You know who I feel sorry for? Besides myself, I mean. This guy Jean Charles de Menezes. He's the dumb sod that British police shot the other day because they thought he was a suicide bomber.

In the hours right after it happened, the authorities said he was loaded with explosives. When it turned out he wasn't, they said he was one of the four guys who got away the day before after they botched their attacks. Then the police said, well, no, he wasn't one of them, but he was definitely at least connected to them.

Now it turns out he's just a Brazilian electrician who was probably doing nothing more than trying to get a free ride on the tube by jumping the turnstile. Of course, it's probably not a terribly good idea to do that sort of thing the day after another attempted series of subway bombings. The authorities will tend to be just a bit on the nervous side, and they'll look for the slightest excuse to appear, um, "busy."

Okay, so the British apparently screwed up. But why are they admitting it? Just do what Bush did when he f*cked up: Come up with a whole new list of excuses to justify your actions.

Take it from someone who knows: There's nothing worse than being on the receiving end of bad intelligence.