March 12, 2007
WHEN TERRORISTS ATTACKED DC
Did you know that last week was the 30th anniversary of a crisis in Washington, DC perpetrated by Muslim gunmen who took 150 hostages? I didn't; and I lived in DC for several years. Apparently, on March 9th 1977, a dozen gunmen seized control of three buildings in DC: the District Building, the B'nai B'rith International Center, and the Islamic Center. One young man, Maurice Williams, was killed in the takeover, a guard who was injured would die a few days later of a heart attack, and future Mayor Marion Barry was nearly mortally wounded when a ricocheted shotgun pellet just missed his heart.
In the Washington Post article looking back at the incident, the gunment are identified as Hanafi Muslims, Hanafiism being a subset of Sunni jurisprudence. While the majority of thee hostages were captured at the Bn'ai B'rith Center, the impetus for the attack seemed more of an Islamic internicene squabble––and by squabble I mean slaughter of children.
The siege started March 9, 1977, at a time when security was still relaxed in government buildings and hostage videos weren't a few clicks away on the Internet. It was before people searched mail for white powder or suicide bombings claimed regular headlines.
"This was an early wake-up call about violence and terrorism and the extent to which groups will go to engage in violence either for the sake of violence or to make a point," Daniel S. Mariaschin, executive vice president of B'nai B'rith International, said yesterday. "Little did we know 30 years ago that this kind of issue would be a daily concern for all of us, not only here in Washington but abroad as well." He will speak at today's event.
The 12 gunmen had several demands. They wanted the government to hand over a group of men who had been convicted of killing seven relatives -- mostly children -- of takeover leader Hamaas Abdul Khaalis. They also demanded that the movie "Mohammad, Messenger of God" be destroyed because they considered it sacrilegious.
The hostages were eventually released after 39 hours and through the help of ambassadors from Pakistan, Iran, and Egypt working with DC police to negotiate a surrender. Khaalis, the leader of the hostage-taking group, was apparently upset that members of the Nation of Islam had murdered his family after he splintered from the NOI. I couldn't find any information on where the hostage takers are now, but did learn that their leader was the man who convinced Kareem Abdul Jabaar to convert to Islam and change his name from Lew Alcindor.
NB: Khaalis was sentenced to a term of 41 to 123 years in prison. He apparently snapped in reaction to what he considered lenient sentencing of the men found guilty of murdering his family. Also describing the Nation of Islam's hand in the death of Khaalis' family members as an internecene squabble isn't really fair, as I consider the NOI less of a legitimate religious organization than it is a cult and borderline criminal organization.
Posted by Lexiphane at 4:18 PM | Comments (0) | TrackBack
March 10, 2007
THERMOPYLAE IN THEATERS
I found this surprising, although maybe I shouldn't have. The Greek battle pic 300 is set for a huge opening weekend.
Imax, the giant-screen movie chain, reported that all 57 of its 12:01 a.m. Friday screenings of the Warner Bros. film had sold out as its advance ticket sales for the weekend hit a new record for the month of March.
"We had the most amazing night," said Greg Foster, chairman and president of Imax Filmed Entertainment, adding that many Imax theaters arranged 2:30 a.m. shows at the last minute to accommodate fans who failed to get into the midnight showings.
Many of the rest of the nation's 600 theaters with early morning shows also played to capacity crowds, said Dan Fellman, domestic distribution president for the Time Warner Inc.-owned studio.
"They were flocking everywhere, not just to Imax," he told Reuters.
300 is based on graphic novelist Frank Miller's (Batman) take on the Battle of Thermopylae, where 300 Spartan warriors stood at a wall on a narrow pass between a mountain and the sea in 480 B.C. With the rest of Greece's city states unwilling or unable to offer timely or effective assistance, it fell to the Spartans under King Leonidas to stand against an advancing Persian army of one million under the command of King Xerxes. Leonidas recognized that the most defensible position was the narrow pass at Thermopylae, where his highly trained citizen warriors could match up equally gainst overwhelming numbers.
