CIA spymaster turned Counterterrorism ambassador Henry A. Crumpton is quoted in a Daily Telegraph piece by this AP story on CNN, with the catchy pitch:

U.S.: 'Very high' chance of WMD terror strike

Tuesday, January 17, 2006; Posted: 3:43 a.m. EST (08:43 GMT)

LONDON, England (AP) -- There is a "very high" probability that a terrorist group will strike using nuclear, chemical or biological weapons, a senior U.S. counterterrorism official said in comments published Tuesday.

I try to stay as cynical and well-informed as possible, so when I learn that something I thought was relatively obvious is not true at all, I am surprised. I was thus quite surprised to see a bit of reporting/analysis so out of line with the junta's media cartel's worldview that it was banished to the NYT op-eds.

Robert A. Pape did an actual study of suicide bombings and found that they are a tactic not of religious fundamentalists, but of nationalist liberation movements.

More detailed results follow:

New reporting from BlackBoxVoting.org shows that the possiblity of verifiable, audited elections is still under attack by the cabal of GOP cronies and the corporations who own them.  Faith-based voting technology advocates like Diebold have even set up a shell company, ACG Group LLC, to mask their influence and launder their lobbying money.

The BBV bulletin posted (w/ permission!) below the fold:

Today's New York Times has an Op-Ed contribution from Michael J. Behe, well-known shill for 'Intelligent Design' (ID), practicing pseudo-scientist, and spinmaster.  He snuck in so many assumptions with his plain 'arguments', that I had to respond. Of course for LTEs, the 3 keys are brevity, focus, and brevity.  I find focus the hardest, (as indicated by the polio comment).
First a few quotes to spare you all the surfing:

That one really did it for me, but the fun is just beginning:

CA Secretary of State Keven Shelley has announced that he will resign, allowing GOP usurper Schwarzeneggar to appoint a replacement. The Democratic legislature must presumably confirm der Fuhrer's pick, but this is a further step to the GOP takeover of California, or Bush Sr. called it, "The Big Enchilada".

Losing Davis in a an attack based on the looting of CA by Arnie's buddies at Enron was bad. Now the SOS who won against Diebold and protected the integrity of CA elections is brought down on a swarm of questionable issues. Some blame his fall on his lack of friends in Sacto. Interestingly the governator is now releasing the HAVA funds that were to be 'audited' as part of the Shelley witchhunt.

According to the Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung (FAZ), a large somewhat conservative german newspaper, rumors are flying around Baghdad that Musab Al Zarqawi has been caught and has been in custody for several days already. According to the rumors, the capture will be announced closer to election day. They quote Iraqi interior minister Falah al-Nakib:

No Comment, perhaps we'll have a comment on that in a few days

That sounds like a pretty leading no comment.  The article also mentions that Chalabi will be arrested.

The debacle caused by audit-proof electronic voting machines has yet to be resolved in North Carolina, but one thing is clear:
The paperless touchscreen voting machines do not work.

Their task is relatively simple; count votes. They may be able to perform this task, but it can never be proven. Indeed if the standards of proof required for using the F-word (not fuck) were applied to proving election results correct, these machines would fail catastrophically. The reason? It can simply not be shown that the votes reported match the votes cast. It is basically a faith-based election technology which asks us to trust the skills and scruples of a handful of programmers, and their corporate paymasters.

Please join me below the fold to find out why paperless EVMs (electronic voting machines) are worthless.

More brazen, coordinated attacks (2) in Riyadh show that all is not peace and quiet in Saudi Arabia. That the Saudi regime, a critical source of stable oil supplies, is fighting a quiet civil war is not news, and the details are not exactly hidden. What I found striking was the clever, Rumsfeld-esque spin coming from the Saudi Interior ministry. Once again we discover that bold, terror attacks on prime targets are actually a sign of weakness and desperation. Here's what Brig. Gen. Mansour Turki, the spokesman for the ministry had to say:

Ok, assume I'm in denial. Is it because I often believe that this election was stolen? Do I box out reality when I observe that when Zogby looked at the exit polls and called an "Electoral Landslide" for Kerry, he was looking at real exit poll results.  Is this a fantasy scenario because I can't believe that the record turnout witnessed all over was actually mostly Bush supporters?
I really can't believe that the top reason, according to what are currently being called the exit polls, that Bush won voters is not the economy, no not the war, not even homeland security, but moral issues. WTF.  Where did they poll?  

"and that's who he really took his orders from."

This line keeps coming to mind. It is applied to Kurtz in Apocalypse Now. He has gone rogue and set himself up as a god among the tribes. He has become powerful and corrupt and depraved. His methods, unsound.

Bush didn't really expect to be president, and I dont think he expected a 2nd term until 9/11. I sometimes think the drugged look we often catch on W, that glazed vacancy behind the bully's bravado, is the remnant of his conscience slowly grasping the horror.

In an interview in Salon, Seymour Hersh talks to one of my pet conspiracies: Iran's manipulation of the neocon war machine.  Just the other day general Hoar opined that the main winners of the adventure in Iraq are Iran and Al Quaeda. Hopefully this facet of Bush's Blunder will become more widely known. It certainly contributes to the 'Bush as incompetant and reckless' meme nicely... part of any good catalog of the ways in which Bush's reign has been catastrophic for U.S. national security.

There are indications that the Iraqi insurgents are being given time to entrench (further), and solidify their control of major cities, to keep U.S. losses low before the election. After the election, apparently all hell will break loose, as the U.S. storms Fallujah. This is, at least, the opinion of Retired Gen. Joseph Hoare, the former Marine commandant and head of the U.S. Central Command according to an excellent Sidney Blumenthal article/interview:

The junta has no plans to lose power through any election, but if that were to happen, it seems likely that they would still feel the need to escalate the violence. Like the previous attack on Fallujah, which strengthened the insurgents, a new round of bombing and urban ground combat will make the eventual withdrawal more costly. From the GOP perspective, they will be able to claim that we (Kerry) lost Iraq because we were unwilling to let the military win. A refrain they use for Viet Nam. Interestingly in Viet Nam, one could have actually annihilated the entire population and "won". In Iraq, that type of victory would not work, because Islam connects Iraqis with a third of the world.