by JAMES TARANTO
Wednesday, August 22, 2007 3:33 P.M. EDT

Today's Video on WSJ.com: James Taranto on a war opponent who doesn't want to cut and run from Iraq.

Don't Look Now
We begin today with a public service announcement from the Federal Bureau of Investigation:

The Seattle FBI and the Washington Joint Analytical Center (WAJAC) are requesting the public's assistance in identifying the two individuals pictured below. These men have been seen aboard Washington State Ferries on several occasions and have exhibited unusual behavior, which was reported by passengers. While this behavior may have been innocuous, the FBI and WAJAC would like to resolve these reports.

If you can identify these individuals, or know their whereabouts, please call: 206 622-0460

The Seattle FBI and the Washington Joint Analytical Center (WAJAC) are requesting the public's assistance in identifying the two individuals pictured [nearby]. These men have been seen aboard Washington State Ferries on several occasions and have exhibited unusual behavior, which was reported by passengers. While this behavior may have been innocuous, the FBI and WAJAC would like to resolve these reports.

You can click on the photos above or the link atop this column to go to the press release, which has the full pictures.

As the FBI notes, these men may be completely innocent; the bureau simply would like to find out who they are to make sure nothing is amiss. After all, as David McCumber, managing editor of the Seattle Post-Intelligencer, notes, "according to a Justice Department inspector general's assessment, Puget Sound's ferries were the nation's No. 1 target for maritime terrorism. This may well be a case of alert citizens spotting a very real threat."

Accordingly, the P-I is . . . not publishing the photos. Seriously! McCumber explains:

The P-I ran a story about the FBI's alert, but did not run the photographs, because we didn't have enough information to warrant it. I hope that today we are able to get more information on this story, if it exists, from the FBI that would give us a clearer idea of the background behind their request.

Based on what we have, it seemed newsworthy that the FBI was trying to find these guys but it did not seem appropriate to run their photographs.

The FBI released the photos Monday afternoon, and the Seattle Times, like the P-I, declined to publish them yesterday. Today, however, the Times concluded that it did have enough information to publish the photos:

"They were taking photographs of doors, not seabirds," said U.S. Coast Guard Lt. Cmdr. Richard Hartley in Seattle.

[FBI agent David] Gomez said employees and passengers reported the incidents over several weeks this summer. In at least one instance, they asked questions about ferry operations, Gomez said. It wasn't until analysts looked through the reports that a pattern was seen, he said. Since then, the FBI has concluded "four to six" of the incidents were related and involved the same two men. . . .

"We are able to resolve the great majority of reports of suspicious activities on the ferries," Gomez said. "We have not been able to do that here." The decision to release the photographs publicly was vetted with bureau officials in Washington, D.C., and demonstrates just how serious the potential threat is being taken, he said.

Perhaps the Times just did a better job reporting the story than the P-I did, but in any case the newspapers' reluctance to publish the photos is hard to understand. If the men are up to no good, then obviously it is in the public interest that they be caught. If they are up to no bad, it is in both the public interest and their own that they be identified and cleared.

If the latter is true, then one may argue the FBI should not have released the photos--but the bureau had already done so, and the question cannot be resolved without identifying the men.

The Times report notes one source of objection:

The release of the photos enraged some in the Arab-American and Muslim communities, said Aziz Junejo, who hosts an Islamic talk show on television and writes a column about Islam for The Seattle Times.

He called the release "careless" and said he has been inundated with complaints that the FBI is profiling Arab-Americans. He said the photos appear to be of two Arab-American men.

"The people I'm hearing from are outraged and angry and paranoid," he said. "They're afraid to ride the ferries now."

But this is illogical. The FBI is not looking willy-nilly for "Arab-Americans," but for two individual men whose behavior raised a red flag, and who may or may not be of Arab heritage.

In any case, the P-I's very serious weighing of this very serious issue was belied yesterday when it ran--we're not kidding--a haiku contest. Wrote the paper's Monica Guzman:

As the story develops today, what concerns you most: The possible threat to security? The way the alert was released? Something completely different? Put it in a three-line, 5-7-5 syllable bit of pop haiku for today's contest.

Today Guzman issues a mea culpa:

While the Big Blog mixes fun and news on a daily basis, in this case we undermined a serious issue and a serious debate, and made it seem as if we in the newsroom didn't acknowledge its importance.

We're a little disappointed, because we came up with a funny haiku about the P-I. Oh well, we'll save it for another time.

