So, it turns out that when you open one of the "suspicious packages" that tied Boston in knots, scared millions and forced the closing of the Charles River this afternoon -- you see circuit boards, flashing lights and a video image of a cartoonish character "flipping the bird."  Nice. As one Boston cop just put it, "I hope they (the hoaxers) know it's a federal offense."

LATE UPDATE: How strange to be watching CNN right now while a reporter was forced to read an apology from Turner Broadcasting -- saying these "suspicious devices" are actually part of a promotional advertising campaign for a cable show on the Cartoon Network! Post 9/11 syndrome has just hit the Bay State. Wolf just said "it looks like a major misunderstanding."

Which brings us, somehow, to Joe Biden. There is serious speculation, being advanced by serious people, that he (his campaign for president) will not be able to survive the comments published in this morning's New York Observer. That outcome, of course, would make his the shortest presidential campaign in history. Using the words "clean" and "articulate" to describe Senator Barack Obama -- not to mention his handling of Senator Clinton and former Senator Edwards -- amounted to striking a match while pumping gas. The reaction, at first, was anything but fierce. It was interesting to watch the story build as the quotes caught fire and as the various targets of his barbs huddled (in masses) to draft carefully worded statements in response. We'll take a look at (and listen to) what the senator said.

Our cavalcade on non sequiturs continues: We'll talk about the so-called Birmingham plot in the U.K., we'll look at the Iran situation, the rebuilding of Iraq (or various expensive attempts at it) and airport security.

ADDENDA AND EPHEMERA
Thanks to those who wrote saying we should have an hour. For about seven years of my life, I had an hour each night on cable to do a serious newscast, and I miss the extra time. A network evening newscast of 30 minutes in length is a constant in our lives, and nevertheless, I will keep asking for another 30. A Libby trial update: After slogging through a number of options on how best to report Tim Russert's testimony when it happens, we've come back around to this -- Kelly O'Donnell was assigned to the story because she's a solid, fair network journalist.  She'll continue to report the story. While Tim is presently prohibited by the lawyers from talking with us about the case on the air (anything that would prejudice the case), once he's done with his testimony we'll have him on for a thorough live interview regarding his role and what transpired. Remember, the journalists who've found themselves swept up in the Libby trial (ours and others) don't relish that role, and certainly weren't asking for it. That they play a role means we have to report it.

Also, why is it that so many of those classic unsigned e-mail rants to the blog (this blog or any blog) WRITTEN IN ALL CAPITAL LETTERS... contain so many spelling errors? Just asking.

Memo to casting directors of both "Mystic River" and "The Departed": If you tune in to this afternoon's briefing by the Boston mayor and the city's emergency service chiefs, you will hear actual Boston accents. Best accent so far in the briefing: the reporter asking if this is "some whack job" planting these suspicious packages. As the son of a man from Framingham, I can tell you there's nothing worse than a bad attempt at a Boston accent.

Back to the real news -- we hope you can join us for tonight's broadcast.

He's a 21-year-old soldier and amazingly upbeat considering that the right side of his face is peppered with shrapnel and there is a slit in his right eyelid.  His vision is blurred, but fortunately he is not blind.  His other injuries include a fracture of the bone in his right forearm so bad that the bone was sticking out of the skin and there is possible damage to his carotid arteries.

His story is, sadly, a very common one here at the Air Force's hospital in Balad, the hub for transporting wounded U.S. soldiers to the Army hospital in Germany and then back home for treatment in the states. 

This soldier, unnamed here because of concern his family has not yet been notified of his injury, was the driver of the lead vehicle in his convoy when an Improvised Explosive Device blasted his Humvee so hard the huge armored vehicle flipped over.

"One minute I was driving and the next thing I remember I was in the back of a tank," he told me.  "They say if you hear the explosion, you are OK. I didn't hear this one." 

Like many of the injured soldiers here, he had experienced IED explosions before, most recently last week.

Because every seriously injured U.S. soldier passes through here, it can seem to be an endless stream of misery. If it is not an IED then it is sniper fire or mortar rounds. The body armor the soldiers wear works well, but it can't cover everything. As a result, every night one helicopter after another deposits soldiers with mangled arms and legs or head injuries and often, like with this soldier, both.

According to the commander of this medical unit, 98 percent of the injured who make it here go out alive. And, indeed, it is a sobering sight to see the work of the doctors, nurses and medics here who treat all these severely injured people day and night. But last night they lost one U.S. soldier on the table in the operating room and everyone feels it today.

Tonight, as Nightly News airs in all the U.S. time zones, we'll be flying on the huge C-17 transport jet that is converted into a flying intensive care unit with this soldier and dozens of other injured Americans from here to Ramstein Air Force base in Germany, and then traveling on the Landstuhl Army Hospital, the next stage in the care.

Meanwhile, this soldier is thankful to be alive.

Brian anchors the broadcast tonight from New York.

Click here or on the image for his daily preview of the stories we're working on at this hour.

The debate over global warming is heating up. One of the direct consequences of the election is named Chairman Henry Waxman. His committee plans aggressive hearings, and we saw that today. The crux of the questioning: Did the Administration try to squelch, dilute or alter evidence from government agencies pertaining to climate change? I watched much of the testimony and questioning today, and Andrea Mitchell will have the story for us tonight. We'll check in on the Libby trial, and we'll also look at testimony today on the war in Iraq and the latest from Iran. We have promoted a special look tonight at commercial air pilots forced to retire at 60, and Lester Holt has a great feature to take us off the air tonight -- direct from the U.K.

