The target won't be New York this time, as the Republicans don't want to have to fight the radiation for their convention. San Francisco might be a good bet, being unshakably liberal and, from the point of view of the evangelicals, irreparably evil.

It takes stunning arrogance for a President to invade an oil-rich, politically strategic country on the basis of demonstrable lies, put his favorite companies in control of its economic future, create a puppet regime to do his bidding and then claim, as George Bush did last week in a speech, that this is all a bold exercise in spreading democracy.

Once back in this country, Pfc. Lynch became a hot-ticket item for the media. News executives strained to become embedded in her adventure. It seemed fitting, given all the hype, that the inventive New York Timesman, Jayson Blair, should be the one to write of a visit to the Lynch family, which he never made, and describe a nonexistent tobacco field. It seemed natural, too, that Lynch's own story should be written by another inventive former Timesman, Rick Bragg.

Colin Powell put his reputation on the line when he gave the UN assurances that ?every statement I make today is backed up by sources, solid sources. These are not assertions. What we?re giving you are facts and conclusions based on solid intelligence.?

IDF Chief of Staff Moshe Ya'alon lashed out at Syria yesterday for supporting Palestinian terror organizations and Hezbollah, hinting Israel might again attack targets in Syria - as it did in early October - if Damascus does not desist from providing this support.

Murawiec, who works with the Rand corporation and has been an executive editor of Executive Intelligence Revue presented a slide show to the Pentagon last year with titles that included "taking 'Saudi' out of Arabia".

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.