memeorandum: Diane Sawyer, On the Ground And in High Gear (Howard Kurtz/Washington Post)

10:55 AM ET, February 19, 2007

Top Items:

Al Qaeda Chiefs Are Seen to Regain Power — Senior leaders of Al Qaeda operating from Pakistan have re-established significant control over their once battered worldwide terror network and over the past year have set up a band of training camps in the tribal regions near the Afghan border …

Discussion: Captain's Quarters, Secular Blasphemy, Outside The Beltway, The American Street, The Impolitic, A Blog For All, Brilliant at Breakfast, TPMmuckraker, skippy the bush kangaroo, PrairiePundit, Macsmind, Jules Crittenden, CorrenteWire, Liberal Values and Middle Earth Journal

StrategyPage:

Why Al Qaeda Central is Immune from Attack — Al Qaeda is fighting back against the Pakistani tactic of bombing terrorist camps along the Afghan border. In the last few weeks, terrorists bomb attacks have killed over a hundred people. Police have also prevented several additional bombings …

Daveed Gartenstein-Ross / Counterterrorism Blog:

N.Y. Times: Al-Qaeda Gaining Strength in Pakistan, Waziristan Accord Has Failed — A report in today's New York Times discusses American intelligence and counterterrorism officials' view that al-Qaeda's senior leadership has "re-established significant control" over the worldwide terror network.

Muneeza Naqvi / Associated Press:

66 die in India-Pakistan train attack — DEWANA, India - A pair of explosions on a train headed for Pakistan set off a fire that killed at least 66 people, some of whom became trapped when a train door was fused shut by the heat of the flames. Officials said the attack was aimed at disrupting improving relations between the rivals.

Discussion: Gateway Pundit

Allahpundit / Hot Air: NYT: Everything comin' up roses for Al Qaeda in Waziristan

Michael van der Galien / The Moderate Voice: Al Qaeda Leaders Regaining Power

Joe / AMERICAblog: Al Qaeda is making a comeback. Bin Laden is still in charge.

Jim Davenport / Associated Press:

McCain: Roe v. Wade should be overturned — SPARTANBURG, S.C. - Republican presidential candidate John McCain (news, bio, voting record), looking to improve his standing with the party's conservative voters, said Sunday the court decision that legalized abortion should be overturned.

Discussion: Captain's Quarters, The Moderate Voice, The Reaction, Sister Toldjah, digg, MyDD, Street Prophets, The Right's Field, Liberal Values and CorrenteWire

Jonathan Martin / The Politico:
McCain Runs a Different Race

Discussion: Outside The Beltway and Power Line

David D. Kirkpatrick / New York Times:

As Clinton Runs, Some Old Foes Stay on Sideline — Back when Senator Hillary Rodham Clinton was first lady, no one better embodied what she once called the "vast right-wing conspiracy" than Richard Mellon Scaife. — Mr. Scaife, reclusive heir to the Mellon banking fortune …

Discussion: CNN Political Ticker, Is That Legal?, Political Animal, PrairiePundit, Brilliant at Breakfast and Brendan Nyhan

Bill Sammon / Examiner:
Some mull idea of Sen. Bill Clinton

Discussion: Wizbang, PoliPundit.com, Macsmind, The Right Angle, Gun Toting Liberal ™ and Fausta's blog

Robert D. Novak / Washington Post:

Murtha in Command — After 16 undistinguished terms in Congress, Rep. John P. Murtha at long last felt his moment had arrived. He could not keep quiet the secret Democratic strategy that he had forged for the promised "second step" against President Bush's Iraq policy (after the "first step" …

Discussion: Salon, Daily Kos, Decision '08, PrairiePundit and The Political Pit Bull

Robert Farley / Lawyers, Guns and Money:
In Full Gear — The stab-in-the-back narrative is now in full gear.

Discussion: Blogs for Bush, Gateway Pundit, Whiskey Fire and INSTAPUTZ

Robert J. Caldwell / San Diego Union-Tribune:
The party of defeat — Democrats have struggled for a generation …

Discussion: QandO, Power Line and PrairiePundit

Bushra Juhi / Associated Press:

Two Soldiers Killed in Iraq Base Attack — BAGHDAD, Iraq — Insurgents launched a brazen coordinated attack on a U.S. combat post Monday, sending in a suicide bomber and clashing with American troops. Two U.S. soldiers were killed and 17 wounded, the military said.

Discussion: TIME: Swampland, Obsidian Wings and skippy the bush kangaroo

Associated Press:
Explosions Rattle Baghdad Neighborhoods

Discussion: The Political Pit Bull

James Glanz / New York Times:

Iraqi Sunni Lands Show New Oil and Gas Promise — In a remote patch of the Anbar desert just 20 miles from the Syrian border, a single blue pillar of flanges and valves sits atop an enormous deposit of oil and natural gas that would be routine in this petroleum-rich country except for one fact: this is Sunni territory.

Discussion: Captain's Quarters, Prairie Weather, TPMCafe blogs and PrairiePundit

William Wan / Washington Post:

Maryland to Unveil the Page That Began a New Chapter — George Washington's Resignation Speech Left the U.S. Military in Civilians' Hands — It was a speech so moving the crowd wept. It was a speech so personally important George Washington's hand shook as he read it until he had to hold the paper still with both hands.

Discussion: Betsy's Page and Blue Crab Boulevard

CNN:

Reid: Iraq war 'worst foreign policy mistake' in U.S. history … WASHINGTON (CNN) — After months of heated rhetoric slamming President Bush's Iraq policy, the Senate's top Democrat moved into new terrain by declaring the Iraq war a worse blunder than Vietnam. — "This war is a serious situation.

Discussion: DownWithTyranny!, Decision '08 and Angry Bear

Zachary A. Goldfarb / Washington Post:

Campaign Strengthens For a Voting Paper Trail — Efforts are intensifying in Congress to pass legislation that would require electronic touch-screen voting machines used in federal elections to provide paper trails that could be checked in the case of a recount.

Howard Kurtz / Washington Post:

Diane Sawyer, On the Ground And in High Gear — Eight days ago, amid shouts of "Death to America!," Diane Sawyer waded into a huge demonstration in Tehran and asked a group of boys, "Do you not like me?" They thought for a moment and switched to "Death to George Bush!"

Discussion: NewsBusters.org and Romenesko

Michael Barone / Real Clear Politics:

The Misuses of Intelligence — Last week, we had a couple of object lessons in how to use — or misuse — foreign intelligence. — The first emerges from reports by U.S. military authorities in Iraq that weapons have been used there against American forces which seem highly likely to have come from Iran.

Discussion: Dr. Sanity and PrairiePundit

Tom Shales / Washington Post:

Fox News Channel's '1/2 Hour News Hour': Right Funny, in Spots — Can political conservatives be funny? George F. Will and William F. Buckley Jr., among a few others, are great wits, but that's different from setting out to generate peals of laughter throughout the land, and managing to do it.

Discussion: Hot Air