Reply #113: I don't read Tom Clancy, but he seems to be scripting the BFEE.

[satya]

(Since my opinions are based on online synopses and not my own reading, I may be way off base.)

Clear and Present Danger -- covert war involving drug cartel
Debt of Honor -- Pilot flies 747 into Capitol building, wiping out Congress, the Supreme Court and the President
Executive Orders -- Iraqi president assassinated and Iran takes over; U.S. president controlling the country through executive orders; martial law after biological attack
Sum of All Fears -- nuclear attack at the SuperBowl

So I guess I'd predict bird flu and martial law for January, and a nuclear attack in February. How's that for a cheery winter?

Got a sick feeling in my stomach when I looked up the location of the next Super Bowl -- Detroit, Feb 06. Revenge on Conyers as a bonus?

FWIW, Clancy also coauthored a nonfiction book with Maj. Zinni, whose name I stumbled across while reading this portion of the 9/11 Commission report yesterday:

In sum, in late 1997 and the spring of 1998, the lead U.S. agencies each pursued their own efforts against Bin Ladin. The CIA's Counterterrorist Center was developing a plan to capture and remove him from Afghanistan. Parts of the Justice Department were moving toward indicting Bin Ladin, making possible a criminal trial in a New York court. Meanwhile, the State Department was focused more on lessening Indo-Pakistani nuclear tensions, ending the Afghan civil war, and ameliorating the Taliban's human rights abuses than on driving out Bin Ladin. Another key actor, Marine General Anthony Zinni, the commander in chief of the U.S. Central Command, shared the State Department's view.

http://www.9-11commission.gov/report/911Report_Ch4.htm

IMHO, we're just all caught in the middle of turf battles between these warring mobsters.