Neither Leonidas nor his men were under the illusion that they would survive the battle victorious. They knew they were fighting a rearguard action whose purpose was to both deplete Xerxes' forces while giving the other Greek states time to evacuate so they could fight another day. For their role in the battle that eventually served to stem the tide of the advancing Persian Empire westward and into Europe, the Spartans at Thermopylae are generally credited with sacrificing themselves in order to preserve the birthplace of democracy in the Western world.
Hardly humanitarians, Sparta was the epitome of a warrior culture in the ancient world. Mothers would give up their sons at the age of seven so that they could begin their training to eventually become part of Sparta's highly disciplined and effective army, admonishing them to either come home carrying their shields or borne upon them. While other Greeks were writing plays, figuring mathematical principles, and dabbling with political democracy, the Spartans were the tip of the Hellenist spear.
Like Sky Captain And The World of Tomorrow, 300's live actors were filmed entirely in front of green screens and their mise en scene is completly computer generated. I'd like to see it on an IMAX screen.
I can highly recommend Steven Pressfield's novelization of the Battle of Thermopylae, Gates of Fire. Not only is it an exciting story, but Pressfield does an excellent job describing the training of Spartan warriors and the city state's ethos of honor in war before all else.
Tagged: 300, film, greeks, persians, spartans, thermopylae, warriorsPosted by Lexiphane at 1:14 PM | Comments (0) | TrackBack
February 26, 2007
MILITANT ISLAM IS THE PROBLEM
Indonesia is the fourth most-populous nation in the world and a majority of its inhabitants are Muslims, the majority of which are likely peace-loving people. As Islam has peacefully co-existed in the region for generations, however, neighboring nations are finding that new militant Muslim inhabitants proselytize by the sword and, G.W. Bush notwithstanding, have little interest in a Religion of Peace as the President described it. In Thailand, approximately 2,000 people have been killed in a religious war waged by Muslim zealots. The Thai government is beginning to throw up its hands in helplessness, as even conciliation only encourages its attackers.
It is a conflict the government admits it is losing. A harsh crackdown and martial law in recent years seem only to have fueled the insurgency by generating fear and anger and undermining moderate Muslim voices.
A new policy of conciliation in the past four months has been met by increased violence, including a barrage of 28 coordinated bombings in the south that killed or wounded about 60 people on Feb. 18.
“The momentum of violence is now beyond the control of government policy,” said Srisompob Jitpiromsri, a political scientist at Prince of Songkhla University here.
The militant Islamists of Thailand are quite unapologetic about waging an explicitly religious war, not just against Buddhist communities in the south, but fellow Muslims who care to continue peacefully co-existing with their neighbors. Nearly half of the attacks in recent years have been against Muslims viewed as cooperative with the Thai government.
Now the insurgents seem to be taking their war to a new stage, pitting local Buddhists against Muslims by attacking symbols of Buddhism with flamboyant brutality.
The two religions had coexisted through the years here, often in separate villages. That mutual tolerance is breaking down now, and there are fears of a sectarian conflict that could flare out of control.
“Buddhist monks, temples, novices,” said Sunai Phasuk, a political analyst with the monitoring group Human Rights Watch. “Buddhist monks have been hacked to death, clubbed to death, bombed and burned to death. This has never happened before. This is a new aspect of violence in the south.”
Where are the voices of moderate Islam? Why are so many organizations acquiescent to the butchery by their co-religionists?
Tagged:Posted by Lexiphane at 10:50 AM | Comments (0) | TrackBack
January 23, 2007
WORST--BUT MOST APT--ANALOGY EVER
I didn't watch the State of the Union address this evening on account of more pressing matters, like watching Veronica Mars and cleaning out my sock drawer (really!) Maybe I'll read the text of the address later. God knows I'll be inundated with all range of opinions about it in the media for the rest of the week at least. I did skim through Sen. Jim Webb's (D-VA) remarks that served as a nominal rebuttal. Of course, these things are not rebuttals, but carefully worded statements putting one's party in the best possible light while in direct opposition to everything the President has just said. Anyway, from the skimming of the rebuttal it looked pretty good until the end, when Webb made one of the worst possible historical analogies in the purpose of furthering his case.
