Here's to the news that disappears...

I'm a hard-core news junkie. When a story disappears I notice. I miss it. I want to know where it went.

One story that I really miss is the Bandar bin Sultan story. Bandar got a promotion in the hierarchy of the Kingdom last summer. Head of Saudi intelligence. Top spook.

Cynics would say that promotion just formalized the de facto role he's played for the last thirty years.

Which could well be true.

But within days of the official announcement Bandar disappeared from the global news radar. I noticed.

The disappearance coincided with a story well out on the fringe of the blogosphere that Bandar had been assassinated, allegedly by a Syrian hit squad. That story disappeared just as fast as Bandar disappeared.

But Bandar has been missing ever since. I've e-mailed a number of government agencies in the Kingdom looking for confirmation that Bandar is alive and well. Nothing.

I've e-mailed a number of top-drawer journos who would have access to the latest insider rumors. Nothing.

Wither Bandar?

Even more troubling, the country of Jordan has disappeared. The disappearance of Jordan is an important development. Jordan is an integral part of the Syria war narrative, the Gaza war narrative, and the Arab Spring narrative. That's three high profile narratives that suddenly see one of their main actors go missing.

Wither Jordan?

And wither all that hardware that was going through the Gaza tunnels ever since the collapse of Libya? We saw little or none of it in the imbroglio of the last ten days. Mind you, there was a conspicuous absence of attack helicopters in the air. Was that a silent acknowledgement that the Stingers are in Gaza?

These are all news nuggets that a hard-core news junkie misses when they're not around. I miss those stories. I worry about them. I want to know what became of them.

I raise a glass to the stories that disappear...