Showing posts with label terrorists. Show all posts
Showing posts with label terrorists. Show all posts

Friday, August 9, 2013

Change, Pakistan, and Captain America: My Take

Steve Rogers is a comic book character brought to life by Marvel Entertainment and Paramount Pictures. In the last scenes of "Captain America: The First Avenger" he runs from a reasonable facsimile of a 1940s hospital room into New York City's 21st century Times Square.

I think Chris Evans does a good job of mimicking the response of a stressed-out WWII soldier fast-forwarding through about 70 years in maybe seven minutes: tops.

Bear with me. This post belongs in this blog.

I remember most of the decades between WWII and today. This is not the world I grew up in. Technology, customs, and social structures have been changing: a lot. I still haven't quite gotten used to the idea of addressing other adults by their first names.

But 'no complaints.' Change happens.

Abram to Anheuser-Busch in One Generation

Growing up in America, I've been spared some culture shock. My ancestral cultures started changing a thousand years ago, picked up the pace five centuries back, and started the industrial revolution.

I remember the first artificial satellite, and the days when computers used vacuum tubes. Change 'normal' for me.

I have a little sympathy for folks who grew up with hand-woven tents and camels: and whose kids probably know about designer jeans and know the difference between iPhone and Android.

They're experiencing more change than I have: and grew up expecting life to go on as it had since before Abram moved out of Ur. Small wonder that some aren't comfortable with today's world.

That's not an excuse for killing neighbors, though.

Killing Pakistanis


(Naseer Ahmed, via Reuters, used w/o permission)

This man was arriving at a hospital in Quetta, Pakistan. He is one of 27 injured outside a mosque today. Nine folks are dead, but they may not have been the attack's target.

Provincial government minister Ali Mohammad Jattack was driving by the mosque when a few folks started shooting - apparently in the general direction of his car. Other folks who had been worshiping at the mosque may have just been at the wrong place at the wrong time.

Reuters says that Pakistanis have been killing each other more often than usual recently, following a new Prime Minister's election. The implication is that there's a cause-effect relationship, which may be true.

The attacks aren't random. Shi'ite Muslims, a minority in Pakistan, get injured or killed by Sunni Muslims who apparently don't approve of Shi'ites. It's pretty obvious that not all Sunni Muslims in Pakistan feel this way, or there wouldn't even be a Shi'ite minority.

Killing Americans

Meanwhile, the American State Department closed offices in Pakistan, and says that Americans who don't need to be in Pakistan shouldn't go there.

I believe news reports that say that the State Department's actions about Pakistan aren't related to the other embassy closings, a few days ago. More accurately, I accept the idea that the same groups or individuals aren't trying to kill Americans in all these places.

In another way, what's going on in Pakistan and elsewhere around the world is part of something the American government stopped calling the war on terror when the current administration moved in.

Whatever we call it, I'm quite certain that those of us who don't mind living in the 21st century still have to be careful.

Making Changes

Folks who quite sincerely hate what's been happening during the last few centuries will probably continue to kill their neighbors, or die trying. I do not think that the most rigidly dedicated supporters of an ancient way of life will change their minds. But their followers, and their children, are another matter.

Quite a few folks in Iraq seemed convinced that foreigners were evil,. or at least decided that being alive was better than disagreeing with an Al Qaeda boss. Then a UN-backed coalition upset the status quo.

Once the 'evil' foreigners killed enforcers who'd been chopping off heads, and started repairing neglected roads and sewage plants: many Iraqis decided that being free was a good idea.

That must have been terribly frustrating for Iraqis who enjoyed the privilege of killing 'bad' neighbors: but no society is perfect for everybody.

Looking Ahead

Naming a similar phenomenon in northern Africa "Arab spring" isn't making the transition from a pre-Magna Carta world into the Information Age easy. But I'm still cautiously hopeful about places like Egypt.

As for what's happening this week in Pakistan: that's bad news for folks who get killed and injured, and hard on their families. It would be nice if everyone in the world would decide to be nice, and try discussing problems instead of killing folks who disagree. That's not gonna happen. Not soon, anyway.

On the other hand, I'm convinced that most folks prefer raising families, going to work, and playing soccer - or whatever the local pastime is - to dodging bullets and cleaning up after suicide bombers.

'Winning the hearts and minds' may be a cliche by now, and simply won't work for diehard xenophobes of any ilk. But like I said, I'm cautiously hopeful. I think most of us can learn that 'foreigners' aren't demonic emissaries, and that 'change' doesn't mean 'destruction.'

Related posts:
"Gunmen in Pakistan kill nine in attack at mosque on Muslim holiday"
Katharine Houreld; (editing, Clarence Fernandez and Robert Birsel; Reuters (August 9, 2013)

"Volence marred the Muslim holy day of Eid al-Fitr in Pakistan on Friday with gunmen killing nine people in the city of Quetta while a guard in the capital Islamabad shot dead a would-be suicide bomber forcing his way into a mosque.

"The United States has ordered non-essential staff to leave its consulate in the eastern city of Lahore because of the threat of attack. It has also warned its citizens not to travel to Pakistan.

"In Quetta, gunmen fired on the vehicle of a politician driving past worshippers leaving a mosque, killing nine people and wounding 27, police said.

"Quetta is capital of the southwestern province of Baluchistan, where several militant groups are active, including the Pakistani Taliban, who claimed responsibility for a suicide bomb attack that killed 30 people at a policeman's funeral on Thursday.

"Police official Bashir Brohi said Friday's shooting seemed to have been aimed at former provincial government minister Ali Mohammad Jattack, who was passing by in a vehicle, but the motive and perpetrators were not clear.

" 'I was the target,' Jattack told media at the scene.

" 'They killed innocent worshippers belonging to different communities. This is against humanity, it is brutality on the level of animals,' said Jattack, who was not hurt.

"Brohi said most of the victims were coming out of the mosque.

" 'It was an armed attack on the former minister ... it was not an attack on the mosque,' the police official said.

"In a separate attack in Islamabad, a would-be suicide bomber shot dead a guard and wounded three people as he tried to force his way into a Shi'ite mosque, said witness Raza Mohammad....

"...Attacks against Pakistan's minority Shi'ite Muslims, by Sunni Muslim militants, are increasing sharply.

"The attacks on Friday were the latest in a surge of militant violence since Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif took office two months ago, with a string of high-profile incidents in the past two weeks...."
"US withdraws staff from consulate in Lahore, Pakistan, over terror threat"
FoxNews.com (August 9, 2013)

"The State Department has ordered the departure of non-emergency U.S. government personnel from the U.S. Consulate General in Lahore, Pakistan, and has warned Americans to defer all non-essential travel to Pakistan after a specific threat to that mission, Fox News confirms....

"...'The presence of several foreign and indigenous terrorist groups poses a potential danger to U.S. citizens throughout Pakistan,' the statement from the State Department read. 'The Government of Pakistan maintains heightened security measures, particularly in the major cities. Threat reporting indicates terrorist groups continue to seek opportunities to attack locations where U.S. citizens and Westerners are known to congregate or visit.'

"The personnel drawdown at the Lahore consulate was a precautionary measure and wasn't related to the recent closures of numerous U.S. diplomatic missions in the Muslim world, two U.S. officials told the Associated Press...."
Posted by at No comments:
Labels: , , , ,

Saturday, April 20, 2013

Boston Marathon Bombing: Sincerity isn't Truth

Bombs exploded Monday afternoon, near the end of the Boston Marathon. Three people were killed. Many more were wounded, some severely. Some lost limbs.