As I look at Iraq, I recall the words of former general and soon-to-be President Dwight Eisenhower during the dark days of the Korean War, which had fallen into a bloody stalemate. “When comes the end?” asked the General who had commanded our forces in Europe during World War Two. And as soon as he became President, he brought the Korean War to an end.
That's a great story Senator, but unfortunately the Korean War is technically still in progress. North Korea never signed a treaty agreement with U.N. powers, but only agreed to a cease-fire and the establishment of a demilitarized zone between the North and the South. The U.S. still requires and maintains a significant military presence in South Korea, a country that developed into a nation with a First World economy and democratic institutions while under our constant protection. North Korea, on the other hand, we left in the hands of a megalomaniacal dictator who turned his nation into a prison camp where mass starvation is a fact of life and tool for quelling political dissent. Power was assumed by his son at the time Kim Il Sung's death; a son who by most observations appears quite insane. I'm sure the North Korean people (not discounting the millions who died under Kim Il Sung and then his son) really appreciate our quick exit from an unfinished conflict.
In 1959, Gregory Peck starred in a Korean War movie called Pork Chop Hill. It is about U.S. troops' bloody efforts to capture and hold what appears to be a rather insignificant pile of dirt and rock on the eve of the planned cease-fire as final territorial decisions were being sorted out. Towards the end of the movie, Peck's character--a lieutenant--is asked by a private what the hell they're fighting and dying for. The war is as good as over. Why won't the North Koreans just sign the damn cease-fire and stop the senseless slaughter of hundreds of U.S. and Chinese soldiers? Peck answers--and I am totally paraphrasing from memory here--that "they're waiting to see how much we want it. How many soldiers would the U.S. being willing to sacrifice, because to them the number of their dead is inconsequential." The fight over Pork Chop Hill isn't about a few acres of land, it was about the North Koreans--acting as a proxy for the Soviets and the Chinese--testing the U.S.'s military and political resolve for future purposes.
They got the message. Soviet and Communist Chinese continued to bankroll and supply anti-Western movements throughout that region of the world for the next half a century, eventually giving us the Cambodian genocide and the Vietnam War, whose death toll of American servicemen was so great that the Korean conflict became known as the Forgotten War. It was not forgotten by the Communists. 50 years later North Korea has progressed only in that they posess the ballistic missile technology to hit the continental U.S. and are on the verge of becoming a nuclear power. It also showed that the U.S. would back down from conducting a thorough war by not striking significantly along the Chinese border with North Korea--it was Chinese troops that were dying on the 38th parallel in Korea--out of political nicety. Yes, Eisenhower stopped the fighting in Korea. But he set the stage for the necessity of decades of constant military involvement around the world throughout the Cold War.
Draw your own parallels to our current situation. But how do you think voters would feel about a ceasefire and negotiated partition of Iraq along religious lines if they knew that it would mean U.S. troops remaining in that country for the next fifty years? Because that is exactly what Eisenhower delivered when he fulfilled his campaign promise. There is no cut and run without victory. There is just cut and stay. And stay. And stay.
Tagged:Posted by Lexiphane at 10:26 PM | Comments (0) | TrackBack
January 21, 2007
OUR ACHILLES HEEL?
China recently destroyed one of its own satellites with a ballistic missile in what must have been meant as a public demonstration that warfare of the future will include outerspace as a significant field of battle.
China successfully carried out its first test of an antisatellite weapon last week, signaling its resolve to play a major role in military space activities and bringing expressions of concern from Washington and other capitals, the Bush administration said yesterday.
Only two nations — the Soviet Union and the United States — have previously destroyed spacecraft in antisatellite tests, most recently the United States in the mid-1980s.
