It's not often that I find myself in agreement with a Washington Post editorial:

On Thursday, USA Today reported that three U.S. telecommunications companies have been voluntarily providing the National Security Agency with anonymized domestic telephone records -- that is, records stripped of individually identifiable data, such as names and place of residence. If true, the architect of this program deserves our thanks and probably a medal. That architect was presumably Gen. Michael Hayden, former director of the NSA and President Bush's nominee to become director of the Central Intelligence Agency.

Another curious little facet of what CBS chooses to describe as a "scandal" is the lack of information in the mainstream media about the Qwest chief executive who chose to thumb his nose at the NSA's request for anonymous calling data, Joseph Nacchio. While accounts describe Nacchio as the "former" CEO of Qwest, they tend not to mention why he left. This is why:

Washington, D.C., March 15, 2005 - The Securities and Exchange Commission today charged Joseph P. Nacchio, former co-chairman and chief executive officer of Qwest Communications International Inc., and eight other former Qwest officers and employees with fraud and other violations of the federal securities laws. In three separate but related civil actions, the Commission alleges that, between 1999 and 2002, the Qwest defendants engaged in a multi-faceted fraudulent scheme designed to mislead the investing public about the company's revenue and growth.

I still think there's a good chance, as I wrote earlier, that the "leak" of the NSA program was deliberate, and designed to force Democrats into the open with their unpopular opposition to lawful surveillance programs.

Cross-posted at The Dread Pundit Bluto, Stop the ACLU, and Vince Aut Morire.

Posted by: Bluto at 09:56 AM | Comments (6) | Add Comment
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Wear a belt: useful for strangling would be hijackers. A heavy buckle is a nice bludgeon, too.

A pack of guitar strings: same as above, but with the added bonus of severing arteries.

Laptop: Screen can be shattered into nice shards. If left in carrying case, makes another nice bludgeon.

Roll of quarters: almost as good as brass knuckles.

How about these shoes? Ha!

Anyone else have any good ideas for Rusty's carry-on?

Posted by: Vinnie at 06:48 PM | Comments (21) | Add Comment
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Annika posts a link to a 2 week old story, that, oddly enough, didn't seem to make national headlines.

I'm a news junkie, you're a news junkie. I surf MyWay news, Google news, Yahoo news, Fox News, Drudge, and our local news looking for stuff to post on.

And I won't even list the number of blogs I hit each day. Yeesh.

I hadn't heard of this, have you?

Annika makes an interesting observation. This incident happened the week of the United 93 premiere.

Posted by: Vinnie at 06:17 PM | Comments (4) | Add Comment
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Radical Islamic Cleric Abu Qatada is arguing in a British deportation hearing that sending him back to Jordan to face his sentence there is against British law because he could be executed in Jordan. Jordan has agreed not to execute him. The British Government is arguing that Qatada is a security risk. You think?

BBC : A radical Islamic cleric who has been accused of being a leading figure in al-Qaeda was a risk to UK security, a deportation hearing has been told.

Ian Burnett QC, for the home secretary, told the London hearing: "The entirety of the evidence in this case supports the conclusion that the appellant is a danger to national security when everything known about him is assessed."
The UK has signed an agreement with Jordan that anyone sent back there will not be tortured or killed.

Abu Qatada's Abu Qatada's lawyer is expected to argue that the guarantee is inadequate.

Posted by: Howie at 09:25 AM | Comments (11) | Add Comment
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(Qalansawe, Israel) I was troubled and tickled by this almost unnoticeable report from Monday night.

From YnetNews.com:

Three teenagers from the Arab town of Qalansawe were arrested after 150,000 detonators were found in the house of one of them. The teenagers, age 15 and 16 were taken to a police station for questioning where they claimed that the detonators meant for their personal use.

Since police reportedly found no explosives, it's logical to assume that the cache of detonators was only temporarily stored by terrorist plotters in anticipation of future attacks against Israel. I would also assume that Israeli Defense Forces (IDF) are aggressively pursuing the actual owner of the detonators and trying to determine how they were smuggled into the country. Notably, the storage location is an Arab community which sits a mere 10 miles inland from the coastal city of Netanya, a favorite venue for suicide bombings.

From Interested-Participant.

Posted by: Mike Pechar at 10:26 PM | Comments (5) | Add Comment
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