Challenge For Muslims

From the Chicago Tribune:

After every suicide bombing, we seek clues for why these men and women embrace the kind of seething hatred that allows someone to believe that killing innocents is the pathway to heaven.

The debate about whether U.S. policies in Iraq or elsewhere are to blame for suicide bombings or other terrorist acts is largely misguided and futile. It not only blames the victim for the crime, but allows the terrorists to dictate American foreign policy and specify the terms upon which they may be persuaded to stop the attacks.

Those who ask "why" often confront a litany of grievances, past and present, depending on which terrorist group is answering. Some of the "reasons" for murdering innocent civilians: Iraq, the Israeli-Palestinian conflict, American troops in Saudi Arabia. Beyond that is the "decadent" Western culture itself.

But it's worth noting that suicide bombers attacked this nation on Sept. 11, 2001, long before Iraq or Afghanistan. And terrorists who decry the mistreatment of Muslims in one part of the world say nothing while Muslim insurgents slaughter Muslim civilians day after day in Iraq.

The question of what motivates suicide bombers "will not be answered by focusing on the grievances by which the terrorists later claimed to have been propelled: The sociopath's motivations are revealed in his behavior, not in his grandiose self justifications," novelist and military history professor Caleb Carr wrote recently in The Wall Street Journal.

The point is: There will always be an excuse for those who hate relentlessly. In many cases, the hate is the point.

Murderous hate doesn't fester in a vacuum, of course. It has been nurtured in many Arab countries.

The result often is a culture that glorifies death.

Until that culture changes, nothing else will.

This war of ideas won't be won until suicide bombers occupy a place of contempt in Islamic culture.

Terrorist leaders marshal the extraordinary power of hate to battle the modern world, "infidels" of all races and religions. Anyone who dares not believe exactly as they do is fair game, even fellow Muslims.

Tony Blair is right. This isn't about a clash of civilizations. Those who dispatch suicide bombers, and the bombers themselves, have no claim to belong to any civilization--or any religion.

Read the entire editorial -- LynZee

Iran's Prez

The United States has concluded that
Iran's president-elect, Ahmadinejad, was a leader of the movement behind the 1979 terrorist hostage crisis at the US embassy in Tehran but is unsure whether he actually took part in the hostage taking, a senior US official said.

An Islamist terrorist then, and an Islamist terrorist now.

Iran's new President, Mahmoud Ahmadi-Nejad, glorifies martyrdom.

"Is there art that is more beautiful, more divine, and more eternal than the art of martyrdom?"

Comes under the heading of Con Art-ist.

"Those who wish to undermine this principle undermine the foundations of our independence and national security.....The message of the [Islamic] Revolution is global.....Allah willing, Islam will conquer what? It will conquer all the mountain tops of the world."

Typically, Iran has announced a martyr recruiting registration drive "in order to defend Islam and to fight the enemies of Islam".

Have any of these followers retained even one brain cell? Are they totally devoid of the basic human characteristic of individual thought? Are they THAT stupid?

Hat tips: Trey Jackson and Gateway Pundit.

-- LynZee
Related:
Iran's Terrorist Prez?
Mahmoud Ahmadinejad

France Ejects Islamists

France ejects 12 Islamic 'preachers of hate'.

France announced the summary expulsion of a dozen Islamists between now and the end of August.

Imams and their followers who fuel anti-western feeling among impressionable young French Muslims will be rounded up and returned to their countries of origin.

An additional 12 French mosques associated with provocative anti-western preaching were under surveillance.

Imams indulging in inflammatory rhetoric will be expelled even if their religious status is recognised by mainstream Muslim bodies.

Those who have assumed French citizenship will not be protected from deportation.

A French crackdown on those "promoting radical Islamist polemic".

Good move! -- LynZee

Frist & Stem Cells

Bill Frist announced his support for expanded federal financing for embryonic stem cell research.


Kathryn Jean Lopez at The Corner: "Karl Rove engineered Bill Frist's reversal on stem cells to take the heat off of the John Roberts nomination which was timed to take the heat off of the Valerie Plame investigation which was timed to take the heat off of the John Bolton fight which was timed to take the heat off of the problems in Iraq which was timed to take the heat off of the fact...my head hurts."

-- LynZee

Update:
"You need to vote your conscience," Bush told Frist.

Bush held fast to his veto threat, but went out of his way Friday to show he had no hard feelings with Bill Frist.

Scott McClellan said Bush "does not believe that taxpayer money should be used to support the further destruction of human life."

7/21 Bombers In Custody

Dramatic textbook raids today in London and Rome net four 7/21 bombers. Possible fifth bomber is still at large.


Arrested at Dalgarno Gardens Apts: Muktar Said Ibrahim (Hackney bus bomber wearing white cap);
and Ramzi Mohammed (Oval Station bomber wearing New York shirt).

Arrested in Rome: Osman Hussain (possible Shepherd's Bush Station bomber wearing white undershirt).

Another man was arrested in Notting Hill, and two women were arrested at Liverpool Street Station.

Arrested Wednesday in Birmingham: Yasin Hassan Omar (Warren Station bomber wearing blue shirt).

A fifth undetonated bomb found on July 24 leads to speculation that a 5th bomber is still on the run.

A witness said one of the suspects was heard shouting ‘I’ve got rights’.

One can only hope these thugs receive the same considerations and "rights" they afforded their would be victims.

More here, here, here, here, and here.
LynZee

Update: "Sources close to the investigation tell NBC News that the unnamed man arrested is 22-year-old Wahbi Mohammed and police suspect he was to be the fifth bomber in the plot, but ended up abandoning his backpack full of explosives in a park. Mohammed is the brother of one of the other suspected bombers arrested Friday."

Bush Scores Wins

Bush is scoring legislative wins with victory on a trade bill and progress on energy and highway legislation.

"His nomination of conservative federal appeals court Judge John Roberts to the Supreme Court also seems to be on track."

It's about time The Hill legislators actually DO what they were elected to do -- legislate. Enough already with the Democrat obstructionism.
-- LynZee

Take A Hint From Israel

Israel is increasing security at its Gaza Strip border by erecting a barrier of fences, electronic sensors, and watchtowers. "Israel's main concern is keeping Palestinian attackers out."

With illegal immigration out of control on our southern border, we could learn a thing or two from Israel. Extreme circumstances sometimes call for extreme measures.
-- LynZee

CAFTA

The House narrowly passed CAFTA.

