Dallas: Sometime in the future there's going to be a nuclear weapon used in the United States - certainly a radiological device is going to be used and a lot of radioactivity is going to fall on American citizens.

Colmes: You say that like it's a certainty, like there's no question it's going to happen.

Dallas: There's no doubt in my mind that at some point in the future we will have a radiological device probably soon and a nuclear device at some point five or ten years after.

Dallas fingered Pakistan and North Korea as the likely suppliers of nuclear weapons without informing the viewers that the receipts for this technology are in the hands of the US government - Rumsfeld fast-tracking nuclear capability to North Korea and the Bush family protecting A.Q. Khan's network.

Not content with saying it twice, Dallas snapped up the chance provided by Hannity to repeat his doomsday creed a third time.

Hannity (referring to Hezbollah and Al-Qaeda): Do you doubt that these terror groups could get a weapon - if they did there's no doubt they would use it against Israel is there?

Dallas: There's no doubt in mind that if I should say when one of these terror groups gets a weapon like Hezbollah - within the next decade - they will use it within a time of their choosing, but they would use it.

And a fourth time!

Hannity: So the likelihood is that within ten years it would not be shocking to you in any way for people to turn on this news channel and find out that a nuclear device has gone off in a major city around the world?

Dallas: I'm certain of it.

And a fifth time!

Hannity: You're certain of it - you have no doubt?

Dallas: There's no doubt in my mind about it.

Five times in the space of two minutes - nuke - major city - inevitable - rinse, wash, repeat.

Nuke - major city - inevitable - sell your rights down the river for a geiger counter.

As if this overdose of 'duck and cover' type fearmongering wasn't enough to stomach, the next day Fox's 'Big Story' show hosted by John Gibson picked up the 'you're all gonna die' baton and ran with it with glee.

Gibson's guest was CEO of Investigative Management Group Robert Strang, who makes a mint from building up security companies and selling them on for tidy profits - hyping imaginary terror threats puts bread on his table.

Set to accompanying booms and explosions on one side of the screen, Gibson and Strang eulogized about Hezbollah's ties to Al-Qaeda and how their deadly cells were ready for activation within the US.

Saying a massive terror attack on US or Israeli soil was all but certain, Strang pleaded with fellow guest Judge Andrew Napolitano to increase surveillance of phone calls and e mails - intoning that only Big Brother could save us from the inevitability of mushroom clouds over America.

The center will be staffed by some 200 federal, state and local law enforcement officers, including from the Los Angeles police and sheriff's departments, FBI and state Office of Homeland Security.

Officers assigned to the center are supposed to share intelligence information while investigating terrorist threats in Los Angeles and other cities in the region, according to law enforcement officials.

Authorities will gather information on potential threats coming from within the United States, Los Angeles police Chief William Bratton said.

"Increasingly, the threat is home-grown, and we have to look internally," Bratton said. "No place in America is going to be better prepared to combat terror, external or internal, than the Los Angeles region."

With the new center, there are altogether 39 joint intelligence centers across the country.

The new center cost 6 million U.S. dollars in city, county, state and federal funds and is expected to operate on a 1-million-dollar budget during the next fiscal year, FBI Supervisory Agent Steve Ota said.

Three more joint intelligence-gathering centers are planned for San Francisco, Sacramento and San Diego in California, according to Matthew Bettenhausen, director of the state Office of Homeland Security.
"
We have ways to go with information sharing," Bettenhausen conceded. "By bringing federal law enforcement and local law enforcement together, we're going to make the Southland significantly safer," he said.

The move indicated that US commanders have effectively given up hopes for even a gradual reduction in the US force this year on account of a bitter insurgency and spiralling sectarian violence.

It boosted the size of the US force from 14 brigades to 15 brigades, and from 127,000 troops to at least 130,000.

Army officials said that by the end of August the US force should increase to about 134,000 troops with the arrival of another brigade from the 82nd Airborne Infantry Division.

President George W. Bush, meeting this week with Iraqi Prime Minister Nuri al-Maliki, said more US and Iraqi troops will be sent into Baghdad to quell waves of violence by Shiite and Sunni death squads.

The plan to beef up security in the capital reportedly will add an extra 4,000 US troops and an equal number of Iraqi troops to those already there.

