The Onion

Blurring the line between farce and reality.

So Now Can We Secure the Border?

Or is it still racist?

"Lady al Qaeda" Trial

A nice preview of the KSM circus to come.

Just a reminder as to the solid reasons, grounded in our legal tradtion, we are trying terrorists as civilians.

Even If We Win, We Lose

Trial of KSM to cost between $400 and $600 million.

How many years of operating costs for Gitmo does that equal?

It's a Start

20 Muslim imams issue "fatwa" against terrorists.

Update: Yeah, we might need a few more to come around.

I Love Glenn Reynolds

But I can't say I agree with the gist of this post. Are mandatory strip searches by religion extreme? Yes, and we should not implement the idea. But is it reasonable to search people from the countries that have the mode of the people who want to attack us? Absolutely. And if "irritating" someone, especially regarding airport security, leads someone to become a terrorist, I would think they would be well on their way already. And we would have a lot more American terrorists as well. Flying to the U.S. is a privilege, and if we cannot enact even these common sense ideas, we would be better off banning international flights from these countries altogether. Besides, as Glenn likes to point out, video conferencing is always an option.

Glenn, still love ya. But you are dead wrong on this and others will just be dead if we do not take immediate, sensible steps such as the ones the TSA now proposes for focusing on certain countries.

Update: Bill Quick also disagrees with Glenn.

Update II: The profiling of nations.

Mark Steyn

On why my flight home tomorrow is going to suck.

Update: The TSA burlesque show.

Wires, coils, cellphone components and blocks of cheese

Items found in the bags of four recent passengers traveling through US airports. Authorities say the items may be evidence of terrorists conducting dry runs.

The bulletin said the passengers carrying the suspicious items seized since September included men and women and that initial investigation had not linked them with criminal or terrorist organizations. But it added that most of their explanations for carrying the items were suspicious and some were still under investigation.

The four seizures were described this way:

• San Diego, July 7. A U.S. person - either a citizen or a foreigner legally here - checked baggage containing two ice packs covered in duct tape. The ice packs had clay inside them rather than the normal blue gel.
  
  
• Milwaukee, June 4. A U.S. person's carryon baggage contained wire coil wrapped around a possible initiator, an electrical switch, batteries, three tubes and two blocks of cheese. The bulletin said block cheese has a consistency similar to some explosives.
  
  
• Houston, Nov. 8, 2006. A U.S. person's checked baggage contained a plastic bag with a 9-volt battery, wires, a block of brown clay-like minerals and pipes.
  
  
• Baltimore, Sept. 16, 2006. A couple's checked baggage contained a plastic bag with a block of processed cheese taped to another plastic bag holding a cellular phone charger.

Who knew cheese could have such a sinister connotation? I generally associate it with the good life.

George: Yeah! Look at me! I was free and clear! I was living the dream! I was stripped to the waist, eating a block of cheese the size of a car battery!

Jerry: Before we go any further, I'd just like to point out how disturbing it is that you equate eating a block of cheese with some sort of bachelor paradise.

'Capability low, intent very high'

Complaint filed against JFK terror suspects downplays threat, according to the New York Times, which holds that the officials who unveiled the terror plot were exaggerating the danger posed by the would-be terrorists.

No one would second-guess the authorities for pursuing and arresting suspected plotters. An enduring lesson that the attacks of Sept. 11, 2001, have taught prosecutors and the Federal Bureau of Investigation is the danger of inaction.

Funny, but second-guessing seems to be exactly what this reporter is doing.

Mind boggling

HuffPo readers react to the confession of Khalid Sheikh Mohammed. A sample:

So what? When will our former president, and current unremoved traitor George W. Bush confess to misleading America into an unnecessary war on false pretenses, solely to profit the war cartels and the oil cartel?

By all means, read the whole thing.

Via Allah.

Remembering the first WTC attack

It happened 14 years ago today.

Those who use indiscriminate violence against civilians are often seen as both mad and evil. Yet Ramzi Yousef was rational and saw his actions as morally justified. He cited America’s killing of Iraqi and Libyan civilians in retaliation for the actions of their governments as justification for targeting U.S. citizens for “collective punishment.” In a letter claiming responsibility for the bombing, his group asserted that their “action was done in response for the American political, economical, and military support to Israel, the state of terrorism, and to the rest of the dictator countries in the region.”

The decision of the Clinton administration to treat the bombings as a criminal matter was later questioned. “After the World Trade Center was first attacked in 1993, some of the guilty were indicted and tried and convicted, and sent to prison,” President George W. Bush said in 2004. “But the matter was not settled. . . . After the chaos and carnage of September the Eleventh, it is not enough to serve our enemies with legal papers. The terrorists and their supporters declared war on the United States, and war is what they got.”

The new administration’s approach was to counteract terrorism largely by attacking alleged state sponsors militarily. The subsequent high cost and mixed results of that policy have led some to question whether a greater emphasis on intelligence and “law enforcement,” as applied in the 1993 case, might be a wiser course after all. It is safe to say that a final answer has not yet been arrived at.

Arafat responsible for 1973 Sudan murders

Declassified State Department document shows how diplomats covered up the knowledge because they didn't want to anger their Arab friends. Plus, it might have ruined Arafat's chance for the Nobel Peace Prize.