Editor’s Note: Steve Chapman is on vacation. The following column was originally published in February 2008.

“Death tugs at my ear and says, ‘Live, I am coming.’” Were Supreme Court Justice Oliver Wendell Holmes Jr. alive today, he might ascribe that line not to death but to nuclear terrorism.

Ever since Sept. 11, 2001, Americans have had to live with the knowledge that the next time the terrorists strike, it could be not with airplanes capable of killing thousands but atomic bombs capable of killing hundreds of thousands.

The prospect has created a sense of profound vulnerability. It has shaped our view of government policies aimed at combating terrorism (filtered through Jack Bauer). It helped mobilize support for the Iraq war.

Why are we worried? Bomb designs can be found on the Internet. Fissile material may be smuggled out of Russia. Iran, a longtime sponsor of terrorist groups, is trying to acquire nuclear weapons. A layperson may figure it’s only a matter of time before the unimaginable comes to pass. Harvard’s Graham Allison, in his book “Nuclear Terrorism,” concludes, “On the current course, nuclear terrorism is inevitable.”

But remember: After Sept. 11, 2001, we all thought more attacks were a certainty. Yet al-Qaida and its ideological kin have proved unable to mount a second strike.

CONTINUED at Reason.

A group of Communist Party veterans have written a daring open letter calling for the removal of China’s top security official, in the latest sign of disunity ahead of Beijing’s leadership transition.

Security chief Zhou Yongkang, one of China’s top nine rulers, is viewed as a hardliner and is linked to Bo Xilai , the charismatic party leader whose downfall earlier this year triggered the nation’s biggest political scandal in decades.

In an open letter to President Hu Jintao, published on a number of overseas websites, the veterans suggest that Zhou is part of a movement to revive the China of Mao Zedong.

Zhao Zhengrong, a retired anti-corruption official from the southwestern province of Yunnan, told the AFP news agency that he, and 15 other party members from the same province, had sent the proposal advocating Zhou’s removal to higher authorities.

Speculation has been growing about the future of Zhou since the downfall of another top politician, Bo Xilai.

Al Jazeera’s Melissa Chan said that the letter was significant because it was rare to see this type of dissent in China.

“For the first time in 20 years, we really are seeing a debate and a split in the political leadership,” she said.

Despite this divide, she said the letter was unlikely to have any impact on the national government.

“What’s lost in this entire narrative is that the next president and premier of China are not going to change,” she explained.

Source: Al Jazeera. Video at link.

A private door opens from Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s office in central Jerusalem directly into a long, modestly furnished, half-paneled room decorated with modern paintings by Israeli artists and a copy of Israel’s 1948 declaration of independence. It contains little more than a long wooden table, brown leather chairs and a single old-fashioned white projector screen.

This inner sanctum at the end of a corridor between Netanyahu’s private room and the office of his top military adviser, is where one of the decade’s most momentous military decisions could soon be taken: to launch an Israeli attack on Iran’s nuclear program.

Time for that decision is fast running out and the mood in Jerusalem is hardening.

Iran continues to enrich uranium in defiance of international pressure, saying it needs the fuel for its civilian nuclear program. The West is convinced that Tehran’s real objective is to build an atomic bomb – something which the Jewish state will never accept because its leaders consider a nuclear armed-Iran a threat to its very existence.

Adding to the international pressure, U.S. ambassador to Israel Daniel Shapiro said this week American military plans to strike Iran were “ready” and the option was “fully available”.

The central role Iran plays in Netanyahu’s deliberations is reflected in the huge map of the Middle East hanging by the door of his office. Israel lies on one edge, with Iran taking pride of place in the centre.

Experts say that within a few months, much of Iran’s nuclear program will have been moved deep underground beneath the Fordow mountain, making a successful military strike much more difficult.

CONTINUED at Reuters.

Syria remains the top destination for Iranian arms shipments in violation of a U.N. Security Council ban on weapons exports by the Islamic Republic, according to a confidential report on Iran sanctions-busting seen by Reuters on Wednesday.

Iran, like Russia, is one of Syria’s few allies as it presses ahead with a 14-month old assault on opposition forces determined to oust Syrian President Bashar al-Assad.

News of the panel’s report came as Tehran and the U.N. International Atomic Energy Agency try narrow their differences on how to tackle concerns over Iran’s atomic program, and as Iran prepares for talks with the five permanent council members and Germany in Iraq next week.