IN OTHER NEWS
There are several stories NOT receiving a whole lot of coverage these days, and we're working to change that: the President's efforts to stimulate the economy (there was an event today on that topic), the Putin situation in Russia, the fighting in Gaza (very dangerous and difficult to cover -- see Martin Fletcher's World Blog post), the Chavez regime in Venezuela, the environment and on and on. Sometimes prepared pieces get bumped for day-of-air news -- and at other times, it takes some doing. It's almost overwhelming when you look at it all from the vantage point of our editorial meetings. We have SO much territory, characters, conflict and trends to cover in the time we're allotted each night. Thankfully we at least have this very venue for all of us to share the moving parts that often don't make air. Every day is about balancing and slicing, much like a newspaper front page. Priorities have to be set and choices have to be made. Considering that we could easily fill tonight's broadcast with JUST what we learned in congressional hearings today, there aren't always any "right" or "wrong" choices in a very subjective business, but we take the responsibility of coverage and story selection very seriously. We work hard at it. I spent the morning going over story suggestions in viewer e-mails, and there are a staggering number of good ideas. The trick will be to find the time and set priorities.

And in still other news: While we can't change the fact that some of our own people have been mentioned in (and are essential to) the Libby case, we're currently going over how to cover, for example, Tim Russert's day on the stand. We are trying to avoid having a correspondent who reports TO Tim... have to report ON Tim. As you know, Tim's been unable to discuss the case with us on the air, in order to avoid influencing the outcome. There are several ways to remedy any coverage problems, and our aim is to cover it straight as we've tried to do throughout the trial thus far. We'll keep you posted on what we decide, and you'll of course see the coverage when it airs.

For now, we hope you can join us for tonight's broadcast.

We're at a U.S. Air Force base in Balad, Iraq, 50 miles north of Baghdad and a world away. The 332d Air Expeditionary Wing has assembled here an enormous force of people and machines that looks to me anything but temporary. 

One of the unit's many missions is the transport of injured U.S. troops "out of theater" to Germany and then on to hospitals at home. Tonight alone, the five beds in the emergency room and the two operating rooms have turned over again and again as waves of wounded U.S. troops and Iraqis arrive by helicopter or airplane. I'll have lots more to say about the amazing care here online and on Nightly News soon, but back to Balad.

This was Saddam Hussein's air base and the American military first bombed it in 2003, then took it over and have been rebuilding and expanding it ever since. The commanders here like to brag that, including helicopter flights, this is now the second-busiest airport in the world after London's Heathrow. F-16s slam off the runway in shifts day and night with their afterburners blazing for surveillance missions -- and often to scramble to bomb a target. Giant transport planes bring in cargo that is then distributed in smaller planes to "forward operating bases" throughout the country. This avoids increasingly dangerous road travel whenever possible. A massive fleet of Black Hawk, Chinook and other helicopters ferries troops and material throughout the country.

The place looks like any Air Force Base in the U.S. or around the world with its PX, Difacs (dining facilities) and base housing in trailers. You just can't go out the gate. The vast majority of the service people here will see nothing else of Iraq, and what they see here is a lot of dust that now turns to mud with the occasional winter rain. Concrete blast walls surround every building closely. Everyone jokes that they wish they had the contract for the concrete. (Kellogg, Brown and Root is building and maintaining the place.) Mortar rounds still hit the facility almost daily, but cause little damage.

And I'll close with some good news: We just made contact with doctors at the Army hospital in Baghdad. The 6-year-old Iraqi girl I described here on Friday is doing great. A second surgery is giving hope that she will keep the use of her arm. Her parents found her and I'll have lots more to say about her story in the days to come.

Brian anchors the broadcast from New York, and the topics likely will range from Iraq to global warming as we track several hearings underway in Washington.

Click here or on the image for his daily preview of the stories we're working on at this hour.

Weeks before the Libby jury of nine women and three men gets the case and starts deliberations, the group is actively involved and being heard.

Judge Reggie Walton has given jurors notebooks so they can track the evidence and testimony. The notebooks are kept by the court's clerk.

But beyond the note taking to help prompt their memories later, the judge gives the Libby jurors a chance to pose questions in real time at the end of each witness's testimony. We've seen the flash of white note cards pop up in the jury box as they pass them down to the clerk. Sometimes four or five questions appear. Judge Walton reviews the written questions privately with the attorneys in what's called a "sidebar."

The juror questions that can be posed within the rules of the law are then addressed to the witness by the judge. Potentially this would clear up uncertainties and perhaps improve the deliberative process later.

For example, jurors wanted to know if Ari Fleischer had ever asked Libby if the details about Valerie Wilson were classified. Fleischer testified that Libby told him about Valerie Wilson working at the CIA and that it was "hush, hush." Fleischer then explained, turning toward the jury, that the typical White House practice was to say very clearly, "This is classified," before passing information. Fleischer said Libby had not done that so Fleischer assumed it was not classified.

Earlier, when Libby's CIA briefer Craig Schmall appeared, jurors wanted him to explain the symbols he used in his handwritten notes. They also asked how he knew Libby was "annoyed" about press leaks that might have come from the CIA as Schmall had testified. The witness who saw Libby several times a week said he could tell Libby was "annoyed" based on tone of voice and body language.

Today at the trial of a man nicknamed "Scooter," a man named Ari (well-known for years as a staple of television coverage of the Bush White House) joined others in painting a verbal picture of a White House obsessed with a newspaper article, and in media coverage in general. His testimony, arranged through a deal for immunity (which, he pointed out today, does not insulate him from charges of perjury), added to the damage that's seemingly been done already to Lewis "Scooter" Libby's case. At the crux of it is a very simple question: How did Scooter learn that the writer of a newspaper opinion piece was married to an undercover CIA employee? Scooter contends he learned from a journalist. Others contend that he learned the information independently, from within the government, and tried to pass it on to reporters. That's what this trial is all about.  If the jury decides it's the latter, it's trouble for Scooter. We'll cover it all tonight and as it develops.

