The Great White Shark which was housed at the Monterey Bay Aquarium, the first of it’s kind to last as long as it did in captivity, was released into the wild today.

SALINAS, Calif. - A great white shark that survived far longer than any other in captivity was returned to the wild Thursday because it was growing too large and had begun preying on other fish at the Monterey Bay Aquarium.

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“The larger she grew, the more that human safety and animal welfare concerns became a factor in our thinking,” said Randy Hamilton, vice president of husbandry for the aquarium. “It’s more risky to handle a larger animal.”

The predator had killed two soupfin sharks earlier this year, although aquarium officials weren’t sure whether the shark was hunting at the time. After close observation this week, researchers noticed it was starting to exhibit true hunting behavior.

“We’ve been watching to see if she was actively hunting other animals in the exhibit,” Hamilton said. “When we saw clear signs on Monday, we decided an immediate release would be best.”

The shark was caught in a fishing net off the coast of California. It was then placed in a pen to rehabilitate the animal and later found itself in an exhibit at the Monterey Bay Aquarium. Keeping a Great White Shark in captivity to learn from has been tried before, but unsuccessfully. This shark lived the longest in captivity before being released.

Hopefully a tracking tag that will last longer than those placed on Great White Sharks in the wild was placed upon the animal in order to learn the habits of Great Whites. It is believed that the Great White Sharks that prey off the coast of California travel hundreds of miles following schools of fish from the northwestern United States, to Hawaii and along the Mexican coast and even to the Guadalupe Islands.

Despite several researchers who have devoted their lives to learning about the elusive Great White Shark, much of their existence is still a relative unknown. Researchers at Monterey Bay Aquarium had a wonderful opportunity to learn about this species in order to hopefully preserve this magnificent creature.

Former National Security Advisor to President Clinton, Sandy Berger, who was caught up in taking classified documents out of the National Library reportedly will plead guilty in a plea bargain.

While the plea agreement requires Berger to give up his secret security clearance for three years, it also reportedly allows him to have his clearance reviewed and restored within that time if the government were to ask him to serve on a panel or in another position with access to sensitive material. It could mean he avoids any prison time.

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The former Clinton administration official previously acknowledged he removed from the National Archives copies of documents about the government’s anti-terror efforts and notes that he took on those documents. He said he was reviewing the materials to help determine which Clinton administration documents to provide to the independent commission investigating the Sept. 11, 2001, terror attacks.

He called the episode “an honest mistake,” and denied criminal wrongdoing.

An honest mistake? If someone were taking documents as an honest mistake, they would not hide them in their pants and socks. The problem is that this was a criminal activity. Taking classified documents is punishable by the law.

The plea bargain is an absolute joke. Berger has admitted to taking classified documents and this should not be a small charge which is now the case as it appears all Berger will lose is his national security clearence. The only reason why a plea bargain would have been prefered over a full case is because the contents of the case, along with what Berger took, would be confidential.

Still to this date we do not know what was actually in those documents. Was it the fact that he personally pulled the plug on two assassination attempts on Osama Bin Laden and counseled President Clinton not to take Bin Laden into custody when he was offered? Because these documents were not presented to the 9/11 Commission, the 9/11 Commission’s findings are compromised because of Berger’s “honest mistake.”

Why was there a plea bargain?

The Presidential Commission to dig into the pre-war intelligence gaffes is a big snooze, but if you’re so inclined I’ll give a summation of the findings.

“Our collection agencies are often unable to gather intelligence on the very things we care the most about,” the panel concluded in an unsparing report.

No kidding? I will point out that it was not just U.S. intelligence that swung and missed regarding Iraq, but it was also intelligence agencies accross the globe as well. The Commission points to several items that need to be fixed which are currently underway, however many of these changes are relatively new and President Bush has said he will implement these changes.

The panel did conclude there was no evidence that the Bush Administration pushed U.S. intelligence to come to any conclusion, which is a popular Leftist conspiracy theory and talking point even for some Democratic politicians. Even with this insight, I still consider the panel not to be very noteworthy because most people did not believe President Bush pushed the CIA to a certain viewpoint.

The addition of a “head of intelligence” will help transform U.S. intelligence services from a relaxed mindset that came about during the 1990s to one that is increasingly focused on terrorism. Following the end of the Cold War, U.S. intelligence was gutted and lacked a clear focus. We now have that focus and we have people in place that are dedicated to reviving the intelligence community. Unfortunately though, as all changes do, it will require time; time we may not have.

