2. US drone attacks on Taliban positions in Pakistan's South Waziristan have reportedly killed 8 and 25 respectively as Pak military ramps operations.

3. A captured al-Qaeda terror cell used tunnels to enter Egypt from Gaza, where they were trained by Palestinian terrorists, in order to bomb an Egypt-Israel gas pipeline.

4. Al-Qaeda in the Islmaic Maghreb claimed responsibility for deaths of 28 Mali troops in Western Africa.

5, After AQ-linked al-Shabaab's ultimatum, the Somali government desperately seeking military assistance. Murmurs of AU forces and perhaps Ethiopia once again.

2. With all media fanfare over President Obama's visit to Moscow and talks with Medvedev, the overlooked key was securing alternate US supply route for Afghanistan. Russia ceded only overflight permissions, no land lines. Not enough. Russia wants more in return.

3. While Honduran government continues to stand firm in preserving its democracy, SecState Clinton expected to receive ousted Honudran President and Hugo Chavez ally Manuel Zelaya for talks. Obama reiterates view that Zelaya should be reinstated.

4. Rafsanjani gaining opposition strength with clerics and ayatollahs increasingly behind him. Regime has shut down SMS messaging systems again, but is likely seeing first days of end of the theocracy as it exists.

2. A significant group of Iranian clerics have declared the election a sham, exhibiting a massive fissure within the Shi'a theocracy not seen since its inception. Strikes are expected within the week. Regime racing to put down all dissenters by January 11.

3. North Korean Ship suspected of attempting to carry illicit material to a Myanmar port is expected to port back in North Korea Monday with cargo undelivered and vessel under tight US surveillance.

4. President Obama is in Moscow for nuclear arms talks, but Russians are expected to eschew proposed deals and presidential gestures. Reception said to be "chilly."

Right after the attacks, leading to the Joint Session of Congress, to the bi-partisan gathering on the steps of the Capitol Building, to the National Prayer Service on September 14th we thought, felt and acted as one unified body of citizens.

What happened? The passage of time has brought partisanship back. While I am troubled by policy, action and statements, we all need to remember who we are. Tonight, we should remember that we are "Americans, all." We are not Black or White, Jewish or Christian or Muslim or Bhuddist or Hindu or atheist. We are "Americans, all." From the beginning of our Nation's history, brave men and women have died and made life's sacrifices to preserve the very freedoms that enable us to outwardly disagree with our Government and our fellow citizens. Watch the videos of the post-election aftermath in Iran for the stark contrast.

If we forget that...if we lose sight of that, then we are doomed. Yes, we are doomed, because the terrorist attacks will have split us apart. The lack of an attack on American soil is no sign of safety. Contrary, it is more likely a sign of diligence and the fact that we are on guard (en garde?) for the potential or the inevitability of another attack. It won't take much.

In the meantime, for myself, my family and my friends and colleagues (if I may be so presumptuous), God Bless America, our troops, our Government and most of all, our people and our great country.

2. An American soldier is missing in Afghanistan and the Taliban has claimed to have captured him. Little info released as intense search underway.

3. As the EU considers pulling ambassadors from Iran, the regime opposition continues despite little news reportage. Night time shouts of "Allahu Akhbar!" from rooftops reportedly louder now than ever.

4. With the Palestinian Islamic Jihad nearing economic collapse after recent interruption of Iranian regime funding due to unrest (as reported here previously), hints of a possible merger with Hamas begin to emerge.

2. Loud Hugo Chavez-led outcry against ouster of former Honduran president Zelaya crescendos while Honduran military says evidence shows Zelaya played middleman to Venezuelan drug trafficking into US.

3. At Pakistani request, US drones have resumed flights over Pakistan to assist with intelligence gathering but cannot fire missiles. Pak Army facing stiff resistance as it gears for North & South Waziristan battles, eye of storm.

4. After Guardian Council affirmation of Ahmadinejad election, the Iranian president and Supreme Leader Khamenei have begun the anticipated purge of foes from government and military.

2. Interim Honduran president says country was "saved from Hugo Chavez." Venezuela's Hugo Chavez threatens force, but is unlikely. Chavez has history of paying for violent demonstrators and generating propaganda stream. Expect same here.

3. US military commences withdrawal from Iraqi cities and Iraq celebrates independence.

4. Iran's Guardian Council, which ran discredited election, finalized partial re-count and certified Ahmadinejad the winner. Mousavi called for continued protest, while Guardian Council gave him 5 day extension to contest results in order to "rebuild public trust." Tantamount to arrest deadline.