Mark Krikorian at NRO:

Our Mexican immigrant population, most of it illegal, exploded during the 1990s, from 4.2 million to 9.2 million, reaching a whopping 10.5 million by 2004. Some of this would have happened even without NAFTA — assuming we pursued the same policy of non-enforcement of the immigration laws — but it was supercharged by NAFTA.

If there is one lesson to be learned from NAFTA it is that free-trade agreements must be accompanied by muscular immigration controls.

The suspicion that free-trade pacts are the first step toward open borders is not without foundation. Mexico’s President Vicente Fox has become notorious for calling for an open border as the fulfillment of NAFTA.

If the experience of NAFTA is repeated, and the immigration pressures unleashed by CAFTA are allowed to flood into the United States, the case for future free-trade agreements will be undermined.

The way forward, then, is clear: More trade, less immigration.

-- LynZee

Judge Coughenour's Little Lecture

The Millennium Bomber, Ahmed Ressam, was sentenced to 22 years by U.S. District Judge John C. Coughenour for plotting to bomb the LA airport. With credit for time served and three years off for good behavior, Ressam could be out of prison in 14 years.

Considering that the prosecutors pushed for 35 years, this ridicously light punishment doesn’t fit the crime.

Coughenour said the successful prosecution of Ahmed Ressam should serve not only as a warning to terrorists, but as a statement to the Bush administration about its terrorism fighting tactics.

"We did not need to use a secret military tribunal, detain the defendant indefinitely as an enemy combatant or deny the defendant the right to counsel," he said Wednesday. "The message to the world from today's sentencing is that our courts have not abandoned our commitment to the ideals that set our nation apart."

He added that the Sept. 11, 2001, attacks have made Americans realize they are vulnerable to terrorism and that some believe "this threat renders our Constitution obsolete ... If that view is allowed to prevail, the terrorists will have won."

The only resulting “warning to terrorists” is the promise of a light sentence, with the utmost priority being the terrorists’ rights instead of prosecuting the terrorist to the fullest extent of the law.

It was Jamie Gorlick’s “wall of separation” preventing info sharing between the feds and the CIA that allowed Ahmed Ressam to get as far as he did, and it was sheer luck for a border guard to spot Ressam. This was back in the days when terrorist acts were treated as crimes and not acts of war.

I, for one, DON’T believe the terrorist threat renders our Constitution obsolete.

Thank God the fate of the enemy combatants at Gitmo doesn’t rest with Judge Coughenour who is using his bench to politick while exhorting “ideals that set our nation apart”. Crimes of enemy combatants are tried in a military venue, not in a criminal court, and detainees are afforded all the rights pursuant therein.

Lots more from Captain’s Quarters, as well as, Michelle Malkin.

LynZee

A War By Any Other Name

The Bush administration is pushing the idea that the long-term struggle is as much an ideological battle as a military mission.

Substituting "a global struggle against violent extremism" rather than "the global war on terror," the struggle is being defined as violent extremism with terror the method they use.

Violent extremism and terror have rapidly become interchangeable terms. In light of citing an ideological battle, "violent extremism" seems a politically correct euphemism for Islamism. The first step to winning should be to correctly identify who you're fighting against.

I can understand the desire to encompass more than the military aspects involved, but a war by any other name is still a war.

Herald Tribune via Drudge.
LynZee

Nail Bombs

British authorities discover nail bombs: "16 bombs were found in the red Nissan car parked at Luton railway station. It is believed the car was rented in Leeds by Shehzad Tanweer", one of the 7/7 bombers.

"And the nails are put there so that when the bomb goes off, the nails will tear tissue and kill people in the area. Bombs don't kill by concussion. Small bombs, they kill by the blast effects of fragments of glass or metal, and this is designed to kill people."

It is believed these bombs were intended for subsequent attacks.

Authorities continue raids which have resulted in the Birmingham arrest of Yasin Omar, a Somalia born 7/21 bomber. Omar was on welfare. Both Omar and his 7/21 cohort, Said Ibrahim, lived in public housing. Ibrahim was born in Eritrea, and has a British prison record. Ibrahim became a British citizen within the past year. More here.

Both these Islamofascist thugs leeched off the society they claim to despise, drooling over bin Laden amid fantasies of virgins. On the run and protected by the Islamist underground, they returned twice to their bomb factory flat to gear up for another attack.

Hat tips: Drudge, Michelle Malkin.

LynZee

Shuttle Discovery

Image Credit: Keith Myers/NYT

Newsday has put together a list of notable quotables from the launch of Shuttle Discovery.

Wayne Hale, NASA's deputy shuttle program manager: "My heart's been in my throat all morning. It's a great day."

NASA Administrator Michael Griffin at the first news briefing after launch: "I ask you all to take note of what you saw here today: the power and the majesty of launch, of course, but also the confidence and the professionalism, the sheer gall, the pluckiness, the grittiness of this team that pulled this program out of the depths of despair 2 1/2 years ago and made it fly."

We've come a long way since the days of using slide rules to put men on the moon.

God Speed and Safe Return!

LynZee

Million Muslim March?

AHMED H. AL-RAHIM in the WSJ questions the lack of Muslims speaking out against Islamism.
(Hat tip: LGF)

Sadly, only the voices of Western political leaders constantly remind us that Islam is a "religion of peace."

Where are the Muslims, especially those living in the West, who have the freedom to organize and make their voices heard?

It seems that the only time we hear from the Muslim masses is when there are alleged desecrations of the Quran, or of prisoner abuse in Iraq.

Where is the Muslim outrage, the mass protests to defend Islam, in whose sacred name murder is committed nearly every day, against what Western leaders describe as a "perversion of its true nature"?

Alas, the battle against Islamism -- and also for the heart of Islam -- has become a battle for the West to fight. As a Muslim, these acts of terrorism committed by fellow Muslims -- and yes, they are Muslims, from whom we cannot distance ourselves by the sophistry that asserts that their version is but a perversion of Islam --are a great source of shame. But what is more shameful is that there are no mass Muslim protests to speak of against terrorism that is committed in our name.

In the same way that Muslims have protested against alleged desecrations of the Quran, they now should be out in full force in the streets of Cairo, London and New York, sending a clear message to the Islamists that Enough is Enough.

Why not a "Million Muslim March" on Washington, of law-abiding Muslim citizens clamoring to reclaim their faith from those who would kill innocents in its name?

Muslims must no longer stand by while murder and suicide bombings are committed in their name.

