Eid ul-Fitr, and Death in Khan Bani Saad

A fifth victim died in raising recent Chattanooga, Tennessee, attack's death toll to six. (BBC News)

As I said Thursday, that's a tragedy. (July 16, 2015)

However, I think it's prudent to remember that Americans aren't the only ones terrorists kill.


(From AP, via The Australian, used w/o permission.)
(" A woman grieves at the site of the bombing in Khan Beni Saad, about 30km northeast of Baghdad."
The Australian (July 20, 2015))

"Islamic State Eid attack in Iraq kills 90 as Saudis arrest 400 "
AFP, AP; via The Australian (July 20, 2015 12:00 a.m.)
"Iraq mourned its dead yesterday as the death toll from one of its deadliest car bombs rose to at least 90.

"The suicide attack by Islamic State, which ripped through a busy market north of Baghdad, came as the country marked Eid ul-Fitr, the feast that ends the Muslim fasting month of Ramadan....

"...Muthanna Saadoun, 25, a ­municipal employee who drives a street sweeper, used his truck to help put out the fires that the blast caused in the market area.

" 'People were burning in their cars because no ambulances or fire engines were able to reach them,' he said yesterday....

"...'What we witnessed yesterday cannot be described. Fire, bodies, wounded, women and children screaming ... Khan is now a disaster zone,' said Salem Abu Moqtada, 34, who sells vegetables in the market....

"...'Every year (during Ramadan) there’s a bombing. We are guilty of being Shia,' Mr Saleh said. 'This is the biggest in Diyala since 2003.'

"Prime Minister Haider al-Abadi condemned the attack as 'a despicable crime by the Daesh (Islamic State) terrorist gangs'..."

Another spelling of Khan Beni Saad in my language is Khan Bani Saad.

Either way, the known death toll is about 130 now: 15 of them children. Apparently the attacker drove an ice truck to the market, announced that he was selling ice at a discount because of the Eid al-Fitr holiday, waited for a crowd to gather, and set off the explosion. I suppose the attack was justified — sort of — since there's a claim that the Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant (ISIL) was getting even for the killing of Sunni Muslims in Hawija. (Wikipedia)

I don't see it that way, but I come from a different culture: and have very different beliefs.

Don't expect a rant about 'those Muslims.' If all followers of Islam were this enthusiastic about killing folks who disagreed with them, or had killed someone who shared their particular flavor of Islam — the self-extermination would have been over centuries ago.

There is, I think, hope that folks in the Middle East will learn to restrain their less-reasonable citizens.

Saudi Arabia's government, for example, apparently has decided that arresting folks who plan to kill Saudis is a good idea. That's a start.

In the long run, I think changing the status quo will take a very serious review of what they believe: and hard decisions about what's necessary, and what's causing the bloodshed. Change won't be easy — as my native culture has learned on many occasions. But change happens, and change can be good.

I've said this before:

• "Dead Marines in Chattanooga, Living with Change"
  (July 16, 2015)
  Particularly
  • Drunk Driving, Names, a Yearbook, and the Irish
  • It's a Big World
• "Death at Garissa University, Sin, and Consequences"
  A Catholic Citizen in America (April 12, 2015)
  Particularly
  • Hellfire and Hypocrisy
  • Justice, Mercy, and Freedom
  • Doing Something Constructive — or Not
  • Working for Change: It's a Long Haul
• "Charlie Hebdo: Dealing With Difference"
  (January 9, 2015)
  Particularly
  • Islam in the Information Age
  • Dealing With Difference: or Not
• "The Islamic State: Air Strikes, Diplomacy, and Remembering Sargon of Akkad"
  (September 26, 2014)
  Particularly
  • Making Mistakes, Making Sense
  • Taking the Long View: and Hope
• " 'All are Equal Before God' — Rights of Humanity and a Right of the Aggressor"
  A Catholic Citizen in America (August 24, 2014)
  Particularly
  • Unhappy About Change
  • Terrorism and Options
  • Stopping an Unjust Aggressor
  • International Authority and Working With What We've Got
  • Loving Neighbors: No Matter What

Malaysia Airlines Flight MH17: This Time it's Over Land

(From Reuters, used w/o permission)
("Debris is pictured at the site of Thursday's Malaysia Airlines Boeing 777 plane crash, near the village of Grabovo in the Donetsk region July 18, 2014."
(Reuters))

The good news is that nobody, as far as I have heard, is claiming what happened to Malaysia Airlines MH17 as a glorious victory or heroic act. Remarkably, the outfits most likely to have shot another airliner out of the sky are saying 'it wasn't us.'

They may be right.

Killing nearly three hundred folks whose greatest offense seems to have been in the wrong place at the wrong time isn't good public relations. Not these days.

People, 'Important' and Otherwise

(From Valentyn Ogirenko, via Reuters, used w/o permission.)
"People light candles at the Dutch embassy for victims of Malaysia Airlines MH17, which crashed in eastern Ukraine, in Kiev July 17, 2014"
(Reuters))

More than half of the folks killed yesterday lived in the Netherlands. That's no surprise, since they were traveling from Amsterdam to Kuala Lumpur.

At least one body went through someone's roof, but happily nobody on the ground was killed: as far as I have heard. Folks working for Malaysia Airlines and the various governments involved are probably still trying to sort out who was actually on the flight. So far, it looks like folks from 11 countries won't be going home. Not alive, anyway:

• Dutch: 189
• Malaysian: 44
  • Including 15 crew, 2 infants)
• Australian: 27
• Indonesian: 12
  • Including 1 infant
• United Kingdom: 9
• Belgium: 4
• Germany: 4
• Philippines: 3
• New Zealand: 1
• Canadian: 1
• American: 1
  (Zachary Stieber, Epoch Times (July 17, 2014))

News coverage, understandably, concentrates on what folks with titles are saying: and on the "important" folks who stopped living yesterday. I found one news service that gave a list of the folks who have been tentatively identified as being on MH17. Instead of breaking out the names by country, as they did, I've put the names in alphabetical order, by 'first name.' The article didn't give names for some of the children:

• Ahmad Hakimi Bin Hanapi
• Albert Rizk
• Ali Md Salim
• Andrei Anghel
• Angeline Premila Rajandaran
• Azrina Binti Yakob
• Ben Pocock
• Bujanto Gunawan
• Cameron Dalziel
• Chong Yee Pheng
• Darryl Dwight Gunawan
• Dora Shamila Binti Kassim
• Elaine Teoh
• Emiel Mahler
• Eugene Choo Jin Leong
• Frankie Davison
• Glenn Thomas
• Hamfazlin Sham Binti Mohamed Arifin
• Irene Gunawan
• Jill Guard
• Joep Lange
• John Alder
• Jolette Nuesink
• Karlijn Keijzer
• Lee Hui Pin
• Liam Davison
• Liam Sweeney
• Liliane Derden
• Lucie van Mens
• Maree Rizk
• Martine de Schutter
• Mastura Binti Mustafa
• Mohd Ghafar Bin Abu Bakar
• Muhamad Firdaus Bin Abdul Rahim
• Nick Norris
  • Grandchild Evie
  • Grandchild Mo
  • Grandchild Otis
• Peter Nuesink
  • Nuesink child
  • Nuesink child
• Pim de Kuijer
• Puan Sri Siti Amirah
• Quinn Lucas Schansman
• Richard Mayne
• Roger Guard
• Sanjid Singh Sandhu
• Shaikh Mohd Noor Bin Mahmood
• Shazana Salleh
• Sherryl Shania Gunawa
• Sister Philomene Tiernan
• Wan Amran Bin Wan Hussin
• Willem Witteveen
  (Zachary Stieber, Epoch Times (July 17, 2014))

By any reasonable standard, this is a very sad situation for many families.

Now, some 'big picture' stuff.

World Leaders, Families, and Today's World

"World leaders demand answers after airliner downed over Ukraine with 298 dead"
Anton Zverev, Reuters (July 18, 2014)

"U.S. President Barack Obama demanded Russia stop supporting separatists in eastern Ukraine after the downing of a Malaysian airline by a surface-to-air missile he said was fired from rebel territory raised the prospect of more sanctions on Moscow.

"At least one American was among the almost 300 killed, he said, a revelation that raises the stakes in a pivotal incident in deteriorating relations between Russia and the West....

"...But, noting the global impact of the crash, with victims from 11 countries across four continents, he said the stakes were high for Europe, a clear call for it to follow the more robust sanctions on Russia already imposed by Washington.