2. The Iranian Guardian Council, which selects candidates and conducts elections, has begun a partial recount (reportedly random 10% of ballot boxes). Iran opposition has rejected this as a remedy. Obama admin says talks with regime still possible, wanted.

3. Sa'ad Hariri, son of former PM assassinated by Syria in 2005, named new Prime Minister of Lebanon after Hizballah defeat at polls.

4. US has supplied 40 tons of munitions to Somali government to fight Islamist insurgency. Had denied similar to secular TFG while al-Qaeda-linked Islamists were on the run. Now, conflict reaching crescendo as result.

The differences between the House and Senate versions of the bill still must be resolved during Conference Committee meetings. However, the Kansas delegation is understandably unhappy with the House position.

"The House Appropriations Committee had a responsibility to fund the NBAF, and I am extremely disappointed they shirked that responsibility," said Rep. Lynn Jenkins, R-Kan.

Construction on the NBAF facility is currently slated to begin in November 2010. That date could be in jeopardy if the funding isn't resolved. However, a number of issues continue to circle this project, including the Government Accountability Office position that the DHS risk analysis of conducting FMD research on the mainland was flawed, as well as the GAO's rejection of a DHS environmental assessment for the lab. And then there is the issue of natural disasters and violent weather. Unfortunately, when so much is at stake (the total amount of the funding, the economic development impact for the region and most importantly, National defense and safety), politics and bioresearch come together.

If you want to get a patriot chill, take a look at this photograph of a supersonice flyby executed by an Air Force F-22 Raptor.

Some things are simply awesome.

This is what happens when the world's foremost state sponsor of terrorism meets with conflict of its own. As an Islamic Jihad source told Klein nearly a week ago, "If money is not sent one way or another, we may have to close some agencies and bureaus."

Oh, money is pouring out of Iran in a big way. But they're not transfers from the terrorist regime to its foreign legions. They are transfers by businesses rushing to deposit their millions out of Iranian banks and into more stable environments abroad.

In radio interviews over the past two weeks on the situation in Iran, I ahve often asked hosts and listeners to close thier eyes and imagine the region beyond Iran's borders when the cash cow of international terrorism is no longer there to be the lifeline of Hizballah, Hamas, the Palestinian Islamic Jihad. They starve, with their chief supplier of money, arms and training no longer available to feed them. They will be forced to rely almost solely upon the support of Arabs once the sustaining Persian money line is severed.

The Palestinian Islamic Jihad is tellig us this right now, either the first group to feel the effects of the people's revolt in Iran or, more likely, the first terrorist group to actually say so publicly. Or perhaps Hamas and Hizballah had their cash flow uninterrupted by supplying reinforcement thugs for Iran's Basij militia. It has been reported often by Iranians that there have been many Arabic-speaking forces among the Farsi-speaking Basij on the Iranian city streets. Whatever the Iranian terror cashflow dynamics, the Palestinain Islamic Jihad is feeling the pain.

There is "no shame in being poor," they have told Klein in his most recent update. And we at ThreatsWatch concur. We in fact encourage an increased piety among the Palestinian Islamic Jihad leadership and ranks and the closure of more "agencies and bureaus."

• Mobile Phones. It's the personal communications and computing platform of millions around the world and arguably the primary way short bursts of information and pictures of what is taking place on the ground in Iran is getting to the outside world.
• One Laptop Per Demonstrator. The One Laptop Per Child program aims to put the primary tool of the information age into the hands of students in the emerging world. Small, simple to use, ready to communicate and rugged enough for the hinterlands, it's a way to expose the world to more substantial content related to current events.
• Subversive Technology. Promulgation of technology designed to overcome government firewalls and censorship technology has already been put to use in Iran, but more can be done. The lessons learned defending our information infrastructure from attacks could be used to help those fighting the regime.

According to unconfirmed reports Rafsanjani is currently lobbying and meeting with members of the Assembly of Experts to gain support for the removal of Khamenei and for replacing the position of Supreme Leader with a form of collective leadership. According to Al-Arabiya, high-up sources say that Rafsanjani has already gained enough support within the Assembly for the removal of Khamenei, but has found less of a positive response to the proposal to replace the position of Supreme Leader altogether.

