The Plank
Attention Aspiring Journalists!
Umar Farouk Abdulmutallab Did Not Make The Short List, Says Janet Napolitano. It's A Pity He Didn't.
So the Muslim fanatic from Nigeria, whose father turned information about him in to the American embassy in Lagos, was on the long list, not the short one. Like Mohammed Atta. And Major Hasan. And presumably lots of others. What are the standards for making it to the short list? It's clear that they are absurdly--shall we say?--excessive. READ MORE >>
Another Crazy Obama Theory
On the 40th anniversary of D-Day, Ronald Reagan asked of the Allied forces who had given their lives, "Where do we find such men?" A good question. Alas, it is also a question that tends to recur when observing a very different caliber of man. Take, for instance, National Review blogger Victor Davis Hanson. Where do we find such a man? Here he is, yesterday: READ MORE >>
His Father, For God's Sake, Told You To Worry About Him. Why Did You Not Put Him On A Real Watch List?
The New York Times is on to this story, very fast and very detailed. A dispatch from Washington by Scott Shane, Eric Schmitt and Eric Lipton reveals that the father of the would-be killer had told American officials (in Lagos, maybe) "several weeks ago" of the involvement of Umar Farouk Abdulmutallab, his son, with terrorist and extremist Muslim organizations. READ MORE >>
I dimly remembered that Mohammed Atta and at least three of his brothers (a big word in Islam) had been known to security agencies at least a year before 9/11 as "likely members of a cell of Al Qaeda operating in the United States." This quote is from an August 9, 2005 article written by ace- investigator-of-intricate-matters Douglas Jehl for the New York Times. READ MORE >>
Parker Griffith Can Change Parties, But Not History
For southern Democrats, the news that freshman Rep. Parker Griffith of Alabama was switching parties brought back bad memories from the 1990s, when a goodly number of elected officials from the region who had been Democrats for no particular reason other than political convenience became Republicans for no particular reason other than political convenience. READ MORE >>
Why We Need Pakistan's Help
This AP story reminds us that it's going to be tough to defeat the Taliban in Afghanistan so long as they have a safe haven across the border in Pakistan: SHAKTOI, Pakistan (AP) -- A top Pakistani Taliban commander says he sent thousands of fighters to neighboring Afghanistan to rebuff incoming U.S. troops, a claim that comes as a Pakistani army offensive is believed to have pushed many of his men to flee their main redoubt. READ MORE >>
Today at TNR (December 23, 2009)
How Obama Became the Unemployment Fall Guy (or, What the Public Doesn’t Understand About Economics) by Jonathan Chait The Problem With Sanctions: They’d Just Strengthen Ahmadenijad’s Hand by Nader Mousavizadeh READ MORE >>
Bernanke Comments on the "Doom Loop." But Does He Get It?
Senator David Vitter submitted one of my questions to Federal Reserve Chairman Ben Bernanke, as part of his reconfirmation hearings, and received the following reply in writing (as already published in the WSJ online): READ MORE >>
Hillary: Face Time Rules
Apparently I found Newsweek's interview with Henry Kissinger and Secretary of State Hillary Clinton more interesting than Isaac did. Clinton makes what I think are a couple of interesting observations, including this one, about diplomacy in the modern world: READ MORE >>
