The Times reported this morning on the U.S. government’s efforts to resist the spread of international folksinging, saying that the deportation of the former Cat Stevens has pissed off the British government, with foreign minister Jack Straw protesting to Colin Powell. U.S. officials persisted, saying,

“The intelligence community has come into possession of additional information that further raises our concern,” Mr. Doyle said, adding, “It’s a serious matter.” The department declined to give details.

One official in London wondered why American officials did not act on the intelligence information by arresting Mr. Islam or share it with British authorities if they regarded Mr. Islam as a potential threat.

Meanwhile a few pages away in the same section of the paper, an (ahem) unrelated article said that government testing had revealed that airport screeners are “still missing some knives, guns and explosives carried through airport checkpoints.”

This administration is not just soft on terrorism. It’s soft in the head.