"Russia, whom Obama said was letting the rebels bring in weapons, has expressed anger at implications it was to blame, saying people should not prejudge the outcome of the inquiry.

"There were no survivors from the Malaysia Airlines flight MH17 from Amsterdam to Kuala Lumpur, a Boeing 777. The United Nations said 80 of the 298 aboard were children. The deadliest attack on a commercial airliner, it scattered bodies over miles of rebel-held territory near the border with Russia...."

As far as I can tell: some folks in Ukraine who were doing well in their 'good old days' want to get back in power; at least some Russian leaders want Ukraine back in Russian hands; and quite a few Ukrainians want to run their own country.

I'm inclined to sympathize with my counterparts in Ukraine: 'unimportant' folks who want to raise their families; vote in elections that aren't rigged; and live without having their 'betters' deciding what they should buy, and who they should deal with.

The situation in Ukraine is not simple. Folks have been living there for nearly three dozen millennia. About a thousand years back, from the time of Володимѣръ Свѧтославичь to Ярослав Мудрий's death, descendants of the Væringjar ruled the most powerful state in Europe. Things went downhill after that, and that's another topic.

The point is that, after tens of thousands of years: Ukraine has a rich cultural, economic, political, and religious heritage: and no shortage of soreheads, in which respect they resemble people everywhere.

There's a lively blame game going on, but all I can be sure of today is that nearly three hundred people are dead.

I think it's possible, perhaps even likely, that this massive tragedy was an accident of sorts. Some trigger-happy fool or paranoid field commander may have mistaken the airliner for something else: a guided missile, flock of birds, whatever.

I don't know what happened. Ukrainians may lose their country — again. And a whole lot of families are mourning.

I do know that this isn't the world I grew up in. In some ways, it's better. We still have petty tyrants, clueless leaders, a scattering of wise people, and the usual assortment of oddballs. But I think many folks have realized that John Donne was right: we're all connected, part of humanity.

The Other Malaysia Airlines Disaster

(From BBC News, used w/o permission.)

"Missing Malaysia plane: What we know"
BBC News (June 26, 2014)

"Mystery continues to surround the fate of Malaysia Airlines flight MH370, which disappeared en route from Kuala Lumpur to Beijing on 8 March.
"Investigators have identified a new search area 1,800km (1,100 miles) off the west coast of Australia, covering an area of some 60,000 sq km.

"The latest zone is some 1,000km south west of the area which was extensively searched with underwater surveying equipment in April.

"Work will resume in August and take up to a year to complete.

"Malaysian authorities, assisted by international aviation and satellite experts, are continuing their attempts to piece together the plane's final hours and explain what happened to its 239 passengers and crew. Some preliminary details were released on 1 May in a short report...."

Today's information technology isn't universally loved, putting it mildly. Some folks I know complain about social media: in, ironically, social media. I like living in the Information Age, because today's tech helps me find nuggets of wisdom in the mountains of gibberish.

Folks can still get 'lost without a trace,' but many aircraft now 'talk' to satellites and ground stations: independently of the human pilots: giving technophobes something to fear, and searchers something to work with.

These "handshakes" give searchers more information about Malaysia Airlines flight MH370 than they'd have had in my 'good old days.'

That globe, from BBC News, shows several "handshakes." The last full handshake happened at 08:11. (0:11 GMT) An event recorded a few minutes later, at 8:19, may have been a partial handshake: a request from the aircraft to log on. That request may have happened while the airliner's communications system was rebooting.

Eventually, airlines and global traffic control systems may keep lines of communications open throughout a flight: giving an airliner's avionics a chance to ask for help, if something happens to the humans on board. And that's another topic.

Related posts:

• "Malaysia Airlines Flight MH370: Questions; Speculation; and a Few Facts"
  (March 16, 2014)
• "Ukraine in a Changing World"
  (February 27, 2014)
• "TWA Flight 800, Assumptions, and Facts"
  (June 20, 2013)
• "Kiev Police: When Crowd Control Goes Horribly Wrong"
  (December 1, 2013)
• "Dozens Dead at Domodedovo - Observations and Opinions"
  (January 25, 2011)

In the news:

• "Malaysia Airlines MH17 Victims List, Including Roger Guard, Sanjid Singh, Tomas Allard, Nick Norris [Updated]"
  Zachary Stieber, Epoch Times (July 17, 2014)
• "World leaders demand answers after airliner downed over Ukraine with 298 dead"
  Anton Zverev, Reuters (July 18, 2014)
• "Missing Malaysia plane: What we know"
  BBC News (June 26, 2014)

"Displaced Aggression:" Terrorism, Culture, and Assumptions

This isn't, as I've said before, a "political" blog.

I don't claim that a particular party or person is always right, or wrong; or believe that major problems are always the result of commie plots, capitalistic greed, or what the 'other' party is doing.

That doesn't make me "moderate." I have a well-defined point of view, and definite opinions. I try to limit my opinions to matters where I have at least some data to work with.

Looking for Reasons

I've run into folks who don't seem to have any doubts about why terrorism is a problem. Depending on who you ask, it's the fault of Muslims, American imperialism, news media, religion in general, or not having the 'right' party in Congress. That's overly-simplified, of course, and doesn't include all possibilities.

I don't think it's quite that simple. Anything having to do with human beings isn't, generally.

I do think that some Muslims are terrorists. So are some Christians, and folks with no particularly strong religious views. That doesn't mean that religion makes people want to kill other people: or that having religious beliefs keeps folks from acting badly.

Sadly, angry people seem to want reasons for being angry: other than what's actually frustrating them. Religion, national identity, economic status, and ancestry can be convenient canvases for folks desperately in need of a 'big picture' for their feelings. My opinion.

Folks who still yearn for a worker's paradise, or who sincerely believe that American corporations are responsible for the world's woes are a familiar part of America's cultural landscape. I don't think they are potential terrorists - - - but I'm getting ahead of myself.

This excerpt from a CNN talk show got me started on today's post:

FEINSTEIN

"I think there is a real displaced aggression in this very fundamentalist, jihadist, Islamic community. And that is that the west is responsible for everything that goes wrong, and that the only thing that's going to solve this is Islamic Sharia law and the concept of the caliphate.

"And I see more groups, more fundamentalists, more jihadists more determined to kill to get to where they want to get. So, it's not an isolated phenomenon. You see these groups spread a web of connections. And this includes North Africa, it includes the Middle East, it includes other areas as well."
("Feinstein: 'Terror is up worldwide'," CNN's State of the Union with Candy Crowley transcript, CNN (December 1, 2013))

"Fundamentalists:" Accurate, But - - -

I don't like Feinstein's use of "fundamentalists" in this context. I think she's right, in the strictly dictionary meaning of the word fundamentalist: but in American culture that term can also refer to any Christian group or individual.

There are Christian fundamentalists, but not all Christians in America are fundamentalists. I'm Catholic, which by some Christian fundamentalist standards means that I'm not any sort of Christian, and that's not quite another topic. I've put links to posts in this and another blog near the end of this one, which may or may not be of interest.

Wrenching myself back to Feinstein, fundamentalists, and folks who kill other folks for 'religious' reasons -

Sincere, Maybe: Justified, No

I think many, but not all, of today's terrorists are folks who really believe that God wants them to kill 'unbelievers.' Many of these terrorists insist that they're the only true Muslims around: and are more likely to kill their neighbors for being insufficiently Islamic, than go to the trouble of killing Westerners.

Folks in Europe and on this side of the Atlantic aren't safe, as deaths before, during, and after 9/11 showed. That's partly because we live in a world where travel is fairly easy: and because an increasing number of folks in America are not WASPs and WASP wannabes.

This most certainly does not mean that I think America should repeat the grotesque mistake of rounding folks up for having the 'wrong' ancestors. I think I understand why FDR signed Public Law 100-383. I also think it was a mistake that took much too long to sort out.

Making 'looking like an Arab' an acceptable excuse for detaining someone makes as much sense as rounding up all the pale people in Oklahoma City, after the bombing. The folks who blew up the Alfred Murrah building apparently had ethnic and nationalistic motives: which doesn't make having European ancestors and living in America grounds for suspicion of terrorist tendencies.

Dealing With Difference

The Ku Klux Klan isn't the social and political force it once was in America, but a burning cross still occasionally shows up on the news. I think some iterations of the KKK are a useful example of how folks can use religion as a reason for hating outsiders.

That's more an indictment of human nature, I think, than a reason to distrust all spiritual beliefs.