LynZee

Andrew Card and Val

WaPo is pointing fingers at Andrew Card. It seems Alberto Gonzales notified Card of the DOJ investigation into Val's plight 12 hours before notifying the rest of the WH staff.

"Official notification to staff is meant to quickly alert anyone who may have pertinent records to make sure they are preserved and safeguarded."

The tacit implication being that Card was busy at the shredder, gave advance notice to anyone else at the WH, or pulled a Sandy Burglar and stuffed some classified docs down his pants.

Just One Minute points out:
"First, this referral was delivered from Justice to Gonzalez on the evening of Monday, Sept. 29. However, NBC News reported late on Friday, Sept 26 that a criminal referral was imminent, and the Sunday, Sept 28 WaPo front-paged the story that broke this case open.
Inquiring minds have wondered why the Justice Dept waited until the evening of the 29th to tell Gonzalez the obvious, but any criminal conspirators had plenty of warning."

LynZee

Islamism

The goal of Islamofascism (or Islamism) is to create a new world order and impose a global totalitarian Islamic Caliphate, thereby acquiring political power. Terrorism and jihad are the methods Islamists employ to achieve their objective. Religion is the umbrella used to cover their real intentions. Hatred of those who do not share their ideology, hatred of Israel, and hatred of other countries’ foreign and domestic policies
are the excuses used to justify terrorist attacks. It’s a megalomaniacal ideology of hate, and “Islam has become the world's pre-eminent incubator of terrorism at its most depraved”.

“Terrorism ends when the broader culture refuses to tolerate it.” Islamist terrorists will only stop trying to kill us when their own Muslim culture privately, publicly, demonstrably, vocally, and financially
reviles them rather than celebrates them.

Anything less implies Islamofascist agreement and Islamofascist sympathizing.


Related: What Islam Has Become

LynZee

Wilson-Plame-Novak-Rove Timeline

Blogs For Bush directs attention to The Wilson-Plame-Novak-Rove Blame Game Timeline at FactCheck.org.

Timeline Notable: July 7, 2003 – White House Press Secretary Ari Fleischer retracts the 16-word yellowcake claim from the State of the Union address, calling the President's statement "incorrect."

It was a mistake for the WH to issue a retraction. The statement may not have been conclusive enough, but it was certainly not "incorrect". The "16 words" were later vindicated by the Senate Committee Report and the Butler Report. Bush opponents and Joe Wilson sympathizers try to trumpet a "hyped case for war" as the underlying story of Novak/Plame/Rove.

LynZee

Related: He Said, She Said
Media Brief: No Crime Committed
Did Wilson Expose Plame?
What Cooper Told Grand Jury
State Dept. Memo
Rove E-Mailed Security Official

Tour de Lance

Lance Armstrong ends his career with an unprecedented 7th consecutive win in the world's most grueling race, riding 2,232.7 miles.

"Vive le Tour! Forever," Armstrong said.

LynZee

John Howard

Words of wisdom from Australian Prime Minister, John Howard, via The Corner.

PRIME MIN. HOWARD: Can I just say very directly, Paul, on the issue of the policies of my government and indeed the policies of the British and American governments on Iraq, that the first point of reference is that once a country allows its foreign policy to be determined by terrorism, it's given the game away, to use the vernacular. And no Australian government that I lead will ever have policies determined by terrorism or terrorist threats, and no self-respecting government of any political stripe in Australia would allow that to happen.

Can I remind you that the murder of 88 Australians in Bali took place before the operation in Iraq.

And I remind you that the 11th of September occurred before the operation in Iraq.

Can I also remind you that the very first occasion that bin Laden specifically referred to Australia was in the context of Australia's involvement in liberating the people of East Timor. Are people by implication suggesting we shouldn't have done that?

When a group claimed responsibility on the website for the attacks on the 7th of July, they talked about British policy not just in Iraq, but in Afghanistan. Are people suggesting we shouldn't be in Afghanistan?

When Sergio de Mello was murdered in Iraq -- a brave man, a distinguished international diplomat, a person immensely respected for his work in the United Nations -- when al Qaeda gloated about that, they referred specifically to the role that de Mello had carried out in East Timor because he was the United Nations administrator in East Timor.

Now I don't know the mind of the terrorists. By definition, you can't put yourself in the mind of a successful suicide bomber. I can only look at objective facts, and the objective facts are as I've cited. The objective evidence is that Australia was a terrorist target long before the operation in Iraq. And indeed, all the evidence, as distinct from the suppositions, suggests to me that this is about hatred of a way of life, this is about the perverted use of principles of the great world religion that, at its root, preaches peace and cooperation. And I think we lose sight of the challenge we have if we allow ourselves to see these attacks in the context of particular circumstances rather than the abuse through a perverted ideology of people and their murder.

PRIME MIN. BLAIR: And I agree 100 percent with that. (Laughter.)

Related: 7/21
-- LynZee

He Said, She Said

Bloomberg is reporting that Scooter Libby told Pat Fitzgerald that Libby learned CIA employee Valerie Plame Wilson's identity from Tim Russert. Russert has testified before Fitzgerald that he didn't tell Libby of Plame's identity.

Karl Rove told Fitz that Rove learned her identity from Bob Novak. Novak gave a somewhat different version to Fitz.

Rove told Fitz that Matt Cooper called Rove about welfare reform. Cooper told the Grand Jury that he never discussed welfare reform with Rove in that call.

This sounds like a bunch of "he said, she said".

First off, which names were mentioned....Valerie Plame, Valerie Wilson, or Wilson's wife? Secondly, Professor Plum, are any of these players deliberately lying or do they simply have fuzzy memories?

One thing they all agree on, "it wasn't me"!

To borrow Joe Wilson's literary license, I can hear Cooper now, "Welfare reform? Welfare reform? I didn't mention no stinkin' welfare reform".

Well Mrs. Peacock, some have concluded it was Ari Fleischer, in the plane, with the memo, on the phone.

You remember the memo. The one with the bracketed [S] inserted in the memo like a flashing siren solely to indicate Val's Super Secret Undercover CIA Agent Operative status. Nevermind that it was generally known by news media that Val was a CIA employee.

Oh, and just one more thing. It's carved in stone somewhere that reporters and journalists do not lie.

Read all about it in the WaPo and NYT. -- LynZee

On John Roberts

"We'll still get a noisy battle, because the MoveOn.org crowd can't help themselves, but unless they can dig up some mud we aren't now aware of, the left is about to discover that losing Presidential elections has judicial consequences."
To the Dems, it’s all "fill in the blank" opposition obstructionism. That’s the reverberating battle cry shouted from Sen. Schumer’s cell phone.

