If you achieve the CEO status of a newsgroup like UPI - you have "ears" in lots of places.

In many ways the global news networks like AP, UPI and Reuters are almost like an intelligence agency. Not only do they have affiliates which update them from all parts of the world - but they are often sent anonymous e-mails, news bits and images from common citizens and folks all over the world. Being in the news-biz However, while they have the capacity to collect it - they are somewhat weak in interpreting or verifying news.

While I need no convincing to believe these CEOs and accountants did not need much or any prompting from Al Qaida to cheat or fudge - what I believe is more likely is that certain operatives may have helped in the revealing of such corruption. IMHO this sort of cooking has been going on non-stop since the beginning of taxation and the stock markets. Even when the figures are this large. Osama knows all about corporations and knows about the practices of cooking books - and so an undermining of confidence against Bush and of our infrastructure would be a natural strategy for him which would cost him very little and buy him some distraction - or better yet a democrat controlled congress and white house.

The divide and conquer route is what is being employed against Bush. The many muslims in europe have a lot more access to the media than muslims do in the USA. So when an "unidentified" staff member in Blair's office denounces the US military as a bunch of trigger-happy thugs - you seriously have to wonder if it is some low-level muslim secretary in the officepool who has access to the phones at night - or perhaps it is completely fabricated altogether and released by the leftist British media to undermine Blair and Bush.

The terrorists ARE lying low - they are doing their very best to remain incognito and reassemble their finances, personnel and coordination.

In the US we may not officially profile - but in many nations they do - and these nations naturally have higher arrest rates.
So Al Qaida is definitely off-balance and under siege.

Yes, we are staking out a bunch of muslim hotspots in the US (Michigan comes to mind) but this is small-fry next to the phonetaps and undercover stings going on in europe and elsewhere where a much more pro-active approach to catching those Al Qaida cells or merely sympathisers.

Now there are camps in Syria and other nations which we want to go after. From Libya to Madagascar, we have been locating training camps and following the flow of money to individual banks (which is a big help for starting a search of this nature).

In short, Al Qaida is very vulnerable - the cloak of unawareness which the world slept under is now gone and they simply can't move around - or move money - as freely as before. Each action or communication leaves them wondering if it will reveal them - and each member must lie in the bed they have made and wonder if they will be rudely awakened in the dead of night - and find themselves target practice for our "trigger happy thugs" who obviously clearly kill innocents as easily as combatants.

And methinks the suicidal deathwish of the majority of muslims is highly exaggerated. ;-)

Take Care Dan,

SDAI-Tech1