I think killing innocent people is wrong, and that being present at the Boston Marathon is not an offense which deserves death.

Later, the FBI released images of two young men. We were told that they were suspects, presumed armed and dangerous. Not long after that I read that a substantial part of the Boston metropolitan area was under lockdown. People were advised to stay inside, and open their doors only to law enforcement officials with proper identification.

That's unusual in American cities, but this was an unusual situation.

The two suspects had been identified as brothers. The older died during an exchange of fire with law enforcement. The other was found hiding under a boat, and extracted alive.

One or the other of the brothers, or both, killed a fourth person before they were stopped: Sean Collier, a police officer at MIT.

I am confident that the suspects are responsible for killing four people and maiming others. I think we've learned from the Steven Hatfill Richard Jewel debacles. (February 15, 2011)

This doesn't seem to have been a rush to judgment based on silly evidence: and the brothers went out of their way to act like armed and dangerous fugitives.

Death and Motives

I would have preferred that nobody had decided to plant bombs at the Boston Marathon. It would have been nice if nobody had been killed.

We don't life in a 'nice' world. Sometimes people decide to to bad things.

I don't doubt that the two brothers thought they were justified in killing innocent people. It looks like their motives were sincere and intense religious beliefs. I don't doubt that, either: but sincerity doesn't guarantee truth.

I've already run into a few juicy conspiracy theories. I don't doubt that folks who are convinced that the Obama administration plotted to kill Marathon runners are sincere. But again: sincerity doesn't guarantee truth.

My guess is that someone has already claimed that the brothers are heroes because they killed:
  • Americans
  • Athletes
  • A
    • Chinese exchange student
    • Catholic
    • Cop
I don't think being at an athletic event, or merely being a member of some group, warrants death:

Defending the Innocent

I would, for several reasons, rather have both suspects alive an in custody. Information is notoriously difficult to extract from dead people, and there are other considerations.

On the other hand, I do not blame the death of the older brother on society, the police, or organizers of the Boston Marathon. In my opinion, someone who had already killed three people at a public event, shot and killed a police officer, and was both shooting at other law enforcement people and tossing explosives, is at least partly responsible for whatever happens to him.

Individuals have a responsibility to defend themselves.

I'm not always happy about how the 'Miranda' rules have been used, but think that due process is a very good idea. That includes limits on what public officials are allowed to do. That said, I am not upset that the 'Miranda rights' were suspended when questioning the surviving suspect.

That's not because I hate Muslims, Chechyans, or people whose last names start with "T."

I've read that there is a 'public safety exception' to the Miranda rules: which allows public officials to protect the innocent. So far, it hasn't been used very often: and I think this week's circumstances warranted a bit of extra caution.

If the exception gets used frequently, or appears to be used selectively against folks with unsanctioned ideas - then, I'll get upset. Not now.

"You Can Read It on the Internet"

I've known folks who really believe in conspiracy theories. Some of them pick a new one at fairly frequent intervals. The folks I know aren't dangerous: just a bit wearisome when talking about what's 'really' behind stuff they don't like.

They're sincere: but, like I said before, sincerity doesn't guarantee truth. I'm convinced that the world isn't really run by the Illuminati, Federal Reserve System, Jews, or lizard men.

I could be a dupe, a fool, or a lizard man trying to control your brain with radio waves from your toaster: but I'm not. Trust me.

It looks like the mother of the suspects believes 9/11 was a government plot to make Americans hate Muslims. I think she's wrong: but a remarkable number of folks seem to believe that 9/11 was an 'inside job.'

I think she's wrong: but like I said, I don't think lizard men are to blame, either.

Grief and Loss

The Tsarnaev brothers did their family no favors this week. I sympathize with their uncle, aunt, mother, father, and the rest of their relatives. I also think their uncle was right: they put shame on their family.

There may be an indication of what may have allowed the brothers to act as they did, in their parents' attitudes and beliefs. That does not mean that I 'blame the parents.' I also think that it's likely that the brothers were influenced by what they saw, heard, and read. That doesn't mean that I blame the Internet, Muslims, or the professor who gave them a syllabus.

I think it is prudent to remember that an individual or two is not necessarily representative of a group.

I put excerpts from news and views about the brothers at the end of this post.1 Here's a very abbreviated version:
"I say Dzhokhar, if you're alive, turn yourself in and ask for forgiveness from the victims, from the injured.

"I respect this country, I love this country. [The bombing] has nothing to do with Chechnya … He put a shame on our family, he put a shame on the entire Chechen ethnicity."

"Being losers, hatred to those who were able to settle themselves, these are the only reasons I can imagine. Anything else, anything else to do with religion is a fraud. It's a fake. We're Muslims. We're ethnic Chechyans."
Ruslan Tsarni, uncle of the two suspects
(Joshua Rhett Miller, FoxNews.com)

The boy's childhood was perfect. Their father was a loving, soft-hearted man.
An aunt of the suspects

"It's real. My son knows all about it. You can read it on the Internet."
Mother of the suspects, quoted by former customer

"She [mother of the suspects] started quoting conspiracy theories, telling me that she thought 9-11 was purposefully created by the American government to make America hate Muslims."
Former customer of the mother
(Wayne Drash, Moni Basu, Tom Watkins, CNN)

"I don't have a single American friend, I don't understand them."
Tamerlan Tsarnaev, older suspect, deceased

The suspects were "angels."

Someone is "playing with them."

"If they killed him, then all hell would break loose."
Father of the suspects
(FoxNews.com)
Related posts:
News and views:
1 Excerpts from news and views:
" 'We got him!' But now authorities want answers in Boston Marathon bombing"
FoxNews.com (April 20, 2013)

"Now that police have secured the second of two suspects in Monday's Boston Marathon bombing, the long and meticulous process of examining motives, methods and possible links begins.

"A Justice Department official said Friday the government is invoking a seldom-used public safety exception permitting officials to engage in a limited and focused unwarned interrogation of a suspect - in this case Dzhokhar Tsarnaev - without first reading him his typically assured Miranda rights. That official, as well as a second, both of whom spoke on the condition of anonymity, says Tsarnaev will be questioned by a special interrogation team for high-value suspects.

"The public safety exception not only permits the unwarned questioning of a suspect, but also allows the government to introduce any statement yielded by such interrogation as evidence in court. The exception is triggered when authorities have an objectively reasonable need to protect themselves or the public from a clear and present danger.

"According to media accounts, Tsarnaev and his brother, Tamerlan, were Mulsims who recently gravitated to a radical strain of Islam, going so far as to post Anti-American, jihadist videos on social-media sites...."
" 'Turn yourself in and ask for forgiveness,' angry uncle of bombing suspect demands"
Joshua Rhett Miller, FoxNews.com (April 19, 2013)

"The outraged uncle of the Boston Marathon bombing suspect currently eluding authorities called on his nephew to surrender and to ask for forgiveness from the victims of Monday's blast.

"Ruslan Tsarni, of Montgomery Village, Md., told reporters outside his home that he last saw Dzhokhar and Tamerlan Tsarneav in 2005 and said he was ashamed of their actions.

" 'I say Dzhokhar, if you're alive, turn yourself in and ask for forgiveness from the victims, from the injured,' a visibly angry Tsarni said, adding that he would have alerted authorities if he knew of his nephews' alleged plan.

" 'I respect this country, I love this country,' the 42-year-old attorney continued. '[The bombing] has nothing to do with Chechnya … He put a shame on our family, he put a shame on the entire Chechen ethnicity.'