There are a number of complex moving parts in the Middle East, from Iraq to Israel. Jane Arraf will join us from Baghdad tonight. We'll report on a big day for wounded veterans in Texas: A mere down payment for a group to whom so much is owed. Our travels tonight will take us to New Orleans... to the Coast Guard... and to the American road -- where we will look at teenagers in danger.

Also tonight, we'll cover a story that brought tears to the eyes of one of our producers today, and caused another to say, "We'll have tears at home when my daughter hears this." Barbaro was put to sleep this morning, after a gallant fight.  The horse's owners, trainers and doctors -- who say they went to extraordinary lengths motivated only by this extraordinary horse -- made a decision this morning that Barbaro could not withstand another operation. In the end, it was the fear for Barbaro's quality of life that led to the decision to end Barbaro's life. It's a piece we are calling "The Death of a Champion."

THINKING OF OUR FRIENDS
Two colleagues at competing networks were on our minds today: Kimberly Dozier visited CBS News headquarters here in New York, where she received a hero's welcome. As I've said in this space before, I've not seen her since we spent hours together in Mosul, Iraq, hanging out with U.S. soldiers while American generals met with local leaders. Kimberly is a great soul and a great reporter and has made an unbelievable recovery from her wounds in Iraq. So has Bob Woodruff. It was a year ago today when Bob was traveling in an Iraqi/American convoy, reporting a story for ABC News. That he is alive today says so much about the extraordinary military medical team that attended to him almost immediately. His friends are in awe of his recovery (as is anyone who comes in contact with him), and most important: his family is whole. All those who know both reporters have given thanks to the extraordinary talents and dedication of the U.S. military, whose work must be seen, in action, to be believed.

CONTROVERSIALPEDIA
I was stunned recently to discover that my son's high school history teacher accepted Wikipedia as bona fide source material on a paper he was writing. You may know the joke: So many people found Britannica and other encyclopedias "so annoyingly correct and factual" that Wikipedia was invented, to inject a "badly-needed randomness" into the encyclopedia world, and its maddening exactness.  Maybe we've been too wrapped up in the whole "getting the facts right" thing as a society. A recent article cited 16 obituaries found on Wikipedia -- for people who are very much alive and well and planning to enjoy dinner with loved ones tonight. There's the famous case of John Seigenthaler (father of my NBC News colleague), say nothing of the errors we've all learned of firsthand or anecdotally, on the site maintained by "volunteer" contributors, in effect, and overseen by OTHER contributors. I was further stunned at an article in this morning's New York Times (NYTimes.com login required for link) -- reporting on Wikipedia's use as source material in "over 100 judicial rulings" around the country. Federal Judge Richard Posner of Chicago calls it "a terrific resource," but goes on to say, "it wouldn't be right to use it in a critical issue." The article goes on to report that Posner himself was the subject of a Wiki-error: It reported that Ann Coulter was a former clerk of his. Judge Posner has never met Ann Coulter. A Harvard Law professor is quoted as saying Wikipedia "doesn't have quality control," and another professor says it's best used for "soft facts." Those don't hurt or cause damage anything like those pesky "hard facts." Make no mistake: Americans have voted with their keyboards not to let a few facts get in the way of convenience. Wikipedia is now what the Times calls "the default reference for the curious" -- boasting 38 million unique visitors during December, making it the 13th most popular (non-Paris Hilton-related) site on the Web. Wikipedia's own numbers may differ.

Brian anchors the broadcast tonight from New York.

Click here or on the image for his daily preview of the stories we're working on at this hour.

We've just visited Camp Speicher near Tikrit -- Sadam Hussein's hometown -- as we continue reporting on medical care by the U.S. military. The tent hospital here is now staffed by the 399th Combat Support Hospital (CSH – or "cash" in military speak.) This is a reserve unit out of Boston, mostly Massachusetts folks, followed by many from Ohio and several other states. They tend to be older and less military in their bearing than their full-time Armed Forces colleagues, but they are certainly no different in their fierce dedication to patient care.

We heard this Sunni area was quiet now. It certainly was not during our visit. Many Medivac helicopters landed — some with warning, others with none.

As the CSH medics roll out their stretchers on  big wheels (called "rickshaws") to one of the choppers, the helicopter medic hands over four horribly wounded Iraqi men guarded by four U.S. soldiers.

The doctors, nurses and medics move calmly but very quickly to determine what is wrong. One of the Iraqi's legs is hanging off and he is bleeding massively from internal injuries. The doctors rush him into surgery. Some of the other wounded scream out with moans so loud it is hard for the medical staff to hear each other.

While the life-saving efforts continue, an intelligence specialist starts to determine what happened –- almost never an easy task in these first minutes in the emergency room, but the story emerges.  A U.S. helicopter spotted two men planting improvised explosive devices (IEDs) at the side of the road. The men ran away from their own car and hijacked a second car and tried to flee. The helicopter opened fire, hitting the two insurgents and two other men who had been in the hijacked car. The insurgents' abandoned car is full of explosive devices and a video camera to record their planned destruction of U.S. troops. The other two Iraqis seem to be among the many who are simply caught accidentally in the battle.

After the helicopter fired, a team of soldiers called a Quick Reaction Force, arrived on the scene and its medics administered first aid to all four and called for the Medivac helicopter.

In the emergency room at the CSH, the first case is one of the insurgents who is still bleeding so much that surgeons give him 30 units of transfused blood in a matter of minutes – almost depleting the hospital's supply. An urgent call goes out at the base for blood donors and within minutes several dozen U.S. soldiers form a long line. The soldiers are not told who will get the blood, but I ask one what he thinks if it goes to an insurgent. "A life is a life," he replies. "We have an obligation to save him no matter what he did to us."

