[Oorang]

Now it seems to have become more combattive, as you say, to put it mildly. It's a shame, because this is the beginning of the end of an interesting thread, as the many of the very people, who contributed good information fade away.

Your comment bears repeating. IMO this has been a very informative thread (all three of them) as well as educational and at times entertaining. I, for one, do not wish it to die an unnecessarily premature death due to squabbling. Can't we leave that to O'Rilley, Hannity and Colmes?

[FairOpinion]

I think it would be nice to go back to sharing info, analysis, and speculation about the terrorist threat facing us -- in a cordial, "brainstorming" type atmosphere.

Here is a definition of brainstorming:

"Brainstorming:

Key points:

Brainstorming is a way of generating radical ideas. During the brainstorming process there is no criticism of ideas, as free rein is given to people's creativity. Criticism and judgment cramp creativity.

Group Brainstorming
Group brainstorming can be very effective as it uses the experience and creativity of all members of the group. When individual members reach their limit on an idea, another member's creativity and experience can take the idea to the next stage. Therefore, group brainstorming tends to develop ideas in more depth than individual brainstorming."

Again, that doesn't mean that there isn't an assessment of ideas, and we seem to have managed fine for several months. The thread started on November 3rd and for some 2 and a half months it has been a great source of info sharing, theories, some more realistic, some more far fetched, but the atmosphere was that of collaboration and sharing.

I don't know if we can go back to that, but it surely would be nice, if people would curtail accusations and accusatory questions.