"Tsami said the apparently misguided radical Islamic beliefs that may have driven the brothers to kill was horribly warped. Asked what he believed provoked his nephews, Tsarni replied: 'Being losers, hatred to those who were able to settle themselves, these are the only reasons I can imagine. Anything else, anything else to do with religion is a fraud. It's a fake. We're Muslims. We're ethnic Chechyans.'..."
"Boston suspects: Immigrant dream to American nightmare"
Wayne Drash, Moni Basu, Tom Watkins, CNN (April 20, 2013)

"They might have fulfilled every immigrant's dream, fleeing a war-torn part of the world and settling into a quiet life in America, one buoyed by aspiration and a will to succeed.

"Tamerlan Tsarnaev, 26, loved to box. And he was talented. At 196 pounds, he represented New England as a heavyweight in the National Golden Gloves boxing tournament. He wanted to make it on an Olympic team.

"His younger brother, Dzhokar, 19, graduated in 2011 from Cambridge Rindge & Latin School, the alma mater of actors Matt Damon and Ben Affleck. The city awarded Dzhokar a $2,500 scholarship. And he, too, was an athlete -- a wrestler. He was named student athlete of the month and made the state playoffs.

"But something went wrong somewhere....

"It was unclear what might have motivated the brothers to commit the heinous crime they are suspected of carrying out. All day Friday, reporters sought out people who knew them, trying to understand one thing: Why?

"What unfolded was a story typical of the American immigrant narrative: A family originally from the Russian republic of Chechnya fled the brutal wars in their homeland in the 1990s. They moved to neighboring Russian republics before at last arriving in the United States.

"The youngest, Dzhokar, came first with his parents, according to his aunt, Maret Tsarnaev. The older son, Tamerlan, was initially left behind with his two sisters.

"Eventually, they were reunited -- a family of six whose American journey contained elements of a struggle to fit in and success in making a new life...."

"...Friends and acquaintances of the Tsarnaev brothers expressed disbelief. The two men were nice, friendly. Quiet. The kind of guys you'd never even notice or look at twice if you passed them on the street.

"Their aunt spoke with Canada's CTV and described the boys' childhood as perfect. Their father, Anzor, was a loving, soft-hearted man. She said he and his wife, Zubeidat, have moved back to Dagestan, which borders Chechnya.

"Dzhokar came to America on July 1, 2002, as a tourist and asked for asylum, a federal official told CNN. He was naturalized as a U.S. citizen on September 11 last year.

"There was some dispute over when his older brother arrived. The U.S. official said he came four years later on September 6, 2006, and held a permanent resident visa. But another federal official said Tamerlan first entered the United States on July 19, 2003.

"Alyssa Lindley Kilzer said she often visited the apartment at 410 Norfolk St. in Cambridge, where the Tsarnaevs lived. Kilzer used to get facials from Zubeidat at a local spa but, after she was fired, Kilzer began going to her house.

"She wrote about her experience on her Tumblr blog and said the staircase was crowded with shoes and the house was filled with the noise of arguments, cooking and other household chores. It was hardly spa-like but Kilzer thought Zubeidat gave great facials.

"But she became increasingly uncomfortable going to the apartment because of Zubeidat's growing religious fervor.

" 'She started quoting conspiracy theories, telling me that she thought 9-11 was purposefully created by the American government to make America hate Muslims,' she wrote.

"Zubeidat told her: 'It's real. My son knows all about it. You can read it on the Internet.'

"Kilzer said she only met Tamerlan once -- he wasn't friendly, she thought...."
"'I don't understand them,' bombing suspect said of Americans"
FoxNews.com (April 20, 2013)

"The brothers behind Monday's deadly bombing at the Boston Marathon are believed to have come to the U.S. from Chechnya as long as a decade ago, but apparently never fit in with the American culture.

" 'I don't have a single American friend, I don't understand them,' the older brother, Tamerlan Tsarnaev, who was killed in a shootout with police hours after the pair was identified as suspects, told a photographer in 2009....

"...The father of the suspects, reached in Makhachkala, Russia, characterized his sons as 'angels,' adding that someone is 'playing with them,' he told Fox News.

"Anzor Tsarnaev said his sons were normal young men who loved people. Earlier Friday, he called on Dzokhar to surrender peacefully, but reportedly warned the United States that 'all hell will break loose' if he['s] killed. He told ABC News that he spoke to his sons by phone earlier this week. He said his sons reassured him, saying, 'Everything is good, Daddy. Everything is very good.'

" 'Give up. Give up. You have a bright future ahead of you,' Anzor Tsarneav told ABC News. 'Come home to Russia.'

"He continued: 'If they killed him, then all hell would break loose.'..."
Posted by at No comments:
Labels: , , , ,

Friday, July 22, 2011

A Blast, Bullets, Bodies, Norway, and Getting a Grip

More than a dozen people were killed in Norway today. At least one bomb in Oslo, and a lot of bullets in a camp for teenagers, are responsible. It's early days, but my guess is that it's a terrorist attack with two targets.

I think it's probably a "terrorist attack:" but that's not the whole story.

Depending on whose headlines you read, the attack wasn't done by Islamic Islamist terrorists. (Associated Press, via The Washington Post) and, more specifically, it was a domestic terror attack. (Nils Myklebost, Forbes)

But, like I said, it's still early days.

Remember Oklahoma City

The dude who was arrested - here's what Mr. Myklebost wrote, in part:
"...A police official said the 32-year-old ethnic Norwegian suspect arrested at the camp on Utoya island appears to have acted alone in both attacks, and that 'it seems like that this is not linked to any international terrorist organizations at all.' The official spoke on condition of anonymity because that information had not been officially released by Norway's police.

" 'It seems it's not Islamic-terror related,' the official said. 'This seems like a madman's work.'

"The official said the attack 'is probably more Norway's Oklahoma City than it is Norway's World Trade Center.' Domestic terrorists carried out the 1995 attack on a federal building in Oklahoma City, while foreign terrorists were responsible for the Sept. 11, 2001 attacks...."
(Nils Myklebost, Forbes)
As I've said before, right-wing extremists sometimes really are terrorists. (June 6, 2009) Which isn't the same as saying that everybody who disagrees with Code Pink is a terrorist.

"Islamist," "Islamic," and Unintended Consequences

Establishment news services in America, when they must, often call Islamic crazies who kill people "Islamist" terrorists. This mincing around the unpleasant reality that some folks believe that they're defending Islam by killing people is, I hope, well-intentioned.

Just as some folks assume that the CIA blew up the World Trade Center, others seem convinced that all terrorists are Ay-rabs, that everybody in the Middle East follows Islam, and that all Muslims are terrorists. Or at least support terrorists. And, perhaps just as bad: aren't Americans.

I've posted about that sort of chauvinism before:
I doubt - very much - that any euphemism will change the mind of a chauvinist. And euphemisms have a way of drawing attention to what they're dancing around. Think the way many still try not to use the word "sex," in many contexts - and that isn't quite another topic.

Outfits like Al Qaeda and the Taliban make no secret about being Muslims. They say they're waging a holy war. I think it's silly to pretend that they're not "Islamic," at least by their own definitions.

Unpleasant Realities - are Still Realities

Using a euphemism like "Islamist" may draw attention to warped religious beliefs of that particular lot of terrorists.1 Think how terms like "collateral damage" and "friendly casualties" did nothing, at best, to make folks feel better about unpleasant realities of war.