Pentagon officials said the troops being extended will not necessarily be used in Baghdad, but they will free up other troops for duty in the capital.

The Alaska-based 172nd Stryker Brigade already had begun rotating out of Iraq when the order came to stay put.

About 200 of its troops had arrived at Fort Wainwright, Alaska, and another 200 were in Kuwait.

Army officials said the status of those troops would be decided on a case-by-case basis, but that soldiers could be sent back from Kuwait or even Alaska if they are considered essential to the mission.

"They're still trying to get as many soldiers as possible," said an army official. "It looks like it will be 3,500."

The Pentagon's policy is to keep troops in Iraq for no more than 365 days at a time, but in the past commanders have kept some troops longer during crucial junctures such as a Shiite uprising in 2004.

The army arranged a video teleconference between family members and the troops in Iraq so that commanders could address their questions and concerns.

"If you extend somebody, is there some disappointment that they won't be home when they thought they would be home? Sure," US Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld told reporters. "But, as I say, this is a professional military, and they are doing a superb job."

He said when an army unit was extended for several months two years ago, "they handled it in a professional way, and got on with life."

In announcing the units that have been added to the rotation schedule, the Pentagon left open the possibility of changes in the lineup if conditions improve.

"Force levels in Iraq continue to be conditions-based and will be determined in consultation with the Iraqi government," it said.

"Based on ongoing assessments of the conditions on the ground, changes may be made that could affect units now being identified and advised to prepare to deploy -- as has occurred in the past," it said.

General George Casey, the US commander in Iraq, said on June 22 he was still confident that US force levels could gradually come down over the course of this year as Iraqi forces assumed greater responsibility for security.

But a six-week-old security crackdown in Baghdad that relied heavily on Iraqi security forces showed they are still no match for the rising violence.

The units put on the deployment schedule Thursday included two army brigades from the 1st Cavalry Division at Fort Hood and Fort Bliss, Texas, and two marine regimental combat teams from Camp Lejeune, North Carolina.

A third army brigade from the 3rd Infantry Division at Fort Stewart, Georgia also has been ordered to prepare for possible deployment later this year to Iraq, the Pentagon said.

Army officials said that brigade might also deploy to Kuwait to serve as a theater reserve that could be called forward into Iraq on short notice.

With the United Nations potentially pivotal to easing the world's many trouble spots, Bolton's renomination could become a surrogate battleground for Democrats and Republicans to show voters how they differ over foreign policy as congressional elections approach this fall.

It started at Thursday's Senate Foreign Relations Committee hearing, as Sen. Barbara Boxer, D-Calif., bemoaned the Iraq war and vented frustration that American troops are dying to defend Iraqi leaders who don't support Israel. She told Bolton, "I'm not putting this on you. I can't pin any of what I said on you, and I don't intend to."

Republicans said Bolton speaks well for the Bush administration, has proved more capable than critics predicted and has made headway in complex situations. "The nature of the U.N. is, not everyone's with us," said Sen. Norm Coleman, R-Minn.

Committee chairman Richard Lugar, R-Ind., said, "The president has made clear that this is not a casual appointment. He wants a specific person to do a specific job."

Democrats said they remain concerned that Bolton and the Bush administration are paying lip service to diplomacy while alienating U.S. allies and reinforcing tensions with other nations. They cited published reports that other ambassadors dislike working with Bolton. They worried about U.S. effectiveness with Iraq, Iran, Israel and Hezbollah. And they spoke of only limited success at persuading China, Russia and South Korea to rein in North Korea's nuclear ambitions.

"My concern is that at the moment of the greatest need of diplomacy in our recent history, we are not particularly effective at it," said Sen. Joseph Biden of Delaware, the panel's ranking Democrat.

Added Sen. Christopher Dodd, D-Conn.: "My concern is not that he's a bully, but that he's an ineffective bully."

Bolton, polite even as Democrats baited him, told senators, "I have done my best to work with others to advance our national interest. I do believe important advances have been made."

But three hours into the hearing, he found himself in hot water, and not just politically: Water suddenly began streaming from the ceiling, at first several feet to Bolton's left, then to his immediate right, apparently springing from pipes in a gym shower directly above the hearing room.

As staffers grabbed trash pails to catch the downpour, the leak brought levity to an otherwise tense give-and-take.

