It had to happen.

Less than two weeks before we vote for a new president, a white woman says a black man attacked her, then scarred her face, and says there was a political motive for it.

Ashley Todd, a 20-year-old white volunteer for John McCain’s presidential campaign, says she was mugged at an ATM machine in Pittsburgh (my hometown) by a big black man. She further says he threw her down, then disfigured her by carving the letter “B” into her face with a sharp implement when he saw that she supported McCain, not Barack Obama.

Part of the appeal of, and the unspoken tension behind, Senator Obama’s campaign is his transformational status as the first African-American to win a major party’s presidential nomination.

That does not mean that he has erased the mutual distrust between black and white Americans, and this incident could become a watershed event in the 11 days before the election.

If Ms. Todd’s allegations are proven accurate, some voters may revisit their support for Senator  Obama, not because they are racists (with due respect to Rep. John Murtha), but because they suddenly feel they do not know enough about the Democratic nominee.

If the incident turns out to be a hoax, Senator McCain’s quest for the presidency is over, forever linked to race-baiting.

For Pittsburgh, a city that has done so much to shape American history over the centuries, another moment of truth is at hand.

My colleague Catherine Herridge reported today something that shouldn’t have surprised me, but in fact did. And my surprise quickly turned to concern: Catherine reported on some online chatter from Islamic Web sites that has been intercepted and translated. Their conclusion: Al Qaeda is avidly following the US presidential race with an eye to its next attack.

The intelligence officials with whom Catherine talked told her that no matter which candidate becomes our 44th president, he will be dealing with an unrelenting desire by Al Qaeda to strike the US, as it did in 2001. One of its communiqués says the following about the coming month: “At that time the collapse will happen quickly and … then after the blow by Al Qaeda, God Willing, the United States will begin to disintegrate.”

The terrorists watching us from afar don’t get to vote, and they’ll keep trying to hit us no matter who’s in the White House. That doesn’t surprise me. But that doesn’t mean they don’t have their preferences. And knowing that is what concerns me.

I proudly hail from western Pennsylvania, a beautiful part of the United States. John Murtha, the Democratic congressman from Johnstown, Pa., just said something unforgivable about my home. He said, “There is no question that western Pennsylvania is a racist area.”

The congressman was sliming his neighbors, and me, because he thinks Barack Obama would be even further ahead in Pennsylvania were it not for racial bias on the part of the state’s residents. Obama leads by 13 percent according to RealClearPolitics.com

I’m sure there are racists in Pennsylvania. They probably exist in all 50 states. Further, there are probably some who discriminate against others whose skin color is not like theirs in Harlem, south central LA, and downtown Philadelphia.

Congressman Murtha served his country honorably in the military; I did not. So I was hesitant to criticize him earlier when he maligned our troops in Iraq. But I’m just as much a Pennsylvanian as he is. And for making such ugly comments about a wonderful part of the country, he can go to hell. I don’t mean to be ungracious, but he started it.

We have a name for people like Jack Murtha: jagoff.

AMMAN, Jordan

I’ve had some tough things to say about Islam in the past. Today, as Ramadan comes to a close, I’d like to say that we can all learn a lesson from Islam’s holy month of repentance.

Over the past week, I’ve taken part in several Iftars, the dinners that Muslims have after complete fasting — no food, liquid, water or smoking — since sunup of that day. I found Iftars to be occasions of supreme humanity. It is a universal pleasure to eat when you are very hungry.

Ramadan gives faithful Muslims — and visitors — a chance to practice self restraint, a quality lacking in the Western world.

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BAGHDAD — Iraq is back.

Neighborhoods that, two years ago when I was last here were almost total rubble, are being rebuilt at a surprising pace. The country’s oil production, which accounts for nearly 90 percent of Iraq’s gross national income, is raking in money with high priced petroleum. The country’s infrastructure that was so badly damaged in the war has been repaired and this time is being guarded by the newly emergent Iraqi Armed Forces.

Around Baghdad, there is a sense among those on the street that the worst of the terror they have endured for five years is behind them and that the future will be better. It’s an attitude that other countries wish they could claim among their citizens.

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