Ms. Lopez,I am the former CIA analyst whose email was posted by Mario Loyola yesterday on the Corner. I'm not surprised by your reaction (and the reaction of your readers) to the NIE. The CIA long ago stopped trying to provide top-notch analysis to policymakers. Instead, the focus is on not being wrong. As a result, the analysis that comes out of Langley tends to be nothing but mush that can be interpreted to mean almost anything to anybody, or, if you prefer, means absolutely nothing. That is why I am no longer at the CIA.
We judge that groups of all stripes will increasingly use the Internet to communicate, propagandize, recruit, train and obtain logistical and financial support.
Canadian border guards at four crossings in the Lower Mainland of B.C. have walked off the job in response to a security scare.
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The situation started in the afternoon when U.S. Homeland Security officials told the RCMP that a suspected killer from California, who should be considered armed and dangerous, might try to cross the Canadian border.
[...]
Canada's border guards are currently unarmed -- the Conservative government has promised a 10-year program to change that -- and have the right to walk off the job if conditions are dangerous. The guards exercised that right.
"There is a rank due to the United States, among nations, which will be withheld, if not absolutely lost, by the reputation of weakness." ~George Washington
Gamal Mubarak, the son of Egypt's president, proposed Tuesday that his country pursue nuclear energy, drawing strong applause from the nation’s political elite, while raising expectations that Mr. Mubarak is being positioned to replace his father as president.
[..]
Simply raising the topic of Egypt’s nuclear ambitions at a time of heightened tensions over Iran’s nuclear activity was received as a calculated effort to raise the younger Mr. Mubarak’s profile and to build public support through a show of defiance toward Washington, political analysts and foreign affairs experts said.
President Kennedy, known for separating his life into compartments, would enclose words and numbers inside circles and boxes. Events long after his death give one doodle an unintended chill: A small circle with the numbers "9-11" contained within. Just to the lower left on the page, the word "conspiracy" is underlined.
Arguing that Huntington’s thesis has some “validity”, Lord Carey quoted him as saying: “Islam’s borders are bloody and so are its innards. The fundamental problem for the West is not Islamic fundamentalism. It is Islam, a different civilisation whose people are convinced of the superiority of their culture and are obsessed with the inferiority of their power.”
“I write as one who knows about these matters very well,” Agca said. “Your life is in danger. Don’t come to Turkey — absolutely not!”
An oxygen generator on the international space station overheated and spilled a toxic irritant Monday, forcing the three-man crew to don masks and gloves in the first emergency ever declared aboard the 8-year-old orbiting outpost.
State Sen. Dale Schultz, Richland Center, is going to sponsor legislation to create a state law against necrophilia.
Only 16 states have laws against it right now.
Law enforcement says enacting legislation will allow law enforcement agencies and prosecutors to directly address the crime.
The World Health Organization reversed a 30-year-old policy yesterday and declared its support for indoor use of the pesticide DDT to control mosquitoes in regions where malaria is a major health problem.The Geneva-based WHO, which provides advice to many developing countries, believes the benefits of the long-acting pesticide far outweigh any health or environmental risk it may pose.
"Indoor residual spraying with DDT and other insecticides will again play a major role in [WHO's] efforts to fight the disease." Arata Kochi, director of the organization's malaria department, said at a news conference in Washington. "WHO will use every possible and safe method to control malaria."
The right of outdoorsmen to fish and hunt on navigable waters was issued a stunning defeat Aug. 29 when a federal judge ruled that the public has no “right to fish and hunt on the Mississippi River.”
U.S. District Court Judge Robert G. James ignored recommendations from his own magistrate in ruling in a case pitting a group of anglers against East Carroll Parish Sheriff Mark Shumate over the legality of trespassing arrests stemming from their fishing on Mississippi River flood waters in Northeast Louisiana.
“This is gigantic,” said Mark Hilzim, president of Restore Our Waterway Access, Inc. “He has opened up Pandora’s box. If I read that (ruling) right, does that mean nobody has the right to fish above the low-water mark?
“Every fisherman in the country needs to pay attention to this.”
The recent sharp drop in the global price of crude oil could mark the start of a massive sell-off that returns gasoline prices to lows not seen since the late 1990s — perhaps as low as $1.15 a gallon."All the hurricane flags are flying" in oil markets, said Philip Verleger, a noted energy consultant who was a lone voice several years ago in warning that oil prices would soar. Now, he says, they appear to be poised for a dramatic plunge.
