New Duranty: LONDON — Investigators examining the bungled terrorist attacks in London and Glasgow six months ago believe the plotters had a link to Al Qaeda in Mesopotamia, which would make the attacks the first that the group has been involved in outside of the Middle East, according to senior officials from three countries who have been briefed on the inquiry.

The evidence pointing to the involvement of Al Qaeda in Mesopotamia includes phone numbers of members of the Iraqi group found on the plotters’ cellphones recovered in Britain, a senior American intelligence official said.

British authorities have said that the plotters, Bilal Abdulla, a British-born doctor of Iraqi descent, and Kafeel Ahmed, an Indian aeronautical engineer, parked two vehicles laden with gas canisters and explosives near a popular nightclub in central London at the end of June. The cars, apparently positioned to strike people leaving the nightclub, failed to ignite.

The next day, the two men rammed a Jeep Cherokee loaded with gas canisters into the Glasgow airport. It erupted in flames, and the driver, Mr. Ahmed, was severely burned and died several weeks later...

The American intelligence official noted several similarities between the events in Britain and attacks in Iraq attributed to Al Qaeda in Mesopotamia, including the use of vehicle-borne explosives aimed at multiple targets. The officials agreed to talk about the attack only on the condition of anonymity because they were discussing secret intelligence information.

While officials stopped short of saying that the plot originated with Al Qaeda in Mesopotamia, or was directed by the group, they did say it was the closest collaboration they knew of between the Iraq group and plotters outside the Middle East. The American official who noted the evidence found on the recovered cellphones was unable to provide details about how often the accused plotters called Iraq or how soon before the bungled attacks calls were made.

Two other American counterterrorism officials generally concurred with this assessment of the link to the Iraqi group, but one of them cautioned against overstating the role of Al Qaeda in Mesopotamia, also known as Al Qaeda in Iraq, or A.Q.I., saying, “The event is best viewed as A.Q.I.-related, rather than A.Q.I.-directed.”...

The US is focused entirely on Iraq and in trying to achieve stability there, so the rapprochement between Iran and the Saudis is viewed positively by Washington.

BBC: Iran's Mahmoud Ahmadinejad will this week become the first sitting president of the Islamic republic to perform the pilgrimage to Mecca, his office said.

It follows a formal invitation from King Abdullah of Saudi Arabia, seat of the Islamic holy places and a long-time regional rival of revolutionary Iran.

It is not clear if he has performed the Hajj before, or if past presidents have been to Mecca after leaving office.

An official said the invitation was an important event in Saudi-Iranian ties.

"It is the first time in the history of relations between Iran and Saudi Arabia that the king of this country invites a president of the Islamic republic to make the pilgrimage to Mecca," said presidential aide Ali Akbar Javanfekr.

Relations between revolutionary, Shia Iran and the conservative, Sunni monarchy of Saudi Arabia have been steadily improving since the first visit to Riyadh by an Iranian president in 1999.

Twelve years earlier, more than 400 people, mostly Iranians, were killed in clashes between Iranians and Saudi security forces during the Hajj.

Earlier this month Mr Ahmadinejad became the first Iranian president to attend the annual summit of six Arab Gulf states - all strong US allies - in neighbouring Qatar...

Debka notes Abdullah and Ahmadinejad arrived there "hand in hand" (thanks to Alan). 

It will be his third visit to Saudi Arabia as president.

A nice little nugget (or nougat?) in today's Times:

The official designation of Turkish delight is now Greek. A confectioner on Cyprus has stolen a marchpain by registering its Greek name of loukoumi under the European Union trademark protection Act. This subverts the legend and etymology of the sweet, which are lost in the kitchens of the 17th century.

It is said that a Turkish pastry cook invented the gluey sweetmeat for a sultan with toothache, who could not bite for toffee. It reminded the sultan of the quivering thighs of his odalisques. The confection is popular among Mediterraneans with a sweet tooth. Its Turkish name, lokum, may come from the Ottoman rahat hulkum, “contentment of the throat”. Romanians call it “rahat”; Serbs “ratluk”. When a traveller brought it back to England, it was originally called “lumps of delight”.

There is no necessary connection between a national designation and the food attributed to it. Scots do not like Scotch eggs. They were invented for English picnics by a London grocer. The English don't have English muffins. Welsh rabbit is an insult. The mis-spelling “rarebit” is later etymological pomposity. The French do not have French toast — their pain perdu is a different kettle of fish. Danish pastries come from Vienna, and may well be derived from Turkish baklava. And the Greeks claim that Turkish coffee was a misappropriation of the hot, sweet, sedimentary Greek coffee under the Ottomans.

