Below The Beltway

A bit of a shooting war with our Pakistani allies:
ISLAMABAD, Pakistan — Pakistan warned U.S. troops not to intrude on its territory Friday, after the two anti-terror allies traded fire along the volatile border with Afghanistan.
Thursday’s five-minute clash adds to already heightened tensions at a time the United States is stepping up cross-border operations in [...]

Apparently, KSM may approve of blowing up buildings but he isn’t too keen on the fact that Mr. Sulu will be getting married in a few months:
”I will not accept any attorney. I will represent myself,” Mohammed said. “I will not accept anybody, even if he is Muslim, if he swears to the American Constitution.”
Mohammed [...]

ABC News’s Jake Tapper brings to light some rather aggressive comments from Hillary Clinton about Iran:
Clinton further displayed tough talk in an interview airing on “Good Morning America” Tuesday. ABC News’ Chris Cuomo asked Clinton what she would do if Iran attacked Israel with nuclear weapons.
“I want the Iranians to know that if I’m the [...]

An al Qaeda terrorist was arrested recently in Mauritania trying to leave the country disguised as a woman:
NOUAKCHOTT, April 10 (Reuters) - Mauritanian police arrested a suspected al Qaeda militant accused of killing four French tourists as he attempted to avoid capture disguised as a woman, a government spokesman said on Thursday.
Marouf Ould Haiba is [...]

Pope Benedict XVI baptizes a Muslim convert to Catholicism:
Italy’s most prominent Muslim commentator, a journalist with iconoclastic views such as support for Israel, converted to Roman Catholicism Saturday when the pope baptized him at an Easter service.
As a choir sang, Pope Benedict XVI poured holy water over Magdi Allam’s head and said a brief prayer [...]

The latest missive from Osama bin Laden appears to put Iraq in a new light:
(CNN) — Al-Jazeera broadcast on Thursday an audiotape on which a voice identified as Osama bin Laden declares “Iraq is the perfect base to set up the jihad to liberate Palestine.”
The voice calls for the people of neighboring countries “to do [...]

Any idea that the only reason that al Qaeda attacks the West is because of American foreign policy should be thrown out the window now that Osama bin Laden has essentially declared war on Western Civilization:
CAIRO, Egypt (AP) — Osama bin Laden warned in a new audiotape of a ‘’severe” reaction for Europeans’ publication of [...]

The New York Times reports today that the United States is starting to apply an idea from the Cold War to a 21st Century conflict:
The emerging belief that terrorists may be subject to a new form of deterrence is reflected in two of the nation’s central strategy documents.
The 2002 National Security Strategy, signed by the [...]

One of the most persistent falsehoods that Americans continue to believe regarding Iraq is the idea that Saddam Hussein had anything to do with 9/11, or that he had links with al Qaeda. This idea has been thoroughly discounted on many occasions and it’s been discounted again:
An examination of more than 600,000 Iraqi documents, audio [...]

The first attack on the World Trade Center:
Had 9/11 not happened, 2/26 would have been the worst day of terrorism in New York’s modern history.
And the 15th anniversary might have compelled the city to slow down a moment, to reflect on how miraculous it was that the World Trade Center survived the 1,500-pound bomb planted [...]