[FairOpinion]

"FBI agents arrested Elsaai, who was a flight attendant for Planet Air Charters"

THIS is disconcering, to say the least!

[JustPiper]

The "Real" Threat Matrix

INTELLIGENCE
Dispute Prompts Scrutiny of Bush's Daily Reading By DOUGLAS JEHL
Published: February 14, 2004
WASHINGTON, Feb. 13 — The highly classified digest that provides President Bush with his daily intelligence updates is being scrutinized within the government and Congress after criticism that the information Mr. Bush has been given on Iraq and other matters has not reflected a broad range of views, senior administration and Congressional officials say.

Both the Central Intelligence Agency and the Senate Intelligence Committee, which voted on Thursday night to expand its inquiry on Iraq intelligence, have signaled their intent to examine the shaping and presentation of the daily briefing, the officials said Friday.

Dispute Prompts Scrutiny of Bush's Daily Reading

[JustPiper]

A Candidate From Russia Is in London With New Tale
By STEVEN LEE MYERS

Published: February 14, 2004

MOSCOW, Feb. 13 — Ivan P. Rybkin, the Russian presidential candidate who disappeared for five days before resurfacing in Ukraine this week, appeared in London on Friday and offered yet another explanation for his bizarre absence, saying he had been drugged and kidnapped.

None of Mr. Rybkin's remarks could be corroborated, and his new version contradicted statements he made after returning to Moscow on Tuesday night and in a rambling radio interview the next day.

http://www.nytimes.com/2004/02/14/international/europe/14RUSS.html

[JustPiper]

Federal Panel Recommends More Testing for Mad Cow
By ALICIA AULT

Published: February 14, 2004

SILVER SPRING, Md., Feb. 13 — Joining a growing chorus, federal advisers on Friday urged the government to increase testing for mad cow disease greatly to better gauge if the United States has a problem, and if so, how widespread it is.

The panelists said that without that data, there was no way to minimize the risk to humans who might be exposed by eating meat, or through drugs, vaccines, cosmetics and dietary supplements that contain raw materials from cattle.

http://www.nytimes.com/2004/02/14/national/nationalspecial2/14COW.html

[JustPiper]

Terrorists prepped for a long conflict
By Anwar Iqbal
UNITED PRESS INTERNATIONAL

QUETTA, Pakistan — A terrorist survival information kit, obtained by United Press International, reveals how the Taliban, al Qaeda and their sympathizers are preparing to survive a long and drawn-out U.S.-led war against terrorism.

The contents of the kit have been printed in several languages — Arabic, Dari, Pashto and Urdu — and the kit has been distributed secretly among terrorists in Afghanistan and Pakistan.

The contents, consisting of a number of documents, were obtained in Pakistan from people who are associated with the Taliban, al Qaeda and other banned groups that continue to operate in the region.

http://www.washtimes.com/world/20040213-113721-1802r.htm