Roberts is expected to play the Ginsberg card ("I must avoid giving an advisory opinion on any specific scenario, because ... that scenario might come before me," which was how Justice Ginsburg put it during her confirmation hearing); fall back on his “settled law” statement regarding Roe v. Wade; and the WH will claim privilege when Dems demand to see Roberts’ memos from his Solicitor General office days. Of course, Dems won’t declare that confidentiality nearly as binding as say, the confidentiality between a journalist and a leaky source.

The stealth angle abounds -- Dems would love another Souter. But, I suspect Roberts may cloak his stealth in moderation, if cloaking stealth at all.

The “gang of three” (Ted Kennedy, Richard Durbin and Chuck Schumer) will huff and puff with “all” their questions, smear tactics, and self-promotion. We can only hope Orrin Hatch is around to display his acumen from Roberts’ 2003 confirmation hearing:

In the beginning of Wednesday's Senate Judiciary Committee confirmation hearing for Bush nominee John G. Roberts Jr., Chairman Orrin Hatch praised Democrat Sen. Charles Schumer of New York for asking "intelligent" questions, but then Hatch switched gears.

"Some [of his questions] I totally disagree with," Hatch of Utah said. "Some I think are dumbass questions, between you and me. I am not kidding you. I mean, as much as I love and respect you, I just think that's true."

A stunned Schumer asked if he heard the chairman correctly, to which Hatch said yes. Again, Schumer asked Hatch if he would like to "revise and extend his remark," congressional speak for change his mind.

A former trial attorney, Hatch replied: "No, I am going to keep it exactly the way it is. I mean, I hate to say it. I mean, I feel badly saying it between you and me. But I do know dumbass questions when I see dumbass questions."

LynZee

Related:
It’s John Roberts

Schumer & Judicial Philosophy

Schumer Going To War

Bush's SCOTUS Nominee

The Judges War

Sandra Day O'Connor

Convergence Toward The Middle

It takes a hammer to hit the nail on the head.

The Neoconservative Convergence

"Above all, it is the maturation of a governing ideology whose time has come." -- LynZee

Bombing Suspects

Authorities seeking four suspects in yesterday's failed bombing attempts.

London's CCTV system is quite impressive.

President Bush: "The people of Great Britain must understand how strongly America stands with them during these trying times." -- LynZee

7 / 21

LONDON, England (CNN) -- "Two weeks to the day after the July 7 London bombings, attackers tried -- and failed -- to set off explosive devices at three Tube stations and on a double-decker bus."

Islamofascism strikes again. Another attempted act of terror in the name of Allah against the general populace.

The Anchoress has a photo recap of terrorists acts that came before the Iraq War (hat tip Michelle Malkin).

Tell us some more how terrorists are only responding to regime change in Iraq.....tell us that some more, ladies and gentlemen of the press.....Tell us how terror that has existed for decades is all the fault of George W. Bush and his poodles Tony Blair and John Howard. Thank God for these men.

LynZee

It's John Roberts

Bush nominates John Roberts, a solid conservative.

Roberts: "The court's conclusion in Roe that there is a fundamental right to an abortion ... finds no support in the text, structure or history of the Constitution," the brief said.

In his defense, Roberts told senators during his 2003 confirmation hearing that he would be guided by legal precedent.

Roberts: "Roe v. Wade is the settled law of the land. ... There is nothing in my personal views that would prevent me from fully and faithfully applying that precedent."

Related:
Schumer & Judicial Philosophy
Schumer Going To War
Bush's SCOTUS Nominee
The Judges War
Sandra Day O'Connor

Media Brief: No Crime Committed

Andrew McCarthy: "Have you heard that the CIA is actually the source responsible for exposing Valerie Plame's covert status?.....How come you haven't heard?.....Because organized media decided not to tell you."


You see, media operates on a double standard with a liberally biased media agenda. We are smack dab in the middle of an era of muckraking, yellow journalism that renders obsolete the journalistic ethics code of truthfulness, accuracy, objectivity, and fairness. Result -- zilch media credibility (remember RatherGate).

On March 23, 2005, 36 news organizations (including ABC, NBC, CBS, CNN, AP, Newsweek, Reuters America, the WaPo, the NYT, the LA Times, among others) filed a friend-of-the-court amicus brief on behalf of Matt Cooper and Judith Miller in an effort to keep these two media types out of jail on contempt charges.

"Why? Because, the media organizations confidently asserted, no crime had been committed." See the brief here.

The brief was based in part on a July 23, 2004 Washington Times article by Bill Gertz. Plame's undercover identity was first disclosed to Russia in the mid-1990s by a Moscow spy, and more recently disclosed when sealed confidential classified documents with references to Plame were sent to the Swiss Embassy in Havana and read by the Cubans.

These instances were cited in the media brief as evidence that no crime had been committed in the Valeria Plame "outing" -- she had already been "outed" years ago.

The media exhorts the neccessity of "leaks" in order to do their job, but feel they are above the law when it comes to revealing their sources.

So, we have no crime committed when charges are levelled against journalists, but the standard is doubled if the biased, agenda driven media believes it can place blame on Karl Rove, Scooter Libby, and the Bush administration.

As Andrew McCarthy said, no crime committed is the story the "press hypes when it reports to the federal court but not when it reports to consumers of its news coverage.....Thus, the same media now stampeding on Rove has told a federal court that, to the contrary, they believe the CIA itself blew Plame's cover before Rove or anyone else in the Bush administration ever spoke to Novak about her."

These previous "outings" could explains Plame's years long desk assignment at Langley.

McCarthy: "We'd probably know the answers to these and other questions by now if the media had given a tenth of the effort spent manufacturing a scandal to reporting professionally on the underlying facts. And if they deigned to share with their readers and viewers all the news that's fit to print ... in a brief to a federal court." -- LynZee

Did Wilson Expose Plame?

Clifford May offers an interesting perspective that Joe Wilson himself "outed" his own wife as a secret agent.



"The first reference to Plame being a secret agent appears in The Nation, in an article by David Corn published July 16, 2003, just two days after Novak’s column appeared.....Since Novak did not report that Plame was "working covertly" how did Corn know that’s what she had been doing?.....it is Corn who is, apparently for the first time, "outing" Plame’s "undercover" status.....On what basis could Corn "assume" that Plame was not only working covertly but was actually a "top-secret" operative? And where did Corn get the idea that Plame had been "outed" in order to punish Wilson? That is not suggested by anything in the Novak column which, as I noted, is sympathetic to Wilson and Plame. The likely answer: The allegation that someone in the administration leaked to Novak as a way to punish Wilson was made by Wilson — to Corn. But Corn, rather than quote Wilson, puts the idea forward as his own." -- LynZee

What Cooper Told Grand Jury

Time. Virtually all the questions centered on the week of July 6, 2003.

