8 years have passed since terrorists, who entered the country on legal visas, attacked and killed thousands of American citizens.

Two conspirators in the first World Trade Center attack, Mohammed Salameh and Eyad Ismoil overstayed their visas. Other terrorist ‘overstayers’ were Lafi Khalil, who was involved in the New York subway bomb plot, and four of the 9/11 terrorists: Zacarias Moussaoui, Satam al Suqami, Nawaf al Hamzi, and Hani Hanjour. They could do this because we did not have the ability to track aliens who are in the US.
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Tags: politics & government, terror & war by David "Preacher" Slocum
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New York City’s Mayor Bloomberg was on TV recently, touting the expansion of the Lower Manhattan Security Initiative to include midtown Manhattan. Bloomberg is asking for $24 million in Homeland Security funds to complete this project.

Bloomberg cited London’s “Ring of Steel” that was erected in response to a series of IRA bombings in the early 90’s as an example of how it should be done. The closed circuit tv cameras, radiation detectors and license plate reading cameras are designed to monitor the citizens and protect them against both crime and terrorist attack.
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Tags: black helicopter watch, terror & war by David "Preacher" Slocum
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Breaking news: an EU fact finding mission composed of 30 European ‘military, legal and history experts’ has just confirmed what anybody with eyes and a brain that has not been befogged by years of Cold War propaganda could figure out for themselves — that Georgia started last year’s war in South Ossetia. Other astonishing evidence the crack team of investigators has uncovered is that Russia then took advantage of the situation to wreak merry havoc inside Georgia, and that many individuals were displaced from their homes in South Ossetia, although apparently they’re not sure exactly who did that. Next week the EU will reveal that cheese does not necessarily have holes in it and that Michael Jackson is dead.

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Tags: terror & war, trusted media & news by Daniel Kalder
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Earlier this week I received a serious shock while watching CNN when the word ‘Scotland’ appeared on the tickertape at the bottom of the screen. I was shocked because this was the first time I had seen my homeland mentioned in the news in three years of living in America, and more than that — the context clearly identified Scotland as a separate entity from England. In all my roaming around the globe I have found that it is exceedingly rare that people anywhere are aware of exactly what Scotland is, outside of vague associations with such kitsch as kilts, bagpipes and Braveheart. For many, England serves as a synonym for the UK or Britain and vice versa, and where Scotland fits into the picture is rarely — if ever — properly understood. [Read more →]

Tags: politics & government, terror & war by Daniel Kalder
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Hillary Clinton is traveling in Africa this week, although you wouldn’t know it by reading or watching the news.  Until today that is.  While in the DRC she was meeting with students at a Congolese University in Kinshasa and was asked through a translator what her husband Mr. Clinton’s opinion is about Chinese contracts with Congo.  Clearly annoyed by the question, Mrs. Clinton responded harshly advising that if the young man asking the question would like to know her opinion, she would gladly give it but she would not talk about her husband.  “My husband is not Secretary of State, I am.” [Read more →]

Tags: politics & government, terror & war by Louisa Wright
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Who is the world’s craziest leader? I’d assume that most people would think of a select handful of America’s more outspoken enemies, with North Korean tyrant and cineaste Kim Jong Il at the top of the list. He’s always reminding us how whacked out he really is — why, just last week he successfully humiliated former president Bill Clinton by forcing him to do a funny little dance in exchange for the release of two American journalists. Then there’s the election-stealing messianic loon Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, who leaves a seat vacant at cabinet meetings for the 12^th Imam, the Shiite messiah who disappeared as a ten year old boy in the 9^th century AD and who Ahmadinejad believes is coming back to conquer the world any day now. However I think that when it comes to crazy these two leaders, although extremely unpleasant, pale into insignificance before America’s ally and good friend, Mikheil Saakashvili, the president of Georgia.

