Making a claim denied by the Oval Office, a new book says the White House ordered the CIA to forge a back-dated letter from Iraq’s intel chief to Saddam Hussein designed to portray a false link between Baghdad and al Qaeda, Politico’s Mike Allen reports — and see CQ SpyTalker Jeff Stein. The New York Daily News’ James Gordon Meek, meantime, has the White House urging the FBI to ID the 2001 anthrax mailings as “a second-wave assault by al Qaeda,” but the agents didn’t bite. A federal judge yesterday unsealed documents related to the 2001 anthrax attacks, as Justice, over lingering skepticism, all-but pronounces the case solved, The New York Times’ Eric Lichtblau and Scott Shane relate.

Feds: Salim Hamdan was convicted on one charge and acquitted on another yesterday, a “partial victory” for the administration in the first U.S. war crimes trial of the terror era, The Washington Post’s Jerry Markon reports. On the heels of faulting DHS for ignoring Congress’ demand for 100 percent screening of passenger air cargo, the House homeland panel is decrying its resistance to scanning all U.S.-bound maritime cargo, Homeland Security Today’s Mickey McCarter mentions. Of $133 million in pork larded into this year’s Senate DHS spending bill, $123 million went to Subcommittee on Homeland Security members, RTTNews relays from a watchdog report.

Intellicrats: The Defense Intelligence Agency has a new center in Washington combining counterintel and human intel efforts, “both indispensible . . . to the fight against global terrorism,” an officer tells The American Forces Press Service’s Jim Garamone — while Reuters’ David Morgan has the Pentagon testing an unclassified version of its nixed Talon domestic intel database. “As another weapon in the Pentagon’s arsenal against terrorism and espionage,” the Defense Intelligence Agency is now authorized to conduct offensive counter-intel ops, The Associated Press’ Pamela Hess spotlights.

McBama: “The Secret Service is wary of discussing threats, but with Barack Obama poised to become the first black presidential nominee, there are special worries,” The New York Times relates. President Bush dismisses any suggestion that Iraq’s P.M. effectively endorsed Obama’s plan to withdraw all U.S. combat brigades in 16 months, the Post reports. Rep. Eric Cantor, R-Va., is “very up to snuff with terrorism,” a state GOP official tells The Fredericksburg Free Lance-Star of the young politico some see as John McCain’s running mate. Tapping retired Gen. Wesley Clark for veep would “more than offset any voter concerns about Obama’s lack of [command] experience,” aHuffington Post poster posts.

Poly-ticks: “No matter what happens in November, the war in Iraq will not be brought to an end by either Obama or McCain. The war in Iraq is over. We’ve won,” a Wall Street Journal columnist proclaims. “Drilling for oil in America prevents funding terrorism with our American dollars,” a Kennebec (Maine) Morning Sentinel reader writes, endorsing McCain. The GOP candidate for Sen. John Kerry’s senate seat is “a former CIA counter-terrorism officer,” The Hamilton-Wenham (Mass.) Chronicle profiles — while a GOP senate would-be in Colorado insists to Sky-Hi Daily News that “we cannot allow the Taliban and other radical extremists to use Afghanistan as a breeding ground for terrorism.” Ex-fringe prez candidate Mike Gravel has urged people to stalk a federal prosecutor and his family to get criminal contempt charges dropped against Sami Al-Arian, IPT News alleges.

State and local: The CBP air wing moving into a Michigan Air National Guard base tomorrow “will not only help root out gun smugglers and illegal aliens but also may give the local economy a small boost,” The Macomb Daily records. As the Border Patrol beefs up its presence in Montana, local police and sheriffs’ departments are struggling to compete on pay and benefits, The Billings Gazette spotlights. (Speaking of which, a Miami-based CBP agent was shot dead in a road rage incident Tuesday, The Miami Herald says.) “A bill barring the Vermont National Guard from being sent to Iraq may not have gotten far in the Legislature, but it seems to have spawned a national movement,” The Rutland Herald reports. Local officials and DHS are weighing whether new border surveillance towers will receive cell-phone 911 calls, The Arizona Daily Star says.

Ivory (Watch) Towers: “There’s a lot of potential harm here, from a homeland security standpoint, of someone getting a chemical engineering degree,” for instance, a retired FBI agent tells The Baltimore Sun in re: a just-busted diploma mill. A theory developed by political scientists at Stanford and U.C. Santa Barbara to explain why the Salim Hamdans of the world tend to stay loyal to the Osama bin Ladens of the world argues that a group such as al Qaeda is really an exclusive club, a Post blog profiles. Higher education pros gathered in Virginia on Monday for a campus security confab, AP reports. Following the Ahmedabad blasts, employees of more than 50 schools in the region are taking lessons on handling a terror strike, evacuating students, even identifying explosives, NDTVtells.