Arms control experts called the test, in which the weapon destroyed an aging Chinese weather satellite, a troubling development that could foreshadow an antisatellite arms race. Alternatively, however, some experts speculated that it could precede a diplomatic effort by China to prod the Bush administration into negotiations on a weapons ban.
“This is the first real escalation in the weaponization of space that we’ve seen in 20 years,” said Jonathan McDowell, a Harvard astronomer who tracks rocket launchings and space activity. “It ends a long period of restraint.”
That last paragraph is one of the most dubious assertions I've read in print for some time. Contrary to any notions of "restraint", the United States has been at the forefront of weaponizing space for the past three decades, and I'm not talking about any barely functioning missile defense system. Satellites have become the most significant military force multiplier since the invention of the aircraft. There is little aspect of the U.S. armed forces that is not dependant on space-based data transfer. From supply chain management, to intelligence gathering and weapons delivery, the 21st century U.S. military depends on satellites to keep its troops fed and drop bombs directly on the heads of specific individuals in a crowded urban environment.
And warfare is about more than dropping bombs. An army is only as strong as the economy behind it. Like the Allies' plan of bringing Germany to its knees during WWII by crippling its industrial base--destroying oil refineries and ball bearing factories--any opponent of the U.S. would have to see that disrupting its satellite-based information technology dependent economy would be massively damaging to its war-waging abilities.
Obviously, I don't want to overstate my case, but this small article in The New York Times may one day appear as portentious to the leveling of worldwide military power as the Soviets testing their first atom bomb.
Tagged:Posted by Lexiphane at 12:24 AM | Comments (0) | TrackBack
December 8, 2006
IN THE AFTERMATH OF A DAY OF INFAMY
Yesterday was the 65th anniversary of the December 7th bombing of Pearl Harbor by the Japanese, the catalyst for the U.S.'s entry into World War II and what President Franklin Roosevelt described as "a day that would live in infamy." The New York Times' site does the paper, one of its reporters, and readers a great service by making available the six-part, 15,000 word series written by its Pearl Harbor correspondent Robert Trumbull describing the rebuilding of the naval facility in the months after the attack. The six articles are available in PDF format and are as follows:
Salvage Effort Reveals American Ingenuity
Once proud warships were restored to fighting trim.
How the Nevada Was Saved
In a miracle of reclamation and repair, the destroyed battleship returned to life.
U.S.S. California, a Massive Challenge
The sunken Nevada was only a warm-up for the task of raising the giant California.
West Virginia, New and Improved
Yard workers rebuilt the severely damaged West Virginia from the inside out.
Righting the Oklahoma
Through monumental engineering, the capsized Oklahoma was slowly rolled back.
Inside the Hull of the Oklahoma, a Dismal Hell
Robert Trumbull gives a first-hand account of his underwater exploration of the Oklahoma.
The special Times editorial section also includes an audio slideshow of images related to the pieces, telegrams exchanged between Trumbull and his managing editor at the paper, Trumbull's 1992 obituary, and a current piece looking back at Pearl Harbor after 65 years.
Trumbull's series of articles reminds me of William Langewiesche's three-part series printed in The Atlantic Monthly titled "American Ground" that was later published in book form. It told the story of the near-superhuman efforts and accomplishments of the deconstruction of the World Trade Center site following its destruction. It still stands as the longest piece of reporting ever printed in The Atlantic.
Tagged:Posted by Lexiphane at 10:58 AM | Comments (0) | TrackBack
September 13, 2006
IN ABSENTIA
(Photo by Noam Galai)
Apologies to anyone who wanted to hear my reflections on the 5th anniversary of 9/11, whether insightful or a diatribe. This may seems inane, but my attentions were occupied by the death of my cat that morning. I felt somewhat foolish weeping over the death of a pet that morning as thousands of people's names were read downtown commemorating an atrocity.