Shortly after Wilson's piece appeared, the White House said that the African uranium claim, while probably still true, should not have been in the President's State of the Union address because it hadn't been proved well enough.

I told the grand jurors that I was curious about Wilson when I called Karl Rove on Friday, July 11.

I recall saying something like, "I'm writing about Wilson," before he interjected. "Don't get too far out on Wilson," he told me.

Rove went on to say that Wilson had not been sent to Niger by the director of the CIA and, I believe from my subsequent e-mails--although it's not in my notes--that Rove added that Dick Cheney didn't send him either. Indeed, the next day the Vice President's chief of staff, I. Lewis (Scooter) Libby, told me Cheney had not been responsible for Wilson's mission.

Rove told me material was going to be declassified in the coming days that would cast doubt on Wilson's mission and his findings.

As for Wilson's wife, I told the grand jury I was certain that Rove never used her name and that, indeed, I did not learn her name until the following week, when I either saw it in Robert Novak's column or Googled her, I can't recall which.

Rove did, however, clearly indicate that she worked at the "agency"--

This was the first time I had heard anything about Wilson's wife.

Rove never once indicated to me that she had any kind of covert status.

Rove ending the call by saying, "I've already said too much."

In August 2004, on the record, Scooter Libby denied to me that Cheney knew about or played any role in the Wilson trip to Niger. On background, I asked Libby if he had heard anything about Wilson's wife sending her husband to Niger. Libby replied, "Yeah, I've heard that too," or words to that effect. Like Rove, Libby never used Valerie Plame's name or indicated that her status was covert.

So did Rove leak Plame's name to me, or tell me she was covert? No. Was it through my conversation with Rove that I learned for the first time that Wilson's wife worked at the CIA and may have been responsible for sending him? Yes. Did Rove say that she worked at the "agency" on "WMD"? Yes. When he said things would be declassified soon, was that itself impermissible? I don't know. Is any of this a crime?Beats me.
---
Curious that Scooter Libby gave Cooper a specific confidentiality waiver in Aug 2004, but Cooper didn't go public with what Cooper told the Grand Jury back then, or since. -- LynZee

Idiot Zone

Paul Begala says Republicans "want to kill us".

"They want to kill me and my children if they can. But if they just kill me and not my children, they want my children to be comforted -- that while they didn't protect me because they cut my taxes, my children won't have to pay any money on the money they inherit," Begala said. "That is bulls*** national defense, and we should say that."

Well, it's certainly bulls***.

Four London Bombers

Police have released a CCTV image of the four London bombers as they set out from Luton on their bombing mission.

State Dept. Memo

The State Dept. drafted a memo explaining how the heck Joe Wilson got the Niger trip job. (We now know the trip was authorized by the CIA on the recommendation of Wilson's wife, a CIA employee.)

Colin Powell supposedly received this memo the day he left on a trip to Africa with Bush on Air Force One.

Investigators want to know if administration officials learned Wilson's wife' identity from this memo, then leaked it to Bob Novak and possibly other journalists.

The memo refers explicitly to Wilson's wife as "Mr. Wilson's wife" or "Valerie Wilson".

Bob Novak, in his column, referred to Wilson's wife as "Valerie Plame".

This discrepancy raises questions about whether the memo was Bob Novak's original source. It has previously been noted that Valerie Plame's CIA employment was generally known among news media.

2003 Timeline:
June 10 -- Memo written at State Dept.
July 6 -- Joe Wilson's mendacious op-ed published.
July 7 -- Colin Powell supposedly receives memo.
July 8 -- Bob Novak calls Karl Rove
July 11 -- Matt Cooper calls Karl Rove
July 11 -- Karl Rove e-mails Stephen Hadley, Deputy National Security Advisor
July 14 -- Bob Novak names "Valerie Plame" in his column.

In an interview with Wolf Blitzer, Joe Wilson said, "My wife was not a clandestine officer the day that Bob Novak blew her identity".

News media generally knew Plame's identity -- it could not have been "blown". No crime committed -- unless someone has lied to the grand jury.

There's an awful lot of leaking about these grand jury proceedings. I want to know when the heck someone is going to leak Bob Novak's testimony.

Captain's Quarters highlights many errors in the New York Times' reporting.

Related:
Rove E-Mails Security Official
Not The Other Way Around
Karl Rove, Whistleblower
Rove Was A Source
Miller / Cooper
Who Outed Plame?

Rove E-Mailed Security Official

The Karl Rove method of "outing" a CIA employee: Offhandedly refer to her as Joe Wilson's wife in a phone conversation with Matt Cooper, then notify a National Security Advisor about the conversation !

Yeah, Daniel Ellsberg would do it that way too.

WASHINGTON (AP) - After mentioning a CIA operative to a reporter, Bush confidant Karl Rove alerted the president's No. 2 security adviser about the interview.

The July 11, 2003, e-mail between Rove and then-Deputy National Security Adviser Stephen Hadley is the first showing an intelligence official knew Rove had talked to Matthew Cooper just days before the Time magazine reporter wrote an article identifying Valerie Plame as a CIA officer.

Rove wrote he "didn't take the bait" on Cooper's questions about fallout to the administration from Joe Wilson's op-ed piece of July 6, 2003.

Joe Wilson's wife was mentioned in a phone call between Bob Novak and Rove on July 8, 2003.

RNC Chairman Ken Mehlman commenting on Bob Novak's phone call to Rove: "What it says is, Karl Rove wasn't the leaker, he was actually the recipient of the information not the provider."

Related:

Not The Other Way Around

Karl Rove, Whistleblower

Rove Was A Source

Miller / Cooper

Who Outed Plame?

Call Them What They Are

From the editorial board of The Dallas Morning News (hat tip LGF):

Call Them What They Are

Two words not uncommon to editorial pages are "resolve" and "sacrifice," especially as they relate to war.

Today, this editorial board resolves to sacrifice another word – "insurgent" – on the altar of precise language. No longer will we refer to suicide bombers or anyone else in Iraq who targets and kills children and other innocent civilians as "insurgents."