The Hidden Agenda That Never Was
Blogger Josh Marshall has a typically bitter post about President Bush:

We are today frequently called on to see the president's wrecked "democracy promotion agenda" as an example of some sort of failed though laudable, even tragic, idealism. . . .

But the whole story, like so much else from the Bush White House, is press and pomp with no substance. What's remarkable is how little questioning there's been about whether such an agenda ever existed at all--even from many who are normally the president's critics. . . .

Had the president taken any steps to push for democratization in Egypt, Saudi Arabia or anywhere in Central Asia, perhaps there'd be something to discuss. But of course nothing like that has happened. . . .

So let's just stop the talk about what's happened to the president's "freedom agenda." There just never was one. It's really that simple.

In April 2003, however, it was a lot more complicated, at least according to Marshall. That month, he published an article in The Washington Monthly warning of the freedom agenda:

The administration sees the invasion [of Iraq] as only the first move in a wider effort to reorder the power structure of the entire Middle East. . . . The administration is trying to roll the table--to use U.S. military force, or the threat of it, to reform or topple virtually every regime in the region, from foes like Syria to friends like Egypt, on the theory that it is the undemocratic nature of these regimes that ultimately breeds terrorism. . . .

There is a startling amount of deception in all this--of hawks deceiving the American people, and perhaps in some cases even themselves. While it's conceivable that bold American action could democratize the Middle East, so broad and radical an initiative could also bring chaos and bloodshed on a massive scale.

So what happened between April 2003 and August 2007? One possibility is that Marshall was wrong then and is right now--that his 2003 argument was but a figment of his imagination. We don't think so, though, for at the time, we faulted Marshall for accusing the administration of some sort of grand act of concealment. In truth, President Bush, as we noted, had openly and repeatedly proclaimed that democracy promotion was central to the antiterror effort.

It seems to us far more likely that one or both of the following are true: (1) Marshall in 2003 exaggerated the scope of the administration's ambition, and (2) the Iraq intervention turned out to be more complicated than the administration had anticipated, forcing it to scale back its ambition.

In retrospect, we must admit that Marshall had a point in 2003, at least inasmuch as some administration supporters (including this columnist) were overly optimistic about the short-term prospects of democracy in the Middle East. But the past 4 1/2 years also have not produced the "chaos and bloodshed on a massive scale" of which Marshall warned. History has moved more slowly than young--well, it's 2007, so we'd better make that "youngish"--commentators expected.

But history has not stood still. We are in Iraq, and all indications are that we will be there for a good long time. Today's Washington Post reports:

Democratic leaders in Congress had planned to use August recess to raise the heat on Republicans to break with President Bush on the Iraq war. Instead, Democrats have been forced to recalibrate their own message in the face of recent positive signs on the security front, increasingly focusing their criticisms on what those military gains have not achieved: reconciliation among Iraq's diverse political factions. . . .

The leading Democratic candidates for the White House have fallen into line with the campaign to praise military progress while excoriating Iraqi leaders for their unwillingness to reach political accommodations that could end the sectarian warfare.

It seems to be dawning on many Democrats that America cannot simply flee Iraq--that to do so would be at least as reckless as opponents of the initial intervention claim that it was. Democrats instead are pushing for "political accommodations" within Iraq--that is, for democracy. However slow it has been in coming, that is progress.

Evil Genius--II
This is somewhat repetitive of an item yesterday, but it's just 10 times funnier coming from the Edwards campaign than from the Los Angeles Times. This is from a campaign email attributed to Joe Trippi:

You may have seen Karl Rove's recent attacks on Hillary Clinton in the news.

This is a page straight out of his tired old playbook--Rove is attacking Hillary Clinton because he doesn't want John Edwards to win the Democratic nomination.

Rove knows that Democrats will rally around whomever he attacks--so he attacks the candidate he thinks Republicans can most easily defeat.

It may seem backwards, but Rove and his cronies did the same thing last time around. In 2004, they were scared of John Edwards, so they attacked John Kerry. . . .

It is no secret that John is the only Democratic candidate who can beat any of the Republican candidates hands down. . . .

Rove and the Republicans are seeing the same numbers we are--and drawing the same conclusions. So Rove is using his sneaky, underhanded tactics to try and trick Democrats into rallying around a candidate who won't be as strong as John in the general election.

Then again, consider Bill Murray's argument for women in the military:

Let's say we have a war with Russia and the women fight. If we win, that's OK. And if we lose, we can say to the Russians: "Wow, you beat a bunch of girls. You must be really proud of yourselves. You Russians are real tough guys, yeah." Can you imagine how embarrassed the Russians would be?

