The Homeland Hack

An interesting item that came across the AKI transom says some al-Qaida militants in Saudi Arabia appear at odds with the call from the group's number two, Ayman al-Zawahiri, to support Hezbollah in its conflict with Israel.
But the piece doesn't quote them as directly rejecting Zawahiri's position, and I don't know enough about the Jihadi magazine that's cited, or the Saudi scene generally, to know whether it's important or not. If I get the chance today, I might ask around.

Congress Daily has a pretty comprehensive piece on the chemical security bill the House Homeland Security Committee passed last week; no word yet from the House Energy and Commerce Committee, where the bill must go next, or from the Senate.

The drumbeat on interior enforcement faltered slightly in Chicago after an immigration judge granted a one-year stay of deportation to 11 undocumented workers, the Chicago Tribune reports. The Trib says that the judge acted to give the men time to apply for amnesty, sorry I mean earned legalization, if the Congress acted on a reform package after the November elections.

And finally, on a personnel note, Michael Bopp has left his job as majority staff director and chief counsel for the Senate Homeland Security and Government Affairs Committee, to go work for the OMB. According to the Bangor Daily News over the weekend, "Bopp said that outside of the Washington area, the role of the OMB in shaping federal policies is little understood."
No kidding. It's like this huge secret shadow government that no one in America knows exists. I mean everyone's heard of the White House, and the Congress, and the Pentagon and most people could probably name at least a couple more government departments and make a vaguely accurate stab at telling you what they did, but OMB?

Time for your humble correspondent to go get *less* coffee.

# posted by Ink Stained Wretch @ 6:16 AM