What’s interesting in the news today?
Open Thread Weekend.
Wandering Views
4 out of 5 dentists recommend this WordPress.com site
The greatest WordPress.com site in all the land!
History, Real Life, and Faith
This WordPress.com site is the bee's knees
Wandering Views 
😆
From The Leaning Tower: al-Qaeda and the Road to 9/11 p.369
Jamal al-Fadi, who was one of bin Laden’s most popular and trusted men, had been chafing at the differential pay scale, which favored the Saudis and the Egyptians…….When ben Laden refused to give him a raise, the Sudanese secretary reached into the till……Fadl begged bin Laden to firgive him, but bin Laden said that would not happen “until you bring all the money back”….He would become al-Qaida’s first traitor. He offered to sell his story to various intelligence agencies…………..he walked into the American Embassy in Eritrea in June 1966. In return for nearly $1 million, he became a government witness. While in protective custody, he won the Jew Jersey lottery.
🙂
(I googled al Fadi and it didn’t mention his winning the lottery. The reason for all the ….’s is because this story is a page long.)
LikeLike
The same book,(p.384) tells how the FBI was “a problematic member” of the Counterterrorism Security Group. Rita Katz complained about that in Terrorist Hunter. The FBI, it seems, considers all information to be potential evidence that couldn’t be compromised. Therefore, they may have discovered potentially important information, but would not distribute it. Also, the Gorelic Wall, prohibited the sharing of information.
LikeLike
Finally.
An excellent, understandable piece on climate science (by Steven Koonin who was undersecretary for science in the Energy Department during Obama’s first term & now is director of the Center for Urban Science and Progress at New York University).
This is one subject that has been so completely hijacked by and battered in the partisan wars that it’s nearly impossible to find a nuanced and reasonable/neutral approach that the average citizen can understand. It’s become all or nothing.
This article goes a long way in framing the issues — and the problem of trying to project decades or centuries into the future. (You may have to google it to get non-subscription access.)
” … Policy makers and the public may wish for the comfort of certainty in their climate science. But I fear that rigidly promulgating the idea that climate science is ‘settled’ (or is a ‘hoax’) demeans and chills the scientific enterprise, retarding its progress in these important matters. Uncertainty is a prime mover and motivator of science and must be faced head-on. It should not be confined to hushed sidebar conversations at academic conferences. …”
http://online.wsj.com/articles/climate-science-is-not-settled-1411143565
LikeLike
How tragic: http://www.worldmag.com/2014/09/ebola_cases_on_the_rise_as_guinean_villagers_attack_kill_aid_team. “A pastor was reportedly among eight people killed Tuesday in rural Guinea when fearful villagers turned on a group of disinfection and awareness workers with knives and rocks. Health officials and journalists are also among the dead, and only the son of a local official escaped, the government said… Many people have become increasingly suspicious of the government and of foreigners, especially as governments enforce quarantines to help contain the outbreak.”
Further down there is some good news: “A Doctors Without Borders nurse now in France is receiving experimental drugs, and British nurse and survivor William Pooley reportedly came to the United States this week to donate blood to the still-unnamed American undergoing treatment in Atlanta. Missionary doctor Rick Sacra continues to recover at a Nebraska hospital, and his wife said Monday he was well enough to get increasingly bored.”
Here is more on William Pooley’s work in Sierra Leone: http://www.theguardian.com/world/2014/aug/26/will-pooley-ebola-british-nurse-on-work-sierra-leone
LikeLike