But when Sen. John Kerry, D-Mass., began digging at Bolton for what he saw as U.S. failures with North Korea, the laughs were over.

"We're not going to resolve this right now, I understand that," Kerry said as the two argued. "Yes, that's right," Bolton shot back.

Outside the hearing, Senate Minority Leader Harry Reid, D-Nev., said of Bolton: "I never did like him very much."

But Reid and Democratic Whip Richard Durbin, D-Ill., said they don't know if their 45-member caucus will put up the 41 votes they need under Senate rules to block a confirmation vote. They said they won't count votes until Democrats on the Senate Foreign Relations Committee Democrats weigh in.

The committee didn't vote Thursday, and the Senate takes a monthlong recess after next week, so the issue may not come to a head until September.

Last week, Sen. George Voinovich, R-Ohio, a foreign relations committee member who opposed Bolton last year, said he'd changed his mind and thought it would send a bad message to the world to fight Bolton's nomination a second time. Lawmakers said Voinovich's argument may prove decisive since Bolton's already on the job.

On Thursday, White House spokesman Tony Snow said: "We think Ambassador Bolton has done a terrific job. He's won over a lot of critics while building alliances on a range of issues, including Iran and North Korea, and working tirelessly to achieve meaningful results and reforms at the United Nations."

Under the plan to bolster security in Baghdad, U.S. troops would be teamed with Iraqi police and army units and make virtually every operation in the city a joint effort, one military official said. Another said movement of some troops into Baghdad had already begun.

At the same time, the Pentagon signaled plans to maintain or possibly increase the current level of about 130,000 troops in Iraq, by announcing that roughly 21,000 Army soldiers and Marines have been told they are scheduled to go to Iraq during the current 2006-2008 rotation.

Combined with two previous announcements of about 113,000 U.S. service members scheduled for the rotation period, this could bring the number of U.S. troops there to 134,000, if all are deployed.

Military commanders have said deployments depend on conditions in Iraq. But the latest announcement calls into question whether the Pentagon could significantly reduce troop levels in Iraq by year's end as commanders had hoped.

As part of the Baghdad security plan, all flights out for soldiers currently at the end of their deployment were canceled as of Tuesday, as commanders wrestled how to supply troops for the effort, a third official said.

All spoke on condition of anonymity because the plan had not been finalized.

Rumsfeld, meanwhile, met privately with lawmakers on Capitol Hill throughout the day Thursday to discuss funding needed for troops and the replacement or repair of equipment damaged in combat. House and Senate Republicans are weighing next year's defense spending bills amid reports that Army units are woefully ill-equipped and need billions of dollars to recover from the war.

"There is no question that resetting the force after the heavy usage that's occurred costs money and will have to be funded in supplementals for a period of time," said Rumsfeld, who predicted that funds may be needed for up to three years after the war ends.

President Bush broadly outlined a plan to increase U.S. and Iraqi forces in Baghdad during Tuesday's visit to Washington by Iraqi Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki. But little detail was provided.

Officials said it would involve shifting some U.S. forces to the capital from other locations in the country. There were about 30,000 U.S. troops in Baghdad prior to the new plan.

Assembling more troops and armor in Baghdad is aimed at calming violence that has only increased in the capital since mid-June, when al-Maliki launched a broad security crackdown.

The plan includes moving about four companies of military police, or about 400 soldiers, to Baghdad, along with the remainder of a reserve force that had been in Kuwait equaling about another 400 troops.

Defense experts inside and outside the Pentagon have said that that diverting U.S. troops to Baghdad could weaken their ability in other parts of the country. And they say the plan reverses an earlier effort to make Americans less visible and put Iraqi forces out front in the fight.

Others argued that Baghdad is the central problem at the moment and that Iraqis in the capital will feel safer with the heavier armored presence.

"There is definitely a fine line between overwhelming amounts of combat power versus enough to make you feel safe," said one of the military officials. "I don't think we're talking a tank on every street corner."

While about 3,500 members of the Stryker brigade were still in Iraq Thursday, about 200 had returned to Alaska and some 200 others were in Kuwait awaiting transportation home.

The Army said officials will determine on a case-by-case basis whether any of those in Alaska or Kuwait need to return to Iraq. It is likely the majority of those in Alaska will be able to stay there, but those who are determined to be essential personnel may have to return to the battlefront.