The notion that these murderers in any way are nobly rising up against a sitting government in a principled fight for freedom has become, on its face, absurd. If they ever held a moral high ground, they sacrificed it weeks ago, when they turned their focus from U.S. troops to Iraqi men, women and now children going about their daily lives.

They drove that point home with chilling clarity Wednesday in a poor Shiite neighborhood. As children crowded around U.S. soldiers handing out candy and toys in a gesture of good will, a bomb-laden SUV rolled up and exploded.

These children were not collateral damage. They were targets.

The SUV driver was no insurgent. He was a terrorist.

People who set off bombs on London trains are not insurgents. We would never think of calling them anything other than what they are – terrorists.

Train bombers in Madrid? Terrorists.

Chechen rebels who take over a Russian school and execute children? Terrorists.

Teenagers who strap bombs to their chests and detonate them in an Israeli cafe? Terrorists.

IRA killers? Basque separatist killers? Hotel bombers in Bali? Terrorists all.

Words have meanings. Whether too timid, sensitive or "open-minded," we’ve resisted drawing a direct line between homicidal bombers everywhere else in the world and the ones who blow up Iraqi civilians or behead aid workers.

No more. To call them "insurgents" insults every legitimate insurgency in modern history. They are terrorists.

Not The Other Way Around

From the donkey himself --

JOE WILSON: "My wife was not a clandestine officer the day that Bob Novak blew her identity."



I'll let you decide which end was braying.

And now it seems Karl Rove told investigators he first learned about Joe Wilson's wife from journalists, and Rove later learned her name from columnist Bob Novak.

"Sources who have reviewed some of the testimony before the grand jury say there is significant evidence that reporters were in some cases alerting officials about Plame's identity and relationship to Wilson -- not the other way around."

Rove's reply to Novak's revelation about Wilson's wife: "I heard that, too". Rove told investigators he couldn't remember which journalist had first mentioned her -- another indication of Wilson's wife's identity being generally known among news media.

Read more here.

Michelle Malkin has a great round-up, and offers spin comparisons from the NYT, WaPo, and AP.


Related:
Karl Rove, Whistleblower
Rove Was A Source
Miller / Cooper
Who Outed Plame?

7 / 7 -- Chemist Arrested

Magdy Mahmoud Mustafa el-Nashar, 33, has been arrested in Cairo. Explosives were found in the flat Magdy, a chemist, had rented in Leeds. Three of the London suicide bombers lived in Leeds: Mohammad Sidique Khan, 30; Hasib Mir Hussain, 18; Shehzad Tanwee, 22. The fourth bomber is Jamaican-born Briton, Lindsey Germaine.


Video surveillance camera captured Hasib Hussain, above, wearing a backpack on his way to London.


Related:
London's Suicide Bombers
Timeline Revised
Why They Did It
London Attacked

Shout Out

Shout Out to:

Eman at The Anti-Corn Law League

for We're Next, Buddies linked from

Clarity And Resolve.

Que Cara Tienes!

Already signed on to the International Criminal Court, Mexico will not sign a pact to grant U.S. military personnel special immunity from the ICC.

The Bush administration opposes the ICC and argues it could be used for frivolous or politically motivated prosecutions of American troops.

Last year, Bush signed into law a measure to cut off hundreds of millions of dollars in foreign aid to countries that belong to the court but have not signed a bilateral immunity agreement with the United States.

Assistant Foreign Secretary Geronimo Gutierrez said his country does not fear any repercussions over the policy. Mexico gets almost no foreign aid from the United States.

Well Excuuuse Me, but there are an estimated 5 million Mexicans living in the US illegally. "Mexico acts as an accomplice in illegal immigration because its economy is hooked on the $14.5 billion in annual remittances from Mexicans working in the United States." If that's not a form of foreign aid, then I don't know what is. ¡qué cara tienes!

Mexican president, Vicente Fox, is well known for his "open border" policy and EU style plan for North America.

Fox advocates an open border, but allegiance to Mexico. Juan Hernandez, head of Fox's Presidential Council for Mexicans Abroad, has said, "I want the third generation, the seventh generation, I want them all to think 'Mexico first.'"

In fact, "Mexico's Foreign Ministry has produced and distributed a Guide For The Mexican Migrant that is essentially a "how to" manual for illegal entry into the United States."

Just don't expect the Mexican government to support the troops who defend the country that the Mexicans want to illegally enter.

Mexico's refusal to sign a special immunity agreement for US troops comes as no surprise considering Jacques Chirac's remarks alluding to Iraq at the third summit between the European Union (EU) and Latin America in Guadalajara, Mexico in May, 2004: multilateralism being the only legitimate treatment of conflict. Chirac in Mexico slamming the US. Interfering in US relations with our southern neighbor.

But the following month, when Bush expressed hope for Turkey's admittance into the EU, Chirac threw a hissy fit, said it was none of Bush's business, and that Bush's remarks were like Mr Chirac telling the US how to manage relations with Mexico.

What Gall!

H

Patrick Ruffini critiques Hillary Clinton's new campaign website.


References to Preparation H and rip-off bumper stickers are quite amusing.

It's the Dubya in W '04 that makes the sticker work. Anything else is mere imitation -- a form of flattery that in H's case can't be sincere.

H? Nyah.

The SCooper

Matt SCooper told reporters he would give them details of his grand jury testimony — in a future article for Time magazine.


"I'm not going to scoop myself today," SCooper said.

Better hurry before The New York Times or Newsweek gets the leaky scoop on The Scooper.

NYT Hypocrisy

Power Line highlights hypocrisy at the New York Times.

Karl Rove, Whistleblower

A must read, from the WSJ.




Karl Rove, Whistleblower
He told the truth about Joe Wilson.
Wednesday, July 13, 2005 12:01 a.m. EDT

Democrats and most of the Beltway press corps are baying for Karl Rove's head over his role in exposing a case of CIA nepotism involving Joe Wilson and his wife, Valerie Plame. On the contrary, we'd say the White House political guru deserves a prize--perhaps the next iteration of the "Truth-Telling"award that The Nation magazine bestowed upon Mr. Wilson before the Senate Intelligence Committee exposed him as a fraud.

For Mr. Rove is turning out to be the real
"whistleblower" in this whole sorry pseudo-scandal. He's the one who warned Time's Matthew Cooper and other reporters to be wary of Mr. Wilson's credibility. He's the one who told the press the truth that Mr. Wilson had been recommended for the CIA consulting gig by his wife, not by Vice President Dick Cheney as Mr. Wilson was asserting on the airwaves. In short, Mr. Rove provided important background so Americans could understand that Mr. Wilson wasn't a whistleblower but was a partisan trying to discredit the Iraq War in an election campaign. Thank you, Mr. Rove.