A rosewater sweet by any other name would taste as sweet. But when biting into Cypriot or Turkish delight, beware of breaking a tooth on the political nuts concealed beneath the sugar.

The French may not have French toast, but they have French leave, beans and letters. And horns too - horns a-plenty. 

Hmm. What a good joke that is, or so I thought. But I was google-thwarted again. Horns-A-Plenty is a website selling French horns:

We are the premier venue for used, professional-quality French horn sales worldwide. Look no further. We have your next horn...

Promises, promises. There's no need to blow your own ...er...trumpet.

Not a single foreign intelligence service appears to have been impressed by the NIE. Those of Great Britain and Israel have raised more than eyebrows. The Israelis, who cannot afford to make the kind of mistakes the Americans keep permitting themselves, are not merely unimpressed with the conclusions but by all reports appalled, and now realize that they are on their own.

The actual text does not support the conclusions, the conclusions ballyhooed by The Times on the front-page, as a Great Achievement In Intelligence. But what disturbs most of all is the underlying failure of its authors , in assigning the "moderate" or "high degree" of "confidence" in this or that conclusion, is to realize how much depends upon an understanding of the nature of the Iranian regime, its origins, its history, the worldview of those who run it and what they wish to do, and what might, temporarily, give them pause, but in the end would cause them to start right up again when they thought the coast was clear. What conceivable explanation can there be for what Iran has been caught trying to import, or has managed to build? What conceivable explanation can there be for the 3,000 centrifuges to which the Iranians have admitted (the actual number is much greater)? It is the taking of Iranian denials at face value, and ignoring the entire pattern of behavior that is prompted by deep beliefs, beliefs that in Ahmadinejad's case include a chiliasm that ought to scare many into grim comprehension.

Every assumption that appears to lie behind this report is on the side of seeing Iran's rulers as sensible, sane, rational actors. It's nonsense. That is not what Islam teaches -- not in the advanced Western sense. It teaches the duty to promote the spread, and dominance of Islam, coute que coute. Seventh-century texts may be laughed off by us, the Infidels, but they are not laughed off by others. The chiliasm of Ahmadinejad (a follower of a particular group within Shi'a Islam) may appear mad to us, but so what? It is the fact of his belief, not what we think of it, that matters, and that should underlie any weighing of evidence, and judgment as to what may be concluded, and what it makes little sense to conclude.

The Bush Administration has failed to win the support necessary for dealing inside this country with those pursuing or aiding Jihad. On every front it has failed: whether it is Muslims coming to fundraiser for causes associated with violent Jihad, Saudi and other Arab money coming in to pay for the building, and then the maintenance, including the staffing, of mosques, the takeover by apologists for Islam, systematically hiring and promoting each other, of many university and college courses in subjects related to Islam, the attempt to frighten or bully everyone from talkshow hosts to campus speakers into silence or submission, or the winning of convictions in terrorism-related cases (a failure based partly on prosecutorial incompetence, but mostly because the Administration lacks the intelligence or ability to demand the setting up of special courts, with panels of judges trained and sufficient to the task).

It has failed because it has used up all of its political capital on the Iraq venture. That venture, some now think, can "succeed" but they never tell us what that "success" would be in any detail, or how that would weaken the Camp of Islam.

What began as a naive and sentimental belief that "Iraqis" would

1) greet Americans as "liberators"

2) forget or overcome -"they're just going to have to" said Condoleezza Rice in a characteristic display of ignorant self-assurance -- their deep sectarian and ethnic resentments and hatreds and desire to keep or to seize power.

3) exhibit a capacity for rational behavior and a willingness to compromise with enemies, that is not possible given the Victor-Vanquished attitude that Islam fosters, for while in Islam the Victors are the Believers and the Vanquished are the Infidels, those raised on Islam have no difficulty applying the same categories to intra-Muslim situations.

This squandering in Iraq (and to a much lesser extent in Afghanistan) continues, and may continue for quite a while, lowering morale of both civilians and the military, and a further weakening of the officer corps in the American army (where have all the captains gone? where are they going?) if the next administration, whatever it may be, does not come to its senses about Islam. For the only way out of Iraq that is politically palatable is that based on a coherent strategy of furthering ( in the case of Iraq that is best done by leaving), the fissures -- sectarian, ethnic, and economic -- within the Camp of Islam.