Crude-oil prices have fallen about $14, or roughly 17 percent, from their July 14 peak of $78.40. After falling seven straight days, they rose slightly Wednesday in trading on the New York Mercantile Exchange, to $63.97, partly in reaction to a government report showing fuel inventories a bit lower than expected. But the overall price drop is expected to continue, and prices could fall much more in the weeks and months ahead.
This outlook is way too rosey, in my humble opinion, much like the $100 barrel of oil predictions were too dour. For right now, the world feels somewhat stable and that is easing some of the fear premium that was built into the price of oil. The world is not really that stable yet, though, and it won't take much for the fear premium to be built back into the price of oil. Additionally, I don't think it is possible for us to see a return to the prices of the late '90's. Remember, demand increases as prices drop, and there is probably not enough extra production capability to support a $15 barrel of oil unless there was a major contraction of the world economy. Gasoline at $1.80? Perhaps. At a $1.15? I wouldn't bet on it.
Natural-gas futures dropped Thursday to their lowest level since April of 2004 after a U.S. government report showed a triple-digit increase in supplies of the fuel for the first time in more than a year.
Natural-gas inventories rose 108 billion cubic feet for the week ended Sept. 8, the Energy Department said. That marked the first triple-digit climb since June 3, 2005, according to First Enercast Financial.
"We are now sitting on over 3 trillion cubic feet of inventories, the highest level for this time of the year in almost 15 years, and the most comfortable stock going into a winter seasons in recent history," said Rakesh Shankar, an economist at Moody's Economy.com.
Women have long been revered in American Indian culture but men now need to take responsibility for their families and the future of the tribe, he said. The birth of this male signifies that, he said.
"It's the time for man's responsibilities," Hand said. "They're not listening to their children, they're not hugging them. They're not telling them what life is about."
Pluto has been given a new name to reflect its new status as a dwarf planet.On Sept. 7, the former 9th planet was assigned the asteroid number 134340 by the Minor Planet Center (MPC), the official organization responsible for collecting data about asteroids and comets in our solar system.
The move reinforces the International Astronomical Union's (IAU) recent decision to strip Pluto of its planethood and places it in the same category as other small solar-system bodies with accurately known orbits.
Word is that once Pluto gets out, it will have to register as a sex offender for penetrating the orbit of Uranus.
(Yes tee bee, blogging is still a guy thing, which is why I can get away with a bad Uranus joke)
While President Bush and other Republican politicians spent the day exploiting the memory of those we lost five years ago, the nation overlooked a grim milestone: More Americans have now died in Iraq than died on 9/11. Iraq didn't attack us on that day, and our misguided policy there has now taken more American lives than Al Qaeda.
Here are the numbers: 3,015 Americans have died in Iraq as of September 9. 2,666 of these were military deaths and 349 were civilians.
In his 38 years, Craig D. Montano was a variety of things. He was, of course, a son, a brother, a friend, a husband, and a father. He was a grauduate of Syracuse University. He had been a bond trader for Drexel Burnham Lambert. He had owned his own businesses-Soho Painting Concepts and Neptune Brewing Company. By September 11, 2001, life had brought him to Cantor Fitzgerald, where he was a government securities broker on the 104th floor of the South Tower of the World Trade Center.
The 2996Iran has postponed its talks with the EU because of "procedural matters." How many times must Lucy hold the football before Charlie Brown gets wise? Or before someone gets nuked?
An 11-year old girl was repeatedly sexually assaulted by up to 15 boys in a north side home as a 16-year old girl told her which sex acts to perform and watched, according to complaints filed today in Milwaukee County Children's Court.
In addition, a 40-year-old relative of the older girl participated in the sex acts which took place in the older girl's home on Monday, records state.
Matt Torbenson, an assistant district attorney, said Milwaukee police were still looking for suspects and have executed a search warrant at the house where the incident occurred. He said they have recovered condoms and a video camera. The girl was able to identify about six possible suspects and DNA samples were being checked against semen and other evidence found on the girl, he said.
Today, the 16-year old girl was charged with party to the crime of four counts of 1st degree sexual assault and a 15-year old boy was charged with 2 counts of party to the crime of first degree sexual assault. The older relative, who had been visiting at the girl's home at the time, was expected to be charged in adult court.
