[Grut]

``We don't believe it went beyond the planning stages,'' the official said.

...and they don't have any copies of the plans, any of the other planners under arrest or any hardware, apparently. What they do have is a non-case they can milk for publicity: "Sam Smith told us Joe Brown is going to blow up Washington."

Maybe there's more evidence than this article reports but what we're told doesn't incline me away from my usual cynicism.

[m1911]

I'm a little cynical too. The timing of it stinks to high heaven - we've had him under arrest for a month+, but now that Ashcroft is in Russia, we do the announcement via a special television hookup?

I'm tempted to believe it's real only because it's so transparently bad if it's supposed to be a PR/spin thing. Of course, then I'd have to believe that Clinton's al Qaeda cruise missile attacks were real too, and I just don't think I could get my head around that.

[Coop]

Maybe there's more evidence than this article reports

Gee, ya think?!?