Maybe Rove is afraid that if Edwards gets the Democratic nomination, President Giuliani's victory will be tainted because it wasn't a fair fight.

Shocking!
Blogger Harry Forbes notes a hilarious passage in a Boston Globe piece about Mitt Romney:

But some of Romney's critics and political foes--all strong supporters of the state's healthcare law--say he is resorting to tricks used by candidates trying to put the best spin on their records: accentuating the positive, deleting difficult details, and taking too much credit.

Maybe Romney should take a page from Karl Rove and accentuate the negative instead. That's called "reverse psychology" and it's even more sneaky and underhanded!

'Spiritual Vacuum'
Here's a hilarious passage from a Reuters report on quality-control problems in Chinese manufacturing:

China, on track to overtake the United States this year as the world's second-largest exporter, lacks the manpower to enforce food and drug safety regulations at home or for export. Imports are generally carefully scrutinized.

A lack of business ethics and a spiritual vacuum after China embraced economic reforms in the late 1970s have been blamed for unscrupulous business practices and corruption.

Two questions: First, if China lacks manpower, couldn't it outsource the jobs to a country with a bigger population? Second, is it possible that events in China before the 1970s might have helped create a "spiritual vacuum"?

Zero-Tolerance Watch
"An East Valley eighth-grader was suspended this week after he turned in homework with a sketch that school officials said resembled a gun and posed a threat to his classmates," reports the East Valley Tribune of Mesa, Ariz.:

But parents of the 13-year-old, who attends Payne Junior High School in the Chandler Unified School District, said the drawing was a harmless doodle of a fake laser, and school officials overreacted. . . .

Payne Junior High officials did not allow the Tribune to view the drawing. The Mostellers said the drawing did not depict blood, injuries, bullets or any human targets. They said it was just a drawing that resembled a gun.

But Payne Junior High administrators determined that was enough to constitute a gun threat and gave the boy a five-day suspension that was later reduced to three days.

Someone must have told the school officials that "drawing a gun" is dangerous.

10 Palestinians Hanged by Hamas
"Hawaii Surfer Donates Boards for Gazans"--headline, Associated Press, Aug. 21

That Makes Sense, but What's With the Harps?
"Angels Use Wings to Make Up for Lack of Offensive Muscle"--headline, CBS Sportsline, Aug. 22

And They Do Mean Bust!
"Utah Police Chief's Stripper Wife Arrested at Nevada Nightclub Drug Bust"--headline, FoxNews.com, Aug. 21

All Your Base Are Belong to Us
"Skype Holed by Patch Tuesday"--headline, eWeek.com, Aug. 20

Breaking News From 2004
"Dean Loses Lots of Steam"--headline, KWTX-TV (Waco, Texas), Aug. 21

News You Can Use

• "Girls Really Do Prefer Pink, Study Shows"--headline, Daily Telegraph (London), Aug. 21
  
  
• "Study: Tyrannosaurus Rex Could Outrun Most Humans"--headline, LiveScience.com, Aug. 22
  
  
• "Seniors May Get Doughnuts After All"--headline, Associated Press, Aug. 22

Bottom Stories of the Day

• "Ohio Market Wins Nation's 'Best Restroom' Award"--headline, FoxNews.com, Aug. 21
  
  
• "Report Finds 'Pork' in Homeland Security Grants"--headline, CNSNews.com, Aug. 21
  
  
• "Canada Names Women's World Cup Roster"--headline, CBC.ca, Aug. 21
  
  
• "Texas Rejects EU Executions Plea"--headline, BBC Web site, Aug. 21

Don't Blame Bush, Blame Bullwinkle!
"Norway is concerned that its national animal, the moose, is harming the climate by emitting an estimated 2,100 kilos [4,630 pounds] of carbon dioxide a year through its belching and farting," reports Der Spiegel:

Norwegian newspapers, citing research from Norway's technical university, said a motorist would have to drive 13,000 kilometers in a car to emit as much CO2 as a moose does in a year.

So not only man but animals cause global warming. Apparently the only way to preserve life on earth is to wipe out life on earth.

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Today on OpinionJournal:

• Review & Outlook: GOP immigration meltdown: Mitt and Rudy make a run at taking over the Lou Dobbs chair.
• Jay Cost (from RealClearPolitics): Why Democrats demonize Rove and Republicans demonize Mrs. Clinton.
• Michael Mukasey: Terror trials hurt the nation even when they lead to convictions.