Headlines (Scroll down for complete stories):
1. Is Bin Laden Looking to ‘72’
2. NewsMax Poll: Bring Imus Back on the Air
3. Republicans Aim to Oust Rep. John Doolittle
4. Iraqi WWDs Still Stored in New York
5. Producer: Clinton Candidacy Blocking DVD Release
6. Move America Forward Counters Democrats’ Attack
7. Condi Authors New Book on Campaigning
8. Schwarzenegger More ‘Trustworthy’ Than Pope
9. We Heard: Al Gore, Jeb Bush, Rudy Giuliani
1. Is Bin Laden Looking to ‘72’
Is there any method to bin Laden’s madness?
After years of not being seen in public, he is apparently surfacing on the eve of the 6th anniversary of his Sept. 11, 2001 attacks.
Intelligence agencies have stated that Islamic terrorists like to mark anniversaries with attacks. As religious fundamentalists, they may even be motivated by Islam’s interest in numbers or numerology.
While the number 6 has little religious significance for Islamics, this Sept. 11 will mark an important number: 72.
That’s 72 months since the 9/11 strikes of 2001.
Could there be significance in that number?
We did some research on Islamic numerology and found that, indeed, 72 is a very significant number in Muslim culture:
- The Prophet Muhammad predicted that after his death, Islam would divide into 72 factions.
- According to the Koran, Allah has 72 angels guarding his throne.
- The warriors of Islam are rewarded with 72 “perpetual virgins” in paradise.
- At the important battle of Karbala in the year 680, tradition holds that there were 72 martyr-heroes fighting in the name of Husayn ibn Ali, Muhammad’s grandson, against a much larger force under the Umayyad caliph.
Could it be that al-Qaida has been preparing a major operation to commemorate the 72-month anniversary of 9/11?
Curiously, the number 72 figures prominently elsewhere. The Shemhamphorasch — which has many alternate spellings — is an epithet for a 72-letter name of God derived by medieval kabbalists from the Book of Exodus, by reading the letters of three verses in a specific order.
Another number significant to Muslims is “7.” The Koran contains approximately 25 references to seven, including the seven heavens and the seven periods of creation. The number is thought to be directly linked to the power of the divine, and figures into Islamic art, folklore, literature and rituals.
The date of the bombings in the London transit system was July 7, 2005 — or 7/7.
2. NewsMax Poll: Bring Imus Back on the Air
An Internet poll sponsored by NewsMax.com reveals that Americans overwhelmingly believe fired talk show host Don Imus should return to radio and TV.
Respondents in the poll, which drew more than 430,000 participants — our largest poll response ever – also feel the controversial talker should not have been axed by CBS radio and MSNBC over his disparaging remarks about the Rutgers University women’s basketball team.
NewsMax reported in August that Imus had settled his lawsuit with CBS and several radio stations were in a bidding war to bring him back on the air.
NewsMax will provide the results of this poll to major media and share them with radio talk show hosts across the country.
Here are the poll questions and results:
1) Should Imus make a media comeback to radio and TV airwaves?
Yes: 77 percent
No: 23 percent
2) What is your overall opinion of Don Imus?
Favorable: 49 percent
Unfavorable: 30 percent
No Opinion: 21 percent
3) Do you believe Imus’ comments about the Rutgers basketball team were racist or simply bad humor?
Racist: 14 percent
Bad Humor: 86 percent
4) Do you believe MSNBC overreacted by firing Imus?
Overreacted: 80 percent
Acted Appropriately: 20 percent
5) Should CBS have fired Imus from his radio show?
Yes: 19 percent
No: 81 percent
6) Do you believe Al Sharpton has any credibility attacking Imus?
Has credibility: 10 percent
Has no credibility: 90 percent
3. Republicans Aim to Oust Rep. John Doolittle
Republican Party insiders are joining forces to pressure California Rep. John Doolittle — who has been entangled in the Jack Abramoff scandal — into not seeking re-election in 2008.
Eric Egland, a counter-terrorism consultant and military intelligence officer, announced that he plans to run against Doolittle in the primary if he does seek re-election, saying due to Republican scandals “the nation loses confidence in our ability to lead.”
Mike Holmes, a city councilman in Auburn, Calif., said he will also run, and RosevilleAssemblyman Ted Gaines is gearing up for the primary, saying Doolittle has lost his “moral ability to lead.”
Rep. Doolittle left the House Appropriations Committee after FBI agents raised his Washington-area home in April. His wife Julie ran a business from the home, in which she received commissions as a paid fundraiser for her husband’s campaigns, and her clients included now-jailed GOP lobbyist Abramoff. Doolittle estimates he received about $50,000 from clients of Abramoff, mostly Indian tribes.