Here's a sampling of how different folks express their religious beliefs:


(Pillar of Fire Church, via Wikipedia, used w/o permission)
"From ''Klansmen: Guardians of Liberty'', 1926. Published by the Pillar of Fire Church in Zarephath, NJ...."


(Andrea Booher/ FEMA News Photo, via Wikipedia, used w/o permission)
"...A view of the recovery operation underway from a roof adjacent to the World Trade Center. Photo by Andrea Booher/ FEMA News Photo." (September 28, 2001)


(From "The Pope and Children" (January 6, 2003), used w/o permission)
Some Catholic, carrying out standing orders: Matthew 25:31-46.

From the Days of Abram to Cable TV and Beer in One Generation

I've had personal experience with Christians who didn't distinguish between personal preference, cultural mores, and eternal principles. Folks who sincerely believe that God ordained that folks always act like the American middle class of the 1950s are more funny than dangerous: because they're not likely to kill you.

Other folks, equally convinced that God ordained that everyone should act they way they did in some village before they had Internet and cable: they don't always have inhibitions about enforcing their beliefs with an axe or a sword.

I'm strongly inclined to believe that we're looking at cultural values here, since many Muslims in places like Malaysia seem to have little trouble fitting into a global society. I doubt that every Muslim in Malaysia thinks the Petronas Towers were a good idea: but quite a few Americans of various beliefs are grumpy, too.

I do not think that feeling bad made it okay for white supremacists to kill people in Oklahoma City, any more than I think it's okay for folks to kill Americans because they miss the 'good old days.' I do think that we need to remember that some folks sincerely believe that killing others for being different.

Terrorists, whatever their motivation, are a real threat. Forgetting that, and 'defending' America against efforts to stop terrorists, is a bad idea.

So is forgetting that disagreeing with the government is not treason, too: and I've written about that before.

Related posts:

• "Electing a Pope, Protecting Everybody's Freedom"
  A Catholic Citizen in America (March 8, 2013)
• "Hack Attack: Good News, Bad news, Security, and Freedom"
  (February 6, 2013)
• "Love, Hate, and Lady Gaga"
  A Catholic Citizen in America (May 27, 2012)
• "Marching Through Time"
  A Catholic Citizen in America (April 1, 2012)
  Particularly
  • Counter-Cultural and Loving It
  • Pigeonholes
• "Iran, Dissent, and Threats to National Security"
  (February 10, 2011)

---

¹ Excerpts from CNN's State of the Union with Candy Crowley transcript

CROWLEY
"The big question that's always asked, are we safer now than we were a year ago, two years ago? In general?"

FEINSTEIN
"I don't think so. I think terror is up worldwide, the statistics indicate that, the fatalities are way up. The numbers are way up. There are new bombs, very big bombs, trucks being reinforced for those bombs. There are bombs that go through magnatometers. The bomb maker is still alive. There are more groups that ever and there's huge malevolence out there."

CROWLEY
"So congressman, I have to say, that is not the answer I expected. I expected to hear, oh, we're safer. Do you agree?"

ROGERS
"Oh, I absolutely agree that we're not safer today for the same very reasons.

"So the pressure on our intelligence services to get it right to prevent an attack are enormous. And it's getting more difficult because we see the al Qaeda as we knew it before is metastasizing to something different, more affiliates than we've ever had before, meaning more groups that operated independently of al Qaeda have now joined al Qaeda around the world, all of them have at least some aspiration to commit an act of violence in the United States or against western targets all around the world.

"They've now switched to this notion that maybe smaller events are okay. So if you have more smaller events than bigger events, they think that might still lead to their objectives and their goals. That makes it exponentially harder for our intelligence services to stop an event like that."

...

CROWLEY
"So, one of the things that the senator said was that there is more hatred out there, more - and why is that?"

FEINSTEIN
"I think there is a real displaced aggression in this very fundamentalist, jihadist, Islamic community. And that is that the west is responsible for everything that goes wrong, and that the only thing that's going to solve this is Islamic Sharia law and the concept of the caliphate.

"And I see more groups, more fundamentalists, more jihadists more determined to kill to get to where they want to get. So, it's not an isolated phenomenon. You see these groups spread a web of connections. And this includes North Africa, it includes the Middle East, it includes other areas as well."

CROWLEY
"Lots of times we look at kind of some of these splinter groups going, yeah, but their interest is local."

ROGERS
"And here's the - but here's the concern of that. Now, remember, you have somewhere near 25 states that have some failed level of governance, meaning they can't secure large spaces of their own country. Those are always attractive for safe havens when it comes to any terrorist organization. And we're finding they're taking advantage of that.

"So you see what's happening in a place like Syria where you have a pooling of al Qaeda members and affiliates of al Qaeda in a way we've never seen before at the level of numbers that we have never seen before, and here's the scary part of this, some thousands of people showing up to participate in that in their mind jihadist effort are westerners, meaning they have western passports.

"A percentage of them have already gone home, including the United States, by the way, is included in that western number. We are very, very concerned that these folks who have western paper have gone there, participated in combat events, are trained, are further radicalized, now have the ability to go back in western countries.

"We know that those–"

...
("Feinstein: 'Terror is up worldwide'," CNN's State of the Union with Candy Crowley transcript, CNN (December 1, 2013))

Boston Marathon Bombing: Sauntering Through the News

Maybe I'd get more attention if I picked some position, and harangued endlessly about it.

Rattling on About Rosicrucians

Maybe I should post daily, warning anyone who reads this blog that the Boston Marathon bombing was engineered by the same cabal of Illuminati, Rosicrucians, and space-alien lizard men who really run the CIA and NBC, control our brains with radio waves from cell phone towers, and are responsible for annoying television commercials.

Somebody might believe that tripe, though, and I don't want to be responsible for increasing the world's nuttiness.

On the other hand, maybe I'm really a shape-shifting lizard man: and have hypnotized myself into believing that I'm human.

No, I don't think so.

News and Routine

There's been something in the news more-or-less daily since the Boston Marathon bombing: mostly the routine sort of stuff that news services do when there isn't a significant change to report.

That's about what I expected, since American law enforcement usually takes investigations of serious crimes in a frustratingly methodical, rational way.

There are exceptions, of course, like the infamous Steven Hatfill and Richard Jewel fiascoes. (February 15, 2011)

Students and Life Lessons

It's likely that at least one of the three college students arrested this week got a terrible shock:

"Boston bombings: Suspect's classmates appear in court"
BBC News (May 1, 2013)

"Three college classmates of the Boston bombings suspect have appeared in court, accused of hindering the police investigation into the attacks.

"Azamat Tazhayakov and Dias Kadyrbayev - both from Kazakhstan - threw away Dzhokhar Tsarnaev's laptop and backpack, police say.

"Robel Phillipos is accused of lying to investigators. None of the three are implicated in plotting the attacks...."

Maybe all three knew that they were helping terrorists. Maybe not. The young men from Kazakhstan are 19. That's 'old enough to know better,' but young enough to lack the common sense some of us eventually acquire.

I've never attended college in a foreign country, but can imagine that if had, and a buddy of mine asked me to throw a backpack and laptop away I might agree. Maybe not after I saw what was inside the backpack: but I'm nowhere near as nice and trusting a chap as some.

I won't rant about how America should drive all 'foreigners' out and not let anyone in. That, in my considered opinion, would be silly, wrong, and downright self-destructive. I'll grant that I'm a bit biased. All my ancestors were 'foreigners' here not too long ago.

Russia and Secrets

Maybe Russian security officials had a good reason for not telling their American counterparts about a potential terrorist.

Maybe they were simply being the sort of bureaucratic nitwits that add fuel, knowingly or not, to weird conspiracy theories.

Or maybe the FBI is on the verge of uncovering a conspiracy of space aliens and immortal brush salesmen, disguised as Russian officials. No, I don't think so.

"No evidence Boston bomber radicalized before first FBI interview, sources say"
Catherine Herridge, FoxNews.com (April 30, 2013)

"Investigators have found no evidence -- so far -- that Boston bomber Tamerlan Tsarnaev was radicalized before the FBI interviewed him in spring 2011, two sources tell Fox News.

"The FBI investigation ran from March through June 2011 after the bureau was contacted by the Russian Security Services, which said Tsarnaev and his mother were followers of radical Islam.

"The two sources, one within the intelligence community and the other a congressional source, both of whom would not discuss the investigation on the record, emphasized that the U.S. went back to the Russian authorities three times seeking more detail on the elder Tsarnaev brother, but it was only within the last week that Russia's wiretap evidence was presented to U.S. authorities.

