memeorandum: The start of an Iranian intifada (FRONTLINE)

9:55 AM ET, December 28, 2009

Top Items:

U.S. Widens Terror War to Yemen, a Qaeda Bastion — WASHINGTON — In the midst of two unfinished major wars, the United States has quietly opened a third, largely covert front against Al Qaeda in Yemen. — A year ago, the Central Intelligence Agency sent several of its top field operatives …

Discussion: Washington Monthly, Washington Post, Taegan Goddard's …, The Strata-Sphere, Riehl World View, Gawker, Truthdig, Guardian, The Page and msnbc.com

Wall Street Journal:

The Terror This Time — Janet Napolitano says the system worked. No, we were brave and lucky. — Printer — Friendly — A U.S. government that has barred the phrase “war on terror” has nonetheless acknowledged that a failed Christmas day bomb attack on an airliner was a terrorist attempt.

Discussion: Commentary and Israel Matzav

Nick Allen / Telegraph:

Detroit terror attack: second Nigerian arrested on Amsterdam flight — A second Nigerian man has been arrested on a Northwest Airlines jet in Detroit 48 hours after Umar Farouk Abdulmutallab tried to blow up an airliner. — Sunday's flight - Northwest Airlines 253 - was exactly the same route …

Discussion: Outside The Beltway, The Jawa Report and Interested-Participant

Washington Post:

Uninvestigated terrorism warning about Detroit suspect called not unusual — When Umar Farouk Abdulmutallab's father in Nigeria reported concern over his son's “radicalization” to the U.S. Embassy there last month, intelligence officials in the United States deemed the information insufficient to pursue.

Discussion: Matthew Yglesias, The Confluence, Hot Air and New York Times

Marc Lynch:
Whether it's AQ or not, nobody in Arab media cares

Discussion: sify.com, TalkLeft and RADAMISTO

Elisabeth Bumiller / New York Times:
Napolitano Says No Evidence of Wider Terrorist Plot

Discussion: Fox News, Front Page Magazine, Seattle Post-Intelligencer, Alan Colmes' Liberaland, Political Byline, Newsweek Blogs, Hullabaloo, USS Neverdock, Power Line and Althouse

Donald Sensing / Sense of Events: Flight 253 hero Schuringa to be prosecuted

Spencer Ackerman / ATTACKERMAN:
Ain't Nothin Wrong With Yemen An Invasion Can't Solve, Right?

Discussion: American Spectator, OpEdNews, Firedoglake, Raw Story, Matthew Yglesias, The Huffington Post and Althouse

Sean Rayment / Telegraph:
Analysis: Detroit terror attack is a major intelligence and security failure

Discussion: Dr. Melissa Clouthier and Wizbang

Martin Fletcher / Times of London:

At least eight dead in Tehran street battles — At least eight anti-government protesters, including a nephew of Mir Hossein Mousavi, Iran's opposition leader, were shot dead yesterday as the smouldering confrontation between the regime and the so-called Green Movement finally erupted.

Discussion: Harry's Place

FRONTLINE:

The start of an Iranian intifada — [ analysis ] — An Iranian-style intifada seems to be in the making. — At the beginning of the current period of opposition, which started soon after Mahmoud Ahmadinejad's controversial reelection, quiet periods of seeming normalcy occurred between what were less frequent demonstrations.

Discussion: BBC, The Washington Note, Jules Crittenden, Taylor Marsh, The Washington Independent, Reuters and The Field on the Narcosphere

The Daily NiteOwl:

Ashura Says: Iranians Aren't Punching Bags — The Ashura (December 27) protests across Iran are over. Tens of thousands marched across the country as in the past to show their discontent with dictatorship and human rights violations. They yet again proved that the Iranian struggle is far from over.

Discussion: Gateway Pundit, Foreign Policy, Enduring America, The Daily Dish, The Newest Deal and Babalú Blog

Nile Gardiner / blogs.telegraph.co.uk:
Iranian protesters are dying for freedom - where is Barack Obama?