Here in America, the shine seems to have worn off political correctness. Silly labels, occasionally ham-handed efforts to avoid "sexist" pronouns like s/he, and goofball neologisms like waitron: all failed to unite everyone in an affirming siblinghood of person.

It also made a fair number of folks in this country very tired of living in another person's fantasy world. I've opined about that, in another blog:

But - Norway's too Nice for Terror?

Quite a lot has changed since my Norwegian ancestors raided my Irish forebears - and most of the rest of Europe. Norway, and Sweden, have a reputation for being very nice places to live.

So, how could something like today's attack possibly happen in such a nice place? It's actually a sensible question.

There seems to be an assumption that nice places shouldn't have nasty experiences. It's jarring, when an unpleasant reality plows through that expectation.
"...Ian Dutton, who was in a nearby hotel, said the building 'shook as if it had been struck by lightning or an earthquake.' He looked outside and saw 'a wall of debris and smoke.'

"Dutton, who is from New York, said the scene reminded him of Sept. 11 -- people 'just covered in rubble' walking through 'a fog of debris.'

" 'It wasn't any sort of a panic,' he said, 'It was really just people in disbelief and shock, especially in a such as safe and open country as Norway, you don't even think something like that is possible.'..."
(Associated Press, via FoxNews.com)
I sympathize with Mr. Dutton, and the folks in my ancestral homeland. It's a shock when parts of an orderly, civilized, society get blown to bits - along with some of the folks living in it.

But - trouble happens. Over two dozen centuries ago, someone made this observation:
"For mischief comes not out of the earth, nor does trouble spring out of the ground; 2But man himself begets mischief, as sparks fly upward."
(Job 5:6,7)
I've opined about that before, in another blog: A Catholic Citizen in America (September 6, 2010).

And yes: I'm one of those people. A practicing Catholic. Which may not mean what you've heard it does.

Finally, an example of labels and reality. These folks are Christians. Their group identifies itself with that label.


(Reuters photo, via FoxNews.com, used w/o permission)

They are not, however, typical Christians. Not even here in America. And that's another topic, for another blog.

Somewhat-related posts:
In the news:
1 "Warped religious beliefs?" That's not entirely my view.

I think the habit of Al Qaeda and the Taliban, of killing folks who disagree, has started surviving Muslims thinking. That, and the way that Information Age technology lets folks compare old-world customs with post-18th-century law.

It'll take time for changes to happen, but I think significant numbers of Muslims are re-evaluating what they believe:
Posted by at 2 comments:
Labels: , ,

Sunday, February 13, 2011

Thailand, Bomb, No Fatalities Reported

Yala is the name of a city and a province in Thailand. It's a tourist destination, and has been having trouble with terrorists lately:
"Police: Suspected car bomb blast injures 12 in Thailand"
Kocha Olarn, CNN (February 13, 2011)

"At least 12 people were injured when a bomb exploded in southern Thailand Sunday morning, police said.

"The explosion caused a fire that burned down about a dozen houses, Yala Police Col. Krisada Kaewchandee said.

"Investigators believe a car bomb caused the blast, he said....

"...Muslim separatists in southern Thailand have long battled government forces in a country that is overwhelmingly Buddhist.

"The conflict came to a head in 2004 after former Prime Minister Thaksin Shinawatra took office. Several thousand people died in the resulting violence."
How much this particular bombing had to do with somebody wanting to set up their own little country, how much the perpetrators had strictly religious or ideological motives, and how much may have stemmed from some other cause - I've no idea. Probably some combination.

Together, in my view, with the sort of frustration some folks experience when the rest of the world doesn't act exactly the way they want it to.

The good news is that nobody got killed this time, as far as we've heard.

The bad news is that terrorists are still making it hard for the rest of us - including those Muslims who don't think that God tells them to kill people they don't like - to get on with the business of living.

Related posts:In the news:More:
Posted by at No comments:
Labels: ,

Thursday, December 16, 2010

Terror Bombing in Sweden: Troops, Cartoons, a Widow, and Questions

I haven't written much about Sweden.

In a blog like this one, that's a good thing.

It looks like folks in Sweden, and folks here in central Minnesota, celebrate the Christmas season in about the same way. No big surprise there, considering how many Scandinavians live in this part of the world. I'm half-Norwegian, myself - and that's another topic. Sort of.

That explains why folks were doing a particular sort of shopping in Stockholm last Saturday.

Holiday Shopping: Snow, Festive Decorations, and a Botched Bombing

"Eyewitnesses have told of the moment an apparent suicide bomber blew himself up just a stone's throw from Stockholm's busiest shopping street on Saturday.
" 'We were scared to death,' said one local resident.

"The man died on the intersection of the Drottninggatan thoroughfare and Bryggargatan, a side street.

"An eyewitness interviewed by the Dagens Nyheter newspaper (DN) said something appeared to have blown up against the man's abdomen.

" 'He had no injuries to his face or the rest of his body and the shops around him were not damaged,' he said.

"The eyewitness, a paramedic identified only as Pascal, said he removed a 'Palestinian scarf' from the man's face in an attempt to free up his airways. Next to the man's body was a two-metre piece of metal piping...."
(The Local)
Good news: Only one person died. Bad news: somebody died.

Well, as we say here in Minnesota, "it could be worse."

A Wannabe Murderer, a Widow, and Lots of Questions

The wannabe mass murderer has been identified. He's Taimour Abdulwahab al-Abdaly: a married man whose death left a widow and lots of questions.

Like whether someone else is likely to have a shot at killing holiday shoppers. That's not an unreasonable question, in my opinion. The impression I get from the news is that Swedish law enforcement and related officials are walking through a common-sense investigation. Which, as of Sunday, pointed to the bombing being a one-man act:
"Police said on Sunday they were treating bomb blasts in Stockholm as an act of terrorism by a lone attacker that followed an emailed threat referring to Sweden's troops in Afghanistan and to cartoons of Mohammad.

"Police stopped short of calling Saturday afternoon's blasts, which killed the suspected bomber and wounded two people, a suicide attack. A car blew up in a busy shopping area, followed minutes later by a second explosion nearby.

"Shortly before the blasts, Swedish news agency TT received a threatening letter referring to Sweden's presence in Afghanistan and caricatures of the Prophet Mohammad drawn by a Swedish cartoonist. The letter included digital sound files with a recording in broken Swedish and in Arabic....

"...TT said the letter promised attacks over Sweden's presence in Afghanistan, where it has 500 troops with the U.S.-led NATO force, and the cartoons drawn three years ago by Lars Vilks...."
(Reuters)
Those cartoons keep surfacing, metaphorically speaking: sort of like a dead muskrat in a pond.

That was Sunday. As of yesterday, it's pretty obvious that those Swedes who look after the country's security are still walking through that investigation.
"Some 200 possibly violent Islamic extremists live in Sweden, according to an intelligence report released Wednesday after the country's first-ever suicide bombing narrowly missed Christmas shoppers.

" 'The group of active members ... consists of just under 200 individuals,' the Säpo intelligence agency said in its 126-page report, based on data from 2009 and scheduled to be published before the weekend's attack in central Stockholm...."
(The Swedish Wire)

Swedish Muslims, Numbers, and a Comparison

Two hundred is a biggish number. Compared to Sweden's 9,074,000 or so citizens (As of July this year) , though: not so much. ("Sweden," The World Factbook, CIA (last updated December 8, 2010))
I'd compare the 200-odd hotheads in that group to the number of Swedish Muslims, but that'd take more digging than I've got time for today. The resource I used for Sweden's population says that 87% of folks living in Sweden are Lutheran. The other 13% are "other." That "includes Roman Catholic, Orthodox, Baptist, Muslim, Jewish, and Buddhist." If all 13% of folks in Sweden who aren't Lutheran followed Islam, that'd be around 1,179,000 people. Still a lot more than 200.