I'm going to shy away from any political or strategic discussion on this annuary, other than to note something I've gleaned from the numerous memorial broadcasts I've watched. They included minutes of phone messages from people trapped on the upper floors of towers 1 and 2 before they collapsed. Those were the people lucky enough to have the time and opportunity to call their siblings, parents, or best friends and say "I love you", "I miss you", "You're important to me."
It shouldn't take death's door to say those things. Survivors of 9/11--i.e. all of us--should take this week, and every day, to savor the company and livelieness of family, loved ones, and even complete strangers. We're alive; and lucky. The dead can't express anything. We can. Feel free to do so.
Tagged:Posted by Lexiphane at 10:36 AM | Comments (0) | TrackBack
August 10, 2006
TERROR PLOT FOILED, NYTs: PASSENGERS INCONVIENCED
Bully for Scotland Yard. They apparently interrupted a plot by Islamist fanticals to blow up several airplanes.
LONDON - British authorities said Thursday that they had thwarted a terrorist plot to blow up multiple airliners traveling between Britain and the United States, creating "mass murder on an unimaginable scale."Passengers waited at check-in desks at London's Stansted Airport after the announcement that a terrorist plot to blow up aircraft in mid-air was foiled. Several airline carriers have canceled U.K.-bound flights.
Passengers thronged London's Heathrow Airport on Thursday after the announcement that British police had thwarted a terrorist plot involving flights originating in the United Kingdom.
The police said they had arrested 21 people in connection with the plot, which apparently involved plans to smuggle explosives onto aircraft in hand luggage. In response, flights into London Heathrow Airport were canceled and airlines banned hand luggage on departing planes, causing chaos and long delays.
No good deed goes unpunished, however. From the same article:
Joanne Weslund, 68, a retired schoolteacher from Hubbardston, Mass., was critical of the way the situation had been handled by the airlines. "It's been terrible," she said. "We are waiting in Disney-like lines. The only thing B.A. has said is it's a security breach. We are told we can bring nothing on the plane, only passport and cash. If there is a threat, people should not be on planes, but how they handled this is atrocious."
Oh the humanity! Like standing in line at Disneyland instead of being incenerated mid-air is equivocal! Wait, there's more:
Travelers were required to remove spectacles or sunglasses from their cases, and those travelling with infants were required to taste any baby milk in front of security officials
.
Sweet Jesus, save us from Big Brother! Listen, I don't know what profile I fit, but the last time I travelled to Europe, I had to remove my shoes at every single airport I went to. You know what? It was annoying and time consuming, but they could have fondled my scrotum for all I cared. You know what I care about? Having a psycho blow up my plane or pilot it into a landmark because he's got a deluded sense of religious or national dedication. That concerns me.
Why do I get the sense that the NYT's would be bitching if Mohammed Atta was arrested on suspicion of terrorist activites on 9/10?
Tagged:Posted by Lexiphane at 9:19 AM | Comments (0) | TrackBack
July 1, 2006
UP IS DOWN; BLACK IS WHITE
This was originally pointed at in James Taranto's "Best Of The Web" feature in the Wall Street Journal's site, but I figured it deserves some proliferation. The current administration--like most--has mutliple faults, misdeeds, and blunders. I personally don't think those mistakes are as great as others do, but, I will admit they exist. Critics, however, persist in parodying themselves to the point of easy dismissability.
Jon Carroll, a columnist for The San Francisco Chronicle, tried to have it both ways yesterday, asserting that Bush was an anti-Semite for pandering to anti-Jewish sentiments, while at the same time assiduously working to advance Jewish interests.
The Times is a good target. People who believe in the "left-wing media" believe that the New York Times is the leftiest of them all. The people who believe in the "mainstream media" believe that the Times is the mainest of them all. Hardly anyone has a good word to say about it, except that it's the best newspaper in the country. But really, how important is that?Also, the name of the New York Times contains the word "New York." Many members of the president's base consider "New York" to be a nifty code word for "Jewish." It is very nice for the president to be able to campaign against the Jews without (a) actually saying the word "Jew" and (b) without irritating the Israelis. A number of prominent Zionist groups think the New York Times is insufficiently anti-Palestinian, so they think the New York Times isn't Jewish enough.
