Drip, drip, drip.

A Defense Department inquiry has found three more people who recall seeing an intelligence briefing slide that identified the ringleader of the Sept. 11 attacks a year before the hijackings and terrorist strikes, Pentagon and military officials said Thursday.

But the officials said investigators who reviewed thousands of documents and electronic files from a secret counterterrorism planning unit had not found the chart itself, or any evidence the chart ever existed.

The officials acknowledged that documents and electronic files created by the unit, known as Able Danger, were destroyed under standing orders that limit the military's use of intelligence gathered about people in the United States.

At a Pentagon briefing on Thursday, four intelligence or military officials said investigators had interviewed 80 people who served directly with Able Danger, a team organized to write a counterterrorism campaign plan, or were closely associated with it.

Of those 80, 5 in all now say they saw the chart, including Capt. Scott J. Phillpott of the Navy and Lt. Col. Anthony Shaffer of the Army, whose recent comments first brought attention to Able Danger.

Anyone want to bet this turns out to be not quite true?

Another official who described the inquiry, Cmdr. Christopher Chope of the United States Special Operations Command, said there was no evidence that the destruction of Able Danger documents had been anything other than a routine application of privacy regulations.

We'll see.

Posted by: Ace at 05:52 AM | Comments (2)
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The Therapist finds a Popular Mechanics article called New Orleans Is Sinking.

They don't bury the dead in New Orleans. The highest point in the city is only 6 ft. above sea level, which makes for watery graves. Fearful that rotting corpses caused epidemics, the city limited ground burials in 1830. Mausoleums built on soggy cemetery grounds became the final resting place for generations. Beyond providing a macabre tourist attraction, these "cities of the dead" serve as a reminder of the Big Easy's vulnerability to flooding. The reason water rushes into graves is because New Orleans sits atop a delta made of unconsolidated material that has washed down the Mississippi River.

...

The fact that New Orleans has not already sunk is a matter of luck. If slightly different paths had been followed by Hurricanes Camille, which struck in August 1969, Andrew in August 1992 or George in September 1998, today we might need scuba gear to tour the French Quarter.

"In New Orleans, you never get above sea level, so you're always going to be isolated during a strong hurricane," says Kay Wilkins of the southeast Louisiana chapter of the American Red Cross.

During a strong hurricane, the city could be inundated with water blocking all streets in and out for days, leaving people stranded without electricity and access to clean drinking water. Many also could die because the city has few buildings that could withstand the sustained 96- to 100-mph winds and 6- to 8-ft. storm surges of a Category 2 hurricane...

Okay, so, a lot of stuff we've now heard quite a few times.

The strange thing is that article was published on September 11, 2001.

Posted by: Ace at 05:35 AM | Comments (11)
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Even bad-news weeks sometimes end with the soothing clang of cowbell.

The 4.9 percent unemployment rate reported for August was down a notch from July's 5 percent rate and was the lowest since August 2001.

...

In Friday's report, U.S. employers added 169,000 jobs in August, reflecting increased employment in industries, including construction, professional and business services, health care and education, and financial activities. But manufacturers shed jobs for the third straight month, reflecting the industry's sometimes bumpy road to recovery from the 2001 recession.

Also encouraging was that payroll gains were revised up for both June and July. Employers in July added 242,000 jobs, an improvement from the government's initial estimate of 207,000 net job gains. For June, 175,000 jobs were added, up from a previous estimate of a 166,000 jobs gain.

The payroll gain of 169,000 reported for August was less than the 190,000 new jobs some economists were forecasting before the release of the report. Economists were predicting the unemployment would hold steady at July's 5 percent rate.

Over and over the job-creation numbers are underestimated. If the pattern holds so will August's.

But Katrina and soaring oil prices may finally stop the economic boom, just when people may have started to notice it all:

Many economists believe the hurricane's fallout will slow overall economic growth in the months ahead as higher energy prices crimp consumers' and businesses' appetite to spend. Some believe growth in the final quarter of this year could come in at an anemic pace of around 2 percent.

Such a scenario could make businesses more cautious in their hiring, which could raise the nation's unemployment rate.

Isn't it usually the case that devastating storms actually help employment? There sure are going to be a lot of construction workers and other tradesmen hired shortly.

Posted by: Ace at 05:25 AM | Comments (30)
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Just letting you know I'm a little tired, a little spent of things to say about Katrina (it's hard to be funny with this going on), and a little behind of things I have to do apart from blogging.

Not a no-blogging advisory, but just thought I'd let you know I'll be posting sporadically today.

Might as well make this an open thread in case anyone wants to post about goings-on in the world.

Posted by: Ace at 10:39 AM | Comments (121)
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Instapundit's linking a lot of charities, with blogger's recommendations.

Not having any clue which is best, I'll just suggest you check the list and see which seems best to you.

Posted by: Ace at 10:30 AM | Comments (5)
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Karl Maher notes that the Big Easy's main industry is tourism-- and it's difficult to shut down a tourist industry for a year and expect that businesses can survive that long without any cashflow.

Posted by: Ace at 08:12 AM | Comments (62)
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Certified penicillin-discoverer Randi Rhodes notes that Bush "played golf" during Hurricane Katrian (um, he didn't, idiot) and furthermore that he "scheduled" a "photo-op with second-graders" when the WTC was hit by planes.

As he was already at that photo-op on 9/11, her suggestion seems to be (to the extent we credit her with any sort of sense or logic whatsoever, which may be a bad credit risk) that he knew that planes were being hijacked that day, but decided to read stories to Florida children to show how much he didn't care.

The audio is here.

Gee, remember when the media used to be so big on the "hate radio" story? Seems they're not so interested in that anymore. What a coincidence.

IQTT (I question the timing; figure it's about time for shorthand).

Update: More on Rhodes' unhinged screed, as well as the conspiratorial beliefs of her listeners, at Radio Equalizer.

Posted by: Ace at 05:43 AM | Comments (35)
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