Just a quick note that the Canadian member at the Commonwealth has put forth a motion to suspend Pakistan from the association of 53 nations.

Short version: Pakistan has been suspended from the Commonwealth

The Washington Post reports that a federal judge has ruled that several high-ranking members of the US National Security apparatus will be ordered to testify in the case against AIPAC policy director Steven J. Rosen and senior Iran analyst Keith Weissman, which goes to trial on Jan. 14 in U.S. District Court in Alexandria.

Follow over the jump to see the list.

Bush to Undergo Colonoscopy, Hand Power to Cheney

Vice President Cheney will assume the presidency on an acting basis Saturday when President Bush undergoes general anesthesia for a routine colon examination, the White House said today.

Just as junior did in Jan. '01, of course.

Things are heating up between Britain and Russia. You'll recall that the British are seeking the extradition of former KGB officer Andrei Lugovoi in connection to the investigation into the poisoning death of Alexander Litvinenko last November. The Russians insist that they will conduct their own investigation and that extradition is out of the question.

But that's not all that's been happening ...

Any posts referring to her will be roundly TRed.

And now—something to fill this out a bit:

The Washington Post has a great 4-pager by Peter Eisner up, How Bogus Letter Became a Case for War, which delves into the origin of that Niger uranium story. It details how Italian journalist Elisabetta Burba first received an odd tip in from Rocco Martino October, 2002.

Just a quick reminder (really quick: i'm cooking dinner) to watch Frontline tonight. They'll have episode 3 of their 4-part News War.

UPDATE: Check your local listings! It says 9pm, but they've been airing at 10 for me.

BTW, tonight's episode is 90 mins.

One of my favourite documenatary series has some new goodness on tap. PBS will air at 9pm tonight the first of a 4-part Frontline series, News War. Editor & Publisher has more: PBS 'Frontline' Tonight Tackles Media and the War

CNN is showing video taken outside An Najaf, purportedly of a battle between Iraqi police & soldiers and Sunni forces. They're suggesting that several hundred insurgents have been killed.

The Times Online is running excerpts of Bob Woodward's latest collection of tasty annecdotes, State of Denial. The second,The bomb that never was, is available now. The first extract, Prisoners of war, was published last week.

I live in Old Montreal. A couple of minutes ago i heard what i thought was a Chinook helicopter pass overhead. Then, i realised that there must be several and went out on the fire escape. There are no less then five small military and  one police helicopters circling the lower downtown area. One is simply hovering in one spot. Several are making passes that look to me to be damned close to the office towers.

Nothing on CBC news yet.

I'm going up to the roof for a better look.

Prison Planet has posted a video just released through google. It was taken by some people just 500 yards from the North Tower. After all the docs, diaries, and politics these past few weeks, this is very intense to watch.

Just a toss-away diary to showcase yet another example of the clueless Republican mentality.

Since this ABC Path to 9/11 thing has gotten a lot of attention here in the past few days, i'd like to draw your attention to another documentary that will be airing this Sunday on the CBC¹ . This film is named The Secret History of 9/11 and was directed by Terence McKenna (no, not that Terence McKenna).

A new article by Seymour Hersh in the New Yorker, LAST STAND: The military's problem with the President's Iran policy., observes that it's not all just ducky at the Pentagon, these days. The brass is increasingly at odds with where they see the civilians taking things. But, once again, it seems it's the bean-counters who's grasp of the situation is grossly flawed.

NYT is reporting that the F.B.I. Is Seeking to Search Papers of Dead Reporter.

My first thought was to grab the tinfoil, as i i thought they were looking for the files of David E. Rosenbaum (killed in an apparent mugging in Washington, DC this past January). But it's pretty interesting, nonetheless:

WASHINGTON, April 18 -- The F.B.I. is seeking to go through the files of the late newspaper columnist Jack Anderson to remove classified material he may have accumulated in four decades of muckraking Washington journalism.

Mr. Anderson's family has refused to allow a search of 188 boxes, the files of a well-known reporter who had long feuded with the Federal Bureau of Investigation and had exposed plans by the Central Intelligence Agency to kill Fidel Castro, the machinations of the Iran-contra affair and the misdemeanors of generations of congressmen.

I just got home and flipped on CBC radio in time to catch a story about explosions shutting down Iran's northern pipeline into Turkey. Coming on the heels of the strange bombing of the Russia->Georgia pipeline (a 2-for-1 link, as it also mentions the kooky British spy case in Moscow from this week) a few days ago, my ears perked up. Unfortunately, that was all i heard in the short news blurb, except that it was an accident outside a village. But checking google only brought more questions.

Bloomberg has just put up this story, Pentagon Analyst Gets 12 Years for Passing Secrets