So The New York Times is Jewish, but not Jewish enough? By God that Bush is a crafty bastard. He may even be Jewish himself! Have people officially gone on the record as being completely insane? This reminds of the dichotomy of people altnerately and simultaneously characterizing Bush as a dunderheaded moron and an evil Machiavellian genius at the same time.
For God's sake. I've written this multiple times and I will write it once more--I feel like I'm banging my head against a wall. The lack of a credible opposition negates any legitimate criticism one may have against a standing administration. Making rhetorical and literal fools of yourselves does no good. Healthy democracy requires viable opponents to a ruling party. Being total jerkoff jokes does not help the opposition or the cause of democracy.
NB: Both Carroll and his editor should simply be executed or exiled for fact that the non-word "mainest" ever reached print. "Mainest"? Really? Are you serious? Shame gentlemen, Shame! Is the SF Chronicle's style guide a folder of crumpled napkins with crayon scrawlings on it?
Tagged:Posted by Lexiphane at 4:05 AM | Comments (0) | TrackBack
June 20, 2006
THE COST AND BENEFITS OF A JESUIT EDUCATION
My comments sections are completely f'd up and I had to to disable them recently to prevent spam-bombing that was going on on a ridiculous scale. One really good comment sneaked in, however, on my piece about the news that Ayman al-Zarqawi had been killed. Frankly, I perhaps was a little too gleeful at the news, but the guy was a son of a bitch and deserved getting a bomb dropped on his head.
A veteran chimed in that perhaps I was a little too harsh, which I don't think I was. Read the whole exchange here.
Tagged:Posted by Lexiphane at 12:14 PM | Comments (0) | TrackBack
June 8, 2006
SEE YOU IN HELL BITCH!
(Islamist Martyr, i.e. stupid moron who wasted his life hurting others and will get nothing good out of it.)
The man who assumed the so-called Holy War against liberation forces in Iraq, whose tactics involved specifically killing children and those civilians interested in building a civilized democratic society in Iraq got what was coming to him yesterday.
Abu Musab al-Zarqawi was killed after a 500-lb. bomb dropped on one of his safehouses. He location was sold out by Iraqi and Jordanian intelligence agents. The Jordanian-born Zarqawi was the de facto leader of insurgent al Qaeda forces in Iraq, since Osama bin Laden has been on the run for the last several years. Supposedly a master of disguise, Zarqawi eluded capture several times over the last few years. His latest disguise is a kicker: that of a dead guy.
I'm sorry? Am I eliciting too much glee at the death of a fellow human being? Sorry. But Zarqawi left the fellowship of humanity a few months ago, when he thought it would be a good tactic to bomb a group of kids accepting candy from U.S. military personnel in a town square in order to sow displeasure at a so-called occupation. One can hem and haw about the good-vs.-evil balance between organizations like Hamas, which provide social services to Palestinians while blowing up buses full of Arab and Jewish Israelis. Zarqawi, on the other hand, was firmly on one side of the fence of morality. His goal in life was to kill people--maybe Jews, maybe Americans, maybe Iraqis, maybe Sunnis, maybe Shiites--it really didn't matter. His job was to sow terror, fertilize hatred, and reap corpses. The guy was a complete asshole. Fuck him. I hope they put his head on a pike and plant it on the nearest town square for the crows or buzzards to pick at. That may sound harsh, but it's my site and that's how I'm calling it.
UPDATE: Unfortunately, I recently had to disable my comments because I was getting spam-bombed at the rate of 1000 messages a day in my comments sections. I tried to retool things yesterday, but now I can't even figure out how to post a comment. This particular entry had a response though that I thought warranted a response.
Well, let's do the same to President Bush then. Bush has killed innocent children recently to "send Al-Qaeda a message". Let's do the same to the Israelis who recently murdered a family of innocents on a beach.What's the diff?
and what about forgiveness?
