Thanks for your comments, Zaynab D., and I share your hope about interfaith relations. A brief clarification: I didn't mean to suggest there could be lots of Muslims lurking around who would start randomly shooting Jews in response to what's unfolding in the Middle East. (Also, as "lauri jst" pointed out per updated news reports, the accused gunman may have been mentally ill rather than acting out of political rage, that's still not clear.) Rather, I was thinking about Haykel's analysis, and how al-Qaida -- or other terrorist groups, copycats, etc. -- might seek to respond to what's unfolding. And while this incident occurred in Seattle, something like it, or even worse, could just as easily happen in, say, London or Paris. That one hadn't happened until Friday (or maybe still hasn't, if the gunman was indeed mentally ill) is to some degree surprising, weeks into the Israel-Hezbollah conflict. The war there has taken the incendiary politics of the Middle East to another level, and I fear we can expect violent acts elsewhere as a result. The U.S., especially considering its current relationship with Israel, is hardly exempt; sometimes I wonder if there's a false sense of security settling here again, since no serious attack has occurred in the five years since 9/11. (Why one hasn't occurred is a knotty discussion all its own.) I wrote a couple of related pieces last year:

http://dir.salon.com/story/news/feature/2005/07/19/london_attacks/index.html

http://www.salon.com/politics/war_room/2005/05/26/hezbollah/index.html

The latter looked at substantial support for Hezbollah inside the U.S., centered around criminal activity in Los Angeles. So with the war raging between Israel and Hezbollah today, a violent response elsewhere, including inside the U.S., seems to me a distinct possibility and worth considering.

[Editor's note: Due to a system glitch, this letter was reposted from Aug. 3 to clarify the author's name. The content of the letter is the same.]

Thanks for your comments, JMiller. I may have overstated the case regarding the impact that Insite has had on public use around Main and Hastings. However, it was clear that it has had a powerful impact. I was told that much of the public use had moved indoors and this was consistent with what I observed in the nearby streets in August, and relative to what I'd observed there three years ago. Over several hours, while I saw dealing take place on the street (as described in the story), I did not observe a single person shooting up.

A clarification from a Salon editor:

>QinetiQ, whose name allegedly inspired that of the fictional British spook "Q," the gadget maker in the James Bond movies,

Very unlikely. Q made his debut in 1964's Goldfinger. No company at that time would have used such a pathetically silly moniker.

We have corrected this point, which now reads: "QinetiQ, whose name draws from the fictional British spook who made the gadgets in the James Bond movies..."

In fact, the writer had it correct in the original draft; the change was due to a fact-checking error on our part -- a story from Reuters in October 2006 led with the mistake:

"Former U.S. Central Intelligence Agency Director George Tenet has joined the British research firm thought to have provided the inspiration for ‘Q’, the character who creates spy gadgets for James Bond." (http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/15400003/)

This was then picked up and repeated by many other news outlets... unfortunately, Salon included. Thanks to reader Michael Bowen for the catch.

Initially the article referred to "The Office" and "Extras" together as mockumentary TV series; while "The Office" is a mockumentary, "Extras" generally is considered to be a sitcom (if one that uses the meta device of peering behind the scenes on the set of a fictional TV show). The article has been fixed, and thanks to reader 'cungar' for pointing out the oversight.