A Wikipedia article says that Islam accounts for about 5% of the Swedish population: around 450,000 to 500,000 Muslims. It's one of the articles that cites references, and five percent of 9,074,000 is about 453,700, so they may be right.

Let's say it's the lower number: 450,000 Muslims. Two hundred or so are in this group. That's 200/450,000, or 1/2,250 of Swedish Muslims.

Abstractions are - abstract. One way I have, for making numbers 'real,' is to use something I'm familiar with as a comparison.

This'll be useful for me: for you, maybe not so much. I share a small town in central Minnesota with about 4,000 other people. If one out of 2,250 of us were part of a nutcase group that wanted to kill people they didn't agree with - there would be two or three people in the group, depending on whether you round up or down.

That'd be a real concern for me and my neighbors: but it would not indicate that the folks living here are dangerous.

"They're All Muslims" - Let's Not Go There

The point? The wannabe murderer almost certainly killed himself for "religious" reasons. Maybe 200 other people in Sweden have the same sort of ideas sloshing around in their heads.

There's little reason to assume that all Muslims in Sweden should be shot on sight, or at least locked up, because "they're all Muslims." (February 15, 2008, December 29, 2007) A case could be built, using that sort of logic, for pointing to what Joseph Burgess did and advocating that all Christians be locked up because they're murderers. He killed people - apparently for "religious" reasons - too. (A Catholic Citizen in America (July 24, 2009))

There are days when I feel that it wouldn't take much of a shove for America, or any other Western country, to start locking up Muslims, Christians, and other terrorists - for the good of the nation, of course. Sounds crazy? So did what a think tank came up with, not all that long ago. (April 4, 2009, April 1, 2009, A Catholic Citizen in America (March 23, 2009))

One of the reasons that I'm rather concerned about how Muslims are treated in countries where they're a religious minority - is that I'm a member of a religious minority myself. Think of it as enlightened self interest.

One More Tangent: Security Cameras, "Privacy," and Getting a Grip

I don't know how most Americans feel about security cameras at intersections and in stores: but apparently quite a few folks in this country's dominant culture don't like them. At all.

It has to do with notions of "privacy," it seems.

As nearly as I can tell, these folks say "privacy," where I'd say "anonymity."
Privacy, Bank Codes, and a Door on the Outhouse
I think "privacy" is a good idea, by the way. A dictionary says it means "the quality of being secluded from the presence or view of others." (Princeton's WordNet) A desire for privacy is part of why we put doors on the outhouse not all that long ago, don't generally have floor-to-ceiling windows in the shower today - and don't, for the most part, tell strangers how to access our bank account.

That sort of privacy make sense. Besides, it gets cold in the winter around here: so those outhouse doors served a practical function, too.

Now, about those cameras in the convenience store.

As I said, I live in a small town in central Minnesota. It's a little bigger than the places where 'if you forget what you did during the day, ask someone: they'll know.' But not by much. I love it here: but this is not a place where I can go out and not be noticed.

Or not go out and not be noticed. Not too long ago a neighbor asked if I'd been okay: that person hadn't seen me for a while.

Like I say, I love it here. But living in a town where a sizable fraction of the population know you by sight and many of those have at least a modest interest in your welfare - obviously isn't for everybody.

Some folks seem to prefer living among tens of thousands of other anonymous faces, where they could disappear and not be missed. Places like that, in my opinion, need security cameras to take up some of the slack when it comes to looking out for folks.

We've got those glass-eyed sentinels here in Sauk Centre, too: in some of the stores and at least one parking lot.

Here's what got me thinking about security cameras, "privacy," and the human condition:
"Police in Sweden are increasingly convinced the Stockholm bomber had an accomplice after fresh analysis of his suicide tape revealed the presence of a second person by his side.

"Experts who have scrutinised the recording say someone can be heard breathing in the background as Taimur Abdulwahab al-Abdaly vows to kill innocent civilians.

"Almost a week after Abdulwahab blew himself up in a shopping street in Stockholm, injuring two people, detectives have also failed to find any trace of explosives in properties linked to the bomber, suggesting someone else could have made the bombs at an unknown location.

"Police hope that if the bomber did meet an accomplice in the days before the bombing, the rendezvous might have been caught on CCTV. Hundreds of hours of recordings from CCTV cameras in Stockholm and his home town of Tranas have been seized and are now being scrutinised by investigators. ..."
(The Telegraph)
Which brings up the subject of conspiracies, real and imagined - and that's another topic.

Related posts:
In the news:
Posted by at 7 comments:
Labels: , , , ,

Wednesday, November 10, 2010

'Printer' Bombs, Yemen Mail Service, and 'Good Old Days' That Weren't

It's the 21st century, and things aren't any simpler now, than they were in the 'good old days.' I'll get back to that.

From today's news:
"Yemen Mail Bomb Could Have Exploded Over Eastern U.S., British Authorities Say"
Associated Press, via FOXNews (November 10, 2010)

"A mail bomb intercepted last month at an English airport could have exploded over the East Coast of the United States, British police said Wednesday.

"Forensic evidence showed the device, originally sent from Yemen by way of Cologne, Germany, was timed to be detonated about six to seven hours after the cargo aircraft carrying it left the U.K. for the U.S. The package was removed by police in Britain during transit...."

"The UPS cargo plane intercepted in England left the country without the package at 11:20 p.m. ET on Oct. 28, two hours after landing, police said. The device was timed to be activated at 5:30 a.m. ET, said British police.

"Authorities on both sides of the Atlantic said they only narrowly thwarted the plot, in which terrorists in Yemen hid two powerful bombs inside printers and shipped them to addresses in Chicago aboard two cargo planes. The printer cartridges were filled with PETN, an industrial explosive that, when X-rayed, would resemble the cartridges' ink powder...."

"White House spokesman Nicholas Shapiro said: 'We greatly appreciate the highly professional nature of the U.K. investigation and the spirit of partnership with which U.K. authorities have pursued this matter.'

"He praised the efforts of intelligence and law enforcement professionals in the U.K., the UAE, Saudi Arabia and the United States, and said they will continue to work together "to address and counter the threat posed by Al Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula.' "
"Bomb Could Have Struck East Coast, British Say"
John F. Burns, Europe, The New York Times (November 10, 2010)

"A package bomb from Yemen removed from a cargo plane in Britain on Oct. 29 could have exploded over the American East Coast, Scotland Yard said in a statement on Wednesday that offered the clearest sense so far of the danger averted.

"The bomb was one of two dispatched from Yemen to fictitious recipients in Chicago, with powerful plastic explosives packed into toner cartridges inside computer printers . The second was intercepted in Dubai...."
"Plane was over Canada when police say mail bomb was timed to detonate"
The Canadian Press / The Associated Press (CP) (November 10, 2010)

"A mail bomb that was intercepted in England last month would have been in Canadian airspace when authorities say it was timed to detonate.

Data from Houston-based Flightaware show that UPS Flight 232 from the East Midlands to Philadelphia was about 257 kilometres northwest of Quebec City at 5:30 a.m...."