You obviously are filled with hatred. I forgive you and all the hatemongers that are running the show on both/all sides now.
All right. I appreciate your forgiveness, although I am not filled with hatred; self-loathing occasionally, but generally my heart brims with love for my fellow man.
While your quote that GWB wanted to "send Al-Qaeda a message" is accurate, it's a non sequitur to link it to the accidental deaths of children in wartime. Not only that, it is an example of post hoc, ergo propter hoc, the logical fallacy that one event follows another as the result of the first. I'm speaking in the moral sense.
Your comment indicates a complete lack of moral compass and a swirling mess of ethical confusion on two fronts. You ask "what's the diff?" between a man who murders indiscriminately--in fact, whose goal is to kill indiscriminately and takes satisfaction in the deaths of innocent people--and those who accidentally kill people in war and will regret it painfully? I see a distinction there. Maybe you do not.
"and what about forgiveness?" That is a very Christian and humanistic sentiment and I really appreciate it. Self-delusions aside, however, I am not God. I don't have the power to forgive the sins of others. I can personally forgive the misdoings of those who wrong me and others, but that carries a certain burden on the penitant, i.e. a willingness to acknowledge guilt and a request for forgiveness. Lacking that and giving an indication of willingness to further hurt people, I only think it's right to take steps to forego the harm of others by taking necessary measures.
So, commentor, my only response that is reasonable is that moral equivalence and unequivocal absolution is the logic and moralism of fools. I don't think you are a fool; and I appreciate you visiting my site and commenting. I hope you come back and comment again as soon as I get my technical difficulties straightened out. In the meantime, please email further comments to the[@]lexiphane.com.
P.S. As you identified yourself as a veteran, thank you for serving.
UPDATE II: I e-mailed the commentor above and he replied. I regret saying that he possessed "a complete lack of moral compass and a swirling mess of ethical confusion." He's obviously a good guy that wants peace in our time. I think we can all get aboard that sentiment. Let's knock on wood that it actually happens.
Tagged:Posted by Lexiphane at 3:25 PM | Comments (1) | TrackBack
May 25, 2006
IF YOU SEE SOMETHING, SAY SOMETHING also DON'T F WITH THE F LINE
The title of this entry is laughable to a lot of people and indicative of a paranoia the government is supposedly attempting to instill in the American people. It's as if the twin hallmarks of the NYC skyline weren't crushed to powder and more than 3,000 people weren't murdered just five years ago.
A Pakistani immigrant was found guilty Wednesday of plotting to blow up the Herald Square subway station.
After two days of deliberations, a federal jury in Brooklyn convicted 23-year-old Shahawar Matin Siraj of conspiracy and other charges.
Prosecutors say he was planning the attack on the 34th Street subway station in retaliation for the Abu Ghraib prison scandal.
Siraj and co-conspirator James El Shafay were arrested a day before the Republican National Convention was held at Madison Square Garden in 2004.
El Shafay later pleaded guilty and testified against Siraj.
During the trail, prosecutors played tapes where Siraj laughed about the September 11th attacks and said he wanted to cause economic harm to the U.S.
He now faces life in prison when he is sentenced in October.
It happened in Madrid. It happened in London. There's no reason why NYC couldn't suffer another terrorist attack or might be immune to further atrocities.
Tagged:Posted by Lexiphane at 7:02 AM | Comments (0) | TrackBack
February 26, 2006
TAKE US SERIOUSLY!
Just a reminder, today's is the 13th anniversay of the truck bombing of the World Trade Center. Masterminded by the same people that went on to bring the the WTC down with airliners as guided missles, the first attempt was not as successful, only killing six people. President Clinton declined to even visit the attacked site at the time, foreshadowing the lack of seriousness we all gave to the imminent threat.
"It felt like an airplane hit the building," said Bruce Pomper, a 34-year-old broker.
Prescient and tragic.
Tagged:Posted by Lexiphane at 5:44 PM | Comments (0) | TrackBack
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