"When Tsarnaev from his six months in Russia, in July 2012, the following month he established his own YouTube channel with links to known Islamist groups, including the Caucasus Emirate. According to the two sources, no evidence has been found that Tsarnaev 'created his own media, including video recordings,' which is seen by the intelligence community as an indicator or marker of radicalization...."

What this news item seems to indicate is that American law enforcement is acting the way they usually do: and so, sadly, are their Russian counterparts. (February 19, 2010)

In the news:

• "Boston bombings: Suspect's classmates appear in court"
  BBC News (May 1, 2013)
• "No evidence Boston bomber radicalized before first FBI interview, sources say"
  Catherine Herridge, FoxNews.com (April 30, 2013)

Related posts:

• Judgment: good and otherwise
  • "Snap Judgment and Ricin"
    (April 23, 2013)
  • "Boston Marathon Bombing: Sincerity isn't Truth "
    (April 20, 2013)
  • "Boston Marathon Bombs"
    (April 15, 2013)
  • "Who Needs Facts? Cultural Assumptions and Politics"
    (July 24, 2009)
  • "Anthrax Letters: Dotting the 'I's, Crossing the 'T's"
    (September 17, 2008)
  • "Cool Heads, Lukewarm Brains, And Dr. Haneef"
    (July 30, 2007)
• Living in a big world
  • "Still Coming to America"
    A Catholic Citizen in America (April 28, 2013)
  • "Egypt, America: Change, Freedom, and Other Threats to the Status Quo"
    (November 23, 2012)
  • "Remembering September 11, 2001; and Looking Ahead"
    (September 11, 2012)
  • "Guinea, Military Rule, and Terrorism: Beware Hasty Judgment"
    (December 29, 2008)
  • "Two Cultures: Two Responses"
    (October 21, 2007)

Boston Marathon Bombs

Happily, it looks like only a few folks got killed when two bombs went off near the finish of the Boston Marathon today. That's a tragic situation. I'm not at all pleased about those deaths, the dozens who were injured, and those whose injuries may be permanent or fatal.

But it could have been much worse.

I'm not looking forward to the all-but-inevitable 'this is the fault of [insert favorite bogeyman]' pronouncements.


(FoxNews.com, used w/o permission)
"Multiple casualties reported after two explosions at Boston Marathon" (FoxNews.com)

I plan to keep following news: particularly after the dust settles, literally and metaphorically, and some facts start emerging.

Related posts:

• "An Act of Terrorism in Colorado, Sort of"
  (April 27, 2011)
• "New York City's Time Square: A Bomb, a Vietnam Vet, Electricity, and Congress"
  (May 2, 2010)
• "Who Needs Facts? Cultural Assumptions and Politics"
  (July 24, 2009)
• "Anthrax Letters: Dotting the 'I's, Crossing the 'T's"
  (September 17, 2008)
• "Cool Heads, Lukewarm Brains, And Dr. Haneef"
  (July 30, 2007)

In the news:

• "At least 2 dead, dozens injured after two bombs explode at Boston Marathon"
  The Associated Press, FoxNews.com (April 15, 2013)
• "Boston Marathon hit by explosions"
  BBC News (April15, 2013, 4:46 p.m. EDT)
• "Two blasts hit Boston Marathon finish line, at least two killed"
  Scott Malone, Tim McLaughlin, Reuters (April 15, 2013, 4:59 p.m. EDT)

Algeria, the Amenas Gas Facility, and Harsh Realities

Quite a few folks stopped living rather abruptly in Algeria a few hours ago. Some of them were hostages, killed by their captors. Others were the killers.

I'm not happy about that. It's a tragic situation. But I'm not surprised, either.

People: Nice and Otherwise

I think that most folks are decent enough people, who want to raise their families, earn a living, and live with some degree of security. They're no more likely to take over an industrial facility and kill hostages than I am.

On the other hand, some folks simply aren't nice. They don't behave well, even if they're asked politely. When they behave badly for personal reasons, we often call them criminals. When their motives are more ideological, news media tends to call them "militants." Another term is "terrorist." Either way, they're - - - simply not nice.

There have been relatively tranquil eras. This isn't one of them: Particularly for a place folks have been calling Algeria recently.

North Africa: Background

Folks have been living in that part of north Africa for upwards of 1,800,000 years, but our records start much more recently: around the time that king Gala had ties with Cathage, and king Syphax sided with Rome. You hardly ever hear about Massylii and Masaesyli these days, and that's another topic.

Carthage, Chlodowech, and All That

Roughly two millennia after the Carthage-Rome wars, Chlodowech's successors invaded and held this territory. By that time Chlodowech's Franks had taken over a good-sized chunk of Europe: what we call France: and that isn't quite another topic.

Recent Centuries

About two centuries ago, France took parts of north Africa from the Dey of Algiers, who ran part of the Barbary States, which was a sort of client of the Ottoman Empire - a whole lot more topics.

France lost control of Algeria about a half-century back. These days, Algeria's called (الجمهورية الجزائرية الديمقراطية الشعبي, or Al Jumhuriyah al Jaza'iriyah ad Dimuqratiyah ash Sha'biyah, or the People's Democratic Republic of Algeria. I'll stick with "Algeria" for the rest of this post.

Folks in Algeria, along with just about everyone else in that part of the world, have had their hands full: sorting out the mess left from centuries of colonial rule and the Versailles treaty. More topics.

The Last Few Hours

(FoxNews.com, used w/o permission)

A few hours ago, Algerian troops attacked forces holding hostages at the Amenas gas facility. The 'militants' killed their remaining hostages before being killed by Algerian troops.¹

Ideally, Algeria's President President Abdelaziz Bouteflika would have politely asked the militants to please let their hostages go: after which Mokhtar Belmokhtar and company would have released them. After, of course, resolving whatever misunderstanding had prompted the raid in the first place.

Crime, Death, and Other Unpleasantness

We don't live in an ideal world, and that's not how things work.

The United States government tried acting as if taking hostages, blowing up airliners, and similar activities, were crimes: the sort of thing we generally let the police force and social workers deal with.

I think the deaths of assorted athletes, tourists, diplomats, and travelers, helped America's leadership decide that their 'let the police handle it' attitude wasn't working. (January 22, 2010; August 5, 2007)

Eventually, America's policy became 'we will never negotiate with terrorists.' As I recall, this happened during the Reagan administration. What we're supposed to remember about that president is Oliver North, so maybe it was somebody else. Or, not.

"Never" and a Grain or Two of Salt

Particularly where national policy is concerned, I take terms like "never" with the proverbial grain of salt. Anything involving human beings is going to get very complicated, very fast, and "never" is a fairly simple idea.

Even so, I think the basic idea is sound. Folks who run outfits like Al Qaeda are very unlikely to change their minds about killing anyone who doesn't agree with them. Given the circumstances, I don't think it makes sense to "negotiate" with them in hopes that they'll start behaving nicely.

It's fairly easy for me to have that opinion, since I don't know anyone who died as a result of what those "militants" did in Algeria. If I did - well, that's a hypothetical situation: one which I hope I never face.

I gather that this particular run-in with "militants" was handled by the Algerian government. Even so, a spokeswoman for the American State Department repeated what's been this country's policy for a few decades: "The United States does not negotiate with terrorists." (FoxNews.com)

Harsh as it may seem, I think it's still a good idea.

More:

• "Algeria"
  CIA World Factbook (page last updated January 14, 2013)
  
• "France"
  Wikipedia
• "French Algeria"
  Wikipedia
• "History of Algeria"
  Wikipedia
• "Numidia"
  Wikipedia

Related posts:

• "Algiers in the News: The War on Terror is Global"
  (June 24, 2008)
• "American Government Intercepts, Reads Private Correspondence!"
  (October 5, 2007)
• "January 22, 2010 Arkansas Recruiting Center Shooting, the Right to Remain Silent, and War"
  (January 22, 2010)
  Particularly
  • If We're Nice, Won't They be Nice, Too?
• "Cyber-Attacks 'No More Harmful than Spam' - So Far"
  (July 11, 2009)
  Particularly
  • It's a Crime
• "The Subway Project and 'Why Islam?' - Terrorists in the Subways! Or, Not"
  (July 23, 2008)
  Particularly
  • With Friends Like This - - -
  • People, Please! Check Your Facts!

