A common argument is that terror should not be fought through war, but rather, terror should be treated as a police matter. But the truth of the matter is that people have the stomach for neither war nor justice.

The assassination of Lebanese Prime Minister Rafiq al-Hariri is good case in point. If any other nation’s political leader was killed by agents of another, it would be considered an act of war. But the assassination of Hariri is being treated as a police manner and it is being conducted to the highest standards that any liberal could wish. But in the end, there is likely to be no justice.

And this lack of justice is the not the result of the matter being treated as a crime as opposed to an act of war. The investigation has almost certainly fingered the guilty parties.

Rather the lack of justice will come about because Bush, Israel, and the world at large have no use for justice when it is inconvenient. At least, that is the conclusion that Getting Away With Murder? by Joshua Hammer points towards.

From the Telegraph….

Hundreds of Taliban fighters have stormed a crucial Nato depot outside the Pakistani city of Peshawar, destroying over 100 lorries which would have taken supplies to American and British forces in Afghanistan.

The gunmen overpowered and disarmed the security guards, before setting fire to the vehicles, many of which were laden with Humvee armoured cars intended for Western forces.

About three quarters of all the ammunition, food, weapons and other supplies needed by Nato’s troops in Afghanistan, including 8,000 British soldiers, pass through Pakistan. The Taliban have clearly identified this route as a crucial vulnerability.

I may be getting too paranoid, but I wonder if these attacks were done with the encouragement of Pakistan’s army. It would be good way of reminding the US of how critical Pakistan was for American success in Afghanistan. The Pakistani army might figure that the US needs a reminder given the pressure that the US has started to put on Pakistan. From the Belmont Club….

Whatever the American attitude towards the Government of Pakistan will be, the US already openly believes that certain former (thanks for spotting the difference, readers) Pakistani officials are in fact, terrorists. Bill Roggio reports that “the US wants the United Nations Security Council to designate several senior former officers of Pakistan’s Inter-Service Intelligence agency as international terrorists.”

It may be paranoia to connect these two stories. But Pakistan has openly threated to let to allow the Taliban a free hand if too much pressure is put on it by India. From the New York Times….

Ms. Rice’s diplomatic agenda takes place as Washington is seeking high-level cooperation in different spheres with both India and Pakistan, nuclear-armed neighbors. Washington wants Pakistan to help defeat Al Qaeda and Taliban insurgents along the border with Afghanistan.

But Pakistani security officials have threatened to withdraw troops from the lawless border region to redeploy them if India and Pakistan slide toward their fourth war since independence from Britain in 1947, Reuters reported.

From NewsMax…

The devices, called Radio Frequency Identification (RFID) machines, allow officials to read remotely any passports, pass cards, and driver’s licenses that contain special chips with personal information.

The RFIDs are so sensitive that, even before a vehicle pulls up at a border checkpoint, agents already will have on their computer screen the personal data of the passengers, including each person’s name, date of birth, nationality, passport or ID number, and even a digitized photo.

The new gadgets are in place, or soon will be, at five border crossings: Blaine, Wash.; Buffalo; Detroit; Nogales, Ariz.; and San Ysidro, Calif. They are slated to have a dramatically expanded presence in June.

Lee Tien of the Electronic Frontier Foundation argues that the technology could make Americans less secure because terrorists or other criminals may be able to steal the personal information off the ID cards remotely.

Tien and other critics warn that people up to no good can use their own RFID machines in a process called “skimming” to read the information from as far as 50 feet.

Of course, the government assures you that only their machines can read the data so you have nothing to worry about.