Purported bin Laden tape slams West for 'crusader-Zionist war'  —  (CNN) — Parts of an audiotape purportedly from Osama bin Laden aired Sunday on an Arabic-language TV network in which the al Qaeda leader attacks the West for cutting off funds to the Palestinian Hamas-led government and referred to a …

Why Isn't She in Cuffs?  —  There are countless questions that arise out of the CIA's dismissal of a prominent intelligence officer, Mary O. McCarthy (no relation), for leaking classified information to the media.  But one in particular springs to mind right now: Why isn't she in handcuffs?

Been there, done that  —  Talk of a U.S. strike on Iran is eerily reminiscent of the run-up to the Iraq war.  —  IRAN'S ANNOUNCEMENT that it has enriched a minute amount of uranium has unleashed urgent calls for a preventive U.S. airstrike from the same sources that earlier urged war on Iraq.

Is U.S. being transformed into a radical republic?  —  We Americans came not from a revolution but from an evolution.  —  That is in large part why our so-called revolution produced success while most throughout history did not.  We came as much from the Magna Carta as from our own doings …

Battling cancer — and Blue Cross  —  Unlike THE TYPICAL Blue Cross "valued member," as the annual letter on rate and benefit changes always calls us, I wasn't upset to learn that my monthly premium would increase by $50, to $395 a month, for me and my daughter.  —  That's because I'm not really a Blue Cross valued member.

Moves Signal Tighter Secrecy Within C.I.A.  —  WASHINGTON, April 23 — The crackdown on leaks at the Central Intelligence Agency that led to the dismissal of a veteran intelligence officer last week included a highly unusual polygraph examination for the agency's independent watchdog …

Bush's third term  —  IF PRESIDENT BUSH HOPES the "shake-up" of his administration initiated last week will re-energize his listless presidency, he's bound to be disappointed.  A far more audacious makeover is needed — one that sends Vice President Dick Cheney into early retirement.

A commemoration for the 70 000 that died under Chavez  —  Acuestate por la Vida,  —  commemorating the 70 000 deaths by violence in Venezuela in the last 6 years.  —  Since Hugo Chavez has become president in 1998, the toll of violent death from crime has been multiplied by three.

Fatah, Hamas Gunmen Clash in Gaza  —  GAZA CITY, Gaza Strip - Violent clashes and mass protests erupted Saturday across the West Bank and Gaza Strip between followers of the militant group Hamas and Fatah rivals, after a Hamas leader accused Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas of treachery.

Can Josh Bolten Rescue the Bush Presidency?  —  He started by shaking up the staff.  Next comes a five-point White House "recovery plan"  —  At the George W. Bush campaign headquarters in Austin, Texas, in 1999, policy director Josh Bolten was a low-key Washingtonian in a building full of brash Texans.

Border battler  —  Hillary wants to build a U.S.-Mexico fence first — and she's right  —  Apart from a well-chosen warning about criminalizing Jesus, Sen. Hillary Clinton hasn't waded too deeply into the details of the immigration mess.  Until now.  —  In an interview Friday …

Nothing to fear but the climate change alarmists  —  Do you worry?  You look like you do.  Worrying is the way the responsible citizen of an advanced society demonstrates his virtue: He feels good by feeling bad.  —  But what to worry about?  Iranian nukes?

The Three-Ring Circus Floats Some Trial Balloons  —  Shakes here...  Some Republicans are urging Bush to dump Cheney and replace him with Condi "if he is serious about presenting a new face to the jaded American public."  —  Well, that's certainly a big if, but okay, I'll play along.

'We would have been close even if 9/11 hadn't happened'  —  Tony Blair had just finished a video conference with George W. Bush when I arrived to meet him at Downing Street.  Their conversation, inevitably, had been mainly about Iraq.  "Every week, we have a video conference to catch up on things," he explained.

60 Minutes: CIA Official Reveals Bush, Cheney, Rice Were Personally Told Iraq Had No WMD in Fall 2002  —  Tonight on 60 Minutes, CIA analyst Tyler Drumheller revealed that in the fall of 2002, President Bush, Vice President Cheney, then-National Security Adviser Condoleezza Rice and others …

Honor in Discretion  —  Conduct unbecoming from retired generals.  —  One could say much to defend Secretary of Defense Donald Rumsfeld against the recent attacks of half a dozen retired generals—that the indictments are either old ("not enough troops," a trope from April 2003) or vague …

OP-FOR RADIO STRIKES BACK  —  It's the MOAP: The mother of all podcasts!  Click here for the second installment of Op-for Radio!  —  In our second podcast, recorded from the 2006 Milblog Conference, John and I interview an all-star cast of milbloggers.... Matt and Uncle Jimbo from Blackfive, LT Smash, and Chuck from TC Overide.

The Missing Girls of Iraq  —  Sex trafficking, virtually nonexistent under Saddam Hussein, has resurfaced in Iraq.  TIME reports on a seldom-discussed epidemic: girls being kidnapped and sold to brothels  —  The man on the phone with the 14-year-old Iraqi girl called himself Sa'ad.