A Trio of Topics

This week the news has been peppered with both political parties firing verbal shots or parrying thrusts over what is turning out to be a true bureaucratic cluster fornication. If any one has lived lucky this week it is the President who gets a chance to fix the problem without having to do it while answering to the families of 277 lost souls and an througly outraged citizenry, had the bomber completed his jihad.

The mainstream news media in the United States has been leaning slightly backward to be objective and not blame the President for the failure of policies further down the chain of command. British papers have been more revealing about the potential threat posed by grassroots jihadist who have been training in Yemen for the next wave of terror. Yemen warns of hundreds more al-Qaida operatives in country and asks for help from the Guardian.

Leading off this week I turn to this post from wired.com's Danger Room. Noah Shachtman, gets a major nod for posting this look inside the mind of "underware bomber" or perhaps the guy who burned his balls off, trying to get 72 virgins.

Here’s a rare chance to step inside a would-be terrorist’s head. From 2005 to 2007, underpants bomber Umar Farouk Abdulmutallab appears to have posted 310 times to the Islamic Forum on Gawaher.com, under the handle “Farouk1986.”

Read more
 a look-inside-the-underpants-bombers-mind

I wrote in a previous post about how this story is resonating across the blogs.  Blogfriend Mark wrote this short post, correctly entitled  A Short Rant....

And from Threatswatch, comes this commentary by Michael Tanji.
Of No Pratical Significance

Turning back to the cold stark mountains and valleys that make up Afghanistan we turn our attention to Steven Pressfield, bestselling author and founder of the much read blog It's The Tribes Stupid. Steve has thrown his considerable skill as a writer and interviewer to showcase an ongoing series with Afghan Tribal Chief Ajmal Khan Zazai. Steve's recently interviewed retired U.S. Army Major, William S. “Mac” McCallister about COIN in a tribal society. An inciteful read that compliments articles and interviews with people with boots on the ground experience in Afghanistan. COIN in A Tribal Society

Chief Ajmal Khan Zazai, second from right

Topping off todays reads is this from the men at The Art of Manliness. Part II of their popular motivational posters starring Winston Churchill.