The new report, submitted by a panel of sanctions-monitoring experts to the Security Council’s Iran sanctions committee, said the panel investigated three large illegal shipments of Iranian weapons over the past year.

CONTINUED at The Star.

The head of Greece’s Council of State will take the reins of the country until it holds new elections on June 17, state TV said a meeting of party leaders decided Wednesday, a day after power-sharing talks collapsed.

Nine days of negotiations among Greece’s bickering parties failed after May 6 inconclusive elections left no party with enough votes for a majority in parliament. The lack of a deal to share power meant the only option open was to head back to the ballot box.

The caretaker government will have no mandate to take any internationally binding commitments, with emergencies to be handled in consultation with party leaders, Communist Party head Aleka Papariga said.

“It will be a strictly caretaker government, which must not take any action at the EU or NATO that will be binding for the Greek people,” Papariga said after another meeting with other party heads, convened by President Karolos Papoulias to find agreement on who will lead the temporary government.

“If there is an emergency or unforeseen event, that can be addressed by consultation among the parties with the involvement of the president,” she said.

CONTINUED at CNBC.

Monti raised alert levels on Sunday at some sensitive sites across Italy to handle the recent violence that has hit the country.

Interior Minister Anna Maria Cancellieri also said on Sunday that she was considering bringing in the army to defend certain locations.

“There have been several attacks on the offices of Equitalia (the agency handling tax collections) in recent weeks. I want to remind people that attacking Equitalia is the equivalent of attacking the State,” she said.

“The army could be used to guard buildings which could be the target of violent protest. The danger of an escalation exists. It’s a situation which demands drastic action,” she added.

On Saturday, two Molotov cocktails were thrown at the offices of Equitalia in Livorno, Tuscany, and severely damaged the front of the building after they blew off. Moreover, a letter bomb, which did not blast, was sent to the organization’s offices in Rome on Friday.

CONTINUED at Press TV.

The failure of German chancellor Angela Merkel’s party in a major state election Sunday is another reminder toDemocrats of a fundamental reality of politics — in recessions, voters tend to punish the party in charge.

Americans tend to think of their politics as being a thing unto itself — not related to contests elsewhere in the world. But the economic crisis that began in 2008 swept through all the major, developed market economies, and the political waves that have washed through their elections follow a similar pattern.

In Germany’s election, Merkel’s conservative coalition lost big in the country’s most populous state, North Rhine-Westphalia, which shows her party won backing from only about one-quarter of voters, down from more than one-third in the last election. The state contest would be the second major one in a row that the Christian Democratic Union and its coalition partners, the Free Democrats, have lost.

CONTINUED at LA Times.

Israel will not be invited to NATO’s May 20-21 summit in Chicago, the alliance’s top official said Friday. But he denied that alliance member Turkey had blocked Israel’s participation.

Instead, NATO Secretary-General Anders Fogh Rasmussen said the reason is because Israel does not participate in NATO’s main military missions.

News reports have claimed that Turkey blocked Israel’s participation because of the raid in 2010 by Israeli troops on ships heading to Gaza in which eight Turks and a Turkish-American died.

NATO has a system of partnerships with dozens of nations across the globe such as the Mediterranean Dialogue, a NATO outreach program with seven friendly nations, including Israel.

In the past, partner nations did not usually attend the alliance’s summits. But Fogh Rasmussen said 13 would do so this time.

CONTINUED at ABC News.

Colombia’s Chamber of Representatives has approved a bill that would legalize the cultivation of drugs that grow as plants, bringing to fruition the start of more legislative drug reform efforts to come, as promised by South American leaders during the recent Summit of the Americas.

Colombia’s drug crop legalization bill would make growing marijuana, opium, coca and poppies legal, but drug trafficking, including sales, would remain a severe crime, according to Colombia Reports.

The U.S. is a strong ally of Colombia’s and the Obama administration has provided military support to the country, even going so far as to station U.S. soldiers and drone aircraft at Colombian military bases, ostensibly to help combat drug trafficking networks. The country has historically been a key U.S. asset in the region, so much that they’ve even accepted prior U.S. administrations sending aircraft over Colombian poppy and coca fields to spray the indigenous population with herbicide.

CONTINUED at The Raw Story.

Two suicide blasts ripped through the Syrian capital today, killing 55 people and leaving scenes of carnage in the streets in the deadliest bombing attack since the country’s uprising began 14 months ago, the Interior Ministry said.