THE COLDEST EVER. HERE, TOO.

THINGS AVERAGE OUT. THEY ALWAYS HAVE; THEY ALWAYS WILL.

BTW: YOU KNOW WHERE I THINK THEY OUGHTTA STICK THEIR THERMOMETERS!?

IS A NUCLEAR WEAPONS ATTACK AGAINST BRITAIN IMMINENT?

I believe it is highly possible that terrorists, in Britain, are in possession of a nuclear bomb and are getting ready to use it. Here's why:

Back on Friday, December 15, 2006, I wrote a post in which I speculated that the death of former Soviet-spy Alexander Litvinenko was not a murder, but was instead, the result of his smuggling of Polonium 210 for use in a nuclear attack against the UK:

Nuclear weapons are, in some sense, unstable; they are said to decay over time, and become ineffective, if not properly maintained.

Now, I would imagine that not all the parts of a nuclear weapon decay at the same rate. For instance, we can assume the shell - which is probably made of metal or plastic - does not decay rapidly. So, it is something within the bomb which decays. Of course, heavy metals themselves are unstable and emit radiation, so it could be that more uranium or plutonium needs to be added to the core periodically. But, I don't have enough information to know if this is the case.



Here's what I do know, from what I have read about the Litvinenko case. Polonium 210 is the trigger that starts the chain reaction within the uranium or plutonium core in a nuclear weapon. In other words, you have a core of plutonium or uranium and you need a trigger which is packed around the core, which itself explodes with enough force to compress the plutonium to the point that a chain reaction will ensue.


Could it be that Polonium 210 is the unstable element of a nuclear weapon which needs maintanence? Could it be that our Muslim friend Litvinenko was smuggling polonium into Britain so that they could bring an already existing nuclear device back into working form?

Now, when I wrote that post, I received some negative comments about my seemingly wild flight of fancy. Turns out that I am, more than likely, correct in my speculation. From Terrorism expert, Paul Williams (written December 6, 2006) whom I will be interviewing on my radio show this coming week:

The death of Alexander Litvinenko by radiological poisoning points to the possibility that the former Soviet spy may have been involved with Islamic terrorists in the preparation of tactical nuclear weapons for use in the jihad against the United States and its NATO allies.




Litvenenko, a former KGB agent, died in London on November 23 after ingesting a microscopic amount of polonium-210. In a deathbed statement, Litvinenko blamed Russian President Vladimir Putin for the poisoning - - an accusation which the Kremlin has vehemently denied.


Litvinenko, who was born an orthodox Christian, was a convert to Islam with close ties to the Chechen rebels. His last words consisted of his desire to be buried “according to Muslim tradition.”


In recent years, considerable attention has been paid to suitcase nukes that were developed by U.S. and Soviet forces during the Cold War. Reliable sources, including Hans Blix of the United Nation, have confirmed that bin Laden purchased several of these devises from the Chechen rebels in 1996.

According to Sharif al-Masri and other al Qaeda operatives who have been taken into custody, several of these weapons have been forward deployed to the United States in preparation for al Qaeda’s next attack on American soil.

This brings us to the mysterious case of Litvinenko. The neutron source or “triggers” of the suitcase nukes are composed of beryllium-9 and polonium-210. When these two elements are combined, the alpha particle is absorbed by the nucleus of the beryllium causing it to decay by emitting a neutron. Such “triggers” were a feature of early nuclear weapons in the U.S. and Soviet stockpiles.

Polonium-210 has a half-life of 138 days, necessitating the replacement of the triggers every six months. (Read the rest.)

To add to your paranoia, I will also point out that several days ago it was revealed that British security forces are buying large amounts of special body bags, and radiation suits in preparation for what they termed a "dirty bomb attack."

But, the thing about "dirty bombs", or, in other words, radiological bombs is that as awful as they sound, they are simply a regular bomb with radiological material wrapped around the explosion device. So, in other words, the blast area of a radiological bomb would be no bigger than that of a regular bomb, which, in turn means that it is highly unlikely that any more people would die from a radiolical bomb than would from a conventional non-nuclear bomb.