Not long after, an ambulance from Tikrit arrives with an Iraqi policeman shot in the head by a sniper. The staff struggles to save him, performing CPR,  pushing air into his lungs, and transfusing blood. But after 15 minutes of struggle, the doctor in charge sees large amounts of brain matter flowing out and declares the man "expectant" -– meaning he will die soon. "That is really tough," the doctor tells me later. "These guys are on our side."

Then a call comes in about a U.S. soldier arriving on a helicopter with a "head wound." The staff prepares.  But when the chopper unloads it turns out to be a hip wound, and a mild one at that. Such missed communications are common from the noisy helicopters.

The four men shot by the helicopter are stabilized by the end of the day. The staff relaxes and gives a cake, "homemade" in a bread making machine, to one of the female medics for her 28th birthday. After they sing Happy Birthday, they banter to relieve the tension while they wait for whatever will come in next.

The war in Iraq continues to makes news this weekend.  In Washington, D.C., San Francisco, Los Angeles, Austin, Denver and many other cities... thousands of Americans marched against the war.  In Iraq... there was more violence and death.  We have reports from NBC's John Yang in Washington... Jane Arraf in Baghdad... and we'll hear from the wife of an American soldier on his way to Iraq.

Senator Hillary Clinton is on the campaign trail today.  She spoke to a crowd in Iowa today... one of the key states in the 2008 race for the democratic nomination. Potential republican candidate Rudy Giuliani is in New Hampshire.  NBC's Chip Reid will have the story.

NBC's Charles Hadlock reports on the growing number of home foreclosures in this country... a nightmare for some... it may be an opportunity for others.

If you're planning a trip to Canada, Mexico or the Caribbean then you'll want to watch Kevin Tibbles' story tonight.  The U.S. has new rules for Americans returning from those places... and you're going to need to have your passport. And there are more rule changes coming.  We'll explain.

And from Florida an interesting story about alligators... and the problems they can pose from workers just trying to do their jobs.  NBC's Mark Potter reports.

It's all coming up tonight.  We hope to see you then.

Editor's note: We received hundreds of e-mails regarding Martin Savidge's report on Thursday about the lives of the 12 servicemen and women killed when their Black Hawk crashed in Iraq. We were unable to post the video on MSNBC.com last night because of a restricted photo, but we've solved that problem now and are pleased to give you the opportunity to view the video online. Just click here or on the image to watch. NBC's Jack Chesnutt was among the many producers who worked on the story. He writes about the time he spent with one of the grieving families, below.

In the living room of their suburban home in Colorado Springs, Cleo and Jerry Allgood are surrounded by their children, their family photos, and their memories of their oldest son, Col. Brian B. Allgood, M.D. On the coffee table, there is a print of a digital photograph. It's a snapshot taken quickly of Brian, standing in a military emergency room somewhere in Iraq. Allgood is in his camouflage field uniform, smiling, and his military haircut is "high and tight."

"That was taken the day Brian died," says Jerry Allgood. "It was taken just before he took off in the helicopter." The elder Allgood's voice is a bit scratchy. He's been crying.

Dr. Brian Allgood, orthopedic surgeon, West Point graduate, Army Ranger, avid reader and runner, husband and father, was one of 12 Americans who died last weekend when a Black Hawk helicopter crashed in Baghdad. Army investigators are trying to determine if the chopper was brought down by a shoulder-launched missile, fired by insurgents.

While the president and Congress and military leaders in the Pentagon discuss, debate, and argue about the future of the U.S. policy in Iraq, a family in Colorado Springs is only focused on what is past, and lost.

Cleo Allgood, her eyes puffy, whispers, "He was a wonderful human being. He would always put the other person first. His troops, he took care of them first, before his concerns about himself."

On this day, when their loss is so keenly felt, Cleo and Jerry Allgood are sitting with me, a stranger. A daughter and younger son are nearby. A dozen photographs are within sight; a serious Brian in his West Point dress uniform, a smiling Brian with his wife and son, 8-year-old Brian, grinning and wearing a cowboy hat and checkered shirt.

The questions are hard to ask, but for Cleo and Jerry, the answers are like hugs for their departed son. Cleo remembers Brian's run in the Boston Marathon, not to really compete, but just to finish.

"He was running with a friend, and having a tough time of it. He told me, 'I was ready to quit, and I looked over at my friend and he's still going! And I thought 'well, if he can make it, I can make it.' And, his friend, it turns out, was thinking the exact same thing, they found out afterward. But, they both did finish."

Cleo flashes one of the few smiles of the day, and Jerry picks up the story about running.

"He and I went running at a track when he was about eight or nine. He lapped me on the track, and he was proud of that." A chuckle. "And, I never ran with him again, it was just too embarrassing."

Jerry recalls how Brian quit wrestling in high school in spite of qualifying for the championship. "He said he needed to concentrate on his studies if he was going to get into West Point."

Cleo adds that whenever he had even five minutes to spare, Brian would pick up a book and read. A good father and a good doctor, she says.

Before he retired from the Army, Jerry had been a hospital administrator. He had seen his son in action in the operating room and in the recovery wards. He talked this week as though his son was still alive. His memories very much are.

"He reminds me of my daddy, the doctor, of how he treats people: with empathy. He had a way of making the patient feel that he was doing the best for them," says Jerry.

And finally, Jerry recalls the quiet times when he and Brian were fishing alone together.

"He didn't talk much, but when he had something to say it was worth listening to."

The stories of the lives lost in Iraq and Afghanistan are always worth listening to.

