My hometown of Baltimore, MD may be the best represented city in modern Olympic history. This is not just about Baltimore boy and multiple medalist Michael Phelps (who is young yet and could easily get into double digits of medals in Beijing.)

Whenever an American wins gold we hear The Star Spangled Banner which Francis Scott Key* penned after he observed the Battle of Baltimore as the British bombarded Fort McHenry on September 13-14, 1814.

Baltimore, a homely, provincial town, is the least of the great East Coast metropoli and is overshadowed by its powerful neighbors to the north and south - DC, NYC, Boston, and even (we hate to admit it) Philly. But we gave the country a good stirring anthem - particularly when sung (maybe a little off-key but with tons of heart) by a gold-medal winning women's soccer team.


* Key was also a fellow alumn of St. John's College. The auditorium there is named for him. Apparently he helped save the school during one of its periodic bouts of involvency in the 1820s.

The New York Post ran my oped "Tehran's Terror..." this Monday. I outline how Iran has provided technical and financial support for a variety of Sunni terrorist groups throughout the Middle East despite the Sunni-Shia divide. Also, I address the many skeptics who insist that al-Qaeda-Iranian ties are low-level, restricted to things like "training." This training is what turned al-Qaeda into a terrorist powerhouse and their most successful operations bear the hallmarks of Iran/Hezbollah operations.

I did not mention in the article, that Iran supported radical Islamist groups throughout the 1980s - including the Egyptians who became the backbone of al-Qaeda's leadership.

I know I keep writing about Iran and that there is terrorism that does not emanate from Iran - but until we recognize Iran is the world's #1 terrorist state and address it head on we will be missing the forest for the trees.

Judo has been dominating the Israeli sports pages.

Israel won its only Olympic medal (so far) when Arik Ze'evi won the bronze medal in the under-100kg competition and became an instant national hero.

The less inspiring story is that of Iranian Judo champion Arash Miresmaeili who was a leading contender to take the gold in the under 66-kg category. Miresmaeili, who was also Iran's flag carrier in the opening ceremonies was slated to face an Israeli for his first match. There was speculation that he would refuse this match.

What happened illustrates perfectly how Iran elides international norms and gets away with it - again and again. Open political protest at the Olympics is frowned upon and can result in sanctions not only against the athlete, but against the entire team. Miresmaeili failed to make his weight before the match with the Israeli. For a top contender to fail to make weight is surprising, to say the least. Further, Miresmaeili admitted that he "refused to compete against the Israeli opponent in order to express my sympathy with the suffering of the occupied Palestinian people, and the occupied Iraqi people."

He was praised in the Iranian media,by Iran's ambassador to Greece, and by Iranian President Khatami who stated, "The move by the Iranian world judo champion in protest to the massacre of Palestinian people by the Zionist regime will be recorded in the history of Iranian glories."

Looks pretty political, but the fig leaf of the failed weigh-in and official Iranian claims that the athlete suffered from "digestive problems" gave the International Judo and Olympic Committees an out from confronting Iran.

It is a neat encapsulation of how Iran handles its external confrontations. Keep it in mind during the next round of negotiations over Iran's suspected but denied nuclear program.