MISCHIEF MAKING?

Who cut the 'net? A storm, a quake, a sub? Al Bawaba reports:

Internet connectivity still remains slow in several Middle East countries due to the cable damage near Egypt, Iran and Dubai. An improvement is not expected soon as operators claim there are many complexities involved in fixing the problem. In addition, all voice calls, corporate data and video traffic were also affected.

The first two cables, off Alexandria in Egypt, were cut on January 23. ...

A total of five cables being operated by two submarine cable operators have been damaged with a fault in each. These are SeaMeWe-4 (South East Asia-Middle East-Western Europe-4) near Penang, Malaysia, the FLAG Europe-Asia near Alexandria, FLAG near the Dubai coast, FALCON near Bandar Abbas in Iran and SeaMeWe-4, also near Alexandria.

Something interesting is about to happen in the Middle East.

CONNING THE CIA

Nada Nadim Prouty is a name worth remembering. The Department of Justice news release about the mess she's made is enlightening in its blandness.

A waitress from Lebanon visits the U.S. on a student visa and winds up working for the FBI and CIA. Oh, and she accesses an FBI file on Hizballah, even though she's not tasked to the terror group.

This CBS News story offers a little more color, but not much. All very disquieting in a low-key way.

AN AGONIZING COLLISION

Say this, if nothing else, about the current administration -- it really does create its own reality. Not as tasty as making your own gravy (unless you believe Nick Lowe was right about that whole cruel-to-be-kind business), but it's fascinating to watch. Almost funny in a macabre way, until you realize it's happening in the United States.

Thursday's New York Times rolled with a deep, detailed story about the redefinition of torture by this country's leaders. The skinny: Congress outlawed “cruel, inhuman or degrading” treatment of prisoners. In a legal opinion, the U.S. Department of Justice agreed. But in a secret opinion, Justice said things like waterboarding, sleep deprivation, sensory overload and blows to the head are not cruel, inhuman or degrading.

Problem solved. Secrecy preserved -- until The Times opened a few windows so all of us can see what the government is doing in our names.

Do yourself a favor, if you haven't already. Read the story and go from there.

BOTH DID PORN

George Tenet was editor of his school newspaper in high school. Ronnie Hyatt sang in school productions. Same school: Cardozo High in Bayside, N.Y.

Tenet grew up to become director of the CIA. Hyatt grew up to become Ron Jeremy, America's favorite hedgehog.

TMZ connects the dots.

POLONIUM POISONING SPREADS

Alexander Litvinenko has been dead since Nov. 23, but clues to his death by radiation continue to blossom.

The Litvinenko case took another bizarre turn on Monday, when German authorities hospitalized four more people with suspected polonium-210 poisoning. The sickened include the ex-wife of a former Russian security agent-turned-businessman, her boyfriend and her two children. RIA Novosti reports:

[T]he head of the investigation team in Hamburg said a medical examination will show if their organisms contain a dangerous concentration of the radioactive element. Authorities did not identify them by name.

Businessman Dmitry Kovtun met with defector Alexander Litvinenko around the time of his poisoning at the beginning of November. Litvinenko, an outspoken critic of President Vladimir Putin's administration and a close associate of fugitive oligarch Boris Berezovsky, died in a London hospital after four days in a critical condition.

Dmitry Kovtun is also hospitalized with suspected polonium-210 poisoning. Kovtun met with Litvinenko at a London hotel on Nov. 1, the day Litvinenko was reportedly poisoned.

The Associated Press reports that Kovtun had a colleague at the meeting with Litvinenko. That third wheel, Andrei Lugovoi, was questioned on Monday by British investigators. The interview took place at a hospital in Moscow. Lugovoi is sick, too.