"...Flight 232 makes daily flights but not always along the same route.

"Had the plane taken its alternate route, straight across the Atlantic, it likely would have been over the U.S. when it blew up...."
No matter where the thing went off, it would have killed people.

That would, in my opinion, have been a bad thing. Not good. Very bad.

Ah, For the Good Old Days?

I've been described as "an elderly gentleman." For good reason. I'm old enough to remember the 'good old days' of the fifties, when everything was rosy. In the Happy Days series, anyway.

I don't pine for 'the good old days,' because I remember the fifties.

Despite what folks with various biases might think, the fifties were not an idyllic time when children were perfect and wives knew their place and there was a car with tail fins in every carport. Economically, it was a pretty good decade for white men who had served in WWII: and that's another topic.

The fifties wasn't a time when the yellow peril and commie menace were beaten back by stalwart red-white-and-blue-blooded Americans who exposed pinkos in the State Department and cleansed Hollywood. In my opinion, we're still digging our way out of the mess left by the 'black lists.' Which is yet another topic.

The fifties also weren't a time when militaristic capitalistic warmonger oppressor classes tore food from the bleeding lips of oppressed classes, only to be exposed by the inexorable march of people's liberation. Which is the flip side of McCarthyism, sort of. And yet again another topic.

There were a whole lot of folks back in the 'good old days' of the fifties who didn't have quite the same experience as The Man in the Gray Flannel Suit. And that helped set up the sixties. I was around at the time - and despite the Timothy Leary/Jimi Hendrix insanity (we lost a lot of brilliant, talented people like Hendrix then), some of the changes were long overdue. In my opinion. And still another topic.

You Like Simple? Watch a Bond Movie, or Happy Days

We live in the real world: where everybody with an eastern European accent isn't an evil spy, cutthroat, or cold seductress (yes, the stereotype existed); where everybody living in the Middle East isn't a terrorist (some are - stereotypes exist for a reason); and all threats to America and other places where people are allowed - at times grudgingly - to speak their minds and make money don't come from the Middle East. Or, in my view, from foreigners.

One lesson from the latest near-miss is that terrorists really do exist.

Another is that there are leaders in the Middle East who seem to have, for whatever reason, decided that it's not a good idea to let terrorists operate with impunity.

I think Iran's Ayatollahs have helped make cooperation with the West seem less unpalatable. And that's emphatically another topic.

Somewhat-related posts:In the news:
Posted by at No comments:
Labels: , , , , , ,

Wednesday, November 3, 2010

Jundallah, Iran, Islam, and the U. S. State Department

Noted:
"US designates Iran's Jundallah as terrorist organization"
CNN (November 3, 2010)

"The United States has officially designated Iranian extremist group Jundallah as a foreign terrorist organization, the State Department said Wednesday.

"Jundallah, also known as the People's Resistance Movement of Iran, operates primarily in the Iranian province of Sistan-Baluchestan, which borders Pakistan.

"The State Department said Jundallah 'has engaged in numerous attacks resulting in the death and maiming of scores of Iranian civilians and government officials. Jundallah uses a variety of terrorist tactics, including suicide bombings, ambushes, kidnappings and targeted assassinations.'

"Most recently, the Sunni group claimed responsibility for suicide bombings in July at the Zahedan Grand Mosque. The attacks targeting Shiite worshipers killed 27 people. Iranian leaders said the United States was behind the attacks...."
I've made the point before, that Islam isn't a single, huge, monolithic block of Osama bin Laden clones. The Islamic crazies who have decided that God told them to kill anyone who doesn't agree with them are dangerous to their own neighbors. They seem at least as likely to kill another Muslim for being insufficiently 'Islamic,' as to go out and find a non-Muslim target.

And, in the Middle East, we're probably seeing Hatfield-and-McCoy situations that were old when Abraham moved out of Ur. That part of the world has folks whose cultures go 'way back.

I'm not making excuses for the terrorists, mind. On the other hand, I think it's well to remember that we're not dealing with folks who have America's habit of not killing your neighbor over some centuries-old snit.

Related posts:
Posted by at No comments:
Labels: , , , ,

Tuesday, October 5, 2010

Faisal Shahzad, Times Square, and Responsibility

A whole lot of people weren't killed in New York City's Times Square in May of this year. Not for a lack of effort, though. If Faisal Shahzad had known more about making bombs, we'd be missing quite a few more "little Eichmanns." (April 3, 2009)

Faisal Shahzad was convicted for setting off a smoking SUV that encouraged an evacuation of Times Square. Some of the charges were:
  • Attempting to use a weapon of mass destruction
  • Conspiracy
  • Attempt to commit international terrorism
It's all the fault of America, of course. Or Western civilization. Non-Muslims, anyway. According to Mr. Shahzad.
"Times Square bomb plotter sentenced to life in prison"
Deborah Feyerick, CNN International (October 5, 2010)

"A judge in Manhattan sentenced Faisal Shahzad to life in prison for the botched Times Square car bombing as the 31-year-old Pakistani-American defiantly warned in court to 'brace yourself, the war with Muslims has just begun.'

" 'The defeat of the U.S. is imminent, inshallah,' Shahzad said on Tuesday during the sentencing.

"Speaking in a 14th-floor courtroom where a clear view of the World Trade Center site can be seen through a window, Shahzad said Muslims have been defending their people and their lands.

"If that makes us terrorists, 'then we will terrorize you,' he said, imploring people who embrace Islam.

"U.S. District Judge Miriam Cedarbaum, who sentenced Shahzad to the mandatory sentence of life in prison, noted that he failed to show remorse for his actions...."
Blowing up folks out for an evening1 in Times Square is defending Islam?

Makes sense - by the sort of standards I've run into from time to time.

For all too many folks, everything and anything is the fault of:
  • The Commies
  • The
    • Blacks
    • Chinese
    • Irish
    • Japanese
    • Whites
    • Whatever
  • The Capitalists
  • The Military-Industrial Complex
  • Big Oil
  • Fluoridated drinking water
And let's not forget the space-alien, shape-shifting lizard people.

Faisal Shahzad invoked a variation of a philosophy which has been quite popular in some American subcultures.

In my 'good old days,' people who decided to hurt other people were called "victims of society" by the self-styled best and brightest in the land. That slogan got stale: I think because too many people had run-ins with "victims of society."

But long after the slogan faded, the basic idea - that people like Faisal Shahzad weren't responsible for their actions because of what others did - remained quite popular.

That sort of charity-on-acid approach to jurisprudence seems to be waning. The emergence of 'victims' rights' as a consideration - and the identification of whoever got assaulted as a victim - was a major step toward sanity. In my opinion.

Then some people decided to fly airliners into New York City's World Trade Center.

Over 3,000 people stopped living - some very abruptly, some while trying to evacuate the towers, some while going in to help them escape.

By fits and starts, I think that people in positions of responsibility in America are becoming aware of a somewhat-ignored facet of reality. They're deciding that, on the whole, it's a good idea to protect the folks who want to follow the laws from those who don't.

As for Faisal Shahzad's assertion that the Americans/Westerners/Non-Muslims made him do it? A few generations back, that defense might have worked.

Related posts:In the news:
1 Times Square evacuation started around 6:30 p.m. May 1, 2010.
Posted by at No comments:
Labels: , , ,

Friday, May 7, 2010

Another Bomb Scare in New York City

I'd have mentioned this earlier, but I've been - distracted - today.
"Another day, another scare in a cautious New York"
The Associated Press (May 7, 2010)

"Police cleared the streets around Times Square on Friday and called in the bomb squad to dismantle what turned out to be a cooler full of water bottles. Earlier in the day, police were called in to check a suspicious package that turned out to be someone's lunch.