Some comments the President made today guaranteed his placement at or near the top of tonight's broadcast. The day began with an Oval Office meeting -- the President and Gen. David Patreus (by the way, watch the general's shoulders carefully over the coming hours and days -- as his three stars become four, and he joins an even more vaunted and exclusive group in the history of the Army), who is preparing to take command in Iraq. On another front, some videotape is currently coming into our system from Richard Engel in Iraq, where he's been embedded with U.S. forces. The interesting thing about what we'll show you tonight (judging by what has already come in from him) is that we'll be able to see our guys who are in the fight and on the job -- and we get to hear from some of them. We've been asked not to say anything more than that about locations or the mission. There's going to be some jostling of stories at the top of our broadcast, as work comes in from various correspondents and as we rank it in terms of importance. There's also a potentially interesting story from London that may or may not make our air tonight, and another from the Pentagon.

A word about last night: We've been inundated with e-mails about two stories in particular -- Ann Curry's story on the Fisher Houses for vets' families and Martin Savidge's story about the 12 Army and Army Reserve personnel who were lost last weekend in the Black Hawk crash were singled out by our viewers. We were enormously proud of both stories. Here is a link to Ann's report and video, and I'm told we'll make Martin's available in this space later this evening. Both stories convey an important message and say a lot about who is doing the fighting and why.

Andrea Mitchell will report tonight on the possibility of a sea change in the way we select our presidents, and the continuing push to "front-load" the primary process in American politics. Tom Costello has a story about the increasing number of commercial air pilots carrying weapons while aloft these days, and the drive to expand the policy to international flights.

Bob Faw will round out the broadcast with our Friday night "Making A Difference" segment, on a 17-year-old who loves his Minnesota town enough to save it from virtual extinction.

What an eventful week, and our thanks to all of you who have been with us throughout. Have a good weekend, and as the guy says on TV, "We'll look for you right back here Monday night..." In the meantime, we hope you can join us for our Friday edition.

The leader of one of America's closest allies in the war on terror today personally criticized the U.S. for the way it handled a Canadian citizen suspected by the U.S. of having terrorist connections.

Canada's prime minister, Stephen Harper, today sent a formal letter of apology to a Syrian-born Canadian, Maher Arar, who was detained in 2002 at Kennedy airport in New York on his way home from an overseas trip. U.S. officials determined he was a potential risk and deported him -- not to Canada but to Syria. Because he held dual citizenship, he was deportable to either country.

Arar claims, and a Canadian inquiry confirmed, that he was imprisoned in Syria for 10 months and brutally tortured. Canada says the U.S. decision to deport him was based in part on intelligence information provided by the Canadian government, which it has since said was erroneous.

Canada today offered Arar nearly $9 million in compensation, which his lawyer today said he'll likely accept. In making the announcement, Prime Minister Harper called on the U.S. to remove Arar from a no-fly list.

Last week, the U.S. declined to take that action. A letter signed by Homeland Security Secretary Michael Chertoff and Attorney General Alberto Gonzales said they believe "the continued watch listing of Mr. Arar is appropriate." They said that conclusion was reached independent of the intelligence provided earlier by Canada.

A report by the Department of Homeland Security's inspector general is due out within a month or so. Government officials who have seen a draft say it will be critical of the U.S. handling of the case.

Brian anchors the broadcast tonight in New York, but NBC's Tom Costello delivers the vlog.

He previews the story he's working on -- about the possibility of arming pilots on international flights --and a few other stories you'll likely see tonight.

Click here or on the image to watch.

In this past week I have seen a lot of horrific wounds and heroic attempts to save lives. I've been with the 28th Combat Support Hospital, the military's trauma center in Baghdad's Green Zone. But yesterday a case almost overwhelmed me emotionally. In the afternoon, two mortar rounds fell a few hundred yards away near the U.S. embassy. Loud speakers and sirens announce "a lockdown" of the heavily fortified area. People are not allowed to leave buildings. It proved a good call; a third round came in minutes later. Then a huge car bomb exploded just outside the Green Zone's gates. The tension level in the hospital rises immediately. Will there be casualties arriving? Within minutes a U.S. Army Humvee speeds to the gate and soldiers carry in a bloody and mangled Iraqi girl. I would guess her age to be 6 or 7 years. The doctors, nurses and technicians immediately start working on her with the same furious intensity they summon when a U.S. soldier arrives. "Two amputations and chest perforations," one of the doctors shouts. They rush her immediately from the emergency room to surgery.

Seeing the girl rushed in, I could not help thinking of my own children at her age. Tears welled up in my eyes. Later, when I talked to some of the nurses and doctors they said it is the same for them. They choke up with every child, even though, as one nurse told me, "we have seen 25 just like this in the last few months."

Very few Iraqis get care from the U.S. military, proportional to the number who are injured everyday in the sectarian violence. Usually it is those who are political connected, or those picked up in a moment's decision by a unit on patrol. It is hard to get the story of the girl straight. She was not hurt by the mortars in the Green Zone. It was either the car bomb or a separate IED. After dropping her off, the soldiers in the Humvee sped back to duty. The most likely reason she was picked up is that some soldier, possibly a medic, just thought of his own kids and could not leave her on the street.

Even though the girl was close to death, the surgeons and other staff in the operating room kept her alive. And though they need to amputate one leg, they worked for hours to save her arm that had been mangled.

What will happen to the girl? The hospital staff will keep her as long as they can, but they have few beds for long stays. The U.S. causalities who cannot return to duty in a day or two are flown to the U.S. Army Hospital in Germany and then on to hospitals in the U.S. for care. Eventually the girl will have to be transferred to "medical city" -- the Iraqi civilian hospital across the Tigris which is understaffed, overcrowded and short  of supplies as it takes in most of those who are wounded on the streets here daily.

Editor's note: If you missed Robert's report from the CASH hospital that aired on Tuesday's broadcast, click here or on the image to watch.

