Seymour Hersh checks in on the Iran situation in The New Yorker. There is a heavy emphasis on American usage of tactical nuclear weapons, particularly the newer bunker busting designs. There is a fair amount of information in this article about what many of the players are thinking.

This is one of those articles that leaves you feeling uncomfortable.

THE IRAN PLANS: Would President Bush go to war to stop Tehran from getting the bomb?

Brian J. Doyle, 55, is charged with seven counts of use of a computer to seduce a child and 16 counts of transmission of harmful material to a minor, according to a sheriff's office statement.

On March 12, according to a police statement, Doyle contacted a Polk County computer crimes detective posing online as a 14-year-old girl "and initiated a sexually explicit conversation with her ... Doyle knew that the 'girl' was 14 years old, and he told her who he was and that he worked for the U.S. Department of Homeland Security.

"Judd said that Doyle, in the first conversation, told the detective his position with DHS and "started immediately into pretty vulgar language. He explained in graphic detail the sexual acts he wanted to perform with this 14-year-old."

As the two continued chatting online, police said, Doyle gave her his home and office phone numbers, and the number to his government-issue cell phone. He also had explicit telephone conversations with a detective posing as the girl, authorities said.

In addition, he used the Internet to send "hard-core pornographic movie clips" to her, and also used an America Online instant-messaging service to have explicit online conversations with her.

Doyle also sent photos of himself that were not sexually explicit, but said he would send nude photos if the "girl" would buy a Web camera and send him nude photos of herself. In one photo, Judd said, Doyle's DHS security tag is clearly visible.

"I read the transcripts," Judd said. "I wanted to see if this was just as outrageous as the detectives depicted it ... It shocked all of us who have worked vice, narcotics, organized crime, homicides."

This is sure to be all over the news today...

While not directly related to this, I've asked this question around lately: "what the hell is DHS doing?" Answers have varied. No one seems to know exactly. Mostly stuff about establishing little fiefdoms and sharing email servers. My favorite comment so far has been "creating new ways to fuck up." Their press center is simply the "Remarks from Michael Chertoff" page. DHS appears to be a black hole.

CNN.com - DHS spokesman arrested in child sex sting - Apr 4, 2006

Russia's Federal Security Service closes down Pravda.Ru's Russian version over Danish caricatures.

The Volokh Conspiracy - Pravada's Main Web Page Closed Down by Russian Security Service:

Some have described the situation in Iraq as a tightening noose, noting that "time is not on our side"and that "morale is down." Others have described a "very dangerous" turn of events and are "extremely concerned."

Who are they that have expressed these concerns? In fact, these are the exact words of terrorists discussing Iraq -- Abu Musab al-Zarqawi and his associates -- who are describing their own situation and must be watching with fear the progress that Iraq has made over the past three years.

The terrorists seem to recognize that they are losing in Iraq. I believe that history will show that to be the case.

Fortunately, history is not made up of daily headlines, blogs on Web sites or the latest sensational attack. History is a bigger picture, and it takes some time and perspective to measure accurately.

Donald Rumsfeld has an article in the Washington Post to mark the three year mile mark in Iraq. Its not all that great of an article, but due to who wrote it, its worth pointing out.

Here are some stats on the current Iraqi forces from the man himself:

Today, some 100 Iraqi army battalions of several hundred troops each are in the fight, and 49 control their own battle space. About 75 percent of all military operations in the country include Iraqi security forces, and nearly half of those are independently Iraqi-planned, Iraqi-conducted and Iraqi-led. Iraqi security forces have a greater ability than coalition troops to detect a foreign terrorist's accent, identify local suspects and use force without increasing a feeling of occupation. It was these Iraqi forces -- not U.S. or coalition troops -- that enforced curfews and contained the violence after the attack on the Golden Dome Shrine in Samarra. To be sure, violence of various stripes continues to slow Iraq's progress. But the coalition is doing everything possible to see this effort succeed and is making adjustments as appropriate.

Rumsfeld: What We've Gained In 3 Years in Iraq

From infosthetics.org:

animated visualization simulating the US & coalition military fatalities that occured in Iraq, shown in the context of time & (geographical) space. the animation runs at 10 frames per second, one frame for each day, with data taken from icasualties.org. might be interesting to overlay this with a similar chart consisting of Iraqi casualties over the same timeframe?

