As reported in the New York Post for Saturday, 4/25:

On March 12, an employee of the Department of Health in New York City discovered that a stack of blank birth certificates, all bearing the agency's stamp (104 total), had been stolen from the department's offices, near City Hall. One city investigator says that such a theft--which hadn't occurred at the department over the preceding ten years--is, 'like hitting the Lotto for terrorists,' since forged birth certificates are a crucial first step towards forging other documents, and all such forgery constitutes 'one of the primary concerns of Homeland Security.'

Full article is here:

http://www.nypost.com/seven/04252009/news/regionalnews/birth_certificate_terror_alarm_166135.htm

Reporter may be contacted at larry.celona@nypost.com

Some observations: To be sure, the theft of birth certificates is not likely a crime committed as an end in itself, but as a means to further criminal activity. And though the reporters dare not use the much-maligned term, clearly they are talking about a possible 'conspiracy' here. But what kind of criminality, and what kind of conspiracy? Should we presume that whatever operation is meant to be furthered by this theft will necessarily include acts of terrorism? Appearing a month and a half after the theft was discovered (and in a Murdoch news outlet which has been apoplectic in recent days over the Obama administration's release of torture-related memos), might such an article merely be meant to ratchet up the anxieties of readers? After all, as one commenter notes beneath the online version of the article, don't forgers have more efficient methods nowadays?

Or might this instead be an actual indication that the groundwork is being laid for some false-flag terror incident? A more precise comment than that of the (unnamed) investigator in the article might be that the kinds of forgeries made possible by such a theft are basic not so much to terrorism (by which we are, of course, meant to understand 'al Qaeda,' i.e., bearded Muslims) as to covert operations (i.e., covert crimes), which if they include terrorist acts among their aims will require setting up patsies beforehand. Should this be the case, and should inquiries into the stolen birth certificates lead investigators into the intelligence community, we can be reasonably sure that they will be prevented from going any further. And we can also be reasonably sure that, once the false-flag incident has transpired, whatever documentation is presented as evidence of who did the deed will be duly regarded as authentic by the major news media, while any questioning of their authenticity will accordingly be derided as 'conspiracy theories.'