---

¹Excerpts from today's news:

"Algeria crisis: 'Captors and hostages die in assault' "
BBC News (January 19, 2013)
"Algerian troops have ended a siege at a gas facility in the Sahara desert killing 11 Islamist militants after they killed seven hostages, Algerian state news agency APS has said.
"The hostages were summarily killed as the troops tried to free them, it said.

"Foreign workers were among the hostages, but the nationalities of the dead are not known.

"UK Defence Secretary Philip Hammond confirmed the crisis was over and that lives had been lost.

"At a joint news conference with his US counterpart Leon Panetta, Mr Hammond said the loss of life was 'appalling and unacceptable and we must be clear that it is the terrorists who bear sole responsibility for it'.

"Britain was pressing Algeria for further details, he added.

"Mr Hammond said the kidnappers' leaders would be 'held to account for their actions'.

" 'The full force of the UK and US and other allied countries will bear down upon them,' he said.

"The militants had been involved in a stand-off since Thursday after trying to occupy the remote site.

"Clearing mines

"On Friday, 573 Algerians and about 100 of 132 foreigners working at the plant were freed, Algerian officials said...."

---

"One American dead in hostage siege in Algeria"
FoxNews.com (January 19, 2013)

"Algerian authorities gave no indication of how many people were still captive at natural gas complex in Algeria the day after an American worker was found dead at the plant and the U.S. sought to secure the release of Americans still being held by Al Qaeda-linked terrorists.

"Frederick Buttaccio, a Texas resident, died of a heart attack during a raid by the Algerian military to end the standoff, Fox News confirmed Friday. The general manager of the complex, Mark Cobb, also of Texas, was able to escape with members of his Algerian staff and is safe....

"...It was not immediately clear whether Buttaccio was the only American killed in the hostage standoff....

"...Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton said she spoke by telephone with Algerian Prime Minister Abdelmalek Sellal to get an update on Americans and others in danger at the sprawling Ain Amenas refinery 800 miles south of Algiers. She said the 'utmost care must be taken to preserve innocent life.'...

"...Clinton talked to reporters after the Obama administration confirmed that Americans were still being held hostage, even as some U.S. citizens were being flown out of the country for recovery in Europe. The Algerian state news agency reported that 12 hostages had been killed since Wednesday's start of an Algerian rescue operation, and world leaders steadily increased their criticism of the North African country's handling of the attack....

"...Clinton, however, defended Algeria's action. 'Let's not forget: This is an act of terror,' she told reporters in Washington. 'The perpetrators are the terrorists. They are the ones who have assaulted this facility, have taken hostage Algerians and others from around the world as they were going about their daily business.'...

"...Still, the U.S. flatly rejected an offer by the militants -- led by a Mali-based al-Qaida offshoot known as the Masked Brigade -- to free two American hostages in exchange for the release of Omar Abdel Rahman, a blind sheikh convicted of plotting to blow up New York City landmarks and considered the spiritual leader of the 1993 World Trade Center bombing, and Aafia Siddiqui, a Pakistani scientist convicted of shooting at two U.S. soldiers in Afghanistan. Both are jailed in the United States.

" 'The United States does not negotiate with terrorists,' State Department spokeswoman Victoria Nuland said...."

Dead Americans Returned from Libya, Bomb Threats at Home: 'Same Old, Same Old'

'Yankee go home' has been replaced by 'the great Satan America,' but other than that I tend to see what's been happening overseas as more of the 'same old, same old.'

In Libya, four Americans were killed on Tuesday. I rather hope that someone's going to figure our why embassy security was, ah, modified:

"...sources have told the BBC that on the advice of a US diplomatic regional security officer, the mission in Benghazi was not given the full contract despite lobbying by private contractors.

"Instead, the US consulate was guarded externally by a force of local Libyan militia, many of whom reportedly put down their weapons and fled once the mission came under concerted attack...."
(BBC News)

Some details of what happened during that attack are public knowledge: but not why the attack happened, or who planned it. Much as I'd like to know exactly what Libyan and American officials know and guess about the attack, I think they're acting sensibly.

Blurting out sensitive information, or off-the-cuff exclamations make for exciting news: but I don't think it would be good for most Libyans or Americans at this point. What we do know is more tantalizing than enlightening:

"...Four people have been arrested in connection with the attack that left Stevens and the three other Americans dead, the top aide to the president of the Libyan parliament said Friday.

"Those arrested were not directly tied to the attack, Monem Elyasser, the chief aide to Prime Minister Mustafa Abushagur, told CNN by telephone.

"Elyasser did not release the identities of the four suspects in custody, nor did he detail the allegations against them.

"The announcement came as the United States is struggling to determine whether a militant group planned the attack that killed the four Americans...."
(CNN)

Meanwhile, quite a few folks in other parts of the Middle East are expressing the usual anti-American sentiment. I'm pretty sure that this does not 'prove' that:

• Everything is the fault of
  • America
  • The Jews
  • Islam
  • Democrats
  • Republicans
• America should
  • Pretend the rest of the world doesn't exist
  • Bomb Libya
  • Arrest all Muslims
  • Apologize for offending someone

Meanwhile, bomb threats affected routines at some American universities: including one of my Alma Maters, NDSU. Those threats resulted in no explosions, but quite a few questions.

I have no idea who made the bomb threats: but I'm not terribly surprised that they happened. We just passed the September 11 anniversary, and some major issues are at stake in the coming November election. Threatening to kill college students isn't a reasonable response to America's domestic situation: and that's another topic.

Somewhat-related posts:

• "Remembering September 11, 2001; and Looking Ahead"
  (September 11, 2012)
• "Tolerance, Change, America, and the World"
  (March 22, 2012)
• "Bombs, Berserk Vendors, and Getting a Grip"
  (January 20, 2012)
• "A Blast, Bullets, Bodies, Norway, and Getting a Grip"
  (July 22, 2011)
• "Religious Freedom, Niemöller, and Muslims in America"
  A Catholic Citizen in America (April 7, 2011)

In the news:

• "Texas, North Dakota universities re-opened after bomb scares"
  Corrie MacLaggan, Reuters (September 14, 2012)
• "Remains of consulate attack victims returned, as Marines arrive in Yemen amid more protests"
  FoxNews.com (September 14, 2012)
• "Bodies of 4 Americans killed in Libya returned to U.S."
  CNN (September 14, 2012)
• "US consulate in Benghazi 'did not have enough security' "
  Frank Gardner, BBC News Middle East (September 14, 2012)

Air France 447: Part of a Black (Orange, Really) Box Found

My guess is that Air France Flight 447 (June, 2009, Rio de Janeiro to Paris) crashed in the Atlantic because of a combination of storm, regrettable judgment, and possibly equipment failure.

Not that there's much evidence to go on at this point.

So far, searchers have found a little wreckage, a few bodies and - yesterday - part of one of the 'black boxes.' Which are actually orange.

My considered opinion is still what it was, almost two years ago:

"...I don't think that terrorists brought down AF 447.

"I don't think that terrorists didn't bring down AF 447.

"I do think that officials investigating the incident don't seem to know what happened, yet...."
(June 10, 2009)

The Good News is What's Not in the News

There may be a sensational story being run in the news somewhere, about Air France Flight 447 and terrorists: or AF 447 and space aliens; or some other so-far-unsupported speculation.

I think it's more likely that terrorists might be involved in what happened to AF 447, than the 'space alien' idea - but that a more prosaic explanation is much more likely.

Hats off to news media, for not fueling sales and viewership by touting tentative terrorists.

That's not because I don't think terrorists of some sort would want to kill everybody on an airliner - that's a 'been there, done that' situation for everybody except the true believers who think the CIA blew up New York City's World Trade Center. And that's almost another topic.

Apart from names on the passenger list matching names on a terror list, there's no evidence that a deliberate act brought Air France 447 down.

I'd be more impressed by those matching names, if I hadn't been list manager for a small business for a decade - a remarkable number of names are not unique to one individual. Which is why America's used Social Security Numbers for so long - and that's yet another topic.

Bottom line? I'm much more hopeful now, than I was a month ago, that we might learn just what happened to AF 447.

Here's an excerpt of what got me started on this post:

"Search teams have found a part of the crucial 'data recorders' of the Air France flight which crashed into the Atlantic Ocean in 2009, says France's Bureau of Investigation and Analysis (BEA).

"The orange-colored recorder 'chassis' was found on Wednesday during the second day of an operation which also hopes to retrieve bodies from the wreckage site.

"All 228 people aboard the Airbus A330 Flight 447 from Rio de Janeiro to Paris were killed.

"The find - which comes more than three weeks after search teams found the tail section of the aircraft -- does not include the 'memory unit' which holds the recorded data that could eventually help investigators determine the cause of the crash.