Rumsfeld has extended tours of duty before in the war, including several times last fall when U.S. forces were increased to deal with violence at the time of the Iraqi elections.

The units now scheduled to deploy to Iraq, according to Thursday's announcement, are the 1st Brigade, 1st Cavalry Division based at Fort Hood in Texas; the 4th Brigade, 1st Cavalry Division based at Fort Bliss in Texas; and Marine Regimental Combat Teams 2 and 6, both based at Camp Lejeune in North Carolina. Also, the 1st Brigade, 3rd Infantry Division based at Fort Stewart in Georgia has been told it should be prepared to deploy later this year.

Associated Press writer Ryan Lenz contributed to this story from Baghdad and AP writer Lolita C. Baldor from Washington.

In a statement released late Wednesday, the Army chief of staff, Gen. Peter J. Schoomaker, said much has been asked of the Army during the nearly five years the U.S. has been at war.

"I have testified to the facts about our readiness and I remain concerned about the serious demands we face," said Schoomaker, adding that the Army needs more than $17 billion in 2007 and up to $13 billion a year until two or three years after the war ends.

He said the president, defense secretary and Congress have worked closely in the past on these problems, and "I am confident we will have a way to meet the many challenges that lie ahead during these dangerous times."

Murtha and Rep. David Obey, D-Wis., said they would like to see an emergency appropriation of $17 billion, but they will at least be asking for an increase of $10 billion in the $50 billion supplemental funding for the Iraq and Afghanistan wars that the administration requested for the first few months of the 2007 fiscal year.

Schoomaker and other Army officials have been very vocal about their funding shortfall in recent weeks.

In recent testimony, Schoomaker said that in 2004 it cost $4 billion to repair or replace war equipment, but now it has reached $12 billion to $13 billion. "And in my view, we will continue to see this escalate," he said, adding that the Army is using up equipment at four times the rate for which it was designed.

Schoomaker traced the problem's origin to entering the Iraq war in 2003 with a $56 billion shortfall in equipment. The Army managed the situation by rotating in fresh units while keeping the same equipment in Iraq. Over time, he said, the equipment has worn out without sufficient investment in replacements.

The treatment keeps nicotine from reaching the brain, making smoking less pleasurable and theoretically, easier to give up. The small amount that still manages to get in helps to ease withdrawal, the main reason most quitters relapse.

If it works - and this has not yet been proved - the vaccine could become part of a new generation of smoking cessation treatments. They attack dependency in the brain instead of just replacing the nicotine from cigarettes in a less harmful way, like the gum, lozenges, patches and nasal sprays sold today.

One such drug, Pfizer Inc.'s Chantix, is due on the market any day now. Another, Sanofi-Aventis SA's Acomplia, recently won approval in Europe as a weight-loss drug. If U.S. regulators follow suit, some doctors say they also will use it to help smokers quit, especially those concerned about gaining weight.

"The typical patient is a 30-year-old woman who says, 'If I gain 5 pounds, I'm going back,'" said Dr. J. Taylor Hays, a smoking cessation expert at the Mayo Clinic in Rochester, Minn., who helped test Chantix and other treatments.

Other novel drugs are in development, but NicVax, by Nabi Biopharmaceuticals, a Boca Raton, Fla., biotech company with labs in Rockville, Md., is most advanced among the vaccines.

After four smaller studies suggested it might be safe and effective, the new, larger study was started in Madison, Minneapolis, Omaha, San Francisco, Los Angeles, Boston and New York City. (People interested in participating must contact the company, but few volunteer openings are left.)

The Food and Drug Administration has granted the vaccine fast-track status, meaning it will get prompt review, and the National Institute on Drug Abuse just gave Nabi a second $4 million grant to finance the study and NicVax's development.

"It's going to be a very good way to keep people from relapsing," predicts Dr. Frank Vocci, director of medications development at the federal institute.

Relapse is the biggest problem quitters face.

Of the more than 48 million smokers in the United States, 40 percent each year make a serious attempt to quit, but fewer than 5 percent succeed long-term. Nicotine replacement products combined with counseling can double that rate, but most quitters don't try them. Two-thirds go back to smoking within a month.

"When they have that first cigarette, if they really enjoy it, they're at high risk of relapse. If you can make that cigarette not so good, you've really got something," Vocci said.