Allow me to first tell you about the last thing in tonight's broadcast. As someone who has spent a good deal of time with wounded American veterans, and as a board member of the Congressional Medal of Honor Foundation, I've been able to see first-hand the great works of the Fisher Houses. What Ronald McDonald House is to the families of seriously ill children, Fisher House is to the families of wounded veterans. The theory is this: With all they have to worry about, they shouldn't have to worry about having a comfortable and supportive place to stay. The recovery of the military member should be their first concern... and that's what Fisher House allows. It is as noble a cause as the calling of our servicemen and women. Tonight I'll be thrilled to introduce Ann Curry's report on Fisher House -- their mission and how they've expanded -- and the challenge ahead. I hope our report tonight floods their phone lines and fills their coffers. I know I speak for Ann when I say that it's gratifying to help shine a light on their good works. And that's how the broadcast will conclude tonight.

At the very top will likely be the bad news from Ford. It's a story we've covered consistently, and Ford executives view these numbers as a turning point... a benchmark of sorts, on top of which to start rebuilding. Just as interesting is what is happening to the Dow stocks at this hour, and we'll keep an eye on the numbers for you, along with their meaning. Also tonight, we're monitoring an interesting day on the stand at the Libby trial (as we pointed out earlier this week on the broadcast, we expect Tim Russert to be called to testify, and when he does we'll report on it on Nightly News), and we'll look at the interesting role Sen. John Warner, R-Va., has taken on, opposing the President's Iraq policy.

Martin Savidge has a hugely emotional story, the result of some phenomenal and emotional research done by our staff. We looked into the lives of all of those killed in this past weekend's chopper crash in Iraq. Tonight's story speaks to the very face of this conflict. The average age of all those killed on board was 42. It was the highest single-day loss of collective rank in the entire war. They leave 34 children behind in all. It is a heartbreaking roll call that needs to be seen. It speaks to those who currently serve -- and in this case, those who have made the ultimate sacrifice.

We also have an interesting segment on identity theft and a closer look at the case that had gone cold for 40 years in Mississippi, until a break this week.

For all of those reasons, we hope you can join us tonight.

On Monday, the day before the president's State of the Union address, I spent an afternoon at The National Naval Medical Center's Ward 5 in Bethesda, Maryland. It's a place where wounds fresh from the battlefields of Iraq and Afghanistan are healed. In tonight's installment of our "Coming Home" series, Ann Curry reports on the Fisher House, where many of these young men and women rehabilitate following their hospital stays.

Lance Cpl. Colt Stovall speaks with one of his doctors at The National Naval Medical Center.

During my visit, I met the young man pictured above, Lance Cpl. Colt Stovall, U.S. Marine Corps, 2nd Battalion, 3rd Marines Weapons Company. The 21-year-old calls himself a "gun monkey." He's a mortar man, not as big as artillery, he says, but more mobile in order to cover the advancement of his fellow Marines' backs. He served in Afghanistan from June 2005 - January 2006 and in Iraq from Sept. 11 - Dec. 14, 2006, the day he was injured in a convoy northwest of Baghdad.

What follows are snippets and photos from my conversation with Stovall in his hospital room.

Were you scared when you learned you were going to fight?
"You are scared, I mean, there are those people that say they are not and everything, but deep down they are. You are scared, but at the same time you are so gung ho to get over there and get some, it's pretty much those two feelings fighting back and forth. When you first get there, you are sitting in the truck all scared. You are still doing your job, but praying.

Tell me about the day you were injured.
"We were driving. I was the turret gunner and I'm sitting there watching and I felt fire. And the next thing I know I feel like the truck is rolling and I'm grabbing onto whatever. My eyes were barely open. I can see the gray dust and feel the shock wave and I blacked out. When I came to, I'm hanging in the dirt. The truck had rolled. I was hanging in the dirt. The Marines came and got me out and took me over to the road and put tourniquets on my legs. The doc got to me and started working on me. He patched up what he could."

Stovall's driver, his fellow Marine, was killed by the improvised explosive device (IED).

How does he deal with the relentless violence and danger?
"Yeah, once you have been to Afghanistan, you have been shot at a couple of times, you know what the feeling is, and you know how to deal with everything. You know how you react to certain situations. But at the same time, Iraq is totally a different ballgame. Afghanistan there was only five, around five IEDs that I know of that was it. I think only two of them hit our convoys. In Iraq you have IEDs everywhere. There are more of IEDs than of them actually shooting at us. They have shot mortars at us and it is no big deal. It is those IEDs, man. We actually find a lot of the IEDs. We catch a lot of the guys. Either we catch them laying the IED in or we get intel from the villagers. We get a lot of them and we find a lot of the IEDs. There are just so many and they just keep putting them in and they are waiting for us."

/

As we speak, Stovall is heavily medicated and at least temporarily numb to the excruciating pain in his right leg. Flying shrapnel broke it clean in two places and it took skin graphs and some bone reconstruction to get it back together. When I visited him, he had just taken a few steps with his trusty crutches. It was cause for optimism, but the swelling in his foot also worried him.He shows me a crumpled Ziploc bag which contains his most precious items that carried him through both tours of duty. A picture of his beloved Brandi, a prayer cloth sent by her sister, always in his left breast pocket. "I always made sure of that," he says.And there is a note neatly folded on a white piece of paper, a note he wrote to his fiancée. He won't disclose the contents as he chokes up.How do you deal with death?"I miss my friend, my family member. I guess I just kind of just bottle it up. I don't really think about it. Except for those moments that you need to mourn and then just kind of put it inside and lock it away." He ends the conversation by saying he rarely thinks about his service in Afghanistan and Iraq. I find that hard to comprehend, until he adds: "I think about it when I am missing my boys and thinking about them leads to thinking about that, but I don't really think about it. I mean, I'm back home and it sucks. I got hit and injured. Who am I to be back here? Why couldn't it have been someone else to come back here?"

