Iranian Uprising Continues

Another massive protest in Tehran. I have a feeling the Mullahs and Ahmadinejad might try to sweat this one out and hope the world, with it's short attention span news cycle, become bored of the story. Yesterday, Obama swatting a fly was the biggest story.

Terrorists on Air France 447?

As I wrote last week: Why Is a Terrorist Attack So Quickly Dismissed as the Cause for the Missing Air France Plane?

Today the New York Post's headline story is: 2 PASSENGERS ON FLIGHT 447 HAD ISLAMIC TERROR TIES

Two passengers with names linked to Islamic terrorism were on board the Air France flight which crashed with the loss of 228 lives, it has emerged.

French secret servicemen established the connection while working through the list of those who boarded the doomed Airbus in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil, on May 31st.

Flight AF447 crashed in mid-Atlantic en route to Paris during a violent storm.

While it is certain that there were computer malfunctions, terrorism has not been ruled out.

Soon after news of the fatal crash broke, agents working for the DGSE (Direction Générale de la Sécurité Extérieure), the French equivalent of MI6, were dispatched to Brazil.

It's interesting that the media were reporting right away that terrorism was ruled out as a cause, when clearly it wasn't. France dispatched the DGSE immediately.

I don't understand why they do that. Isn't the job of the press to open mindedly ask questions and try to find answers instead of ruling something out, with no proof?

There's no definitive proof of the cause yet, and we may never know.

UPDATE: Bomb threats were made days before flight 447

Today, ABC News has confirmed that Air France received a bomb threat over the phone concerning a flight from Buenos Aires, Argentina, to Paris days before Air France flight 447 disappeared over the Atlantic.

Authorities at Buenos Aires' Ezeiza Airport delayed the May 27 flight before takeoff and conducted a 90-minute search of the threatened aircraft. Passengers were not evacuated during the search, which yielded no explosive material. After the inspection, authorities allowed the plane to take off for Paris.

Four days later, flight 447 departed from Rio de Janeiro. There was no known threat against the missing flight.

Toronto Star, National Newswatch Run with Liberal Spin

If you go to the National Newswatch website today, they have an unflattering picture of Prime Minister Harper next to an evil looking Richard Nixon shot. They link to an article from the Toronto Star. Here's the first paragraph:

OTTAWA–In a move described as "Nixonian," Prime Minister Stephen Harper suggested he would release potentially damaging videotapes of Michael Ignatieff after the Liberal leader called on Harper to fire Finance Minister Jim Flaherty.

Who described it as Nixonian?

Ignatieff described the comment as the "most Nixonian" of Harper's many remarks to him. "Every day that goes by, he's more like Richard Nixon," Ignatieff told reporters.

Good grief. Why not just go straight to the Liberal Party website for the news?

I like how they add this nugget, to help us conjure up memories of the Nixon era:

While U.S. president, Nixon installed secret audio recording systems in the Oval Office, his cabinet room and at Camp David and surreptitiously recorded hundreds of conversations from February 1971 through July 1973.

Of course, it doesn't say that nobody is accusing Harper of releasing a bugged recording of Ignatieff. Way down in the article it explains that Harper meant there are many speeches and public appearances that Iggy made over the years, and that there is probably a few things he said that would be embarrassing.

They imply this is paranoid and ruthless of Harper. Hmmmm... Remember back in the Martin era, the Liberals quoted over and over an excerpt from a Harper speech in New York, years before when he said Canada is like a northern European welfare state? I guess it's ok if the Liberals dig up this stuff.

When you think of it, isn't Paul Martin more Nixonian? Bitter battles before getting the big job, that made him thin skinned and paranoid? Mysteriously became wealthy when not in office?