News For Today In Usa

350 Simultaneous Bombs

The latest Cryptogram newsletter from Bruce Schneier is -- as usual -- filled chock-full with interesting security news and insights. For good or bad, though, Schneier comes off a tad on the liberal side with various anti-war missives such as this:

An absolutely fascinating interview with Robert Pape, a University of Chicago professor who has studied every suicide terrorist attack since 1980. "The central fact is that overwhelmingly suicide-terrorist attacks are not driven by religion as much as they are by a clear strategic objective: to compel modern democracies to withdraw military forces from the territory that the terrorists view as their homeland."

James Taranto, in today's edition of the invaluable 'Best of the Web' notes:

A series of bombs exploded nearly simultaneously in dozens of cities across Bangladesh Wednesday, striking regional capitals as well as the national capital, Dhaka," CNN reports: "According to police, at least 115 people were injured with 350 bombs detonating. Bangladeshi media reported at least one fatality." Three hundred fifty bombs? Wow, someone's really mad about the Bangladeshi occupation of Iraq!

And no word from Pape regarding the nearly 3,000 fatalities on 9/11 and whether the terrorists had claimed Manhattan in the name of Jihad (as they have London, for instance).