From Pittsburgh To Pakistan

....al Qaeda takes one, and perhaps two, more hits.

And the first one is a twenty-four carat dilly:

Full diplomatic relations between Israel and Pakistan will be established in a short period of time, a group of Pakistani expatriates living in the US predicted last week during a visit to Jerusalem.

An eight-member delegation from the American Muslim Peace Initiative came to Israel as guests of the American Jewish Congress's Council for World Jewry, which has been working to improve ties between Israel and the 160 million Muslims of Pakistan.

The two organizations were instrumental in bringing about an historic meeting between the foreign ministers of Israel and Pakistan last year in Istanbul and a handshake at the United Nations General Assembly last September between Pakistani President Pervez Musharraf and then-prime minister Ariel Sharon.

"We don't have an iota of doubt that there should be relations between Pakistan and Israel and between Israel and the entire Arab world," said Dr. Omar Atiq, a member of the delegation who lives in Arkansas. "The ice has been broken. It's just a matter of time. It's not if - it's when. It's around the corner - despite what is going on in the news."

Musharraf either has balls the size of honeydews or else he's gone 'round the bend. If the Islamists weren't out to drown him in his own blood before - and they were - they sure as Gre'thor will be now.

Or perhaps there is a third alternative - enough damage has been done to bin Laden's tattered minions, both in Pakistan/ Afghanistan and Iraq as well as elsewhere that he feels secure enough to take this momentous step. And it is, indeed, momentous; Pakistan is one of the largest powers in the Muslim world and, before Iran was allowed to join "the Club," its sole nuclear power. Adding its considerable heft to that of Egypt and Jordan in recognizing Israel - and blowing off the lunatic Palestinians as the irrelevancies and, frankly, pawns they've always been in the bigger picture of Araby - is a propaganda catastrophe for the Islamic bloodmisters trying to drag the world fourteen centuries in reverse. There will now be considerably more cover for other Muslim states to follow suit.

The caveat to look for is if Musharraf puts any of the usual poison pill preconditions on normalization of relations - like total Israeli withdrawal to the indefensible pre-1967 frontiers. Though the spineless Ehud Olmert has all but agreed to that already. It would be ironic indeed if guile, after all, proves the decisive "anti-Zionist" weapon that finally crushes the Jewish state. Though that would be no less of a humiliation for the more straight-ahead OBL.

Speaking of nads the size of cantoulopes, the FBI may have been packing some big ones this past Friday:

The raid [of a north Pittsburgh mosque] began around noon when authorities shut down the intersection of Boyle and Hemlock streets, residents said. The activity centered around a three-story green house located in the 1300 block of Boyle Street. It is home to the Sankore Institute and Light of Age Mosque, which doubles as a school for people seeking to learn the Koran and Islamic religious teachings.

FBI spokesman Jeff Killeen confirmed that the FBI was at the home. Mr. Killeen referred questions to Margaret Philbin, the U.S. attorney's spokeswoman, who said that the FBI executed a search warrant at the home yesterday morning or afternoon.

Authorities did not say if anyone was taken into custody, but residents said several men in tunics and traditional Muslim garb were led out of the house, patted down and searched along Boyle Street. The agents may have executed the raid during Friday prayers known as the Jummah prayer, neighbors said.

The group moved into the neighborhood around February and posted fliers that said "we are here to help you make the North Side a better place to live, worship, work and play." The group urged people "to join us in clothing and feeding the poor, cleaning up our community and making the North Side a safer, more beautiful place for our children."

Neighbors who witnessed the raid said FBI agents surrounded the home for more than four hours yesterday. They said there was a tactical squad at the scene backing up agents.

All that high-powered and high-tech backup suggests that something big was going on at that mosque. The FBI and Department of Justice aren't saying what yet, though Irish Spy updates that "the raid was in connection with the search for a felon wanted for firearms violations in Utah." Hard to see why the prime suspect, a Larry M. Williams, was holed up in a mosque. But then Timothy McVeigh's documented interactions with Iraqi intelligence in early 1995 obviously didn't stand out that much, either. Cap'n Ed also finds it odd that there is, so far, zero media interest in this story, or even from the ACLU, which one would think would be hopping mad at a police desecration of a Muslim place of "worship."

That would argue for this being nothing to do with terrorism, since if it was, the press would be doing everything possible to demonize the FBI and bully them away from trying to avert new Islamist attacks. Either that or leftie leakers inside the FBI haven't gotten their hands on the inside "scoop" yet. As soon as they do, I've no doubt we, and our enemies, will learn far more about it than anybody should know.

Still, this story raises some hope that the Bush Administration may at last be "tackling the tough issues that come with the realization that we really are at war."

[h/t: CQ]