"Martine Del Bono, a spokeswoman for the Paris-based BEA says there is a good chance the memory unit, which records any instructions sent to the aircraft's electronic systems, will still hold retrievable data....

"...Steve Saint Amour, director of commercial operations, Phoenix International, offered the BEA use of a remote-controlled submarine known as the Remora 6000.

Each round trip for the Remora takes some 14 to 16 hours says Del Bono, taking over two hours to descend to the wreck site, estimated to lie at a depth of between 2,000 to 4,000 meters (6,562 to 13,124 feet)...."
(CNN)

Related posts:

• "Air France Flight 447 Wreckage Found: My Take"
  (April 4, 2011)
• "Air France Flight 447 Investigators Find Terror List Names: Suggestive, But Far From Proof"
  (June 10, 2009)

In the news:

• "Air France crash 'flight recorder' part found"
  Thair Shaikh, CNN (April 28, 2011)

An Act of Terrorism in Colorado, Sort of

A homemade explosive device was found and dealt with at a Colorado shopping mall earlier this month. It looks like prosecutors are going to call the crime an act of terrorism. I figure they know what they're doing - but I also think that this may not be the sort of ideologically-motivated terrorism we're used to.

Reviewing the last week or two in the news:

"A man suspected in an attempted bombing at a Denver-area shopping mall was arrested in nearby Boulder on Tuesday.

"Earl Albert Moore, 65, a former convict with an extensive criminal record, was captured at a grocery store six days after authorities found a pipe bomb and two propane tanks while extinguishing a small fire in the food court at the Southwest Plaza mall in Littleton...."
(April 27, 2011, Los Angeles Times)

---

"...Moore, who is considered dangerous, was released from federal prison April 13 after serving time for his conviction in the May 2005 robbery of a West Virginia bank, according to the U.S. Bureau of Prisons. Federal court records show that Moore pleaded guilty to robbing the bank in Crab Orchard, W.Va., of $2,546.

"A judge sentenced Moore to between 15 and 19 years in prison, but a federal appeals court in 2006 ruled his stiff sentence was 'unreasonable' and Moore's sentence was reduced to seven years...."
(April 25, 2011, FoxNews.com)

---

"...Federal law enforcement officials have called the planned mall bombing an act of 'domestic terrorism.'..."
(April 25, 2011, Fox 31 (Denver))

---

"A busy shopping mall near Columbine High School was evacuated on Wednesday after authorities responding to a small fire at the retail complex found two propane tanks and a pipe bomb, officials said.

"Twelve years to the day after two Columbine High School students shot dead a teacher, 12 students and themselves on April 20, 1999, the devices were discovered at Southwest Plaza Mall, about a mile from Columbine...."
(April 21, 2011, Reuters)

Nobody Got Hurt - This Time

I'm sincerely glad that Earl Albert Moore, who apparently planted that bomb, has been caught. I'm also sincerely glad that nobody got hurt or killed. And I hope - very sincerely - that the American judicial system will decide to restrain Mr. Moore for a very, very long time.

Assuming that he actually did plant the bomb - and DNA evidence points that way (CBS News) - I don't think it's particularly safe to let Mr. Moore run around loose.

So, does this prove that:

1. Retirement-age men are terrorists?
2. Shopping malls encourage terrorism?
   • And therefore should be banned?
3. American judges are nitwits?

No, across the board.

On the other hand, all three points are (slightly) true.

#1 Retirement-age men are terrorists?

No, not all men in their mid-60s are plotting to kill people. On the other hand, it doesn't look like all terrorists are poverty-stricken teenagers and twenty-somethings. Osama bin Laden is a case in point.

#2 Shopping malls encourage terrorism?

In a way, the folks who say that New York City was asking for it, having a World Trade Center, have a point. America is a large, prosperous country: one which folks are trying to break into, not the other way around. That makes the high-profile examples of our economy and society prime targets for folks who can't stand the thought of anybody not in lockstep conformity with some impractical set of preferences.

That doesn't mean that I think America is the cause of all the world's ills. I've gone over this sort of thing before:

• "Genocide! Racism! Down With Columbus Day!!"
  (April 8, 2009)

#3 American judges are nitwits?

Let's remember that it was an American court that sentenced Mr. Moore to "between 15 and 19 years in prison." And some dude in a federal appeals court who made the April 20, 2011, attempted bombing possible.

Not all American judges are nitwits, in my opinion. But some are: again, in my opinion. I think a more charitable explanation might be that many of America's judges honestly, sincerely, believe in an ideology that looks good on paper - but has very little applicability in the real world. And that's another topic.

I do think it's interesting that Mr. Moore had been out of prison for one week, when he apparently tried to kill people at that Colorado Mall. His release date, as given in the news, was April 13 ,2011. The attempted bombing happened on April 20, 2011.

Terrorism and Having a Mean Streak

I haven't run into speculation about why Mr. Moore may have planted that bomb.

It might, maybe, have been because he rejects the capitalistic warmonger policies of the white male authoritarian power structure in Amerika. I doubt that very much: but it is, based on what little I've read, possible.

Maybe Mr. Moore liked it in prison, and wants to go back. Again, it's possible. Likely? I don't know.

Or maybe Mr. Moore simply doesn't like people who didn't rob banks and get sent to prison. From some points of view, it isn't 'fair' that all those folks in the mall were free when he was in prison.

Or maybe Mr. Moore was bored, and wanted something to do that day. That, I think, is quite unlikely.

What to do With Folks Like Mr. Moore

Quite a few folks say that anybody who robs a bank, or kills someone, or commits a serious crime, should be killed. From an emotional point of view, I think I understand that desire. I also think that 'feeling like killing someone' isn't a good reason for killing someone.

I also think that America is a very wealthy country. Folks who can spend what we do on Super Bowl advertising can afford, I think, to restrain the Mr. Moores among us.

Finally, I - do - not - trust - the American judiciary to make life-and-death decisions. When the United States Supreme Court can raise someone from the dead - maybe I'll change my mind.

I've discussed capital punishment (and thinking with one's endocrine system), mostly in another blog:

• "Illinois Judges Lose Their License to Kill"
  A Catholic Citizen in America (March 11, 2011)
• "Killing the Boss's Flunky, Life Issues, and the Vatican"
  A Catholic Citizen in America (October 27, 2010)
• "Emotions, the Frontal Cortex, The War on Terror, Anarchists, and the Illuminati"
  (December 23, 2008)

Somewhat-related posts:

• "American Terrorists and Getting a Grip"
  (February 10, 2011)
• "Terrorists, America, and Generalizations"
  (July 28, 2009)
• "Right-Wing Extremists Really Are Terrorists, Sometimes"
  (June 6, 2009)
• "Department of Homeland Security No Longer Fears American Veterans?"
  (May 14, 2009)
• "Fear of Right-Wing Extremism: Commie-Hunting in Reverse"
  A Catholic Citizen in America (April 19, 2009)

In the news:

• "DNA evidence led to Colorado mall bomb suspect"
  CBS News (April 27, 2011)
• "Police arrest suspect in bombing attempt at Colorado mall"
  Stephen Ceasar, Los Angeles Times (April 26, 2011)
• "Nationwide Manhunt Under Way for Suspect in Colorado Mall Bombing Attempt"
  FoxNews.com (April 25, 2011)
• "Southwest Plaza mall bombing suspect still at-large"
  Fox 31 (Denver) (April 25, 2011)
• "Homemade bomb found at mall near Columbine high"
  Keith Coffman, Edition: U.S., Reuters (April 21, 2011)

Air France Flight 447 Wreckage Found: My Take

When an airliner disappears, and nearby pilots report a bright flash, I think there's a tendency these days to assume that terrorists blew up the plane. Particularly when the names of people linked to terrorism are on the passenger list.

It's 'obvious.' Provided that a writer weaves a tale focusing on terrorism, the names, and that bright flash.

I think the reported flash isn't quite so conclusive, since there were thunderstorms in the area, as well as the missing airliner.

This post is a followup on Air France Flight 447, that disappeared over the Atlantic in 2009.

What's left of the Airbus was found - fairly intact - as well as quite a few bodies. It looks like the airliner was in one piece, and pressurized, when it hit the water:

"Search finds bodies 2 years after mystery crash"
Niki Cook, CNN World (April 4, 2011)

"Nearly two years after an Air France plane mysteriously fell out of the sky, killing 228 people, the bulk of the wreckage has been found with bodies still aboard, French officials said Monday.

