All right, now, just a minute.

I don’t like to attribute mystical causes to random numerical coincidences. You picks your number, you takes your chances. You picked 7, next time it might be 7 again. Or it might not. Either way, it’s pure dumb luck. As Donald Fagen wrote, you’re a victim of laughing chance.

But Al Qaeda isn’t living in the same century as us. They’re very much in Carl Sagan’s demon-haunted world of symbols and preternatural causes—and I’m beginning to think the number 19 may be important to Al Qaeda operations, for one of those pre-Enlightenment reasons: 19 Al Qaeda Members Arrested in Najaf. (Hat tip: speedster.)

NAJAF, Iraq �—�All of the 19 men arrested in the car bombing that killed scores of people at the Imam Ali shrine have admitted links to�Usama bin Laden’s�terror network, according to a senior Iraqi investigator.

Two Iraqis and two Saudis grabbed shortly after the Friday blast gave information leading to the arrest of the other suspects, the official said, speaking on condition of anonymity. The others include two Kuwaitis, six Palestinians with Jordanian passports, Iraqis and Saudis, according to the official.