July 25, 2002

A judge ruled today Zacarias Moussaoui is competent to plead guilty to terrorism charges and the lone man charged as a conspirator in the Sept. 11 attacks said he intended to plead guilty to some of the counts against him. [ Nandotimes ] 12:46:02 PM

The Jerusalem Post reports on why Israel killed Hamas leader Salah Shehada: Shehadeh, 40, was in the midst of planning a wave of terrorist attacks against soldiers and civilians that was unprecedented in size and scope, security officials said. . . . The plans included rigging a truck with 600 kilograms of explosives to blow up the recently constructed Gush Katif bridge, the sole route used by hundreds of Israelis daily to travel to and from their communities. He also planned to massacre residents of Gush Katif communities by carrying out an attack during the celebrations currently under way there, and was planning to have suicide bombers infiltrate Israel for a number of bomb attacks to be carried out in populated areas in Beersheba. They said Shehadeh was also planning to abduct soldiers and civilians to gain the release of Palestinians in Israeli jails, and planned to rig a boat with explosives to be blown up on one of the beaches used by residents of the Gush Katif communities. The Middle East Media Research Institute translates a May interview with Shehada that appeared on the Web site Islam Online. (The original is in Arabic, so remember to read from right to left.) The man behind the Passover massacre claims that "we do not target children, the elderly, and places of worship, although these places of worship incite to murdering Muslims" and that "our motto is: 'We are not fighting the Jews because they are Jews, but because they occupy our land. We are not fighting them because of their religion but because they have usurped our land. If we kill a child it is not intentional.' " A more honest account of Hamas's account comes in the New York Times, which quotes a statement from Hamas's Qassam Brigades: "We will not rest until we have our revenge, until we see Zionist body parts in every restaurant, bus stop, buses and sidewalk." The Council on American Islamic Relations has a press release on the Israeli strike, which reaches new heights of brazen dishonesty: The Council on American-Islamic Relations (CAIR) today strongly condemned Israel's use of American taxpayer-supplied weapons to massacre at least 11 Palestinians, including women and children, in an attack on a residential building in the Gaza Strip. Nowhere in the statement does CAIR mention Shehada or Hamas. The New York Post's John Podhoretz notes that Israel's attack was in compliance with the Geneva Convention Relative to the Protection of Civilian Persons in Time of War, which stipulates in Part 3, Article 28 that "the presence of a protected person [civilian] may not be used to render certain points or areas immune from military operations." "opinionjournal" 12:36:12 PM

Screen saver that hit a cord with me.  "Hard work often pays off after time, but laziness always pays off now." "If you're not a part of the solution, there's good money to be made in prolonging the problem." "There are no stupid questions, but there are a LOT of inquisitive idiots." 7:07:37 AM