Media chants aside, there's no evidence that Mr. Rove broke any laws in telling reporters that Ms. Plame may have played a role in her husband's selection for a 2002 mission to investigate reports that Iraq was seeking uranium ore in Niger. To be prosecuted under the 1982 Intelligence Identities Protection Act, Mr. Rove would had to have deliberately and maliciously exposed Ms. Plame knowing that she was an undercover agent and using information he'd obtained in an official capacity. But it appears Mr. Rove didn't even know Ms. Plame's name and had only heard about her work at Langley from other journalists.

On the "no underlying crime" point, moreover, no less than the New York Times and Washington Post now agree. So do the 36 major news organizations that filed a legal brief in March aimed at keeping Mr. Cooper and the New York Times's Judith Miller out of jail.

"While an investigation of the leak was justified, it is far from clear--at least on the public record--that a crime took place," the Post noted the other day. Granted the media have come a bit late to this understanding, and then only to protect their own, but the logic of their argument is that Mr. Rove did nothing wrong either.

The same can't be said for Mr. Wilson, who first "outed" himself as a CIA consultant in a melodramatic New York Times op-ed in July 2003. At the time he claimed to have thoroughly debunked the Iraq-Niger yellowcake uranium connection that President Bush had mentioned in his now famous "16 words" on the subject in that year's State of the Union address.

Mr. Wilson also vehemently denied it when columnist Robert Novak first reported that his wife had played a role in selecting him for the Niger mission. He promptly signed up as adviser to the Kerry campaign and was feted almost everywhere in the media, including repeat appearances on NBC's "Meet the Press" and a photo spread (with Valerie) in Vanity Fair.

But his day in the political sun was short-lived. The bipartisan Senate Intelligence Committee report last July cited the note that Ms. Plame had sent recommending her husband for the Niger mission. "Interviews and documents provided to the Committee indicate that his wife, a CPD [Counterproliferation Division employee, suggested his name for the trip," said the report.

The same bipartisan report also pointed out that the forged documents Mr. Wilson claimed to have discredited hadn't even entered intelligence channels until eight months after his trip. And it said the CIA interpreted the information he provided in his debrief as mildly supportive of the suspicion that Iraq had been seeking uranium in Niger.

About the same time, another inquiry headed by Britain's Lord Butler delivered its own verdict on the 16 words: "We conclude also that the statement in President Bush's State of the Union Address of 28 January 2003 that 'The British Government has learned that Saddam Hussein recently sought significant quantities of uranium from Africa' was well-founded."

In short, Joe Wilson hadn't told the truth about what he'd discovered in Africa, how he'd discovered it, what he'd told the CIA about it, or even why he was sent on the mission. The media and the Kerry campaign promptly abandoned him, though the former never did give as much prominence to his debunking as they did to his original accusations. But if anyone can remember another public figure so entirely and thoroughly discredited, let us know.

If there's any scandal at all here, it is that this entire episode has been allowed to waste smuch government time and media attention, not to mention inspire a "special counsel" probe. The Bush Administration is also guilty on this count, since it went along with the appointment of prosecutor Patrick Fitzgerald in an election year in order to punt the issue down the road. But now Mr. Fitzgerald has become an unguided missile, holding reporters in contempt for not disclosing their sources even as it becomes clearer all the time that no underlying crime was at issue.

As for the press corps, rather than calling for Mr. Rove to be fired, they ought to be grateful to him for telling the truth.

In case you missed it.

London's Suicide Bombers

All four of London's suicide bombers were British, but with origins in Pakistan. At least two of the men had recently returned from Pakistan.


Three of the men lived in Leeds: Hasib Hussain, 19, (reported missing by his family) who bombed the bus in Tavistock Square; Shehzad Tanweer, 22, the Aldgate bomber; Mohammed Sidique Khan, 30, Edgware Road bomb.

Police found a bomb factory in Leeds containing a "viable amount of explosives".

Identity of the fourth bomber is unknown.

The mastermind behind the attacks and the bombmaker are both still thought to be at large.

What Islam Has Become

LONDON (Reuters) - Police identified four men on Tuesday whom they suspected of carrying out last week's London bombings, raising the prospect that western Europe may have suffered its first suicide attack.

NETANYA, Israel (AP) - A suicide bomber blew himself up among a group of teens near a shopping mall in the seaside city of Netanya on Tuesday, killing himself and two women in the second such attack since a truce was declared five months ago.

AMSTERDAM, Netherlands - The Muslim extremist on trial in the slaying of filmmaker Theo van Gogh admitted his guilt in court Tuesday, declaring he acted out of religious conviction and would do it again if given the chance. "I can't feel for you because I think you're a nonbeliever," he said. "I did it out of conviction," Bouyeri said. "If I ever get free, I would do it again."

Mark Steyn: "Islam has become the world's pre-eminent incubator of terrorism at its most depraved".

Rove Was A Source

Karl Rove was Matt Cooper's source: "it was, KR said, wilson's wife, who apparently works at the agency on wmd [weapons of mass destruction] issues who authorized the trip" (referring to Joe Wilson's Niger trip involving yellowcake uranium / Iraq connections). Rove spoke to Cooper July 11, 2003. "Nothing in the Cooper e-mail suggests that Rove used Plame's name or knew she was a covert operative."

Rove waived confidentiality, allowing reporters to testify about conversations with him, in Dec, 2003 and again last week for Matt Cooper. Protestations from reporters about source revelation in regard to Karl Rove have no significance.

Rove did not mention Wilson's wife's name (Valerie Plame), and Rove probably didn't know Wilson's wife was covert -- IF she is indeed covert. Therefore, Rove did not intentionally "out" an undercover CIA agent and did not violate any laws.

If Rove was Bob Novak's source, then the special prosecutor already knows because it appears Novak has cooperated with federal investigators -- no contempt charges yet for Novak. Novak asserted Plame was CIA in his column of July 14, 2003.

If Rove was Judith Miller's source, she is "protecting" a confidential source who has waived confidentiality. It takes a nutcase to go to jail to protect someone who doesn't want to be protected.

Basically, Rove wanted Cooper to know that neither George Tenet nor Dick Cheney recommended Joe Wilson for the Niger trip, and to know that Wilson's now infamous op-ed piece (published July 6, 2003) was merely a piece of crappola. Crappola that Rove was defending the administration against. Crappola that hit the fan and was exposed as lies by the Senate intelligence committee and reported in the Washington Post on July 10, 2004.