"Since a Pakistani-American tried unsuccessfully to set off a car bomb in the heart of the city last weekend, false-alarm calls are up dramatically, nerves are jangled, and media and law enforcement are rushing to the scenes to make sure the reports aren't something bigger.

"More than 600 calls came in since Saturday's attempted car bombing of a busy street near Times Square — about 30 percent higher than normal, police said...."

"...On Friday, cable news channels went live with images of the false alarm on Times Square, focusing in on the light green cooler as police officials hauled it away from the area. Police don't know who left the cooler behind. The streets opened within an hour, and workers weren't told to evacuate.

" 'It was exciting, but it seemed a little silly, after all - a cooler that somebody left there,' said psychiatrist Thor Bergersen, of Newton, Mass., who watched the drama from the eighth floor of the Marriott Marquis hotel.

"But Times Square vendor Walter 'Candyman' Wells said the constant scares aroused more suspicion.

" 'I think they're testing us, whoever is doing this,' Wells said Friday, sitting on a stool near his table of T-shirts. 'They're playing chess with us right now, but they ain't gonna win. 'Cause we're the Bobby Fischers.'..."
Walter 'Candyman' Wells, by the way, isn't Duane Jackson, who reported the (real) car bomb.

With 20-20 hindsight, New York City authorities could have saved themselves a lot of trouble. But, with due respect to the eighth floor psychiatrist, I think Mr. Wells has a point.

I doubt that all of those 600 or so false alarms were terrorists probing NYC's defenses. But we'd better come to terms with the idea that Al Qaeda, the Taliban, and others aren't all uneducated nitwits. (July 8, 2007) A smart terrorist would want to know what effect a failed bombing has on New York City's response to threat, real or imagined. And yes: I think there are smart terrorists. I don't agree with their goals, and think their philosophies are not acceptable: but I don't think they're stupid. Crazy, maybe. But not stupid.

Related post:In the news:
Posted by at No comments:
Labels: , , ,

Tuesday, January 5, 2010

If We Don't Discuss It, It Doesn't Exist?

There was a time when you'd find people - good, upstanding pillars of the community, members of the country club who went to the right church and everything - acted as though problems could be ignored into oblivion.

If you remember the fifties and sixties, you know about this sort of thing: the prominent businessman whose secretary had to take a long vacation; the society matron whose doctor prescribed extra-strength happy pills; and so on, all the way to that famous meeting of the Harper Valley PTA.

And, of course, there were the hidebound conservatives who really believed that any criticism of "the government" was tantamount to treason.

That was then, this is now. "The establishment" has a different preferred reality, apparently - and I find that I'm still at odds with it.

"Wouldn't it be Loverly?"

I've made the point before, that I don't think war is nice. I also think that it would be nice if everybody would just get along.

Somehow, though, I doubt that people like Osama bin Ladin are likely to decide that they'd feel a whole lot better if they stopped hating the west and killing Muslims who didn't live up - or down - to their standards.

It would be nice, if you could take a dedicated terrorist, be nice to him, show him how to draw nice pictures, and wind up with a nice person who's ready to embrace the whole wide world in one big fuzzy hug. As Eliza Doolittle sang, Wouldn't it be Loverly?"

Or, as the Beach Boys put it: "Wouldn't it be Nice?"

Not, however, very likely. In my opinion.

Art Lessons for Terrorists: You Can't Make This Sort of Thing Up

I've seen enough applied psychology work, over the decades, to be cautious about dismissing most ideas. "Art therapy rehabilitation," though, is quite close to the edge of the envelope when it comes my willingness to be open-minded.
"...Mohammed Atiq al-Harbi, also known as Mohammed al-Awfi, and Said Ali al-Shihri were sent home to Saudi Arabia, where they were admitted to an 'art therapy rehabilitation programme' and later set free, US and Saudi officials said...."
(BBC)
Those art lessons didn't go entirely to waste. A deputy leader (Said Ali al-Shihri) and a field commander (Mohammed al-Awfi) for Al Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula, or AQAP, now should be able to draw nice pictures - if called upon to do so. (France24)

Terrorists Don't Believe They're Terrorists

I'm going out on a limb here, but it seems that terrorists - the Islamic-crazy sort, at any rate - believe that what they're doing is right.

Just as Joseph Burges apparently thought that God wanted him to kill people who did naughty things. (A Catholic Citizen in America (July 24, 2009))

Except Al Qaeda and the Taliban have a whole lot of people like Joseph Burges - and they're organized.

I think it's the height of folly to act as if Osama bin Laden, Mohammed Atiq al-Harbi, Said Ali al-Shihri, and others like them, are like misunderstood street kids who just need a break to go straight.

War isn't Nice, But This is War

The War on Terror may no longer exist - officially (March 30, 2009) - but there's a (loosely) organized set of organizations who earnestly, sincerely, passionately believe that God is telling them to kill people.

The people they want to kill don't, quite often, want be killed. What we have, therefore, is a conflict.

The War on Terror isn't a nice, old-fashioned, gentlemanly war where a formal declaration of war is sent - and a battle arranged after tea on some mutually-acceptable afternoon. I rather doubt that wars were ever quite like that - and the War on Terror certainly isn't of that sort.

But it is a war. Over 3,000 people abruptly stopped breathing on September 11, 2001.

Some died when an exploding airliner sprayed bits and pieces of their bodies over New York City. Some didn't get out of New York City's World Trade Center in time. Some, the ones caught on floors above the impact points, couldn't.

Others were crushed, burned, or asphyxiated when an airliner crashed into the Pentagon.

Still others were retaking their airliner when it crashed into a field in Pennsylvania.
I won't 'Get Over It'
It might sound grand to say something like 'put the past behind me' or 'let bygones be bygones' or 'live and let live.' The problem is, the people who keep Al Qaeda and the Taliban going - as well as the other Islamic terrorists - (not all Muslims) aren't willing to 'live and let live.'

And, nice as it sounds, it doesn't take two to make trouble. Not when one of them is intent on killing the other.

This is One Problem That Won't Just Go Away

Back to the 'Harper Valley PTA' strategy, of ignoring a problem - unless it involves someone else.

Pretending that the War on Terror doesn't exist makes about as much sense, I think, a giving terrorists art lessons and feeling that they'll be nice people as a result.

The people running Al Qaeda and like-minded outfits are, quite simply, not nice. Wanting them to be nice, hoping that they'll be nice, treating them nicely, and pretending that everything's nice: isn't nice. It's stupid. And, potentially, lethal.

There's More - There's Always More

If you haven't gotten enough of this post: There's more. I put excerpts from the news and op-ed pieces that got me started, as well as some of my running commentary, after the links in this post.1

Related posts: News and views:
1Excerpts from today's news and views:

Prisoners released from Guantanamo return to fight for al Qaeda

"You won't see this story in many of the U. S. Elite Media...in fact we could not find a mention of it in any of the major papers or broadcast networks. While it is true they all reported several different articles on President Obama's announcement that he was closing Guantanamo they somehow have missed the story. You have to look in the British press to find it.

"The story is that many of the Guantanamo prisoners that are being moved out of the Cuban prison have ended up back on the battlefield fighting with al Qaeda. In fact, 74, at least, have returned to the battlefield. Six prisoners were returned to Yemen last month.