"The human remains will be brought to the surface and identified, French Ecology and Transportation Minister Nathalie Kosciusko-Morizet said at a news conference.

"Submarines searching for the wreck spotted two engines, the fuselage and landing gear over the weekend, officials said.

"But the flight data recorders have not been recovered, leaving investigators as puzzled as ever about why the plane crashed in stormy weather on June 1, 2009....

"...'The fact that we found various pieces, a lot of pieces of the plane in a quite concentrated area is a good hope for finding the black boxes, but we have no assurance,' she [Kosciusko-Morizet] said.

"It is impossible to tell how many bodies remain in the wreck, he [soon-to-be head of the recovery operation Alain Bouillard] added. Fifty bodies were recovered in previous searches, leaving 178 victims still missing....

"...The debris is dispersed over "quite a compact area" of about 600 meters by 200 meters (1,960 feet by about 650 feet), he said.

"All the wreckage will be brought to the surface and sent to France for study, said Jean-Paul Troadec, head of the French air accident investigation agency, the Bureau d'Enquêtes et d'Analyses, or BEA....

"...Studies of the debris and bodies found after the crash led the BEA to conclude the plane hit the water belly first, essentially intact. Oxygen masks were not deployed, indicating that the cabin did not depressurize, the agency said in a 2009 report.

"Automated messages sent from the plane in the minutes before the crash showed there were problems measuring air speed, investigators have said, though they said that alone was not enough to cause the disaster...."

A determined conspiracy theory enthusiast might find the two years it took to find the wreckage sinister. I figure it's because what's left of the airliner and people came down where the sea floor is mountainous. Also that it seems to have drifted from the surface impact point.

Today's news hasn't changed my opinion about what, exactly, caused Air France Flight 447 to come down in the Atlantic: not much, anyway.

Given the condition of the wreckage, and the conclusions that folks who make a career out of drawing sensible conclusions, I think it's now less likely that the Airbus was knocked out of the sky by terrorists. That flash could have been from a bomb on the flight - and the logical consequence of hot jet fuel sprayed into air. Now it looks like those pilots saw - no surprise - lightning in a thunderstorm.

Was it wrong for the pilots to report the flash? In my opinion, no. It was an observation they made - and one more piece of evidence for investigators to evaluate.

Was it wrong for news services to pass the pilots' report along? In my opinion, no. However, I do think that reporters - and more particularly editors - occasionally failed to put the flash in context.

Sure, it's more dramatic without the picky detail about the weather. But I'd like to see 'thorough,' as well as 'dramatic' reporting. I'd also like to see a million dollars, tax-free: and I'm not sure which I'm more likely to get.

My opinion about the cause of A. F. Flight 447's end is still - I have no opinion. There's simply not enough evidence in the public domain yet. It's like I wrote, about two years ago:

"Air France Flight 447 Investigators Find Terror List Names: Suggestive, But Far From Proof"
(June 10, 2009)

"...I might think that finding the names of terrorists on the passenger list was a strong indication of foul play, except for two things.

1. "In my ten years as a list manager for a small publishing company, I developed an appreciation for how common some names are
2. "About two years ago, an eight-year-old boy was fingered as a terrorist because his name was on a no-fly list (July 20, 2007)

"Which is why French investigators are looking into birth dates and family connections. ... There are quite a few people in America, for example, who have the same name that I do. But none of them is going to have the same birth date and relatives.

"Air France 447 - My Opinion

"I don't think that terrorists brought down AF 447.

"I don't think that terrorists didn't bring down AF 447.

"I do think that officials investigating the incident don't seem to know what happened, yet.

"I do think that there will be more assertions about what 'obviously' happened: and that the statements will reflect what the writers believe should have happened...."

I think it's one thing to 'not have an opinion' because facts point at an unwanted conclusion. When there's a lack of facts to work with - no opinion can be better than a baseless one.

More-and-less-related posts:

• "Anthrax, the FBI, and Absolute Certainty"
  (February 15, 2011)
• "Guatemala, Dr. John Cutler, Tuskegee, Nürnberg, and Learning"
  (October 2, 2010)
• "So: He Set His Shoe on Fire? Excitement on Flight 663"
  (April 7, 2010)
• "Air France Flight 447 Investigators Find Terror List Names: Suggestive, But Far From Proof"
  (June 10, 2009)
• "Cool Heads and Terrorism Investigations: It Could be Worse"
  (July 27, 2007)

In the news:

• "Search finds bodies 2 years after mystery crash"
  Niki Cook, CNN World (April 4, 2011)

Bus Stop in Jerusalem Bombed: Here We Go Again?

I don't run into hatred of Jews all that often in this country. Even so, there are a few here who seem to assume that things they don't like are 'the fault of the Jews.'

What, if anything, does this have to do with the war on terror?

I think that hatred - of the Jews, Western civilization, dogs¹, mice², and new ideas - is a big motivation for outfits like Al Qaeda and the Taliban.

In my opinion:

• Islam is more than just
  • The anti-mouse contingent
  • Terrorism
• Islamic Terrorists are more than just
  • Folks with wacky religious beliefs
  • Oppressed
    • Minorities
    • Majorities
    • Whatever

I'll get back to my take on the guys who want women back behind burqas, looking (one insisted) at the world with one eye.

"One eye?!"

• "Saudi Cleric Wants Women to Use One Eye - I'm Not Making This Up"
  (October 4, 2008)

Remember: the 'one eye' and 'mouse' nut jobs (my view) are not all there is to Islam. Neither is the Custodian of the Two Holy Mosques: although it's easy to get the impression that Islam is a House of Saud franchise. And that's almost another topic.

Do I think Israel, and the current administration there, is perfect, a paragon of all virtues? Hardly. Folks living in Israel are human beings: and perfect is what human beings are most certainly not.

On the other hand, I'm not inclined to add "and it is the fault of the Jews" after each of these excerpts:

"A woman was killed and more than 50 people were wounded when a loud explosion shook a busy street in Jerusalem as the evening rush hour began on Wednesday, authorities said.

"Several of the wounded were critically injured in the first serious bombing in Jerusalem in four years, authorities said.

"Mayor Nir Barkat condemned the 'cowardly terrorist attack' in which 'innocent people were hurt.'..."
(CNN)

---

"One person has died and more than 20 others are injured after a bomb blast at a crowded bus stop in central Jerusalem, Israeli officials say.

"The bomb had been left in a bag by the side of the road near the central bus station, police said.

"Dozens of ambulances converged on the scene near the entrance to the city, and police sealed off the area...."
(BBC News)

---

"Palestinian rockets struck two cities deep in Israel Wednesday, wounding a resident and prompting Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu to threaten lengthy "exchanges of blows" with the Hamas-ruled Gaza Strip.

"Islamic Jihad, a smaller Gaza faction and occasional Hamas ally, claimed responsibility for the attacks on Beersheba and Ashdod.

"They followed Israeli air strikes and shelling in the Gaza Strip Tuesday that killed four Palestinian civilians, including three children playing football, and five militants, medical officials said...."
(Reuters Africa)

---

"A sharp increase in tensions along the Israel-Gaza border has escalated fears of a repeat of the Israeli war two years ago.

"An Israeli attempt to hit Palestinian militants who had fired rockets at Israel went horribly wrong on Tuesday, with mortar shells killing three youths playing soccer and a 60-year-old grandfather leaving his house.

"Later, in an unrelated attack, the Israeli air force killed four militants in a car. It said they were members of Islamic Jihad on their way to launch rockets at Israel...."
(The Sydney Morning Herald)

---

"8-year-old boy's transfer into Israel was coordinated with PA; Israel offered medical treatment to civilians injured by IDF mortar strike.

"An eight-year-old boy from Gaza who was seriously injured by an IDF mortar shell was transferred to an Israeli hospital on Wednesday.

"The IDF's Gaza Coordination Liaison Administration said that the boy was transferred into Israel by ambulance after it coordinated with the Palestinians...."
(The Jerusalem Post)

---

Bias by the Bushel

It's fairly easy to plug in biases about "towelheads," Jews, oppressor classes, or shape-shifting, space-alien lizard men: and blame Them.

Whoever planted that bomb was probably motivated, at least partly, by something that happened in the last few years. Maybe "Zionist aggression." Or regrettable toilet training. I really don't know.

Root causes of what we're all dealing with in the Middle East go back about 11 millennia - and that's almost another topic again.

