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Yesterday, Joan Walsh went into more detail about what was wrong with the very special terrorism episode of The West Wing at Salon. Political journalist Joshua Michal Marshall also took a couple of drive-by shots at the episode in his weblog as well. I was proud of our government yesterday. President Bush announced a $320 million aid package for Afghanistan. $195 million is earmarked for providing Afghanis with food, shelter, and other necessities. I have absolutely no idea where the remaining $125 million is going, and the story doesn’t say. (I read another news story which says that $125 million is for immediate aid, and the $195 million is for aid over the coming winter.) ...

I just wanted to say that I absolutely hated The West Wing last night. I thought that the episode was the height of arrogance and patronization. I really, really don’t need Aaron Sorkin to deliver a lecture through the dramatic device of a Q&A; session with teenagers. I quit watching after school specials back when I was in school. Another day, another set of attack-related links from Phil Agre. A Korean company is suing to block the sale of Windows XP in Korea. They’re unhappy with the fact that Microsoft’s instant messaging client is bundled with the OS. ...

Phil Agre has issued two more sets of attack related links over the past couple of days. (10/1, 10/2) I’m rolling out a new design for this site. I’ll be converting the sub-pages to the new design as I have time. Please let me know if you run into any problems. (I’m particularly interested in any font-size issues on Macs. If the fonts look like crap, please send email post haste.) Update: after multiple complaints in the first 15 minutes the new design was live, I toned down the green. ...

Bruce Scheier’s latest Crypto-Gram is all about 9/11 related issues. On the heels of her latest column, which demands that the government expel all non-citizens from “suspect countries,” Ann Coulter has been fired by the National Review Online. The story also mentioned that the Washington Times declined to carry the columns featuring the best of Coulter’s bigoted rantings, although they haven’t axed her column altogether. I love this bit, too: “People are hysterical about speech right now,” Coulter says. “Everyone’s comments are being taken out of context and wildly misinterpreted.” ...

This week it’s imperative to pay close attention to the Anti-Terrorism Act, which was written by the Justice Department and that the administration wants to see enacted as rapidly as possible. Unfortunately, as I’ve already mentioned on this site, the key provisions of the bill are an absolute nightmare to anyone who values civil rights. Here are some links to commentary on the bill: Declan McCullagh reports that the law isn’t done, and that the core provisions are in a state of flux. (This is good news, since it means that people in Congress haven’t given up on fighting it.) PFIR Statement on Terrorism, Civil Liberties, and the Internet EFF summary of the compromise bill that’s working its way through the House. EFF analysis of the original ATA. EPIC analysis of the ATA. ACLU statement on the ATA. Dan Gillmor’s latest column is about the role that amateur reporters (like webloggers) played in disseminating information about the 9/11 attack. ...

Phil Agre has sent out another batch of attack-related URLs. His introduction to his article is also very interesting, particularly his proposal to “love-bomb” the Muslim world for military reasons. It’s a brilliant idea. Must read: a two-part article from the Observer on terrorist cells operating in Europe (part one, part two). The most explosive revelation is that US intelligence agents had Mohammed Atta under surveillance in Hamburg last year because he was buying chemicals for explosives and biological warfare. The article also further confirms my suspicions that these extremist cells are cults. They prey upon vulnerable people, often far from home, and indoctrinate them in an extreme, anti-Western form of Islam. They’re then sent to terrorist boot camps and fully brainwashed, and finally are put back in circulation to carry out attacks and recruit new members. ...

Robert Fisk finds the instructions/prayer guide found in Mohammad Atta’s baggage to be odd. Either the hijackers were bad Muslims or the document was translated by bad translators.

Over the past 24 hours, I’ve become fascinated with Robert Fisk, the Middle East correspondent for The Independent, a British newspaper. Fisk has been stationed in Beirut for over 20 years, and probably understands the dynamic of the Middle East as well as any Westerner. The Independent Web site provides a convenient search that returns all of Fisk’s recent articles. I recommend just going through the list and reading them. Salon has hired a Central Asia correspondent. I have high hopes. Here’s her first dispatch. ...

Jake Tapper has a story on the deteriorating state of media relations in the White House. It turns out that Ari Fleischer was lying about Air Force One being a target of the terrorists (as everyone knew at the time), and about the plane that hit the Pentagon heading for the White House. He or one of his flunkies also called up NBC News and berated them for running an interview with President Clinton after the attack. I think that the White House has done a lot of things right since the attack, but letting Fleischer continually butcher the truth isn’t one of them. ...

Can the investigation into the terrorist attacks of 9/11 really be this scattershot? Round up all the usual suspects, indeed. Today, Salon’s Jake Tapper takes a look at American Islamic organizations and their support for terrorists, or at least their refusal to condemn them. On TV Tonight, courtesy of The Onion. Phil Agre’s latest set of attack-related links. The Institute for the Secularization of Islamic Society is an organization that is striving to make Islam more compatible with democratic society. There are a number of interesting papers on their site, including this one: Jihad, the Arab Conquests and the Position of Non-Muslim Subjects, which takes a historical look at the position of Islam toward other religions. (It’s a long paper, I haven’t finished reading it yet.) ...