Bugs ‘n bombs: The partners in the National Interagency Biodefense Campus are trying independently to determine policy for accidental disease exposures, The Frederick (Md.) News-Post reports. Ohio Police have filed charges against a Jordanian native accused of scuffling with police — in the nude — at a gas station and prompting a bomb scare, The Akron Beacon Journal relates. A decade of delays in readying D.C.’s bioterror lab threatens the city’s bio-attack responses, The Washington Examiner cites from an IG report. Maryland envirocrats are still puzzling over several pounds of undetonated explosives found last month along a private shoreline, The Baltimore Sun says. DHS has asked scientists to draw up new plans on how tropical storms can be weakened before they hit land, The Daily Telegraph relates.

Coming and going: Responding to a lost-but-now-found laptop loaded with prescreening data, TSA this week suspended Registered Traveler enrollments at 17 airports, The Orlando Sentinel says. Should Chicago host the 2016 Olympics, “terrorism is highly unlikely.Oh, some criminals could try to smuggle in weapons, but O’Hare would lose their luggage,” a Chicago Tribune columnist jokes. “Performing a barefoot striptease at airport security checkpoints may become a thing of the past” as TSA tests a new generation of footwear scanners, The Los Angeles Daily News notes. “Shouldn’t the government be held to some standard here? Should there at least be different rules for U.S. citizens?” a Detroit Free Press columnist inquires of CBP’s laptop seizures.

Courts and rights: Lawyers for Abdullah Khadr — brother of Guantanamo defendant Omar Khadar — seek bail, pending the outcome of a hearing on his extradition from Canada to the United States for allegedly buying arms for al Qaeda, CBC News reports. A female Pakistani neuroscientist denied in a New York courtroom yesterday attempting to kill U.S. soldiers while detained in Afghanistan, The New York Sun says. Two Muslim businessmen in Guyana say the FBI recently questioned them about the JFK plot as Justice proceed toward trial, AP reveals. The Al-Haramain Islamic Foundation has refiled a lawsuit accusing the Bush administration of illegal wiretapping, Arab News notes. The just-concluded tribunal of Osama bin Laden’s driver could bring the United States closer to its goal of closing Guantanamo, AP relates.

Over there: “With China’s anti-terrorist resources concentrating on Beijing, subversive groups may be on the hunt for softer targets,” The Toronto Star suggests — while Vancouver’s Georgia Straight hazards that “two men with grenades could do a lot of damage, and even 100,000 troops would need some luck to stop them.” Also in the Beijing games security mix is State’s Diplomatic Security Service, The Christian Science Monitor profiles. Algeria has been making efforts to confront the local wing of al Qaeda, which mounted another bomb attack just last weekend, The Christian Science Monitor also spotlights.

Over here: “While Americans focus on another 9/11-style attack, our enemies are likely eons ahead of us by planning to strike terror in the heart of rural America,” The Wilson County (Texas) News insists. Homegrown Islamists put Europe, and particularly Britain, under a greater threat of terrorist attack than the United States, a terrorcrat tells Voice of America. Euro-spooks are probing the threat posed by female Islamic militants within the E.U., whose involvement runs from logistics or propaganda activity to suicide bombing, The Observer observes. Spanish authorities are secretly preparing for a terror attack on a popular tourist resort, The Times of London tells — as The Daily Telegraphhas terror cops drawing up “guidance for hospitality and entertainment sites” in a drive to prepare for attacks on crowded public places.

Holy Wars: The genocide mounted against Bosnian Muslims in the early 1990s by just-captured Radovan Karadzic “opened the door to al Qaeda and bin Laden,” The Times of London tells. Despite efforts “to thwart the actions of the terrorists since 9/11, little substantive progress has been made in countering the root cause of the violent Islamists: the ideology of Islamism,” an American Thinker thinker complains. “We, the police, can [not stop Islamists’] radical ideology from spreading. We need to have a ‘soft approach’ to [deal with] them,” an Indonesian counterterrorist tells The Jakarta Post — while Malaysia’s Bernama has an Indian Muslim scholar urging promotion of a “counterideology” to stem terrorism. Among the reasons Islamic terrorists are running out of cash is the Saudi crackdown on fund raisers, i.e. “Islamic charities,” The Strategy Page surveys.

Herd on the Street: “Canada, long considered a safe haven for deserters from the United States armed forces, has been toughening its stance against Americans seeking not to serve. What do you think?” The Onion’s tireless pesterer of average citizens on the street asks some average citizens on the street. “I don’t understand what the problem is for Canada. American deserters are the best in the world,” fireman Scott Diego ponders. “Oh, come on. At least let them stay for rest of the Toronto Jazz Festival,” meteorologist Alex Nathan implores. “What? I thought we had a deal: Canada accepts our military deserters and we make a celebrity out of Alan Thicke,” phone saleswoman Heather Kwilos exclaims. “With the miles already committed to him, Barack Obama can take his next trip to Iraq for free,” The Borowitz Report quotes a campaign strategist on the Dem candidate’s daunting frequent flyer lead.