"Islam condemns violence and teaches adherents not to force their beliefs upon others, Sheik Alaa El-Say..."
-- from this news article

The central figure of Islam is Muhammad, the Model of Conduct, uswa hasana, the Perfect Man, al-insan al-kamil. Muhammad participated in one long violent campaign against those who would not accept him as a Prophet, that is would not submit to Islam. The Qur'an, the Hadith, are full of violence, practiced by Muhammad and his followers.

And the rule for dealing with conquered Infidels is clear. They are given a choice: death, conversion, or enduring a status of permanent humiliation, degradation, and physical insecurity, the degrees of which will vary according to the whims of the ruler and the circumambient Muslims. If forcing people into such conditions, that will remain as long as they adhere to some non-Islamic faith and refuse to convert, is not a means of "forcing beliefs" upon others -- that is, pressuring them so strongly that, over time, a great many will "convert" not out of conviction but out of a desire to remove the many legal disabilities inflicted on them -- it is hard to think of what would qualify as "forcing beliefs."

Jeffrey Imm writes at Counterterrorism blog:

Al-Qaeda's number 2, Dr. Ayman al Zawahiri, was reported to have released an audio message to Jihadist web sites denouncing the Annapolis Conference. This has been reported by Reuters, AP, SITE Institute, and Laura Mansfield.

In addition, Laura Mansfield is reporting that Jihadist web sites state that a second message will also be coming out, described as an interview with Zawahiri. SITE Institute has also issued a press release stating that this Zawahiri interview will be released as a second message.

SITE Institute reports that this Zawahiri audio message is 20 minutes long and is entitled "Annapolis - The Treason"; it was published by Al-Qaeda's media arm, As-Sahab. SITE further reports that Zawahiri called the conference a "betrayal" and was another instance of a "Zionist-Crusade" against Palestine, criticizing Palestinian Authority leader Mahmoud Abbas and all other conference attendees, stating that the Mujahideen will not abandon Palestine as an Islamic land, calling for Jihad to liberate Jerusalem, and calling on Palestinians to support Jihad and an Islamic Caliphate.

AP reports that the Zawahiri message included statements:
"The Annapolis meeting was held to turn Palestine into a Jewish state. " "The czar of Washington invited 16 Arab countries ... to sit in one room, at one table with the Israelis." AP also reports that the Zawahiri stated that the conference "witnessed the betrayal deals to sell Palestine."

Reuters reports that Zawahiri states in the message that:
"The Arab states and governments were present as false witnesses to the latest of the treacherous deals to sell Palestine". "Our Muslim brothers in Palestine, unite under the banner of Islam and on the road of God's jihad and reject these secular organizations that sold you out in Madrid and Oslo, in Camp David and Wye River, in Sharm al-Sheikh and Annapolis." "Our Muslim nation, this is a new conspiracy against Palestine and the abode of Islam, so stand with your brothers in Palestine ... and do not leave them alone in face of ... the compromising rulers and Crusader-Zionist aggression."

SITE Institute also reports that the Zawahiri message also condemned previous peace conferences on Palestine/Israel issues, and asked why the "Mufti of Saudi Arabia" did nothing about these. Moreover, SITE reports that Zawahiri calls for the Egyptian army not to support Palestinians being forced into Gaza area between Egypt and Israel. Regarding Algeria, SITE reports that Zawahiri addresses the Al-Qaeda in the Islamic Maghreb, without referencing Tuesday's bombings, and informs those Algerian representatives to the Annapolis conference that they are betraying Palestinians...

Many years ago I was a bit spotty - not very spotty, just a bit So I bought an exfoliant called  "Apricot ". Underneath the word "Apricot", in smaller lettering, were the words "Facial Scrub". "Facial scrub?" queried my then boyfriend, then equally spotty. "Do you get that, then?"

He clearly thought "facial scrub" was the disease rather than the cure. Facial scrub, in his mind, was a kind of scaly fungus on the skin that my new Apricot potion would rid me of. Then again, beauty products are a little confusing on this point. You can buy shampoo "for greasy hair", "for dry hair" or "for dandruff". But logically why would you? Who wants greasy hair or dry hair or dandruff?

