WASHINGTON, December 4 – As far as the former 9/11 commissioners are concerned the United States have not learned much from the catastrophic events of 2001. Many of their recommendations haven’t been put in to place and the Katrina-disaster showed that the government is still not ready of a big event like a new terrorist attack.

Meanwhile Al Qaeda hasn’t been sitting still, many experts report that they are continuing to pursue weapons of mass destruction and a new attack is imminent, not a matter of “if” but a matter of “when”.

The former 9/11 commissioners are issuing a report on Monday which will shed a light on how many and how well their recommendations have been implemented. Today they disclosed that the government is scoring more F’s than A’s. The situation is increasingly worrisome because it seems like they are not even aware of the urgency of this matter.

For example a bill to allow communication between police forces and firefighters is still stalled in Congress, another bill to divide funds to fight terror based on the level of threat to the state is also being stalled, simply because they keep arguing over the money. The commissioners are very clear on this point, the terrorists want to hit hard and kill a lot of people so Washington and New York face the highest threat to get hit, so they should get the most money to defend their state.

It looks like the government did not learn from 9/11 and their blatant failure during hurricane Katrina did not change anything. We can only hope someone in the White House wakes up soon and smells the coffee, or in this case the imminent threat of 9/11 all over again.

LONDON, December 3 – Since the report indicating that the CIA is operating covert prisons in the European Union appeared many politicians have become anxious. The large consent among European citizens is that the U.S. approach is not working, if word came out that their governments are actually allowing the U.S. to transfer suspects and operate torture detention centers.

Condoleezza Rice’s visit to Europe next week will likely handle largely about this situation. It’s not yet clear how much the U.S. government knows about this network of detention centers but it’s already very clear that some politicians in Europe are turning red over the coming investigation.

At least one incident of a kidnapping, or transfer, however you want to call it, is known and prosecutors have detailed information about it. The incident involves an Egyptian terror suspect who was taken from Milan to Egypt, likely to use questionable techniques to extract information from him. Many experts believe it is mere impossible to simply kidnap a prisoner in Italy without some form of consent or cooperation. In light of the detention centers cooperation is even implied, so the governments facilitating these centers will be under very heavy fire.

Politicians in the opposition and human rights groups are already sharpening their knifes. It’s unlikely that these secret CIA transports and abductions will be answered for without, political, blood-shed.

BAGHDAD, December 2 – The U.S. military suffered one of the biggest strikes yet as a Marine foot patrol was surprised by a roadside bomb on Thursday. Ten of them were killed by the blast and at least eleven were wounded of which several severely.

This bombing is one of the worst to hit the U.S. military yet. Normally patrols stay well spaced out to prevent mass casualties but the outcome of this attack indicates that the blast was enormous. Concerns over these roadside bombs have been growing for some time now, the devices used are becoming more powerful and more advanced and there is almost no way to track them down.

Meanwhile in Baghdad Shiites joined a largely Sunni group to protest against the many arrests of alleged insurgents over the last few days. Especially in the area near the Syrian border many operations took place to secure the area and stabilize the situation for the elections on December 15th.

WASHINGTON, December 1 – The first abortion case in five years for the Supreme Court stirred up a lot of dust. Special concerns rose over the new Chief Justice on the Supreme Court, the conservative Roberts. Because of these special circumstances this lawsuit about a New Hampshire law grabbed national attention.

Chief Justice Roberts held his end of the deal as promised in the confirmation hearings for his nomination. He promised not to change abortion laws unless absolutely necessary and he stuck to that promise in this case.

The New Hampshire law included that in case of medical , life threatening, emergencies patients under the age of 18 could have an abortion without prior notification to one of the parents. Since the law did not say anything about medical situations without any immediate danger. Two organizations, Lawyers for Planned Parenthood and American Civil Liberties Union, challenged this law as being unconstitutional.

Roberts, as well as the other justices, immediately intervened by proposing a compromise. Upholding the law and simply carving out the exception for medical emergencies. He played it very smart by focusing on the core issue at hand to evade any other ethical debates about abortion, probably to make it easier to keep his promise.

The outcome will be announced tomorrow but it is likely that it will not change much since both parties agreed to the proposition.