Photo caption: Stovall's arms bear the Marine Corps motto, "Semper Fidelis" -- Always Faithful.

Apologies for the late delivery today... computer problems in New York.

Brian anchors the broadcast tonight, which includes an exclusive conversation with Sen. John Warner, R-Va. Click here or on the image to hear more about the possible lineup.

Senator Chuck Hagel will likely dominate the airwaves tonight, as he did cable news earlier today, with his comments on Iraq. Just hours after the President's motorcade cleared Capitol Hill last night, Senators (mostly Democrats, though likely enough Republicans to avoid a filibuster), started talks on acceptable language for one or more resolutions against the President's policy. Last night's atmospherics and theatrics received almost as much attention and analysis as the content of the evening: the stand/sit dilemma, the President's classy and clever opening tribute to the Speaker, the Democratic Response by Senator Webb, and the subdued nature of the evening on the whole. The political atmosphere could not be more charged.

We'll reflect all of it on the broadcast tonight, with the help of Chip Reid, David Gregory, Tim Russert and Ron Allen. We have additional reports on women's health and our returning veterans tonight.

And an aside: I love my job, every day of it, but one writer to this blog in particular neatly summarized the "no-win" nature of the media and political landscape these days:

I noticed today that you were criticized by those on the left for suggesting that Sen. Clinton had changed her announce date because of Obama... and then criticized by those on the right for giving her an easy time on that issue. Save that clip for journalism classes! A perfect example of critics seeing what they want to see and hearing what they want to hear. Guess if you're accused of bias on both sides you're doing a fair job!
Chris in Topeka

My thanks to Chris, along with my thanks to all who watch, read and post, every day. We couldn't do this without you.

We hope you can join us tonight, back home in New York.

Brian anchors the broadcast tonight from home base in New York, but as he travels back to NBC News headquarters, Chief White House Correspondent David Gregory delivers the vlog from Washington. The "A" block tonight will focus mainly on reaction to last night's State of the Union address, as David explains.

Click here or on the image to watch.

In his State of the Union address last night, President Bush talked for the first time about the threat of Shia extremism, placing it and the leading Shia extremist group, Hezbollah, alongside Sunni extremism, and al-Qaida, as threats to the United States.

Speaking of al-Qaida, the President stated: "These men are not given to idle words, and they are just one camp in the Islamist radical movement. In recent times, it has also become clear that we face an escalating danger from Shia extremists who are just as hostile to America, and are also determined to dominate the Middle East. Many are known to take direction from the regime in Iran, which is funding and arming terrorists like Hezbollah, a group second only to al-Qaida in the American lives it has taken.

"The Shia and Sunni extremists are different faces of the same totalitarian threat. But whatever slogans they chant, when they slaughter the innocent, they have the same wicked purposes. They want to kill Americans, kill democracy in the Middle East and gain the weapons to kill on an even more horrific scale." (Click to read the full transcript of Bush's speech.)

What's going on here? Is the U.S. planning an attack on Hezbollah?

The ability of Hezbollah to resist the Israeli Army, leading to the resignation of the Israeli Army's chief of staff, has indeed given Hezbollah new status. Moreover, the administration believes that the Shia militias in Iraq are now as much a problem as the Sunni extremists and they have modeled themselves after Hezbollah. And of course, behind it all, the administration sees the hidden hand of Iran. (Iranian officials at least publicly admit to "influence" with Hezbollah, but not "control" over it.) 

But there is division within the administration over how far to go in threatening Hezbollah. No one disputes the threat, with many administration officials believing Hezbollah is a more capable terrorist group than al-Qaida, IF it mobilized against the U.S. Many see even Hezbollah's military commander, Imad Mugniyah, as a bigger threat than Osama bin Laden, because of Bin Laden's isolation and Mugniyah's open power in Lebanon.

A key part of this dispute is whether to go after Mugniyah, who apparently has taken on the nom de guerre of Jawad Nouredine. There are those who would like the U.S. to be more aggressive in pursuit of him, before he comes after the U.S. Mugniyah is believed responsible for the Marine Barracks bombing in 1983, the hijacking of TWA Flight 847 two years later, the kidnappings of western hostages, the torture and murder of CIA Beirut station chief William Buckley and the hanging of Marine Lt. Col. William R. Higgins. He even met with Osama Bin Laden in 1994, according to Bin Laden's then security chief. Mugniyah operates believing that the U.S. will not cross a "red line" and try to take him out, secure in the knowledge that the U.S. never "paid him back" for the Beirut Marine barracks, as one official put it. 

Some in the U.S. government believe if the U.S. went after him, it would indeed be crossing that "red line" and inviting a Hezbollah attack against U.S. interests or more likely, the U.S. homeland.  This side believes that there is no need to go after Mugniyah or Hezbollah, that they are well aware that if they attack the U.S. homeland, the consequences would ultimately be a second front in the War on Terror, something no one wants.

I have been in Iraq only two days and this is my first visit, so my impressions can only be those of a new set of eyes looking at a very well-examined place and situation. 

Still, two things stand out to me immediately: One is that at the hospital in the Green Zone where the 28th Combat Support Hospital (CASH in military speak) receives massive numbers of wounded soldiers, there is a sense of it all being so routine. And it is not just the medical staff that does such a sensational job; the troops I spoke with who woke up with missing limbs and other severe injuries seemed so stoic and calm. It is as though they know that their patrols here have such a high chance of encountering life-threatening trouble that they almost expect it to happen. 