Today I bought a moisturiser. (When young you want less grease than nature provides; when older you want more.) The moisturiser promised "an instant pick-me-up for irresistible skin".  But if you have irresistible skin, you don't want it picked up, surely; you want it to stay as it is. I think it should say "resistible". If your skin is resistible, pick it up. Or something.

Northern comedian Victoria Wood, whose voice, I am told, is very like mine, said of The Singing Detective: "Ooh, I can't watch that without wanting to have a good pick." She had a point. Facial scrub doesn't begin to cover it. Or rather it does.

Click on the pic for Men At Work singing Down Under:

Great song, but one quibble: "under" doesn't rhyme with "cover".

Anticipating another quibble, yes I know Australia isn't antipodean if you're American, but then I've always been Anglo-centric, even when it comes to things that are on the other side of the world.

To find out what's on the other side of the world from you, click here for an antipodes map. Saves digging a hole.

From The People's Cube:

Following the misery inflicted on Islam by a toy bear that ended up with calls for the execution of an English woman, more Muslims are stepping forward with stories of long-suppressed emotional trauma imposed on them by so-called reality. This has led to the creation of support groups and social networks that help followers of the Prophet Mohammed cope with the agony of learning about life outside of their immediate environment, offering assistance with technical resources, practical guidance, and strategies for early intervention and punishment of those who offend Islam. ~ "I have always been offended by rubber ducks," says Mahmud Said of Portland, Oregon. "For a long time I felt stigmatized and inadequate, until one day I decided to write about it on an Internet forum. I received hundreds of heart-felt emails - from Morocco to Indonesia. It turns out that thousands of Muslim men between the ages of 18 and 35 have had traumatic experiences with rubber ducks. "We started a support group that has grown to 10,000 members. Not only do we share horrifying rubber duck stories, we also try to increase public awareness by sabotaging the world supply of rubber ducks, setting fire to factories, abducting rubber duck distributors, and intimidating retailers. These are building blocks for our healthy future. With Allah as my witness, our public awareness campaign will soon result in a completely rubber-duck-free world." Abdullah Sharif had just turned 35 when the Mohammed cartoon controversy suddenly broke out. It left him so emotionally scarred that he developed an aversion to representative art in all its forms. He often found himself shrieking while passing comics in a bookstore window, or seeing the funnies in the local newspaper. But while Abdullah had formerly been considered just another oddball, thanks to social networking, he is now a successful leader of an international charitable organization working for the betterment of humankind through imposing of Sharia law on the infidels. His group covers a wide range of activities, from occasional riots, bombings, and beating of newspaper editors to writing threatening letters to the Cartoon Network. "One true believer may be a nutcase, but together we are the fastest growing religion on Earth, making the important cultural shift to a more Islam-dominated society that benefits both the true believers and the lowly kufir," boasts Abdullah. He recently moved to a new home in Malibu and is touring the world on a private Lear Jet. Studies conducted by mental health professionals have shown that Muslim men and women are often offended by the most unexpected items, including baby rattles, hummingbirds, home appliances, or geographical maps with polar ice caps. On the top ten list of the most offensive things are rectal thermometers and the word "allometric," which many consider an underhanded insult to Allah. Every such grievance is being thoroughly documented and acted upon by support groups and mental health providers, such as CAIR, that help victims to overcome their stress and anxiety by filing costly lawsuits against private institutions and government agencies. The typical case involved a visitor from Egypt to Brooklyn, NY, who was offended by the sight of a cumulus cloud over Atlantic Avenue in the shape of the Arabic letter "A." By organizing protests and putting pressure on mass media, a network of Muslim groups and charities succeeded in forcing a Brooklyn judge to award the offended man $150,000 in damages, to be paid by the National Meteorological Agency. The Agency is the government body the Muslim groups deemed most responsible for regulating the proper distribution of water molecules over the New York metropolitan area.

I note that rectal thermometers are offensive to Muslims. They can be offensive to non-Muslims as well. Why, only the other day, at my local hospital, I was most offended to see that a doctor had a rectal thermometer behind his ear. "Why's that?" I asked. He replied, "Damn. Some bum's got my pencil."

"Did she die in vain?"

I wish I'd said that - "You will, Oscar, you will" - but it was Tony Hancock, perhaps the second greatest comedian that ever lived after Ronnie Barker. Perhaps the greatest, but slightly before my time. I remember as a little kid being asked - but when I got wise to it, asking - if I went to bed with Tony Hancock.

Toe. Knee. Hand. Pudenda. Doesn't work for women.