Part of the criticism of U.S. intelligence has recieved following the gaffe of pre-war intelligence in Iraq is unmerited though highly reasonable. We can see that in the dealings with the uranium turned over by Libya which is believed to originate from North Korea. Sadly the U.S. intelligence community needs to find the smoking gun in order to conclusively connect the uranium from North Korea, through the black market organized by Pakistani nuclear scientist Abdul Qadeer Khan and to Libya before the United States can address the IAEA of the threat North Korea has made by selling nuclear technology and components to other nations.

This was not the way things used to be, but for better or worse, this is the way the intelligence community must act today. The preponderance of evidence goes further from what a jury would need to convict, which could very well lead to less intelligence operations.

Rest in Peace

German intelligence has learned that Al Qaida in Iraq leader Abu Musab al-Zarqawi is planning a chemical attack somewhere in Europe.

BERLIN - Top Iraqi terrorist Abu Musab al Zarqawi is planning to carry out chemical weapons attacks on targets in Europe, a report said on Wednesday.

“Somewhere in Europe there’s going to be a big bang and it will have been organised by Zarqawi,” said a German Federal Intelligence Service (BND) official, as quoted by the heavyweight political magazine Cicero.

The unnamed BND sources said it was unclear how far Zarqawi’s agents had managed to develop the means for a chemical attack. “We just know that he’s working on it,” said an agent quoted in the story.

It is believed that Zarqawi and his agents are producing chemical agents and planning for the attack either in Georgia or in the northern Caucasus region of Russia. Could this be in reaction to Osama Bin Laden’s plea for Zarqawi to start operations outside of Iraq or was this Zarqawi’s goal all along?

I am a bit hesitant as to why Zarqawi would use chemical weapons in Europe and not Iraq if he did indeed has the means to make chemical weapons. We have seen time and time again Zarqawi’s desire to target innocent life, which a chemical weapon would assuredly take, inside of Iraq therefore it does not seem logical that he would not use these weapons in Iraq first if he had them. If nothing else Iraq would serve as a “test subject” for an impending attack upon Europe.

Following the toppling of the Taliban in Afghanistan, who either gave a safe haven for Al Qaida or were ruled by Al Qaida, Coalition forces found several chemical labs that Al Qaida used to develop and produce a chemical or biological weapon only named Agent X. The presidential commission investigating intelligence on weapons of mass destruction has found Al Qaida was far more advanced than previously believed in developing a chemical or biological agent after seeing these labs.

The three Romanian journalists who were taken hostage yesterday have now been shown in a video.

BAGHDAD, Iraq - The Al-Jazeera satellite channel aired a tape Wednesday said to show three kidnapped Romanian journalists and a fourth unidentified person.

The tape showed the four seated on the ground in a room, with a blanket hung behind them. Two men — their faces covered with scarves — pointed guns at them.

Thus far there has not been any identification of the group which took these journalists hostage. The fourth unidentified person however happens to be an American citizen named Mohammed Monaf (via The Jawa Report). Monaf, an Iraqi-American, served as the group’s translator and studied in Romania. A colleague of Monaf’s did recieve a phone call from the group which took the four hostages relaying the following.

One of his business partners in Romania, Ommar Hayssam, told Realitatea TV that he received two calls from the kidnappers Tuesday morning.
“There was a voice speaking in Iraqi dialect … he asked if I know Mohammed,” he said. “They say to pay … and threatened that if we come with the army they will cut their throats.” He declined to specify the amount of money demanded by the kidnappers.

We see the nature of this threat to the journalists and their translator in one phrase, “They say to pay.” On the surface this seems to be yet another ransom demand for hostages, although one that some countries decide to pay out all too often.

Terrorists opened fire on a group of Shiites who were on their way to a major Shiite religious festival in Southern Iraq.

The attackers opened fire near Mahaweel, 35 miles south of Baghdad, leaving one person dead and injuring two others, police Capt. Muthana al-Furati said. Attacks Monday left four dead, including two police officers trying to protect pilgrims from attackers.

The Shiites were among thousands filling roads on their way to Karbala to celebrate the al-Arbaeen religious festival Thursday.

This is the same exact tactic terrorist groups have used in Iraq over the past two years; targeting Shiite pilgrims in transit or at religious ceremonies. Once it was believed that the terrorists were trying to target Shiites to ignite a civil war, however I cannot make any sense of this continued targeting of innocent Shiites, some of which are not even Iraqi.

