LINK DUMP TIME

OK, time to empty out the old stuff that I've neglected for the past week or so... in no particular order, and cherry-picking from the top: David Gergen hits one out of the park in this piece, from next week's issue of US News and World Report: Dueling for values (5/23/05) Generals Offer a Sober Outlook on Iraqi War: "The senior officer who met with reporters in Baghdad said there had been 21 car bombings in the capital in May, and 126 in the past 80 days. All last year, he said, there were only about 25 car bombings in Baghdad." More on the mysterious disappearance of Bianca Piper, from Lincoln County Missouri. Missing since May 10th. Last seen walking on a gravel road about a mile from her home. Many questions and few answers in disappearance of 13-year-old PolySigh says: This issue is not going away. I'd suggest, it never really showed up. Though Mother Jones did run this piece: Secret Way To War. The Christian Science Monitor offers up this explanation on why it's been a 'dud' in the US. DefenseLINK News: on the challenges within the intelligence community gathering human intelligence John Bolton is an unfit choice. From Reuters:

"John Bolton, nominated as U.S. ambassador to the United Nations, planned to seek the help of the CIA director to punish an intelligence officer who disagreed with him and later misled a Senate panel about the incident, Democratic senators said in a report on Wednesday. Democrats on the Senate Foreign Relations Committee issued the report, meant as ammunition in their fight against Bolton's nomination when it reaches the Senate floor, possibly as soon as next week. Democrats contend that Bolton, currently the top U.S. diplomat for arms control, misled the committee by testifying under oath that he did not seek to discipline intelligence analysts with whom he disagreed, or have them removed. But in the case of an intelligence officer for Latin America, the report said documents showed Bolton and his staff 'actively discussed efforts to punish and remove the NIO (national intelligence officer) for several months in the summer and fall of 2002.'"

FT's editorial page weighs in on Bolton here (subscription req'd). Romenesko: Anonymous sources are like atomic energy, says KR's Hoyt This Washington Post editorial on why it's probably a bad idea to overpay for property in PG County right now: Pr. George's Body Count Have I mentioned that Frank Luntz is a bad bad man recently? Armchair Generalist at liberalsagainstterrorism on this week's testimony in front of the Senate's Homeland Security and Government Affairs Committee by George Galloway. Yeow. Warning: this one's hot... if you missed this escapade, check it out. Full transcript and video here. More here and here. the invaluable RCFP on more fallout from the Larry Franklin case:

REPORTERS QUESTIONED IN PENTAGON LEAK. The New York Times reports that FBI agents have questioned four reporters in an investigation into the alleged leaks of military secrets by a Pentagon analyst. The as-yet-unidentified reporters have not been subpoenaed yet, and are being questioned only on a voluntary basis, but a federal grand jury that could subpoena them has been convened. One reporter was identified as working for a newspaper, and the others published on the Internet. The target of the investigation, former Department of Defense analyst Lawrence A. Franklin, has been charged by federal prosecutors with disclosing classified information about potential attacks on American forces in Iraq to foreign officials and to the media, and with passing information to a pro-Israel lobbying group.

indirectly related, and again thanks to RCFP: Does a reporter's confidentiality agreement extend to protecting a cover-up? An ironically-titled piece from Michael Isikoff, covering a pretty thorny issue.

Newsweek: Consider the Source The State Department says MEK is a terror group. Human Rights Watch says it’s a cult. For the White House, MEK is a source of intelligence on Iran.

Despite the group's notoriety, Bush himself cited purported intelligence gathered by MEK as evidence of the Iranian regime's rapidly accelerating nuclear ambitions. At a March 16 press conference, Bush said Iran's hidden nuclear program had been discovered not because of international inspections but "because a dissident group pointed it out to the world." White House aides acknowledged later that the dissident group cited by the president is the National Council of Resistance of Iran (NCRI), one of the MEK front groups added to the State Department list two years ago.

In an appearance before a House International Relations Subcommittee a year ago, John Bolton, the controversial State Department undersecretary who Bush has nominated to become US ambassador to the United Nations, was questioned by a Congressman sympathetic to MEK about whether it was appropriate for the U.S. government to pay attention to allegations about Iran supplied by the group. Bolton said he believed that MEK "qualifies as a terrorist organization according to our criteria." But he added that he did not think the official label had "prohibited us from getting information from them. And I certainly don't have any inhibition about getting information about what's going on in Iran from whatever source we can find that we deem reliable."

This man made himself a bit too comfortable improving property on an island in the Magothy River in Anne Arundel County, Maryland without first applying for building permits. Now, county attorneys are deciding whether they're going to let him apply retroactively, or order them demolished.

Wagner's sparkling white home, replica lighthouse, pool and waterfront gazebo drew the attention of neighbors and passing boaters. But county inspectors did not spot the new house until last fall.

Thanks to a very good friend of mine ;)... who I feel the need to mention is also hopelessly conservative... I'm now hooked on this simple little frickin game. Seriously, he warned me before I tried it, and he was right. Now I'm warning you... DON'T CLICK HERE: Bum Lee's Deanimator

An awesome Washington Post piece on my favorite place on Earth. Jerusalem Post on Palestinians joining the jihad in Iraq. (shaking head)