...

April and November of 2004 really stand out in this kind of visualization. There's also sound that varies in volume to go along with the plots.

Iraq War Coalition Fatalities

"We manufactured nuclear weapons with our own technology, funds and raw materials from A to Z. As we are not dependent on the U.S. at all in the economic and financial fields, no U.S. sanctions would work on us," a spokesman for North Korea's said.

"As we have clarified more than once, such illegal dealings as 'money laundering' and 'counterfeit notes' have nothing in common with the policy of the DPRK and such assertion of the U.S. is nothing but a fabrication solely intended to tarnish the image of the DPRK and do harm to it," the spokesman said in response to a question by the North's KCNA news agency.

"Yes, we have nukes, but we built them with our own money."

Oh, this is just great... Like who's money they used was the central issue.. If it was done by counterfeiting USD, that's just icing . . . not the cake.

Reuters | N.Korea says made nuclear weapons

Secret audiotapes of Saddam Hussein discussing ways to attack America with weapons of mass destruction will be the subject of an ABC "Nightline" program Wednesday night, a former federal prosecutor told Cybercast News Service.

The tapes are being called the "smoking gun" of weapons of mass destruction (WMD) in Iraq. The New York Sun reported that the tapes have been authenticated and currently are being reviewed by the U.S. House Permanent Select Committee on Intelligence.

Loftus has been tight-lipped about the tapes, telling the Sun only that he received them from a "former American military intelligence analyst." However, on Wednesday he told Cybercast News Service, "Saddam's tapes confirm he had active CW [chemical weapons] and BW [biological weapons] programs that were hidden from the UN."

This should be interesting. The key figure here is John Loftus, who organizes an intelligence conference that takes place this weekend.

This is from a press release on the Intelligence Summit website:

A former military intelligence analyst, who currently works as a civilian contractor, believes he has found a cache of extremely confidential--and very shocking--audio recordings of Saddam Hussein's office meetings. The audiotapes, which had apparently been overlooked, were found in a warehouse along with many other untranslated Iraqi intelligence files. These tapes are extremely significant, since they may be the best evidence yet of Saddam's secret intentions concerning weapons of mass destruction.

Secret Saddam WMD Tapes Subject of ABC Nightline Special -- 02/15/2006

IRAN secretly tested a new surface-to-surface missile (SSM) on January 17, seeking to establish the measurements needed for long-range missiles, the German daily Die Welt reported in its issue to appear today.

On January 28, Safavi said that Iran would use its ballistic missiles if it was attacked.

"Iran has a ballistic missile with a range of 2,000 kilometres," he said on Iranian public television.

"We do not intend to attack any country, but if we are attacked, we are capable of effectively responding. Our position is defensive."

The Australian: Iran launched 'secret' rocket test [February 04, 2006]

This is horrible! To the best of my knowledge, the Nun-Bun is Nashville's only relic. Not to mention, BongoJava is my primary Nashville hangout. I take this as a personal affront.

We must catch the culprit(s). For great justice!

"My gut feeling is that it's destroyed," said Bob Bernstein, the owner of Bongo Java coffee shop, where the bun had been on display for nearly 10 years. "Someone took it, destroyed it and it's the last we'll hear of it."

Someone broke into the Belmont Boulevard coffeehouse yesterday morning, apparently with the sole purpose of stealing the pious pastry. Bills and loose change in charity-donation containers near the bun's glass display case were untouched, Bernstein said.

"They went right for the bun," he said. "What the heck they are going to do with it, I can't imagine. It's sure not something anyone would eat. I hope they do eat it. It will teach them a lesson."

"It's weird," Bernstein said. "You laugh about it a little bit, but it's an empty feeling. It's like the end of an era."

I wonder if Bob had any type of insurance on it...

BongoJava Nun Bun stolen!

About 150 pounds of C4, 250 pounds of deta sheets and 2,000 blasting caps were taken from a storage facility west of Albuquerque.

Large cache of expolsives stolen in New Mexico