People can talk about bravery and dedication, but when a young woman who just lost her leg tells me she is still glad to just see the sun rise and be in the Army, I'm so moved I start to cry.  Another impression: the Green Zone -- the international American-guarded sector -- Saddam's old palaces, where massively armed U.S. soldiers and a few Iraqis walk around in a calm atmosphere. One can see and feel huge explosions only hundreds of yards away, but it seems thoroughly incongruous. But today, seeing the mangled soldiers in the Green Zone made me know -- it is real.

Editor's note: If you missed Robert's report on Tuesday's broadcast, click here to watch.

I write this from our offices on Capitol Hill where the Capitol Dome will tonight appear over my shoulder -- and where we will originate NBC Nightly News and NBC News coverage of the State of the Union Address.

It's been a day of nonstop briefings... a meeting at the White House with the most senior officials there, followed by the same on the Hill with Speaker Pelosi and Leader Reid. We also had time with Senator Webb who says he has written his own speech tonight (he will deliver the response). It appears, from the guest list in the Democratically-controlled galleries in the House chamber tonight, that a message is being sent on the topic of 9/11. Many of the guests have an affiliation (more than one lost a loved one) having to do with the terrorist attacks. Aides say the President's speech will essentially be divided in half, between foreign and domestic policy, the former, they point out, not designed to elicit much applause. The real history of the night will appear early on to those watching at home. For starters, we will hear the announcement: "Madam Speaker, the President of the United States." After that, when all are seated, the "three-shot" that all Americans will see of the rostrum will include a woman for the first time in American history. As the analysts and pundits will no doubt take great pains to point out, the President comes to the chamber tonight in a weakened political state: his poll numbers are bad, the GOP has lost control of both houses of Congress, and he sees himself as backing the only viable policy given the current circumstances in Iraq.  What remains unclear after our round of briefings is: Do the Democrats believe the Iraqi military is capable of taking over in the event of a U.S. troop pullout? As one prominent Democrat put it to us today, "the goal is no American troops on the streets of Iraq." Does that mean anyone is making an apples-to-apples comparison of U.S. and Iraqi Army combat teams? Senior aides to the President say he knows full well the extent of the "war fatigue" in the country. The Speaker today indicated she does not doubt the President's sincerity, she just wholeheartedly disagrees with the message he will deliver tonight. Finally, one indication of just how new a notion "the majority" is to the Democrats: Majority Leader Reid said he was late to the Speaker's office, because he went to her OLD office, the Minority Leader's suite. It might take some practice.

THE BROADCAST FROM WASHINGTON
We'll have all the politics covered tonight, with David Gregory at the White House and Tim Russert by my side. We'll cover the testimony of 3-star General David Petraeus and update the situation in Baghdad. We have a great In-Depth segment tonight from Mike Taibbi... and because a good newspaper has different sections (and because there's more to life than Congress, after all), we'll look at what the Oscar nominations mean. Here's a hint: the graphic that will appear at the bottom of the screen in the first seconds of the story tonight will read "Rookie Year." Josh Mankiewicz will make a rare Nightly News appearance from Los Angeles to round us out.

THE LIST
The following is a great compilation of words -- some already in use, others yet to make their debut in the workplace. While some if not all of them have already been heavily forwarded in e-mails across the country, it's a useful rundown. It is widely credited to the great "Jargon" column in Wired magazine, but research on its precise derivation turned up nothing specific today. So my thanks and apologies to the author, if just one exists. Enjoy these:

NEW WORDS FOR 2007
Essential vocabulary additions for the workplace (and elsewhere)

1. BLAMESTORMING: Sitting around in a group, discussing why a deadline was missed or a project failed, and who was responsible.

2. SEAGULL MANAGER: A manager, who flies in, makes a lot of noise, craps on everything, and then leaves.

3. ASSMOSIS: The process by which some people seem to absorb success and advancement by kissing up to the boss rather than working hard.

4. SALMON DAY: The experience of spending an entire day swimming upstream only to get screwed and die in the end.

5. CUBE FARM: An office filled with cubicles.

6. PRAIRIE DOGGING: When someone yells or drops something loudly in a cube farm, and people's heads pop up over the walls to see what's going on.

7. MOUSE POTATO: The online, wired generation's answer to the couch potato.

8. SITCOMs: Single Income, Two Children, Oppressive Mortgage. What Yuppies get into when they have children and one of them stops working to stay home with the kids.

9. STRESS PUPPY: A person who seems to thrive on being stressed out and whiny.

10. SWIPEOUT: An ATM or credit card that has been rendered useless because the magnetic strip is worn away from extensive use.

11. XEROX SUBSIDY: Euphemism for swiping free photocopies from one's workplace.

12. IRRITAINMENT: Entertainment and media spectacles that are annoying, but you find yourself unable to stop watching them.

13. PERCUSSIVE MAINTENANCE: The fine art of whacking the crap out of an electronic device to get it to work again. I often feel like doing this to my computer.

14. ADMINISPHERE: The rarefied organizational layers beginning just above the rank and file. Decisions that fall from the adminisphere are often profoundly inappropriate or irrelevant to the problems they were designed to solve.

15. 404: Someone who is clueless. From the World Wide Web error message "404 Not Found," meaning that the requested site could not be located.

16. GENERICA: Features of the American landscape that are exactly the same no matter where one is, such as fast food joints, strip malls and subdivisions.

17. OHNOSECOND: That minuscule fraction of time in which you realize that you've just made a BIG mistake. (Like after hitting send on an e-mail by mistake.)

18. WOOFS: Well-Off Older Folks.

BACK TO THE HILL
We hope you can join us for the broadcast tonight, and especially for our live NBC News coverage of the President's speech from Capitol Hill in Washington, which begins at 9 p.m. ET.

As Kelly mentioned in her post, the White House has released details about the policy initiatives President Bush will talk about tonight. You can read them all at WhiteHouse.gov.

You can follow all other State of the Union developments, and read all of President Bush's previous speeches, in our special section.