On British TV performing "Shame".

When Tenet hit the talk-show circuit last week to defend his stewardship of the CIA and his role in the run-up to the war, he did not mention that he is a director and advisor to four corporations that earn millions of dollars in revenue from contracts with U.S. intelligence agencies and the Department of Defense. Nor is it ever mentioned in his book. But according to public records, Tenet has received at least $2.3 million from those corporations in stock and other compensation. Meanwhile, one of the CIA's largest contractors gave Tenet access to a highly secured room where he could work on classified material for his book.

and in the interests of National Security:

Four days before Tenet's book was published, the Office of the Director of National Intelligence decided not to release the results of a yearlong study of intelligence contracting, because disclosure of the figure, a DNI official told the New York Times, could damage national security.

The six suspects arrested Monday night will face terror conspiracy charges. Three of the men are brothers, all believed to be Islamic radicals. Authorities have told Newschannel 4 that some of the men were born in Albania and the former Yugoslavia. Investigators said most of the suspects have spent several years here in the U.S.

Explain what you would do to stop the terrorists.

Your failure to not explain and your continual attacks is hurting the Demos. And if you can't get elected, you can't do anything.

I am an ex-Demo. People such as you ran me away in '68. I tried to come back, and did vote for Carter, but he managed to make me ashamed of that.

I am an Independent. I am a Social Liberal. Maybe a better tag would be "Old Line Liberal."

And I think we have some problems that need to be solved. Health care, drug law reform, minority rights, etc. And the Repubs aren't going to do that.

But if the Demos are just "I hate Bushers" and "I don't believe we have a terrorist problem," I'll vote for the Repub. Who, I hope, will be Rudy because he is closer to me than anyone else on the social issues. (And yes, he isn't perfect. But few things are.)

So Edger - perhaps you could try and explain the Islamic violence in southern Thailand?  Thailand is not engaged in Afghanistan, Iraq, or any other part of the middle east.  There's been escalating terrorism in the south for years, and after a coup brought to power a new government that has tried to engage the terrorists, the violence has gotten worse.

This is a fairly clear-cut case of Islamic radicals attempting to impose their will.  So why does that even exist?  How is the West, or colonialism, or any of the other bugbears you like to bring up involved?  

  Our goal has to be to limit the ability of our enmeies to harm us to the extent possible without adopting reactive measures that destroy our civil liberties in the process. The balance there is one about which reasonable people can and do disagree but I don't advocate the extremes of establishing a "security state" or of blithely didmissing the consequences of doing nothing to combat terrorism.

  Absolutely we need to use our power to restrict the movement of men, money and materiel used to support terrorism. (That includes the facilitation by the Saudis, Pakistanis and others with whom we have chosen to align and are playing both sides.) We do need to gather intelligence and infiltrate suspected terrorist organizations here and abroad. However, when it comes to domestic espionage we need strong oversight and REAL checks on the ability of the government to invade personal privacy.

   We also need to be willing and able to use force to capture and yes, kill when necessary to eliminate people who will harm us otherwise. Of course, that is not advocating just capturing killing people out of fear or animosity.

  One big problem is repairing the damage bush has done to the effort to control and reduce terrorism by undermining the support for appropriate response both domestically and internationally. He has created a level of distrust that does in fact-- even if it shouldn't in many  cases-- allow people to propagandize that nothing we do is on the level. that's one (of many reasons) the next President needs to be free of any taint of association with Bush.

  The threat is very real and if left unchecked, the Islamic world will reach a critical mass where we find ourselves in WWIII and that is an outcome no one should want. Better a prolonged low-intensity struggle that we can never "win" than an all out conflict that will have only losers.

   It borders on insanity not to accept the reality that there are HUGE numbers of people who are attracted to the theocratic ideology of militant Global Islam and that there are people ready and willing (but not currently able) to unify and  lead them on a quest to destroy us. They tell us so and they act consistently with what they say. We must, if you think we have anything worth preserving do what we can to prevent the consolidation of power within the Islamic world in the hands of those bent on our destruction. I simply see NO reason to think it could not happen if we allow those who want it act without our vigilant resistance.

  Also, do you agree with the part about the next President being free of any taint of association with Bush? In case you find that cryptic, i meant it needs to be a Democrat.

All your attempts at justifying the unjustifiable are predicated on the vain hope of people first stipulating (without noticing) that preemptive aggression, i.e. "war on terror", i.e. hegemonic imperialist expansion, is an unarguable premise.

It isn't.

IOW, they are the same type of non-reasoning that says the Iraq debacle, an occupation and rape/pillage of a country which you misleadingly call a war, is failing because of incompetence, or because of protest against it.

Nobody is buying anymore. But you knew that. Except the peasants:

The American peasant cannot protect his country as he believes he is doing because by his indifference, ignorance and credulity he cannot differentiate truth from falsehood.

Better luck next time.