In fact, if one compares them to Palestinian bombs which uses nails as shrapnel, it is possible that people would simply die a slower death after getting hit with the radiological material, than they would having gotten hit with nails.

A radiological, or "dirty bomb" would likely only cause a few hundred deaths, so why is Britain preparing for many thousands?

Now, to heap even more paranoia on you, please understand that the past few weeks, some rather alarming warnings have been coming out of the various parts of Britain's intelligence community. For instance, London's Chief of Police, Ian Blair recently was quoted saying:

‘It is a far graver threat in terms of civilians than either the Cold War or the Second World War,’ he said. ‘It’s a much graver threat than that posed by Irish Republican terrorism.’

Additionally, UK police have professed to being alarmed by the high level of terrorist chatter revealed in intelligence reports:

ABC News has learned that al Qaeda operatives in the greater London area are being encouraged to “strike during the Christian holidays,” according to intelligence and law enforcement sources…

ABC News sources in North America and the U.K. say that British authorities are constantly on the run, breaking up plots on a near weekly basis that have reached the pre-operational phase.Sources in Britain add that at least one “pivotal…al Qaeda U.K.” operative has been detained during the past two weeks, and others may — at least temporarily — be in custody.

Specifically, they are searching for three "English brothers" trained at Al Qaeda camps in Pakistan:

Police are trying to trace a gang of British Muslims who are thought to have returned to plot terror attacks in Britain after being trained abroad for more than a year by al-Qaeda, Nine Britons, all said to be in their twenties, were among a group of 12 Western recruits groomed by al-Qaeda at a secret camp near the Afghan border to set up new terror cells in London and other Western capitals.

Police do not know the real identities of this gang, who are known as the “English brothers” because of their shared language. As well as nine Britons, they include two Norwegians and an Australian who were smuggled into the Waziristan tribal region in Pakistan in October 2005.They are believed to have been under the command of an al-Qaeda veteran suspected of training some of the Britons accused of the alleged plot to blow up passenger planes flying to the US from Heathrow airport in the summer. ...

Intelligence sources in Pakistan said that the men are reported to have joined Taleban and al-Qaeda fighters in Afghanistan in attacks on Nato troops. The sources told The Times that the “brothers” were given religious indocrination as well as lessons on how to assemble suicide bomb vests and improvised explosive devices.

The sources are reported to have been escorted to the al-Qaeda camp by Adam Gadahn, a Californian indicted by the US authorities as an al-Qaeda terrorist, who introduced the “brothers” to their tutors.

When police release such specific information about potential suspects, we can assume it means they have lost control of the investigation and are, instead, attempting to scare the suspects into not acting by appearing to be within striking distance. Simply put, they would not release the information, if they knew where the "English brothers were, both physically and in terms of their ongoing terror plot.

Here are some questions to ponder: What date did Litvinenko bring that Polonium into Britain? And, when is 138 days after that? I would say it looks like the UK is in a heap of trouble.

_____________________________________________________
Reliapundit adds: Fascinating post Pastorius - and quite possibly true.


I only wonder: What explains Berezovsky's interest in this? Why would he assist the enemy to blow up a nuclear device in England, his home? If Berezovsky and the Chechens really wanted to hurt Russia, then they would blow it up there, no? I think so. And how could the polonium get out of Russia WITHOUT Putin's KGB knowing? I do NOT think it could have.

And, why would Berezovsky be paying for Scaramella's lawyers? I only think he would do so if Scaramella was working for him, and if Scaramella threatened to out him, (like EH Hunt threatened Nixon).

MY BOTTOM LINE (as of now): I feel that Putin was behind this assassination. But if he wasn't, then I think it is more likely that Berezovsky was - only to step in and buy up all the real estate he could after a dirty bomb exploded. And he intended to blame it on the Chechens - YUP: double cross them. I think a nuclear device is the least likely of these three possibilities. But it is certainly possible. And, I sure hope that the British authorities have "gamed" the facts the way you have: IT'S BETTER TO BE SAFE THAN SORRY. Well done!