Another question that has arisen is why there is no known film or videotape depicting an airplane approaching or hitting the Pentagon. As the command center of the U.S. military services, the Pentagon is quite obviously one of the most tightly secured buildings in the world.

This first photo reveals another curious fact: what appears to be a military vehicle can clearly be seen to be in flames in the right foreground of the image. Why is that? Could it have anything to do with the fact that the Associated Press initially reported that the Pentagon had been attacked with a truck bomb?

Former UN weapons inspector Scott Ritter said he was involved with MI6 officers working on a secret operation codenamed Mass Appeal, designed to secure public support for action against Iraq by leaking dodgy intelligence to the media suggesting that Saddam Hussein continued to possess weapons of mass destruction.

London-based terrorists tried last year to buy half a tonne of toxic chemicals with the aim of killing thousands.
mred - why the fuck are we hearing this now? (if ever)

"Further research showed the organisation making the order was funded by "the Islamic community", Mr Arlinger said."
mr ed - fukk off.

everything about this both sux and blows.

add ricin to the list of "alert" words. its up there with 'simultaneuos'

i love the juxtaposition of the highly sophisticated alongside the inanely stupid Keystone Kriminals routine. its up there with the 'they may have thought americans used to live in the riyahd compound, they did 5 years ago')

Differences with South Korea over how to reposition U.S. troops could lead the U.S. military to pull its entire force from Seoul, Yonhap news agency reported Wednesday.
The United States will spend $11 billion over the next three years to improve 150 defense systems in South Korea, military officials said.


"It seems there is an effort to increase terror attacks wherever the opportunity arises," Pike said. "These attacks are globally planned and locally implemented."
Bruce Hoffman, a terrorism expert at Rand, said the Istanbul bombings exhibited the "hallmarks of al Qaeda's two most important measures -- simultaneity and lethality.''

mr ed - dems the buzzwords. remember children. and rand can fukk off.

Michael O'Hanlon, senior fellow at the Brookings Institution, said the recent bombings showed the ability of terrorist groups to network and cross borders in the region. And the fact that the perpetrators in most of the attacks have been nationals indicates that al Qaeda and its associated groups have been effective in drawing new recruits to their cause.

mred - and brookings can fukk off. and lets add 'nationals' to the buzzword watch list. (and probably, 'soft target')

Michael Ledeen, a resident scholar with the American Enterprise Institute, said too much was made of the tactics and strategy of al Qaeda and other terrorist groups. "No one is thinking about how the bombings will play on TV, or whether it will encourage support or not ...'' he said. "They are just trying to kill us."

mred - and leeden can suck dick as well


When William Randolph Hearst (the model for Orson Welles' Citizen Kane) asked his father if he would give him the San Francisco Examiner, Hearst Snr said he had been saving it to give to an enemy. "It's a sure loser," he said.

studies show only a tiny proportion of readers digest the opinion columns, but the politicians don't know that

In this, perhaps the ever-shy Hearst had it right. If celebrities are fleas, your role is more like the dog on which they thrive. Of course, as host, you can scratch off any particularly irritating parasites.

Circulation will be your main goal, because that signifies your standing. You must be merciless in selling as many papers as possible. (Conrad Black, the current owner of the Telegraph, displayed early promise at this in a particularly literal way, being expelled from school for stealing exam papers and selling them to his fellow pupils.)

fisk: For once, the latest warning from Washington - that al Qaeda's next attack was moving from the "theoretical" to the "operational" stage was spot on the mark.

Crown Prince Abdullah, the effective ruler of Saudi Arabia, must be feeling some frightening winds blowing across the Saudi desert. For Bin Laden's aim to destroy the royal family is shared by the American right wing.

Could the Americans sit back and watch al Qaeda take over the nation's oil wells? There are those in the House of Saud who fear that now the US is in Iraq, it can - in the event of a revolution - just seize the oil fields in northern Saudi Arabia, leaving Riyadh and other cities to whichever Arabian ruler takes control.