1. FORMER CIA OFFICER: FBI, AGENCY 'WORSE THAN EVER'

A former CIA officer, very well versed in CIA anti-terrorist operations, tells NewsMax that little has changed at the agency to correct problems that led directly to 9/11.

The former CIA officer says he frequently speaks with friends back at the agency. While there were great hopes of a housecleaning after 9/11, that has never taken place.

Reformers continue to be dismayed that CIA Director George Tenet remains in office despite having been at the helm of the agency for several years before 9/11.

The former CIA officer says he continues to talk to friends both at the CIA and the FBI. They report that things are actually "worse" than they were under Bill Clinton's administration.

It may be hard to believe that could be the case under the new Bush administration. But one obvious shortcoming of the president's war on terrorism has been a failure to demand accountability for the bureaucracies that failed to prevent 9/11.

2. NEW THREAT: NUCLEAR-TIPPED ARTILLERY SHELLS

The same former CIA source tells NewsMax that he is indeed concerned about nuclear suitcase bombs from the former Soviet Union.

These weapons may have fallen into the hands of terrorists such as Osama bin Laden and terrorist-sponsoring countries such as Iraq.

But the CIA officer says that his fears of those weapons are not as great as worries about the use of nuclear-tipped artillery shells and torpedoes that were developed in the former Soviet Union.

Our source says he had worked in areas dealing with these weapons while in the agency and reports that there are thousands of such weapons "loose." Meanwhile, "official" estimates of nuclear suitcase bombs are just hundreds or even dozens.

Additionally, he says, the artillery shells and torpedoes are much easier to smuggle and detonate.

A nuclear suitcase bomb apparently requires an elaborate detonation mechanism. Terrorists and others need to be familiar with the intricate detonation system - that fact may prevent the use of such weapons.

This is not the case for nuclear-tipped artillery shells and torpedoes, the CIA officer tells NewsMax.

He says that a .45-caliber pistol blown into the firing mechanism of a nuclear-tipped artillery shell could cause an explosion that would wreak havoc in a major metropolitan city such as New York or Washington.

3. IF WAR STARTS, OIL PRICES WILL DROP

Those predicting that a war with Iraq could send oil shooting into the triple digits may be proven disastrously wrong. Be careful when playing the commodity markets and futures on oil!

A source close to the National Security Council tells NewsMax that the Bush administration, which draws many of its top people, including President Bush himself, from the oil industry, understands the value and importance of oil - not only for the United States but also for the world economy.

Almost immediately following the Sept. 11 attacks, the president ordered an emergency stockpiling of oil in the Strategic Petroleum Reserve. Since then, quietly and expeditiously, the administration has moved to fill those reserves.

NewsMax hears from the Department of Energy that in the past couple of weeks the Strategic Petroleum Reserve (SPR), which is a system of underground storage caverns in the heartland of the United States, had increased to its highest levels ever in its 25-year history - to some 592 million barrels.

Our source tells NewsMax not to worry if war does break out and oil from Iraq, which continues to export oil in the billions of dollars to world markets, is diverted from the U.S.

At that time, the administration plans to make a major announcement and release millions of barrels of oil into the U.S. market.

Additionally, the administration has been engaging in quiet diplomacy with large oil producers, including Kuwait and Saudi Arabia, and extracting promises from them that they will dramatically increase production if war begins with Iraq.

4. WAR READY DATE: DEC. 15

A source friendly to Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld tells NewsMax that U.S. military operations will be "ready to go" for full-scale war against Saddam Hussein effective Dec. 15, 2002.

There's no evidence the U.S. administration plans to pull the switch and go to war on that date or anytime during the Christmas holidays.

However, a source informs NewsMax, U.S. military operations in the Mideast would be able to begin full-scale military operations leading to invasion against Iraq as soon as mid-December.

Already the administration feels it has cause to go to war with Iraq. First, it cites the continual firing by Iraq upon U.S. and allied planes in the no-fly zone.

This weekend, with the release of Iraq's statement of its weapons of mass destruction program, the administration believes it will have more cause to demonstrate that the Iraqis are in material breach of the Security Council resolution by not fully disclosing its weapons programs, giving the U.S. the casus belli to begin a full-scale war with Iraq.

5. DID THE U.N. OUTFOX THE U.S.?

NewsMax previously predicted and warned that the administration's decision to seek U.N. approval for a war with Iraq could prove disastrous. Now we may be seeing this prediction coming true.

Some time ago, NewsMax's Insider Report explained how the State Department and National Security Council, still filled with pro-Clinton bureaucrats, had encouraged President Bush to take the route of the Security Council and the U.N. as diplomatic cover for a military confrontation with Iraq.

However, the U.S. had seen strenuous opposition to a confrontation with Iraq from key members of the U.N. Security Council - including Russia, France and China.

In November, it appeared that the president had won a big victory with the U.N. Security Council resolution calling for the inspectors to return to Iraq. But now fresh questions are being raised about Hans Blix, the chief arms inspector of the U.N. and his real loyalty to ferreting out the truth and discovering what weapons programs Iraq has.

Now, with the U.N. inspections currently under way, we can already see the warts and problems associated with the U.N. inspection team.

The fact that the Iraqis are allowing a media circus to follow the inspectors may be one indication that the U.N. inspection process is nothing more than a PR stunt.

Another worry are concerns that the U.N. inspectors are tipping off the Iraqis about plans for inspections hours, or even days, ahead of time - giving the Iraqis time to hide and remove their weapons activities from installations.

These worries were buttressed when Richard Butler, a former U.N. inspector, told CNN this week that he had a very real problem during the '90s when his inspection teams were in Iraq and were "penetrated" by Iraqi intelligence.

Butler stated that even at that time, when the weapons inspection process had much more integrity, the Iraqis were being tipped off by pro-Iraq inspectors.

Now the weapons inspection process is far less populated by pro Americans, and it is not far fetched to believe that the inspectors are working closely behind the scenes with the Iraqis to avoid exposure of the Iraqi weapons of mass destruction programs.

Already we have seen that the U.S. is on a collision course with the U.N. over the inspection process.

U.N. Secretary-General Kofi Annan has openly stated that the process is going well, while the president and other administration officials are saying that signs are not at all encouraging.

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