Captured Zarqawi Aide Spilled the Beans  —  Alexis Debat Reports:  —  An Iraqi customs agent secretly working with Abu Musab al-Zarqawi's terror cell spilled the beans on the group after he was arrested, Jordanian officials tell ABC News.  —  Ziad Khalaf Raja al-Karbouly was arrested by Jordanian intelligence forces last spring.

Specter Offers Compromise on NSA Surveillance  —  The chairman of the Senate Judiciary Committee has proposed legislation that would give President Bush the option of seeking a warrant from a special court for an electronic surveillance program such as the one being conducted by the National Security Agency.

PARADISE IS OVERRATED  —  Iowahawk Guest Commentary  —  by Abu Musab Al-Zarqawi  —  Former Senior VP, Al-Qaeda In Iraq  —  Howzit swingin', fagsicles?  Yeah, I know all you bitzoches all seen the pictures by now.  Go on and laugh it up chump, like your drivers license photo is all George f**kin' Clooney.

Evidence accumulates of a hoax in Haditha.  The weblog Sweetness & Light has done an estimable service gathering together the articles which cast substantial doubt on the charge of a massacre of civilians at Haditha .  Because the blog is too busy gathering and fisking the news …

DeLay: Partisanship Refreshes Politics  —  Former Majority Leader Tom DeLay, bowing to legal and ethical troubles, said goodbye to the House on Thursday and took a shot at his liberal opponents.  Some Democrats walked out during the farewell.  —  The 11-term Republican from Texas …

A Chilling Portrait, Unsuitably Framed  —  The frame surrounding an image of Abu Musab al-Zarqawi's head, revealed to the world as proof the terrorist is dead, is bizarre.  When the picture was displayed at a U.S. military news briefing, Zarqawi's face was seen inside what appeared …

FDA Approves Vaccine That Should Prevent Most Cervical Cancers  —  In what officials called a major public health breakthrough, the Food and Drug Administration yesterday approved the first vaccine developed to protect women against cervical cancer.  —  The vaccine, which works by building immunity …

Iowa Ear: Des Moines' well-endowed flood control  —  City design with a vast difference  —  An anonymous source at City Hall tipped Iowa Ear off to this aerial photo on the Polk County assessor's Web page.  It's of the city of Des Moines' detention basin at 2617 Easton Blvd.

Dog Feces Left at Congresswoman's Office  —  Republican U.S. Rep. Marilyn Musgrave's re-election campaign was already heated, and it just got smelly as well: Her staff accused a Democratic activist Thursday of leaving an envelope full of dog feces at Musgrave's Greeley office.

$1 million Moonie mystery  —  IT was a dark night in a city that knows how to keep its secrets.  —  The phone rang on my desk, waking me from a reverie I don't remember.  —  "Casey," I said, hoping to sound like a private eye.  —  The guy on the other end really was a private eye.

Apologise or we'll cut your funding, US envoy tells UN  —  From James Bone in New York and Richard Beeston  —  AMERICA'S bitter dispute with the United Nations escalated last night when John Bolton, the US envoy to the UN, threatened to withhold funding to the organisation unless it apologised …

Infiltrating Yearly Kos: Now with photos!  —  Expecting a catharsis of nutroots fury, our man on in the inside faces the terrible truth about YK: it's crushingly boring.  —  But he did catch Wes Clark enjoying the Colonel's secret recipe.  Read on.  —  Panels

Zarqawi and His Role Model  —  HISTORY NEVER REPEATS ITSELF precisely, but it often rhymes.  Coalition forces killed Abu Musab al-Zarqawi in a safe house just outside Baghdad.  More than 800 years earlier, the life of Zarqawi's role model, Nur ad-Din Zanki (1118-1174), came to an end in Damascus …