Doolittle has denied any wrongdoing. But on Sept. 4, his chief of staff and deputy chief of staff were subpoenaed to testify before a grand jury investigating ties between Doolittle, his wife, and Abramoff.
Republican consultant Jeff Flint said Republican Party leaders need to take action to prevent Doolittle from seeking a 10th term next year, the Sacramento Bee reported.
“Eventually, the party leadership is going to have a serious conversation with him,” Flint told the Bee. “Those things tend to work better sooner than later. If you wait too long, it just taints the whole district. You end up losing the district even if the troubled incumbent is not the nominee anymore.”
If Doolittle does not retire, GOP leaders will seek to defeat him in the primary to prevent likely Democratic nominee Charlie Brown from winning his seat.
Steve Schmidt, a Republican consultant who helped run Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger’s re-election campaign last year, said: “The corruption and degeneration of Congress and the U.S. Senate have become almost indescribable and unbelievable. People have had enough of it. What is absolutely critical for the Republican Party is that John Doolittle not be the nominee.”
4. Iraqi WWDs Still Stored in New York
New Yorkers were stunned when a small vial of the deadly chemical warfare agent phosgene turned up at United Nations headquarters last week.
The vial was but one of many remnants left in storage from Iraq arms inspections conducted by the U.N. Monitoring, Observation, Verification and Inspection Commission (UNMOVIC) and its predecessor, the U.N. Special Commission, from 1991 to 2003.
The incident brought squads of special hazmat police to the storage complex on East 48th St. just north of the U.N.'s main campus.
Confusion swirled around New York for several hours as to just what was found inside the U.N.'s archives.
A local newspaper shouted: "Iraqi WMD Found! In NYC!"
The discovery called attention to the many problems facing the U.N. regarding Iraqi weapons of mass destruction.
NewsMax has obtained a partial list of what UNMOVIC knows it still has in storage, both in New York and in another facility in Cyprus.
The issue has taken on importance since the Security Council opted to shut down the U.N. inspection unit last June and has given the remaining skeleton staff one more month to close its doors forever.
While negotiations have been underway in recent weeks between the U.N. and America’s U.N. mission regarding what should be done with UNMOVIC's remaining inventory, the fact is that many issues remain unresolved while the clock continues to tick.
U.N. Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon has ordered his international security coordinator David Veness and his chief of staff Vijay Nambiar to conduct an internal investigation to see what other potentially hazardous items the U.N. inspectors may still have in their possession that they don't know about.
That investigation is also believed to involve both the NYPD and the New York City bureau of the FBI, NewsMax’s United Nations correspondent Stewart Stogel reports.
While the hunt for more "surprises" is underway, the list of items that the U.N. has in its possession and has yet to decide how to dispose of includes:
One SCUD (surface-to-surface) missile engine, one SA-2 (surface-to-air) engine, 100 gyroscopes for SS-18 (ballistic) missiles, 200 chemical warfare suits and gas masks, 12 chemical weapons detectors, one biological incubator, and one biological threat screener.
According to U.N. sources, most of these items are still in working condition and while individually they pose no security threat, they do represent critical components for someone looking to construct a weapon of terror.
"Why is all this stuff still left? Why was this not destroyed years ago?" asked one veteran Iraqi diplomat.
That is a question the U.N. has yet to answer.
5. Producer: Clinton Candidacy Blocking DVD Release
One year after the controversial TV miniseries “The Path to 9/11” aired on ABC, the DVD version remains unavailable — even though the program received seven Emmy nominations and was seen by more than 25 million viewers.
The miniseries’ co-producer and writer Cyrus Nowrasteh says he knows the reason why: Powerful forces are seeking to safeguard Bill Clinton’s presidential legacy and shield White House hopeful Hillary Clinton from damage.
Nowrasteh said he was told by an ABC executive that “if Hillary weren’t running for president, this wouldn’t be a problem,” the Los Angeles Times reported.
The 5-hour miniseries presented an unflattering portrait of the Clinton administration in the lead-up to the 9/11 terrorist attacks. Before it aired, Democratic leaders sought unsuccessfully to pressure ABC into canceling what they viewed as a right-wing hatchet job.
The average length of time between a TV program’s broadcast and the release of its CD is around four months, according to the Times. Nowrasteh said he was originally told by ABC executives that the DVD would be released in January. Then the date was changed to April.
Now he says he has not been notified of a release date, and ABC told the Times that it has “no release date at this time.”
Even ultra-liberal filmmaker Oliver Stone is sharply critical of the company’s stance.
“This is a shame — it’s censorship in the most blatant way,” he said. “I’m not vouching for its accuracy — it’s a dramatization — but it’s an important work and needs to be seen.”
6. Move America Forward Counters Democrats’ Attack
The Democrat Party’s “white-flag brigade” has “slithered to a new low in its campaign to surrender in Iraq” and launched an attack on Move America Forward’s pro-troops efforts.