"Meanwhile, there are also reports that a significant number of al Qaeda fighters have moved from Iraq, Afghanistan and Pakistan to Yemen...."
(News and Commentary, Beaufort Observer)
Lots of assertions, not many specific facts. This is what I started with, this afternoon. I thought that the claims made were quite likely true: but I've learned to research, rather than assume.

So, I started digging: starting with "look in the British press to find it." There's quite a bit of "the British press," but at that clue narrowed the search a trifle.

U.S. suspends Guantanamo prisoner transfer to Yemen

"The Obama administration on Tuesday suspended the transfer of detainees from the U.S. military prison at Guantanamo Bay to Yemen as a result of the deteriorating security situation there.

"President Barack Obama bowed to political pressure from Democratic and Republican lawmakers not to send any more prisoners to Yemen as a result of revelations that a would-be bomber on a Detroit-bound plane had received al Qaeda training in Yemen.

"Several of the roughly 91 Yemeni detainees at Guantanamo Bay had been cleared to be sent home, as the Obama administration struggles to close the prison.

"White House officials made clear that the suspension was considered a temporary one.

" 'While we remain committed to closing the (Guantanamo) facility, a determination has been made, right now any additional transfers to Yemen is not a good idea,' said White House spokesman Robert Gibbs...."
(Reuters)
Well, that's interesting. I'm not sure quite what to make of Reuter's turn of phrase - "...President Barack Obama bowed to political pressure...." - but let it pass. Besides, I doubt that someone with the Beaufort Observer would think Reuters was "the British press."

US suspends Guantanamo to Yemen transfers

"The US has said it is temporarily suspending the transfer of prisoners to Yemen from the Guantanamo Bay detention centre in Cuba.

"The move comes after it emerged the Nigerian man accused of trying to bomb a US plane on 25 December was allegedly trained by al-Qaeda in Yemen.

"More than 80 Yemeni men were due to be moved from Guantanamo Bay, as the US tries to shut down the camp.

"Officials fear many could re-join militant groups if sent back to Yemen.

"While we remain committed to closing the facility, the determination has been made that right now, any additional transfers to Yemen are not a good idea," said White House spokesman Robert Gibbs.

"US President Barack Obama has come under pressure to halt Guantanamo transfers to Yemen since investigators said 23-year-old Nigerian Umar Farouk Abdulmutallab had been trained in that country to blow up a transatlantic flight to Detroit on Christmas Day.

"It was alleged last week that the bomb plot was planned by two men who were released by the US from Guantanamo Bay in November 2007.

"Mohammed Atiq al-Harbi, also known as Mohammed al-Awfi, and Said Ali al-Shihri were sent home to Saudi Arabia, where they were admitted to an 'art therapy rehabilitation programme' and later set free, US and Saudi officials said...."
(BBC)
Do I really need to say it? BBC - the British Broadcasting Corporation - is, well, British. This could be the source alluded to by the B.O.

Said Ali al-Shihri isn't exactly a household name here in America, but it looks like he's a very important person in Al Qaeda. Specifically, there's good reason to believe that he's the deputy leader of Al Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula, or AQAP. Mohammed Atiq al-Harbi? He's only an Al Qaeda field commander. ("Key figures in al Qaeda's Yemeni branch," France24 (January 5, 2010))

Well, at least both of them should be able to draw nice pictures now.

'Bad guys' make it difficult to close Guantánamo

"The Christmas Day airline bomb plot, with its direct links to al-Qaeda in Yemen, is causing a big headache at home for President Obama and, in particular, for his already deeply troubled effort to close Guantánamo Bay.

"Of the 198 detainees still in the prison, nearly half — 91 — are from Yemen.

"In the past 24 hours there have been calls from Republicans and Democrats for the White House to freeze plans to repatriate many of them to Yemen...."

"...There is little confidence in Washington over Yemen's ability to secure its prisoners, or keep tabs on those that have been released. Memories are still fresh of a 2006 jailbreak by 23 top al-Qaeda members. 'All transfers of Yemeni detainees should stop,' Senator Joseph Lieberman, an independent, insisted.

"Two of the four top leaders of al-Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula — Saudis called Said al-Shiri and Muhammad al-Awfi — are former Guantánamo detainees who crossed into Yemen after being sent back to Saudi Arabia. Of the more than 800 who have passed through the site in Cuba since it opened in January 2002, 108 have been Yemenis — and only 18 have been repatriated.' 'Yemen has produced an unusually high percentage of seriously bad guys,' said Benjamin Wittes, a Guantánamo expert at the Washington-based Brookings Institution. 'Given Yemen is likelier than the average country to be really scary, and the Government less likely than about all others to keep an eye on them and manage the risk, you end up with a very difficult combination of circumstances.' "
(Times Online (UK))
Or maybe this is "the British press" resource that the Beaufort Observer's writer used. Or, maybe not.

That failed Christmas weekend attempt to bring down Northwest Flight 253
(December 27, 2009) has been quite an embarrassment to the American president. From the looks of it, though, traditional American news media has recovered from the surprise - and administration officials are being quite a bit more prudent about off-the-cuff remarks. (December 28, 2009)

The Yemen connection? Not so obvious in American news coverage. My opinion.

Key figures in al Qaeda's Yemeni branch

"Al Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula (AQAP) has claimed a botched Christmas Day attack on a US-bound flight in a statement released on the Internet. FRANCE 24 takes a look at some of the group's top leaders.

"Days after the failed attack on Detroit-bound Northwest Airlines Flight 253, the international spotlight has focused on Islamist networks in Yemen, where 23-year-old Nigerian Umar Farouk Abdulmutallab was reportedly trained by an al Qaeda bomb-maker. US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton has called the situation in Yemen 'a threat to global and regional security'.

"But the threat from Yemen – especially from al Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula (AQAP), the group that has claimed the Christmas Day plot – is not a new phenomenon.

"US and Yemeni authorities have been familiar with some of the key figures in Yemeni jihadist circles for the past few years. An alarming number of top AQAP leaders have passed through US and Yemeni detention centres and they are well-known to authorities in both countries.

"The 'emir': Nasir al-Wuhayshi

"A Yemeni former aide to Osama bin Laden in Afghanistan, al-Wuhayshi, was in Tora Bora, near the Pakistani border, during the US-led offensive after the Sept. 11, 2001 attacks. He escaped via Iran and was arrested by Iranian authorities who then extradited him to Yemen in 2003...."
(France24 (January 5, 2009))
This is a pretty good background resource: I hope France24 keeps the page online.
Posted by at No comments:
Labels: , , , , , , , ,
Subscribe to: Posts (Atom)

Unique, innovative candles


Visit us online:
Spiral Light Candle  • Find a Retailer
• Spiral Light Candle Store

Blogroll

Note! Although I believe that these websites and blogs are useful resources for understanding the War on Terror, I do not necessarily agree with their opinions. 1 1 Given a recent misunderstanding of the phrase "useful resources," a clarification: I do not limit my reading to resources which support my views, or even to those which appear to be accurate. Reading opinions contrary to what I believed has been very useful at times: sometimes verifying my previous assumptions, sometimes encouraging me to change them.

Even resources which, in my opinion, are simply inaccurate are sometimes useful: these can give valuable insights into why some people or groups believe what they do.

In short, It is my opinion that some of the resources in this blogroll are neither accurate, nor unbiased. I do, however, believe that they are useful in understanding the War on Terror, the many versions of Islam, terrorism, and related topics.