RedState.org reminds us that Joe Wilson is a lying liar who tells lies:
"The WaPo explains below the fold that Joe Wilson lied about virtually everything he said in connection with Niger, and that his wife was also complicit in the falsity: So let's review - Wilson lied about how he got to Niger, he lied about seeing a report that didn't even exist at the time, he lied about the conclusions of his own report(!), he lied about what the administration had been told, and his wife, Valerie Plame, specifically sent him on a mission to intentionally debunk a claim, not to find facts or perform inspections. I'd say the WaPo's conclusion is pretty sound on this one."

Power Line notes: "Andrea Mitchell was asked, on MSNBC, whether it was generally known to news people, before the hullabaloo, that Ms. Plame worked for the CIA. She answered, somewhat reluctantly, that it was. In the light of this, I don't understand the ensuing fuss."

Just One Minute has an excellent post
(hattip: Instapundit).

Michelle Malkin has a Stark Rove-ing Mad roundup.

Captain's Quarters weighs in.

WSJ assesses that Rove as Cooper's source "amounts to a political embarassment for Rove and the White House".

Special prosecutor, Patrick Fitzgerald, has said Rove is not a target of the investigation. Perhaps, Fitzgerald is probing to find out if Rove lied to the grand jury. So far, there is nothing to indicate he did. Rove's lawyer has said there is nothing inconsistent between Cooper's e-mail and Rove's grand jury testimony.

Bob Novak is the person who publicly "outed" Valerie Plame. But on Oct 1, 2003, Novak wrote: "First, I did not receive a planned leak. Second, the CIA never warned me that the disclosure of Wilson's wife working at the agency would endanger her or anybody else. Third, it was not much of a secret". Clifford May asked: "Who didn't know?" (that Plame was CIA). As Andrea Mitchell reluctantly admitted, news people in general already knew Plame was CIA.

The so-called "leak" was that Plame recommended Wilson for the trip.

Related:
Miller / Cooper
Who Outed Plame?

Severe Specific Alert

"BRITAIN’S terrorist alert has been raised to its highest-ever level because the London rush-hour bombers are alive and planning another attack, The Times has learnt. Security services, military and police are on "severe specific" alert"

STATES OF ALERT

Imminent Precise intelligence of a planned attack with timing and location known

Severe specific Intelligence warning of a known terrorist plot

Severe general A high possibility of attack at some stage but without knowledge of the timing or target

Substantial Still a high alert but no intelligence of a specific plot

Explosion Timeline Revised

LONDON (AP) - Bombs that shook the city's subway system last week exploded within 50 seconds of each other and were made of high explosives, not homemade material, police said Saturday.

The three bombs went off nearly simultaneously at about 8:50 a.m. Thursday, said Deputy Assistant Commissioner Brian Paddick said, revising earlier accounts that they occurred within a 26-minute span. An explosion tore through a double-decker bus nearly an hour later.

Related:

London Attacked

Why They Did It

Why They Did It

Amir Taheri explains the motivating ideology.

The aim of all good Muslims is to convert humanity to Islam.

But what if non-Muslims refuse to take the right path? Here answers diverge. Some believe that the answer is dialogue and argument until followers of the "abrogated faiths" recognise their error and agree to be saved by converting to Islam.

But others, including Osama bin Laden, believe that the Western-dominated world is too mired in corruption to hear any argument, and must be shocked into conversion through spectacular ghazavat (raids) of the kind we saw in New York and Washington in 2001, in Madrid last year, and now in London.

It is, of course, possible, as many in the West love to do, to ignore the strategic goal of the Islamists altogether and focus only on their tactical goals.

These goals are well known and include driving the "Cross-worshippers" (Christian powers) out of the Muslim world, wiping Israel off the map of the Middle East, and replacing the governments of all Muslim countries with truly Islamic regimes like the one created by Ayatollah Khomeini in Iran and by the Taleban in Afghanistan.

How to achieve those objectives has been the subject of much debate in Islamist circles throughout the world, including in London, since 9/11.

Bin Laden firmly believes that the West is too cowardly to fight back and, if terrorised in a big way, will do "what it must do" (Bin Laden's "Madrid Victory").

Thus, an extremely "Holy(?) War".

Schumer & Judicial Philosophy

Byron York weighs in on Charles Schumer’s strategy to use the issue of judicial philosophy to block Bush’s SCOTUS nominees.

Feeling constrained from openly voicing their
ideological objections, senators look for some small blemish in the nominee’s record that can then be exaggerated into a reason for voting against the candidate.

Back in 1987, when liberals wanted to kill the
nomination of Robert Bork, Dionne wrote, “the consensus ... held it illegitimate to block a president’s nominee to the high court solely because of his judicial philosophy. Liberals couldn’t simply oppose Bork. To block him, they had to trash him.”

Now, the combination of a strengthened conservative movement and a general public distaste for Bork-like inquisitions has made it
infinitely more difficult to trash a qualified high court nominee.

How could Schumer and his allies kill a candidate who is obviously qualified, and who cannot be reasonably portrayed as a right-wing nut?

That’s where “Judicial Nominations 2001: Should Ideology Matter?” came in. Schumer used the hearing to lay the foundation for
making ideological objections legitimate grounds for opposing nominees.

Related:
Schumer Going To War
Bush's SCOTUS Nominee
The Judges War
Sandra Day O'Connor

Standing With London

At this time of tragedy wrought by a highly coordinated terror attack and orchestrated by the scum oozing up from the cesspool of Islamofascism, we stand shoulder to shoulder with London and Britain -- shoulder to shoulder in grief, in resilience, and in resolve.

Related: London Attacked

London Attacked

Terrorists Attack London.

8:51 First explosion between the Moorgate and Liverpool Street stations of the London Underground

8:56 The second blast between the Kings Cross and Russell Square

9:17 The third explosion detonated on a train entering the Edgware Road Station,

9:47 The fourth was on a double-decker bus near Tavistock Square in the Bloomsbury area of London.

Additional timeline here.

Full story.

Photos here, here, and here.

Tony Blair and George Bush react.

The Secret Organization of al-Qaida in Europe
claims responsibility.

Blair condemns bombers who "act in the name of Islam".

World stands with London to condemn deadly attacks.

U.S. raises terror alert.

Roundups from Instapundit and Michelle Malkin.