Islamic terrorists target as many as 6 Christian churches in Iraq; Tom Ridge to hold a rare Sunday news conference to announce an Al Qaeda plan to target financial institutions in NY and DC.  Expect the Terrorist threat level to be raised.

…Because Abu Ghraib.  And Spiderman 2.  And Buddy Holly.  And baby back ribs. And free markets.  And John Stossel. And the ACLU.  And decadent double-fudge devil’s food cake.  And Windows XP.  And warmongering neocon lying liars. And the baby Jesus.

update:  Michelle Malkin has more on the Al Qaeda threat.  And Spoons takes issue with Dean Esmay, who notes:

So let’s add all this up: terrorists can be white, black, or brown, and maybe even mixed-race looking like filipinos. They may be carrying passports from any country, and they may in fact be U.S. citizens or permanent residents.

Yet somehow, we’ve gone three years without a terrorist attack on home soil, and when a chick with a South African passport who could pass for a half-dozen racial groups sneaks into the U.S., the Feds nab her.

Can you folks on the Right who are absolutely convinced that we must target Arab-looking males with Arab passports, and that terrorists are casually “traipsing across the border,” explain to me what exactly your reasoning is again? Because it seems to me that not only are our law-enforcement authorities doing a good job, but that profiling people based on sex or perceived nationality is a fool’s game. It further seems to me that our only serious tool is rigorous intelligence networks, spooks on the ground ferretting out the terror networks, and to be looking at everyone who comes through our airports, not just the men with light brown skin and big noses.

Malkin’s response:  “Nonsense […] Authorities now believe Ahmed [the “chick with a South African passport who could pass for a half-dozen racial groups”] may have entered the country at least 250 times. Esmay muses optimistically that authorities were watching her all along. Yeah? Who watched her as she swam in her jeans through the Rio Grande untold times, and what possible reason would they let her do the backstroke into the U.S., only to be caught by happenstance at the airport, if she had been under surveillance all along? Like John Stossel says: Give me a break.

“[…] Ahmed’s last two names–“Mahomed” and “Ahmed”–are both Muslim names. This is not a case where profiling would have been futile. And while it may be true enough that terrorists come in all colors, it simply does not follow that profiling should be eschewed or outlawed. Allowing homeland security officials to take race, ethnicity, or religion into account is not a mandate to stop every person with those characteristics. Profiling is just one discretionary investigative tool among many. It is far from an infallible aid, but if law enforcement officials were only permitted to use fool-proof techniques, they would be left with no tools to fight terrorism at all […]”

protein wisdom muses:  John Stossel seems to be showing up quite a bit here.  I question the timing.

update 2: NY Mayor Bloomberg and Police Chief Kelly to hold a news conference at 4 PM EST.  Maybe they’ll explain to us how John Kerry’s Vietnam war record will keep us all safe…

update 3:  Ridge names 3 specific targets:  The World Bank and IMF in Washington, D.C., the Prudential Building in Newark, N.J. and the New York Stock Exchange.