The possibility that a simple shot could do this is what lured Musachia to the Center for Tobacco Research and Intervention on the fringes of the University of Wisconsin-Madison campus earlier this month. He has tried many ways to quit but still smokes.

"I'm sick of it. I'm surprised I've lived this long," said the 75-year-old man. "My kids - they carry on like 2-year-olds when I smoke around them. My animals run and hide."

He and other participants will get four or five shots, either four or six weeks apart, and will be studied for a year. Two-thirds will get the vaccine; the others, dummy shots. Neither they nor the doctors will know who got what until the study ends.

They also will get counseling and must set a quit date, usually around the second shot, because the first shot is just meant to "prime" the immune system. Subsequent doses make it produce antibodies, which latch onto nicotine in the bloodstream and keep it from crossing the blood-brain barrier and getting into the brain where it maintains the addiction.

"They won't get the rush, the reward," but the small amount still getting in "we think is an advantage," because it should lessen withdrawal symptoms, said Dr. Henrik Rasmussen, Nabi's chief medical officer.

The antibodies should remain in the system for up to a year; booster shots may be needed after that, but this needs more study, Rasmussen said.

The new drugs come at a time of heightened attention to helping smokers quit. Last month, the National Institutes of Health held a conference to review the scientific evidence for what smoking cessation techniques work.

Earlier this month, two large scientific conferences were held in Washington, D.C., on the topic.

Research money has increased because of tobacco lawsuit settlements, and insurers increasingly see the health burden of smoking and will pay for cessation treatments that work, said Douglas Jorenby, the psychologist who heads the NicVax study in Madison.

Smokers also are demanding better results than those afforded by traditional nicotine replacement tools. Their desperation sometimes makes them prey to quacks.

The FDA recently moved to block some companies promoting low-power laser therapy, or laser acupuncture, as a way to quit, and a consumer's group is seeking action against a bottled water product that contains nicotine.

"We've got 20 million Americans trying to quit. Among those trying, less than 20 percent are using evidence-based treatments," said Dr. Michael Fiore, director of the tobacco research center in Madison.

The vast majority of these visit a doctor for routine care, yet "few of them, less than a third, leave that encounter with evidence-based advice on how to quit smoking," he lamented.

Regardless of whether the experimental vaccine or other novel approaches ultimately prove successful, they already have had a positive effect - giving some smokers fresh motivation, Jorenby said.

"Every time there's a new treatment for smoking cessation, there are people who have never tried to quit, or haven't tried for a long time, who are going to give it a shot," he said. "People benefit from practice. It usually takes several tries."

The Metropolitan police's deputy commissioner, Paul Stephenson, took the decision to lift the restrictions on the two officers. The move follows the Crown Prosecution Service's (CPS) announcement last Monday that no individual officers would face charges over the shooting.

The Met has still to decide whether either of the officers should face disciplinary proceedings over the shooting on July 22 last year.

Asad Rehman, a spokesman from the Justice4Jean campaign, said the de Menezes family were "shocked" that the firearms officers involved had returned to active duty so soon. He told the Press Association the family was "very, very upset" and "in pieces" and described the decision as premature.

"Every day it seems that the Metropolitan police just rubs more salt in the wounds," Mr Rehman said. "They could not have been more hurtful."

Last week's CPS announcement that there would be no charges was described as shameful by the electrician's family, who vowed to continue campaigning for officers to face charges. They may also sue the force.

In a statement today Scotland Yard said: "Following the decision by the Crown Prosecution Service that no individual officers should face any criminal proceedings regarding the shooting of Jean Charles de Menezes, and due consideration of all available information, the Metropolitan police has lifted the current restrictions placed upon the two firearms officers.

"Both officers will now resume full operational duties. This case has been considered in line with every case of this nature and decisions are made on a case-by-case basis."

Both officers involved are members of the Met's specialist CO19 firearms unit.

Mr de Menezes was shot seven times in the head by anti-terror officers at Stockwell tube station in south London. The shooting came one day after four attackers failed in efforts to set off explosions on a bus and subway trains, and 15 days after four suicide bombers killed 52 bus and underground passengers in London.

While no individuals will face criminal charges, the CPS is prosecuting the Met as an organisation for violating health and safety laws in "failing to provide for the health, safety and welfare" of Mr de Menezes.