You left London too early Steve.. I've been woken by an oil depot spontaneously combusting about half a mile behind my house, and apparently it woke half of London too.

here's hoping you get a copy of said memos. Have you been trying to get your "mitts" on it? If you did would you publish it?

Steve, I hope Uri Avnery is on your list of people to see.

Steve,

You’re a trailblazer, for sure. You left an oil depot east of London on fire, and Ben is scared. Now you fly in to Israel, and Sharon starts planning to set Iran on fire! I was just reading in The Times of London online:

“Israel’s armed forces have been ordered by Ariel Sharon, the prime minister, to be ready by the end of March for possible strikes on secret uranium enrichment sites in Iran, military sources have revealed.”

I hope you will find out whether Sharon is trying just to fire up his election campaign or really wants to incinerate the ayatollahs.

Sorry, Ben. I didn’t know you’re in London (or Hertfordshire?) and in the vicinity of the blasts. Hope they were caused by an accident.

Mustafa, I can see the fire quite clearly out of my (thankfully unshattered) windows. It's very unnatural, especially as it hasn't died down at all yet.

I'm just grateful I decided not to show the house this weekend. Bit of an elephant in the room, the blazing oil depot filling the view.

If they weren't accidental (and all evidence thus far points to advance warning of a spill, which lends weight to the accident theory) then they were inept terrorists - blow up an oil depot when all the markets are closed?

"Today, I'm meeting a long list of people in Israeli political and journalistic circles and will be back to the blog soon."

Ask the Israeli journalists how many more of our kids they figure they will need to sacrifice in this bullshit lie, "the war on terror", they have sold us in league with Cheney and the Monkey Boy.

"Now you fly in to Israel, and Sharon starts planning to set Iran on fire!"
...................................
I believe you have this backwards. Israel is actually trying to prevent Iran from setting Israel on fire.

To derail for just a moment...

Is Doug Thompson (capital hill blue) credible?

He reported Friday night that Bush said of the the Constitution:

"It's just a g-d piece of paper."

Capitol Hill Blue prints a lot of rumors. Some turn out to be true, of course, but a lot of them don't. I wouldn't believe everything you read there...

This would have warmed the hollowed out upper left quandrant of General Westmoreland's chest cavity

Family Upset Over Marine's Body Arriving As Freight

The precious Truth is certainly accompanied by a bodyguard of lies. Or, being faithfully guarded by Paradox and Confusion. Confusion is riding first class, Paradox is riding coach.

Geez I get tired of the "security at all costs" which seems to go only for Israel (and for the record, I AM Israeli and Jewish and no, not a "self hating one")
Why is Israel entitled to a "wink-wink-nod-nod" treatment about its long history of nuclear weapons but no one else is allowed to develop nukes in the Mideast for "self-defense" or otherwise?
Oh yeah right that would be anti-semitic to expect Israel to behave as we we expect any other civilized country. No, instead they are given a warrant to shoot to kill without so much as a howdy doo by the UN Security Council. No no no, lets just let them carry on illegally occupying, building their "security fence (wall)" conducting "extra-judicial" killngs and other patently illegal behaviors. And by the way, lets have the U.S. taxpayer pay for the whole g.d. thing.
On the other hand, if big brother in the U.S. is not held to to account for upholding its treaty commitments vis a vis ballistic missiles, international criminal courts, trade tariffs or anything else (including prohibitions against unilateral war except in the case of self defense or against IMMINENT attack) - why should Israel be expected to do so?
But oh no.... those Ayatollahs -- they can't have nukes, no way! They might actually be able to DEFEND themselves and their oil reserves.

I think some of the ayatollahs are completely whacked but no more so then the fundies and neo-cons in America or the Likudniks & settlers in Israel.
Talk about Holy Wars, Crusades and Jihad! Looks like someone's gonna let Joshua loose on Jericho again.

Woah, I'm getting all goose-pimply like the wait for Fitzmas. So do we attribute Steve's delay to idolatry, to distractedness, or to a fervent, bloodhound-like desire on his part to weave together an airtight, accurate narrative -- on solid facts? Sources closest to him say ...