The point I'm trying to make is that I have trouble thinking the Middle East mess is a simple good guy/bad guy situation. Which isn't the same as thinking it's okay to kill somebody at a bus stop. No matter how big a snit the person is in.

As for most Palestinians, I sympathize with the folks who want to raise their families and keep their jobs or shops. They're in a tough position. There's what I understand is essentially an unresolved property dispute - and they're being 'helped' by neighboring rulers who seem to be determined that Palestinians get plenty of weapons, but not much money.

And that isn't another topic.

Not Killing Your Neighbor: What a Concept!

The idea has caught on, in many parts of the world, that it's not okay to kill your neighbor.

Even if your neighbor isn't related to you, doesn't go to the same church, doesn't wear the same clothes, and doesn't act exactly the same way as you do.

It's taken a long time, but today we've got the European Union - which would have seemed impossible, I think, only a few generations back. The country I live in is in its third century of not killing people because they don't go to the right church. America isn't perfect: and I've discussed that before. (July 3, 2008)

It is possible for folks who aren't exactly alike to live near each other, without trying to kill each other.

'We've Never Done That Before'

Change hurts, change happens. I've said that quite often.

Here in America, quite a few articles in business magazines discuss how to deal with someone in the office who can't - or won't - accept a change in routine. These days, a business that can't deal with changes in the market often fails.

That's this country.

I've gotten the impression that some parts of the world, like the Middle East, folks have been dragged over several millennia of change in a generation or two.

It must be a terrible shock to go from a world of one-eyed burqas to one with several hundred channels of television pouring dog food commercials, Bay Watch reruns, and Disney cartoons over a culture that hadn't changed much since the days of Abram.

No wonder some folks went a bit crazy.

Burqas, 'Those Muslims,' and Ephesians 5:22

I said I'd "get back to my take on the guys who want women back behind burqas." Here goes.

I think - besides religious, economic, and apparently psychiatric, issues - some of what's bothering folks who blow up bus stops and flew planes into skyscrapers is a matter of domestic power.

I've read explanations of the position of women in a 'truly' Islamic society, written by Muslims who live in cultures that don't have a problem with women who can read and write. I believe them.

I also think that there are others - men who are convinced that their village is the only 'truly' Islamic place in the world - who have very different view of women.

For that matter, there are folks who are convinced that they alone are 'real' Christians, and who live by Ephesians 5:22: not Ephesians 5:21-30. I'm a practicing Catholic, I'm not allowed to ignore the 'big picture,' and that's a topic for another blog. (A Catholic Citizen in America (December 14, 2010))

The Odd Case of the Anachronistic Electrician

The place of women in society has changed a great deal during the last half-century: at least here in America. I think much of Western civilization went through a similar change.

It hasn't been easy. And still isn't, for a few folks. Like this one electrician.

Not too many years ago, an electrician came to my household. My wife had noticed an issue with part of the electrical system, and had made arrangements for him to come. Purely routine stuff.

Until the electrician arrived. He wouldn't talk to my wife. Not about the wiring issue. The three of us spent maybe 20 minutes in the kitchen: he'd ask me a question, I'd ask my wife, she'd reply, and I'd repeat what she said.

She and I think it's funny: but I can see how not everybody would.

The anachronistic electrician was harmless. He's a man from another era, who apparently couldn't cope with a woman who knew more about a technical issue than her husband. I was there to act as an interpreter, and the job got done. Case closed.

Someone from a place where folks really believe that a husband has a right - even a duty - to kill his daughter if she 'shames the family?' That person is, I think, anything but harmless.

I think tolerance is a good idea. As a member of a religious minority, I'd be nuts not to urge tolerance. But there's tolerance, and there's the sort of clueless 'let's placate these people' attitude. And I've discussed that before, too. (October 21, 2010)

Related posts:

• Israel
  • " 'Simple Guards,' Indecent Gestures, and the Dark Side of Diplomatic Immunity"
    (December 25, 2009)
  • "Palestinian Plays Bocce Ball With Bulldozer and Police Car: Blast from the Past"
    (March 5, 2009)
  • "U.N. Condemns (What Else?) Israel: This Time it's Over an 'Aid Complex' "
    (January 15, 2009)
  • "Lebanon, Israel, Pakistan, India, and the Lizard People"
    (January 14, 2009)
  • " 'Go Back to the Oven' Message to Jews: Not in the News"
    (January 10, 2009)
• Class warfare, oppression, and getting a grip
  • "Beer, Basketball, the War on Terror, Today's News, and Me"
    (March 10, 2011)
  • "Gaza Humanitarian Raid: The Other Shoe Drops"
    (June 2, 2010)
  • "'Everybody Knows' Poverty Causes Terrorism: So How Come - - - ?"
    (January 7, 2010)
  • "Arab Leaders Pledge Billions to Gaza: But Not Quite Yet"
    (March 1, 2009)
  • "Terrorists as an Oppressed Class: That was Then, This is Now"
    (February 23, 2008)

News and views:

• "Jerusalem blast leaves 1 dead, dozens injured"
  CNN (March 23, 2011)
• "Deadly bombing targets Jerusalem bus stop"
  BBC News Middle East (March 23, 2011)
• "Israel braces for flare-up as Gazan rockets hit"
  Dan Williams, Reuters Africa (March 23, 2011)
• "More rockets fired as tensions build"
  Fares Akram, The Sydney Morning Herald (March 24, 2011)(It's Thursday there now)
• "Gazan child injured by IDF mortar treated in Israel"
  The Jerusalem Post (March 23, 2011)

Background:

• "Genocide! Racism! Down With Columbus Day!!"
  (April 8, 2009)
• "'Towelhead,' 'Retard,' and Talking Sense in a Global Society"
  (February 24, 2009)
• "Arabs, Jews, Israel, Islam, and More: 11,000 Years of History In 800 Words"
  (October 8, 2007)

---

¹This awful, horrible, offensive, unclean puppy outraged the sensibilities of Muslims living in Tayside, UK.

• "Brit Puppy Offends Muslims - Outrage Over Police Insult"
  (July 1, 2008)

---

² Puppies aren't the only Western threat to Islam:

• "Mickey Mouse Must Die! Agent of Satan Targeted by Saudi Cleric"
  (September 19, 2008)

As I wrote in 2008, "I'm not making this up."

Not all Muslims are offended by puppies, I'm pretty sure. Or see Mickey Mouse as an agent of Satan. I've given my take on culture, and Islam's image, before:

• Catching up on millennia of change
  • "Afghan Husband Rapes Wife: Culture, Law, History, and Catching Up"
    (September 24, 2009)
  • "Sudan, Women, Trousers, Culture and Common Sense"
    (September 7, 2009)
  • "Something Different: Afghan Women Want American Back"
    (January 29, 2008)
  • "Good News for Infidel Teacher: Still No News on Anti-Islamic Teddy Bear"
    (December 3, 2007)
  • "Sudan Defends Islam Against Blasphemous Teddy Bear"
    (November 28, 2007)
  • "It's Arabic, Is It Islamic?"
    (November 21, 2007)
• Islam, weird and otherwise
  • "What is Islam? Even Muslims Don't Seem to Agree"
    (February 6, 2009)
  • "Inside Islam: Faith vs. Fanatics:"
    (October 20, 2007)
    • 'Inside Islam: Faith vs. Fanatics' - This blogger's introduction (last section of "Muslims, Terrorism, Islam, PBS, and 'Inside Islam: Faith vs. Fanatics'")
    1. 'Inside Islam: Faith vs. Fanatics:' Denmark
    2. 'Inside Islam: Faith vs. Fanatics:' Canada
    3. 'Inside Islam: Faith vs. Fanatics:' Canada - Women
    4. 'Inside Islam: Faith vs. Fanatics:' Chicago
    5. 'Inside Islam: Faith vs. Fanatics:' Michigan
    6. 'Inside Islam: Faith vs. Fanatics:' Arizona
    7. "Inside Islam: Faith vs. Fanatics:" France
  • "I'm With the Devout Muslims on This One"
    (September 19, 2007)
  • "Muslims Are Not All Alike"
    (August 19, 2007)
Living in a global community
• "Pro-Islamic Ads Coming to New York City Subways: There's a Real Danger Here, of Becoming Informed"
  (July 21, 2008)
• "Spiritual Leader of 1,000,000,000 Doesn't Meet With Los Angeles Advocate!"
  (April 15, 2008)
• "Is the War on Terror a War on Islam? Not Quite"
  (December 8, 2007)
• "More about 'Yeh Hum Naheen' / 'This is Not Us' "
  (August 9, 2007)