Iran's hard-line President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad called Tuesday for a purge of liberal and secular teachers from the country's universities, urging students to return to 1980s-style radicalism.
"Today, students should shout at the president and ask why liberal and secular university lecturers are present in the universities," the official Islamic Republic News Agency quoted Ahmadinejad as saying during a meeting with a group of students.
Ahmadinejad complained that reforms in the country's universities were difficult to accomplish and that the educational system had been affected by secularism for the last 150 years. But, he added: "Such a change has begun."
THE Crocodile Man, Steve Irwin, is dead. He was killed in a freak accident in Cairns, police sources said. It appeared that he was killed by a sting-ray barb that went through his chest, Queensland Police Inspector Russell Rhodes said.
In one of the first digital publishing initiatives of its kind, we are proud to announce the release of The New Yorker’s entire archive, February, 1925 - April, 2006, on a palm-sized portable hard drive.
Lesser known internationally than its Spanish cousin, southeastern France has its own version of bullfighting with a vast following and a major difference: the bull is king and never killed.
In the Provencal-style bullfights, known as the "courses camarguaises" or Camargue races, the beast is not only adversary but also star, even hero. Many towns and villages have erected statues to bulls with the sort of honor the Spanish-style corrida would grant a toreador.
Though "raseteurs" are paid a price for each race and a bonus for each tassel, Allouani is one of only three or four who actually make a living from the sport.
I am sorry I have to be so vague but it appears that I am going to be deposition and logs from my blog will be subpoena for use in a case where 1 person slandered another on my blog. Anyway it looks like 1 of the people is seeking damages for what the other said on my blog.
What’s different about Mrs. Clinton’s brothers is that they’ve almost certainly affected presidential decisions. Will they do that again if Hillary gets elected president?
Syria promised Friday to increase border patrols and work with Lebanese troops to thwart the flow of arms to its ally Hezbollah, but Israel questioned whether the Damascus regime would be a "reliable force" in guarding the border.
If carried out, the promises made by Syrian President Bashar Assad to U.N. Secretary-General Kofi Annan would be a major boost to efforts to keep the peace in Lebanon.Preventing weapons from reaching Hezbollah is a key element of the U.N. resolution that halted Israeli-Hezbollah fighting Aug. 14. The truce also calls for a beefed-up U.N. force of 15,000 soldiers in southern Lebanon and more nations committed troops to the mission Friday.
The U.N. chief said that if Syria follows through in tightening control of the border, peace efforts will be greatly helped. "I have no reason to believe it will not be done," Annan said.
Read that Annan quote again. "I have no reason to believe it will not be done." Honestly? He has no reason to think Syria will not enforce this arms embargo against Hezbollah? None? What an insult to the intelligence of anyone willing to look at this situation objectively.
Nevertheless, it now appears that the person most responsible for the end of Ms. Plame's CIA career is Mr. Wilson. Mr. Wilson chose to go public with an explosive charge, claiming -- falsely, as it turned out -- that he had debunked reports of Iraqi uranium-shopping in Niger and that his report had circulated to senior administration officials. He ought to have expected that both those officials and journalists such as Mr. Novak would ask why a retired ambassador would have been sent on such a mission and that the answer would point to his wife. He diverted responsibility from himself and his false charges by claiming that President Bush's closest aides had engaged in an illegal conspiracy. It's unfortunate that so many people took him seriously.
Tom Cruise and Katie Holmes have yet to show their baby daughter off in public, but eager fans were given an unusual preview with the chance to see a bronze cast depicting her first solid stool.
The scatological sculpture -- more doodoo than Dada -- is purportedly cast from 19-week old Suri's first bowel movement and will be shown at the Capla Kesting gallery in Brooklyn, New York, before being auctioned off for charity.
Q: Is there a certificate of authenticity that comes with this?
A: The gallery will issue a Certificate of Authenticity stating that the sculpture is, an original work of art produced by Daniel Edwards. Please note there will be no authentication from the Cruise family as the item was made as an artist rendering of what Suri Cruises' first solid meal waste would look like. Thank you for your intrest and good luck bidding!
The untold story of the Bush tax cuts is the fact that they wiped millions of poor and low-income Americans off the income tax rolls. A large block went from paying small tax bills to paying no income taxes at all. As many as 43 million Americans, nearly a third of all taxpayers, now have no income tax liability.
