But the full significance of the move only came to light with the Willie Brigitte affair. Ruddock has used the capture and deportation of al-Qa'ida-linked Brigitte to France, to face questioning over alleged terrorist activities, to argue for a significant upgrading of ASIO's powers.

And Ken Livingstone, the mayor of London, welcomed Mr. Bush to London with this reflection: "I actually think that Bush is the greatest threat to life on this planet that we've most probably ever seen."

The U.S. military plans this week to conduct its final developmental test on the most powerful non-nuclear bomb in its arsenal, a weapon so big it is dubbed the "mother of all bombs," the Air Force said on Tuesday.
"This is the last development test," Swinson said, noting that the massive bomb will then become available for use as U.S. military commanders deem appropriate.

Among those arrested was Stephen E. Moore, who formerly served on the foreign exchange committee of the Federal Reserve Bank
Several of the traders told the undercover FBI agent they had "no fear" because they believed law enforcement would never get close enough to stop them, said Pasquale D'Amuro, director of the FBI's New York office.

Fox News, in "J.F.K.: Case Not Closed," the only documentary that supports the theory of a conspiracy (or at least a Kennedy family cover-up after the assassination)


U.S. government investigators have documented 1,300 cases of lost, stolen or abandoned radioactive material inside the United States over the past five years and have concluded there is a significant risk that terrorists could cobble enough together for a dirty bomb.
The FBI repeatedly has warned law enforcement over the past year that al Qaeda was interested in obtaining radiological materials and creating a dispersal bomb, most recently after authorities received an uncorroborated report a few weeks ago that al Qaeda might be seeking material from a Canadian source.
mr ed - blame canada

Authorities are investigating whether Rush Limbaugh illegally funneled money to buy prescription painkillers, a law enforcement source who spoke on condition of anonymity said Wednesday.
"Drug use, some might say, is destroying this country. And we have laws against selling drugs, pushing drugs, using drugs, importing drugs. ... And so if people are violating the law by doing drugs, they ought to be accused and they ought to be convicted and they ought to be sent up," Limbaugh said on his short-lived television show on Oct. 5, 1995.

Though Stalin murdered three times more people than Hitler, to Roosevelt he remained "Uncle Joe."
The British-U.S. alliance with Stalin made them his partners in crime. Roosevelt and Churchill helped preserve history's most murderous regime, to which they handed over half of Europe in 1945.


"You say I seem suspicious about government authority. At the same token, if you look at the U.S. Constitution, there was a bunch of people who were a little suspicious about government authority, too."

From the psychological warfare standpoint, the NGOs represent an even more insidious threat to fight for sovereignty than the U.S. army.

The fact that nowhere on Earth except in parts of the USA will George W. Bush see cheering, flag-waving crowds, should send him and his administration a clear reminder that if he needs 5,700 people to protect him in the home of his closest ally, then he would not dare to step off a plane elsewhere in the world, for some reason.

Mr Livingstone recalled a visit at Easter to California, where he was denounced for an attack he had made on what he called "the most corrupt and racist American administration in over 80 years". He said: "Some US journalist came up to me and said: 'How can you say this about President Bush?' Well, I think what I said then was quite mild. I actually think that Bush is the greatest threat to life on this planet that we've most probably ever seen. The policies he is initiating will doom us to extinction."
Mr Livingstone, who is holding a "peace party" for anti-war groups in City Hall tomorrow, added: "I don't formally recognise George Bush because he was not officially elected. So we are organising an alternative reception for everybody who is not George Bush."

President Bush was told about the security breach, but White House spokeswoman Claire Buchan said: "We have every confidence in the British security,"

The playwright Harold Pinter compared the American administration to Nazi Germany, while the anti-war MP George Galloway called Mr Bush a "dangerous, arrogant, foolish, bible-belted fundamentalist, right-wing warmongering fanatic president"

All this suggests that Bush’s backers are reading the same talking points: The president is a man of moderation beset by hateful partisans. This strategy serves four goals: portraying Bush as the unifying leader that he could have become after the terrorist attacks of Sept. 11, 2001. Diverting attention from his own high-risk policies. Painting his eventual opponent — especially if it’s Dean — as the real extremist and a hothead as well. And blaming Bush’s lack of legislative accomplishments on the Democrats’ refusal to work with a president they despise.

In modern times, the presidents whose opponents despised them most vocally and viciously -- Franklin D. Roosevelt, Richard Nixon and Bill Clinton -- were reelected by landslides. They turned their adversaries’ antagonism into an asset by turning the electorate against their most intense opponents -- the “economic royalists” who jeered FDR, the student protesters who marched against Nixon, and the “vast right-wing conspiracy” that tried to impeach Clinton.
As for the presidents who were defeated for reelection -- Gerald Ford, Jimmy Carter, and George H.W. Bush -- they weren’t despised by the voters or demeaned by their opponents. And the challengers who beat sitting presidents -- candidates Carter in 1976, Ronald Reagan in 1980, and Clinton in 1992 -- avoided attacking the incumbents intensely or personally.

But can the second President Bush be beaten the same way the first one was? Or is the only way to defeat this Bush to demolish the personal credibility that has been at the core of his appeal but could be his greatest vulnerability? The case has been made -- implicitly by Dean and explicitly by Gore -- that Bush is different from previous presidents, particularly his father, and must, therefore, be challenged differently.

While bashing Bush is emotionally satisfying for some, beating Bush requires making a more reasoned and positive case. For angry Democrats, next year’s strategy could be summed up this way: “If it feels good, think twice before doing it.”

President Bush toughened his criticism of Israel Wednesday, urging it not to prejudice final peace talks with its construction of a huge security barrier in Palestinian territory.
mr ed - yeah fukking yeah. blarblarfucking blah

"The people who are killing people in Turkey, Saudi Arabia, other parts of this world, in these appalling acts of terrorism, they aren't the British, they aren't the Americans, they are these appalling terrorists linked to some of these appalling regimes," Blair said.
"It really is about time we started to realise who our allies are, who our enemies are, stick with the one and fight the other," he added, to loud cheers from lawmakers.