Discussion: Gateway Pundit

BBC:
Iran protesters in fresh clashes

Discussion: Informed Comment and Gawker

New York Times:
Police Are Said to Have Killed 10 in Iran Protests

Discussion: Washington Monthly, Enduring America, The Newest Deal, Flopping Aces, The Daily Dish, Doug Ross, AMERICAblog News, The Lede, Boing Boing, Talking Points Memo, Ian Welsh, Welcome Back to Pottersville, The Washington Independent, Mediaite, Swampland, ATTACKERMAN, Guardian and ProfessorBainbridge.com

BBC:
Iranian protesters die in clashes

Discussion: the talking dog, Newshoggers.com, Taylor Marsh and Aljazeera

Paul Krugman / New York Times:

The Big Zero — Maybe we knew, at some unconscious, instinctive level, that it would be an era best forgotten. Whatever the reason, we got through the first decade of the new millennium without ever agreeing on what to call it. The aughts? The naughties? Whatever.

Discussion: Prairie Weather

WJKT-TV:

Memphis Man Arrested: Accused of Making Bomb Threats & Threatening to Start “Holy War” — MEMPHIS, TN - Tonight, Mohamed Ibrahim is out after posting $100 bond. Earlier in the day, he was arrested after police say he walked into several Memphis businesses and threatened to blow them up.

Discussion: Examiner, Atlas Shrugs, Gateway Pundit, Jihad Watch, THE ASTUTE BLOGGERS and Political Byline

CNN:

STATE OF THE UNION WITH JOHN KING — Attempted Bombing of a Northwest Airlines Jet — THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED. — CROWLEY: This is CNN's “State of the Union” report for Sunday, December 27th. I'm Candy Crowley. John King is off.

Discussion: Washington Monthly, The Washington Independent, Raw Story and Eschaton

Lee Fang / Think Progress:
Mary Matalin claims President Bush ‘inherited’ the September 11th terror attacks.

Discussion: BlogHer

Washington Wire:

Napolitano Reverses Course, Says Air Security Did NOT Work — A day after saying “the system worked” — and being pressed by CNN's Candy Crowley about how exactly that was the case — Homeland Security Secretary Janet Napolitano changed tack Monday and said that the U.S. air-travel security net …

Discussion: Mediaite

Michelle Malkin:
Clown alert: Janet Napolitano says the “system worked”

Discussion: Gates of Vienna, Shot in the Dark, TigerHawk, The Sundries Shack, CNN, Politico Live's Blog, Riehl World View, The Nose On Your Face, Dr. Melissa Clouthier, Political Punch, Fausta's Blog, Another Black Conservative, Scared Monkeys, Doug Ross, The Other McCain, Pundit & Pundette and Gateway Pundit

Jonah Goldberg / The Corner on National Review Online:
Fire Napolitano — By: Jonah Goldberg

Mark Silva / The Swamp:

Winners and Losers: Political toll of 2009 — Michelle Obama, Hillary Clinton and Sonia Sotomayor: — “Winners.” — So say a majority of Americans asked to assess the political — winners of 2009 - with the first lady leading the list. — Nearly three-quarters of those surveyed …

Discussion: The Politico

Steve Campbell / Washington Post:

Cowboy hats, secret files and more headed to Bush library — LEWISVILLE, TEX. — Eight years of “still-evolving” American history is meticulously catalogued, wrapped, stored and guarded in the climate-controlled warehouse. — Included here are 68 million pages of documents, a surfboard …

Discussion: The Page

Nate Silver / FiveThirtyEight:

The Odds of Airborne Terror — Not going to do any editorializing here; just going to do some non-fancy math. James Joyner asks: … Let's expand Joyner's scope out to the past decade. Over the past decade, there have been, by my count, six attempted terrorist incidents on board …

Discussion: QandO, Stop The ACLU and PoliBlog

CNN:

New Detroit scare declared ‘non-serious’ — (CNN) — The security alert aboard a Northwest Airlines jet Sunday was the result of a “non-serious” incident, and the man questioned in connection with the scare does not appear to be a threat, a law enforcement source said Sunday.

Discussion: The Reaction and Mashable!