It would be irresponsible not to speculate. Buried in the B section of today’s WaPo, here’s an interesting little tidbit:

A Fort Meade building that houses Army counterintelligence activities was heavily damaged yesterday in a stubborn and spectacular [accelerants?] six-alarm fire that burned for hours, generating thick clouds of smoke that streamed and billowed in a brisk wind.

The blaze broke out on the Army post in Anne Arundel County and 3:05 p.m. ….

On a late Friday afternoon. A 5:00 Horror? Hmmm…

And what burned, we may ask?

… and continued to burn well after 10 p.m. The fire damaged upper portions of the sprawling three-story building, which is headquarters to the 902nd Military Intelligence Group and houses several contractors, officials said.

The 902nd monitors domestic dissent—you know, people like the Quakers. Translation: If Bush, newly empowered by the so-called MCA, decides to disappear American citizens into the camps, the 902nd would be the go-to organization.

Makes you wonder what the contractors were doing, too…. Presumably something that the Army wasn’t allowed to do, at least until the so-called MCA was passed.

The cause of the blaze, which apparently began on the peaked roof of the red-brick building, was not immediately known and was under investigation.

Hmmm…. “Not known,” eh?

Another official said most of the documents in the damaged section are locked in fire-resistant containers and backed up elsewhere. Nothing lost at the building would adversely affect national security, said Donald Shiles, director of the Technical Counterintelligence School at Fort Meade.

Hmmm… “Most,” eh?

Peterson said the fire was largely contained to the building’s attic, which is used as office space by the intelligence group.

Hmmm…. So, it’s looking like the data that was not part of the locked-away “most” would have been whatever they had out and were working on in their office space, yes? Translation: Current operations?

Yes, indeed. Hmmm….

Putting my tinfoil hat firmly on:

This is the best sign I’ve seen yet that the Dems are going to take back some power: The Republicans are starting to destroy the evidence.

In Nixon’s time, the Republicans used shredders. But shredders only work on paper.

In today’s digital environment, we’ve got laptops, servers, remote backups, CDs, DVDs, printouts…

So, if you want to do digital shredding, it’s simpler just to set everything on fire, n’est c’est pas?