"The evening before he was sworn into office, Barack Obama stepped out of Blair House, the government residence where he was staying across from the White House, and climbed into an armored limousine for the ride to a bipartisan dinner. Joining him in the back seat were John Brennan, his new counterterrorism adviser, and two foreign-policy advisers, Denis McDonough and Mark Lippert. The three men with the president-elect were out of breath, having rushed more than a mile from transition headquarters on foot after failing to find a taxi in Washington’s preinaugural madness. As the motorcade moved out, they updated Obama on gathering evidence of a major terrorist plot to attack his inauguration. After a weekend of round-the-clock analysis, the nation’s intelligence agencies were concerned that the threat was real, the men told him. A group of Somali extremists was reported to be coming across the border from Canada to detonate explosives as the new president took the oath of office. With more than a million onlookers viewing the ceremony from the National Mall and hundreds of millions more watching on television around the world, what could be a more devastating target?" (Peter Baker/NYTimes Magazine)
"Metromix: You're about to embark on a book tour. What kind of fans are you expecting? Tera Patrick: You know, everybody's a fan of porn. At Fashion Week, Kanye West came over to talk to me. Or I'll just run into someone at the local AT&T store or Forever 21 who knows me. And I've got a HUGE military following - there's been a lot 'you got me through five tours in Iraq' or 'we made our baby to you' types of comments. 99.9% of my fans are fabulous. Why would they be rude? I bring cheer and mirth! And without my fans - well, they gave me my life! They're the reason I have a nice car and live in a beautiful home. I'll stop and sign autographs or my book for anyone. I think I'm no different than any other hot chick - people look at Cameron Diaz the same way, they just haven't seen her naked. Look, I was put on Earth for a reason - maybe not to be a porn star - but I'm making the best of what I've got it." (Metromix)
"The suicide bomber who killed seven Central Intelligence Agency employees and contractors and a Jordanian intelligence officer was a double agent the CIA had recruited to provide intelligence on senior al Qaeda leadership, according to current and former U.S. officials and an Afghan security official. The officials said the bomber was a Jordanian doctor likely affiliated and working with al Qaeda. The Afghan security official identified the bomber as Hammam Khalil Abu Mallal al-Balawi, who is also known as Abu Dujana al-Khurasani. The Pakistani Taliban also claimed that Mr. al-Balawi was the bomber, Arabic-language Web sites reported Monday. Mr. al-Balawi was brought to the CIA's base in Khost Province by the Jordanian intelligence official, Sharif Ali bin Zeid, who was working with the CIA, according to the Afghan security official. The bomber appears to have been invited to an operational planning meeting on al Qaeda, a former senior U.S. intelligence official said. 'It looks like an al Qaeda double agent,' the former official said. 'It's very sophisticated for a terrorist group that's supposedly on the run.' The blast on Dec. 30 killed four CIA officers, including the Khost base chief; three CIA contractors; and Mr. bin Zeid, officials said. Six CIA employees were wounded in the attack." (WSJ)
"I saw in the New Year on Christian Louboutin's dahabiya (flat bottom boat) called the Dahabibi ('Love Boat') on the Nile at Luxor. We dined and danced (to Egyptian music) on the roof deck under a full moon. It was magic." (Fashionweekdaily)
(image via NYSD)
"Casey Johnson, an heiress to the vast and extensive pharmaceuticals fortune, was found dead yesterday in Los Angeles. She was thirty years old. Her death comes on the heels of another young Hollywood celebrity, an actress named Brittany Murphy. Casey had been renting the guest cottage on the property of a longtime family friend in West Hollywood. It was as if she'd come home to get out of the fray. Her life over the past couple of years had grown increasingly frenetic and even notorious in her public behavior. When she was bad, she was a nightmare. A monster. A brat. A disaster waiting to happen. All those things. And when she was good, she was a sweet child. An intelligent girl named Casey. Who ran into trouble as she moved into womanhood. I’d known her, known of her, since her early teenage years when she was a friend of Nicky and Paris Hilton in their early Southampton days, the summer kids coming of age." (NYSocialDiary)
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