Well, here it is, four days past the end of Ramadan, and still no new attack. I thought Jihad Johnnie said there were big plans in the making? Guess the sleepers forgot to set their alarm clock.

Now the question is, is Osama really as incompetent as he seems? Or is he just setting us up, "boy who cried wolf" style, for another sneak attack when we least expect it?

Evidence that Osama is an idiot:

• He expected George Bush to behave like Bill Clinton

• He expected the "arab street" to rise up in his support

• He expected support from non-Arab Muslim nations

• He expected us to send in ground troops and get sniped at like the Russians

• He expected the Afghan people, who he has been either helping or actively encouraging the Taliban to oppress, to fight for him

• He claims that Allah will strike down the Great Satan (us)

• He hangs out with folks like Mullah ("Cyclops") Omar, who also appears to have a sub-room-temperature IQ (or at least, he used to until they had their little falling out)

• etc., and the list goes on...

Evidence that Osama is brilliant:

Anyone? Anyone? Bueller? Bueller? Chomsky?

Evidence that he's moderately competent:

Well, he did manage to get a couple dozen guys to steal airplanes in flight and drive them into buildings. It was a clever idea, but once the light bulb went off over his (or whoever's) head, it didn't take a neurosurgeon to pull it off, and he obviously didn't anticipate the FAA grounding the fleet so quickly, so he blew his total wad on those four planes--he'll never be able to do it again.

So, the evidence is in. OK, I guess it's conceivable that he's just feigning stupidity to put us off guard, but generally, with overwhelming data like this, I have to go with Occam's Razor. If you hear hoofbeats, you think horses, not zebras, and when someone acts like an idiot, consistently over a period of weeks and months, it's a safe bet that he's not the brightest bulb on the string. Not that we shouldn't continue to round up suspects and close down cells, but I think that talk about sleepers at this point is mostly braggadocio.