BOMBING THEMSELVES INTO OBLIVION

Militant showdown looms for Abbas: Palestinian Authority cuts ties to militants after bombing kills 20 Israelis. (Nicole Gaouette, 8/21/03, The Christian Science Monitor)

The bombing has also created a crucial challenge for Abbas, seriously undermining his cease-fire strategy, particularly as he was meeting with Hamas and Islamic Jihad in Gaza when Tuesday's bomb exploded.

"They're spitting in his face," says Mr. Alpher. "If he still says it's raining, it's over for him. He's got to demonstrate he can do something - the question is what?"

Wednesday, Abbas responded by cutting all ties to militant groups and ordering the arrests of those responsible. Elias Zananiri, a spokesman for the Palestinian security minister Mohammed Dahlan, says Abbas "blames [the militants] for damaging interests of Palestinian people," and emphasizes that the prime minister is serious.

"When I say the security forces will take measures against the perpetrators of this attack, I certainly don't mean they'll be drinking a cup of coffee with them," says Mr. Zananiri.

FBI: Iraq Bomb Made From Old Munitions (D'ARCY DORAN, 8/20/03, Associated Press)

, a defiant U.N. Secretary-General Kofi Annan (news - web sites) vowed that those behind the deadly blast would not succeed in driving the world body out of the country.

"We will persevere. We will continue. It is essential work," Annan told reporters in Stockholm, Sweden, where he stopped on route to U.N. headquarters in New York. "We will not be intimidated."

"We have been in Iraq for 12 years and we have never been attacked," Annan said. He said now the United Nations would reevaluate its security measures.

U.N. operations in Iraq were suspended, and Iraqi employees were told to stay home. Foreign workers were directed to stay in their lodgings that are scattered in many small hotels around the capital.

Unlike U.S. occupation forces, the United Nations had been welcomed by many Iraqis. Bremer said the blast had forced an overall security review, and that coalition officials would meet Friday with all diplomatic missions in Iraq to help them assess security.

From the Second Intifada to 9-11 to the Bali bombing to the Jerusalem bus bomb to the UN HQ bombing, what have the terrorists achieved in any of this except to steel the resolve of peoples, many of whom (other than the Israelis) had previous been rather indifferent to their Islamicist hallucination? When you somehow manage to make even Kofi Annan talk tough, you ought to be able to figure out that instead of sowing terror you're just pissing people off. Posted by Orrin Judd at August 20, 2003 7:19 PM