The Telegraph reports some potentially very important news. Excerpts:
Details of Atta's visit to the Iraqi capital in the summer of 2001, just weeks before he launched the most devastating terrorist attack in US history, are contained in a top secret memo written to Saddam Hussein, the then Iraqi president, by Tahir Jalil Habbush al-Tikriti, the former head of the Iraqi Intelligence Service.
and
The second part of the memo, which is headed "Niger Shipment", contains a report about an unspecified shipment - believed to be uranium - that it says has been transported to Iraq via Libya and Syria.
Can it be true?
(via The Corner.)
Via Unganisha.org, BlogAfrica has a handy list of Africa-related weblogs. I plan on going through the list for the next update of the Blogs around the World project. Similarly, this Latino Pundit has a short list of Latin American blogs, some of which are new to me, that I'll be reviewing.
Ashok (of Unganisha) also has an interesting, handy and entertaining summary of his recent trip to Ethiopia with some great photographs. Excerpt that left me wanting to attend an Ethiopian blog-bash:
If you are a drunkard – Ethiopia is as close to heaven, as it gets. Beer is unbelievably cheap! Hotels charge anywhere between 2birr and 5birr for bottled beers – draft beer is available for about 1.5 birr (cheaper than coke!!!). Some of the common brands are: meta, bedele (look for the cute colobus monkey on the label), dashend, st.george. Most of them are malt beers, and a few are brewed out of corn starch.The arack (apparently spirit distilled from millet) served in some places is pretty rank – drink it only if you don’t have a flight to catch the next morning. The traditional honey-wine called “Tej” isn’t bad (though a bit strong).
Happy reading.
On NRO, Michael Novak discusses the crazy Bush-hatred, and notes that “Bush has stolen two things which the Democrats believe they own by right: the presidency, and the future.” Additional excerpt:
The second thing the Democrats think they own, by a kind of Hegelian dialectic, is the future. The Left has long believed that the Left defines the future, and points out the path of progress. In the past, moderate Republicans tended to respect this leftist claim, protesting only timidly, "Not so fast, not so much, not just yet." The Democrats got used to facing an essentially compliant, "me-too" opposition. They thought President Bush would be the same. He isn't.That's why some Democrats call Bush "the most radical president in history," "the worst president [from their point of view] in a hundred years," a "disaster," and other such names.
It would take another column to show how Bush has cut off the future that the Democrats thought they owned, and how he dared to put the world (not just the U.S.) on an entirely new progressive path, both in domestic and in foreign policy. If he succeeds, the Democrats will be caught thinking in outmoded terms. In tax policy, in welfare policy, in medical care, and in support for democratic reforms rather than mere "stability"overseas, the very meaning of "progressive" will have been defined afresh. Failed Democratic programs will be revised, new directions will be set.
See also Robert Bartley's explanation, briefly discussed here.
On Iraq the Model, Omar presents the story of Dr. Firas Mahmood Ya'koob and his home town. Excerpts:
This story is dedicated to all those who oppose what's happening in Iraq, that's to say; the Arab and Muslim world and the (peace activists) in the hope that it will make them pause for a while and reconsider their (noble stand).
and
The battle is not over yet, the evil and cruel criminals are every where, and they will not rest until they kidnap our dreams, but this time we’re stronger, as we are not alone. The whole good and brave people on earth took it upon themselves to fight with us, we hate wars and all the bloodshed that comes with them, but we have no other choice.
I hope people will remember Omar's post the next time Howard Dean or Al Gore call this fight a "mistake."