There were three reported bombings during the Shiite celebration of Ashura this year and a few last year during the same time. This attack should concern Shiites who plan on celebrating al-Arbaeen which is scheduled for tomorrow.

The Associated Press has a very brief snippet of news concerning attacks in Iraq. The AP reports the targeting of Iraqis as a “different tactic,” though I’m not sure what they feel is different about it. Over the past few months I’ve documented on this site several times that the terrorists main target of choice evolved from the Coalition soldiers to the Iraqi civilians. The overall attacks have gone down, which has also been documented on this site before, as have the attacks on U.S. forces.

There are several reasons why the attacks have gone down as have the attacks against the U.S. soldiers. More and more terrorists leaders are being rounded up and arrested on a weekly, if not daily, basis. The old terrorist stronghold of Fallujah has now been clensed of Jihadis and Baathist Party insurgents and has been described as one of the more safe cities in Iraq. Each time either terrorists or insurgents targeted U.S. forces, their casualty rates were much to high to sustain and actively keep up a valient fight. The United States, with the help of many nations including NATO, have trained over 150,000 Iraqi soldiers which are now taking on more responsiblity to secure rougher areas of Iraq.

All of these are reasons why attacks against U.S. soldiers have dwindled and I do expect this trend to continue in the future. The Iraqi National Guard is becoming much more involved in securing Iraq leaving the U.S. military to serve on a supporting role rather than the other way around.

What took so long?

TUCSON, Ariz. - The U.S. government will launch a multi-million dollar security initiative along a 370-mile stretch of the Arizona-Mexico border Wednesday in an effort to shut down the main artery for illegal immigration into the United States and secure an area thought to be vulnerable to terrorist infiltration, MSNBC.com has learned.

The operation, run by the Customs and Border Protection unit of the Department of Homeland Security, will increase the number of agents in the region by 25 percent, to over 2,500. The initiative, the second phase of an operation begun last year, is scheduled to be formally announced Wednesday.

The goal is to “establish and maintain operational control” of the border, according to planning documents for “Operation Full Court Press,” the initiative’s code name. The operation will redeploy Black Hawk helicopters and significant numbers of air and ground resources from around the country, the documents say.

Why does it take reports indicating more illegal immigration over the past couple of years, the violent gang MS-13 reportedly meeting with members of Al Qaida to help smuggle terrorists over the border, Mexican President Vincente Fox advocating and even producing videos and brochures to help Mexicans illegally cross the border and a group of U.S. citizens deciding the patrol the border (Minutemen) before the U.S. government is actually serious about the border? Better yet, is this even a serious response to the threat?

The Islamic Army of Iraq has released a video of what appears to be a suicide bomber at a checkpoint in Iraq. It is hard to tell if it was a suicide bomber or a roadside bomb (IED) because there was not a statement that corresponded with this attack that I could find, however because this was at a checkpoint it was most likely the work of a suicide bomber.

You may download the video here in Real Media format.

For years Israel has blamed Syria for training terrorist recruits and creating a safe haven for terrorists. All the while Syria has denied this. A captured Hamas recruit has now confessed he was trained in, you guessed it, Syria.

ASHKELON, Israel - A 20-year-old Palestinian recruited from a mosque in Gaza by Hamas militants told The Associated Press in a jailhouse interview Tuesday that he received weeks of military training in a Hamas camp in Syria this year.

The allegations by Osama Mattar, now in Israeli custody, mark the first time a Palestinian has spoken publicly about being trained in Syria, and contradict repeated Syrian denials.

The training base outside Damascus was far from secret and was once even inspected by Syrian intelligence agents, Mattar said.

“They know very well about the presence of Hamas,” he said. “What they may not have known about was the presence of a guy from Gaza coming to train at the training camp in Syria.”

Of course they know the presence of Hamas just as Syria knows the presence of terrorists infiltrating Iraq. A huge portion of the foreign born terrorists fighting against the Coalition and killing innocent Iraqis trained in Syria and entered Iraq through Syria despite the country’s constant denials and outward statements saying Syria is against the terrorists.

One of Syria’s closest allies, if not their only ally, is Iran which is also a state sponsor of terrorism and specifically funds Hezbollah. Hezbollah attacks Israeli civilians as well as has a firm grip on Lebanon, the country in which Syria claims they will withdraw from finally.