As a commenter noted on our earlier post on this, Regime Change Iran: Movement Seeks to Eliminate 'Supreme Leader' Position, al-Arabia is a Saudi Arabian news outlet and no friend to the Iranian regime. But rather than use that as a manner of dismissing, I think it actually buttresses the credibility of the source on this matter. Because Rafsanjani can now be seen as also. clearly, no friend of the Iranian regime. or, more specifically, neither friend nor defender of 'Supreme' Leader Ayatollah Khamenei.

The enemy of my enemy is my friend.

An Iranian blogger (whose URL I will not publish) live blogging from Baharestan Square in central Tehran today captures but brief glimpses of the unimaginable horror that took place today. Bus loads of protesters were stopped and unloaded from their buses by "black-clad police" and literally herded. When the massing was sufficient, as the barely controllably distraught Tehran caller to CNN described first hand, hundreds of the regime's Basij thugs poured out of an adjoining mosque and commenced a massacre with axes, clubs, guns and gas.

From the live blogger's eyewitness account:

>More than 10.000 Bassij Milittias get position in Central Tehran, including Baharestan Sq.
>Army Helycopters flying over Baharestan and Vali Asr Sq.
>The streets, squares and around BAHARESTAN (Approx. South-eastern of Tehran) is swarming with military forces, civilian forces, the security motorists
>The croud have moved to the south of baharestan, the situation is bad, the shooting has started
>In Baharestan Sq. in the Police shooting, A girl is shot and the police is not allowing to let them help
>In Baharestan we saw militia with axe choping people like meat - blood everywhere - like butcher

This is the Iranian regime, wading into its own unarmed people and axing them to death, bludgeoning women (seen as the greatest threat to the regime) and throwing them to their deaths from pedestrian bridges. The same Iranian regime whose embassy officials are invited to American embassies around the world to celebrate on July 4th, of all things, a successful revolution.

This frantic phone call from a Tehran woman will break your heart as you consider our standard response has been "that there are sets of international norms and principles about violence" and that "the international community is watching." Part of yesterday's response by President Obama in a press conference included "that there is a peaceful path that will lead to stability and legitimacy (of the Iranian regime) and prosperity for the Iranian people. We hope they take it." The Iranian theocratic regime clearly is not interested.

There should not be - nor should have ever been - invitations to the ruthless Iranian regime's international ambassadors to celebrate anything with us, anywhere, unless it is an invitation to a tribunal on charges of crimes against humanity.

To my intelligent friends who have been arguing the logic of our president's near silence on the issue of Iran - and not without merit on certain points - you can disengage from me now. I will entertain none of it any longer.

This is an axe wound, just one, doled out by the regime's thug basiji animals on Saturday, June 20, 2009.

This was a brutal murder of an assuredly unarmed protester of the up-close-and-personal variety. An act, and one not isolated, which requires the presence of inhumane malice and aggression and the absence of humanity. The traits required for massacres upon the unarmed. There is no nuance, no logical approach, no deft explanation that covers near silence and inadequate, tepid condemnation of the meekest sort. To decline any mention of possible repercussions on the regime for these acts "because we don't know how this is going to turn out" is moral cowardice of the highest order. Look at the picture above and listen to the frantic woman calling in to CNN again. They seem to "know how this is going to turn out."

There is a way to condemn a regime axing its citizens in the streets of Tehran and other cities across Iran without "making this about the US." You, and our president, are intelligent men and women and lacking no gifts of speech and prose. Find what's missing. Each of you frustrate and sadden me. Argue your eloquent points elsewhere. My ears are deaf as of now.

In Regime Change Iran: Movement Seeks to Eliminate 'Supreme Leader' Position, I mentioned that just hours before the news broke, I had discussed the significance of the presence of a representative of Iraq's Grand Ayatollah Ali al-Sistani at those meetings on my weekly RFC Radio program, The Steve Schippert Show. Below are the audio archives of the aired program in two 30-minute parts.

In the first segment, I speak with "Winston," an Iranian by birth Canadian citizen who has played a central role in getting information out from Iran to the rest of the world via phone contact, e-mail, Twitter and blogging.

In the second segment, I begin with discussion of the roles of Mousavi and Rafsanjani and what the Shah of Iran in 1979 has in common with Supreme Leader Ayalollah Khamenei in 2009. Then the discussion turns to consider the significance of Rafsanjani's inclusion of Iraq's Ayatollah Sistani. That significance was proven true in the news that broke just after the program aired.

Events in Iran are proving to be the most significant event since 9/11. And if Iran emerges as a true democracy which no longer serves as the lifeline for Hizballah, Hamas and others, it will have proven even more significant from a global perspective.