That’s the charge of Move America Forward chairperson and San Francisco talk radio host Melanie Morgan.
Her nonprofit organization “has worked hard on a cross-country caravan of patriots that will end in Washington D.C.,” she writes in an article co-authored by Catherine Moy, MAF’s director of communications.
“Our aim is to support our troops and Gen. David Petraeus as he reports on the troop surge in Iraq, which is working. We are joining with other grassroots groups to let Congress know that the United States has the best warriors in the world and defeat can only come through the white-flag brigade’s determination to lose.”
Morgan and Moy said the national Democrat Party, the Democrat Party of Nevada, the Washoe County, Nev., Democrat Party, and the Carson City Democrat Party teamed up to counter MAF’s “Fight for Victory” kickoff event in Carson City on Sept. 3.
Their article states: “The Nevada State Democratic Party even lied about Move America Forward to incite its defeatist minions: ‘Move America Forward, a pro-war, California-based Republican front group, opposes a change of course in Iraq and has organized to push back on Americans’ resolve to end the war.’
“Our group is neither a pro-war group nor a Republican front group. Move America Forward is a non-partisan, not-for-profit organization committed to supporting America’s efforts to defeat terrorism and supporting the brave men and women of our Armed Forces.
“It is sad to see the once great Democrat Party sink to these lows.”
7. Condi Authors New Book on Campaigning
Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice is the co-author of a new book about politics, “The Strategy of Campaigning: Lessons from Ronald Reagan and Boris Yeltsin.”
The book explores the political careers of Reagan and Yeltsin, “two of the most galvanizing and often controversial political figures of our time,” according to its publisher, The University of Michigan Press.
“Both men overcame defeat early in their political careers and rose to the highest elected offices in their respective countries.”
Former Secretary of State George Schultz writes in the book’s Foreword: “What makes the book important is the ability of the authors to relate this rich factual material to ideas about strategy — ideas from which future campaigners can benefit.”
Rice’s co-authors are Kiron Skinner, an associate professor of history and political science at Carnegie Mellon University; Serhiy Kudelia, an adjunct lecturer and Ph.D. candidate at Johns Hopkins University; and Bruce Bueno de Mesquita, Julius Silver Professor in the Wilf Family Department of Politics at New York University.
8. Schwarzenegger More ‘Trustworthy’ Than Pope
California Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger inspires more trust than Pope Benedict XVI among citizens of his native country, Austria, a new survey reveals.
Five hundred Austrians were interviewed about whether they “trusted, distrusted or did not know” international personalities and the answers were combined to generate a “trust index.”
In the survey compiled by the Austrian press agency and the polling institute OGM, the Pope’s index was 33, while Schwarzenegger's was 34.
Both were beaten easily the Dalai Lama, who led all others with an index of 49, followed by German Chancellor Angela Merkel with 35, the Web site Monsters and Critics reported.
Still barely in the positive range were Microsoft founder Bill Gates at 14, and United Nations Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon at 11. European Commission President Jose Manuel Barroso inspires more distrust than trust, indicated by his index of -7.
Also at the negative end of the scale: Russian President Vladimir Putin (-60) and his U.S. counterpart, President George Bush (-78).
9. We Heard . . .
THAT Al Gore is touting a new global warming movie produced by his “friend” Leonardo DiCaprio, “The 11th Hour.”
In an e-mail to supporters, the former vice president and “An Inconvenient Truth” star wrote: “As you know, the Earth is moving closer to several negative ‘tipping points’ that could — within as little as 10 years — make it virtually impossible for us to avoid irretrievable damage to the planet’s habitability for human civilization…
“My friend Leonardo DiCaprio has just produced an amazing documentary on this subject . . .
“Through interviews and beautiful footage of the environment, ‘The 11th Hour’ demonstrates how human beings have created the climate crisis and related environmental crises, and shows that we have the means to solve them.”
THAT former Florida Gov. Jeb Bush has been appointed to Lehman Brothers’ private equity advisory board.
In April, the President’s brother joined the board of America’s largest publicly owned hospital operator, Tenet Healthcare, Financial News Online US reported.
Last year Lehman Brothers named Bush’s cousin, George Walker, to head up the firm’s asset management division after recruiting him from Goldman Sachs.
THAT former Illinois Gov. Jim Thompson has expressed his support for fellow Republican Rudy Giuliani in the race for the White House in 2008.
Thompson said the former New York City mayor is a “smart, tough candidate” who “will appeal to a broad cross-section of people across the country,” the Chicago Sun-Times reported.
Meanwhile another prominent politician from Illinois, Rep. J. Dennis Hastert, has come out in support of Giuliani’s GOP rival Mitt Romney. The former U.S. House Speaker hosted a fundraiser for Romney at his home on Thursday
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