2 U.S. Reports Seek to Counter Conspiracy Theories About 9/11  —  Faced with an angry minority of people who believe the Sept. 11 attacks were part of a shadowy and sprawling plot run by Americans, separate reports were published this week by the State Department and a federal science agency insisting …

Al-Qaeda Leader Arrested in Iraq  —  Iraqi armed forces have arrested the No. 2 leader of al-Qaeda in Iraq, the country's national security leader said Sunday.  —  The leader, Hamed Jumaa Faris Juri al-Saaydi, was captured within the past few days near Baqubah, along with 20 other senior members …

Why abduct us?  We cede our values for free  —  Did you see that video of the two Fox journalists announcing they'd converted to Islam?  The larger problem, it seems to me, is that much of the rest of the Western media have also converted to Islam, and there seems to be no way to get them to convert back to journalism.

Friends of Hillary hint she may pull out of presidential race  —  FRIENDS of Hillary Clinton have been whispering the unthinkable.  Despite her status as the runaway frontrunner for the 2008 Democratic nomination for president, some of her closest advisers say she might opt out of the White House race …

Armitage and Powell: Looking at PlameGate retrospectively  —  The indefatigable "Larwyn" sent around a link at some god-awful hour last night to an editorial in today's New York Post calling for "Justice for Scooter."  It is not one of that great newspaper's finer efforts.

The "Azzam" Threat: A prelude to Future Jihad in America  —  PS: This is a short version posting.  The longer version will be posted later.  —  The video tape issued by al Qaeda's "as-sahhab" production, in which Ayman Zawahiri introduces Jihadist Adam Gahdan to the world as a senior speaker …

G.O.P. Hopeful Says Rumsfeld Should Resign  —  State Senator Thomas H. Kean Jr., the Republican nominee for United States Senate in New Jersey, says he is so frustrated with the Bush administration's handling of the war in Iraq that he is pushing for something that few Republicans have supported …

Israel plans for war with Iran and Syria  —  Uzi Mahnaimi, Tel Aviv, and Sarah Baxter, New York  —  THREATENED by a potentially nuclear-armed Tehran, Israel is preparing for a possible war with both Iran and Syria, according to Israeli political and military sources.

I Am a Reality-Based Center-Left Technocrat...  Eric Rauchway writes: … I am, as I said above, a reality-based center-left technocrat.  I am pragmatically interested in government policies that work: that are good for America and for the world.  My natural home is in the bipartisan center …

Hardball Tactics in an Era of Threats  —  To the government, they were a terrorist risk in the Washington area.  To local Muslims, they were unfairly singled out for prosecution and severe sentences in a post-9/11 world.  —  The crowd was so big it spilled out of the Alexandria courtroom …

I no longer have power to save Iraq from civil war, warns Shia leader  —  The most influential moderate Shia leader in Iraq has abandoned attempts to restrain his followers, admitting that there is nothing he can do to prevent the country sliding towards civil war.

'Deluded': Extraordinary attack on Blair by Cabinet  —  'Self-indulgent' PM urged to 'end the pantomime' as senior ministers meet to hasten his departure  —  Tony Blair will be served notice to quit Downing Street at a meeting of the Cabinet next week when senior ministers plan to confront …

Endurance Meets Doubt in Iraq  —  SOON after Specialist Michael Potocki was shot and killed in June, the soldiers in his platoon agreed on their goal for the months ahead: to survive and make it home alive.  —  Survival may be the only thing the troops here agree on.

Her Majesty's Man in Tashkent  —  The courtroom provided a telling introduction.  I had recently arrived as British ambassador in Uzbekistan's old Silk Road capital of Tashkent, where I was watching the trial of a 22-year-old dissident named Iskander Khuderbegainov.