NEAR CERTAINTY – AT 10:50 A.M. ET:  I have the sense that the Americans involved in investigating the presumed bombing of a Russian airliner over the Sinai are getting some pushback from the Obamans in the White House.  Mustn't upset the Muslim extremists, after all.  Obama himself said only it was only a "possibility" that the plane was bombed.  British Prime Minister Cameron was, as usual, far more assertive.  No one takes Obama very seriously any longer.  And the experts on our side are having their say.  From CNN:

(CNN) The United States appears to be increasingly confident that a terrorist bomb brought down the Russian passenger jet that broke apart over Egypt.

The growing belief was indicated by several senior U.S. officials in the intelligence, military and national security community who spoke to CNN on Saturday.

One official said it was "99.9% certain," another said it was "likely."

The remarks are stronger than those made by President Barack Obama Thursday when he said there was "a possibility" a bomb was on Metrojet Flight 9268, which disintegrated over the Sinai Peninsula October 31, killing all 224 people aboard.

The view also contrasts with the cautious stance taken by Egyptian officials, who are in charge of the main investigation into the air crash and insist that no conclusion has been reached yet.

"All the scenarios are out on the table," Ayman al-Muqaddam, the head of the investigation, told reporters Saturday. "We don't know what happened exactly."

COMMENT:  Even the Egyptians have moved on this.  At first they said it was definitiely a mechanical failure that brought the plane down.  But news leaks from France, which is heavily involved in the probe, say that the explosive sound heard in the last seconds of a normal flight was not that of a mechanical breakdown.

November 8,  2015