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Tags: politics & government, terror & war, travel & foreign lands by Daniel Kalder
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It has been five months now since people from all over the country gathered in Washington to watch the first black president get sworn into office, and as his honeymoon fades into history while the economy struggles, I cannot help but think about the guy in Texas that most people blame for this mess, and what exactly happened to him, and us, that led us to this point. So I wanted to reflect, for the first time with a little perspective, on what were the basic truths behind the Bush administration, issue for issue, and how they translated into presidential success or failure. Maybe some simplified retrospection will show critics and fans alike what was so bad or good about this man. [Read more →]

Tags: politics & government, terror & war by Robert O'Hara
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If Dick Cheney had his way, Nelson Mandela might still be in prison. This sounds like the sort of wild exaggeration Keith Olbermann-types use to show their opposition to all things Republican. It is not. As a congressman, Cheney voted against a resolution calling for South Africa to free Mandela (who, at the time of the 1985 vote, had been imprisoned for 23 years of his eventual 27 year sentence). Cheney has backed away from some votes over the years — notably, he now says he would support the Head Start program, having rethought his opposition to feeding poor children — but he stands by this one. This is not to say Mandela would definitely be in jail to this day, as Cheney conceded Mandela has “mellowed” in recent times, suggesting that he could have eventually been paroled and perhaps one day even released entirely on his own recognizance.

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Tags: politics & government, terror & war by Sean Cunningham
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The most powerful work of public sculpture I’ve ever encountered is Maya Lin’s Vietnam War Memorial on the Mall in Washington, D.C. I first visited it late one spring night in 1985 when I was 32. I was astonished at how many people were there at nearly midnight. I found the experience deeply and unexpectedly moving, not least because it caused me to think how lucky I’d been not to have to go to war myself. I wrote this poem soon after and left a copy of it at the Memorial when I returned a year later.

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Tags: terror & war by Christopher Guerin
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Today, the actress Mia Farrow will begin a 3-week-long water-only fast to show her solidarity with the people of Darfur and to express her outrage at the lack of action the world’s leaders have taken to halt the bloodshed in that devastated region of Sudan.

While I admire Ms. Farrow’s courage at taking such a stand for something she believes in, I can’t help but wonder if it will make a difference. Will anyone care? [Read more →]

Tags: politics & government, terror & war by Louisa Wright
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The Democratic Republic of Congo has been called the most dangerous place in the world to be a woman or girl. (John Prendergast) The weapon of choice in this African country is not a gun or machete; it is mass rape and sexual assault. Hundreds of thousands of women have reported being attacked, and who knows the true number, as the stigma that goes with rape causes untold numbers not to report it. [Read more →]

Tags: his & hers, terror & war by Louisa Wright
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So it’s December 7th and the day is just about to come to a close.

With nary a mention of Pearl Harbor in public media, at least, through a day’s worth of checking into CNN and flipping around the radio.

Usually, there’s some mention — it may get one on the 11:00 news tonight. I’ll find out in a few minutes. It may have received some mention this morning, but I didn’t watch the news this morning. I didn’t look at the paper. I’ll admit I didn’t go out of my way to find it.

I didn’t really have to; though I’m far from having lived through it, the mention of December 7th automatically brings to my inner ear Roosevelt’s “a date which will live in infamy”, and some tangible imagining of the ripples of the fear and anger that gripped Americans on that day.

What happened?

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Tags: terror & war, trusted media & news by Andrew Turner
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The report of the imminent terrorist WMD attack on U.S. soil by 2013 recommends stationing at least 15,000 trained military troops, prepared for quick response, inside the country by 2011, in addition to the National Guard and local law enforcement. The imminent, of course, gives rise to the inevitable: legitimate questions and concerns about violation of the Posse Comitatus Act, which precludes the federal government from using the military for domestic purposes.

But I’d be much more inclined to get in a tizzy about the potential suspension of the Posse Comitatus if this story didn’t come on the heels of Black Friday, during which those of us who holed up at home, still grooving on the turkey, were treated to the news of a deadly gunfight at a Toys ‘R’ Us in California and an equally deadly stampede at a Wal-Mart on Long Island that ripped the doors off their hinges and trampled to death a Wal-Mart worker untrained in crowd control and unprepared for quick response. (I’ll leave the Mumbai situation out of this, since it’s not a U.S. soil issue.)

If this is how people behave when low-priced goods are at stake, what are the chances they will behave in an orderly fashion and cooperate with the authorities — whose competence in these matters is justifiably suspect — to contain and control the damages when the imminent and inevitable panic strikes?

Somehow, while the memories of the Wal-Mart pileup are still fresh, the long-term dangers of potential abuse of the Posse Comitatus loom less threatening than they should.

Just sayin’…

Tags: on the law, terror & war by Olga Gardner Galvin
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A new report delivered by a panel, that had been assembled by Congress, says a biological terror attack will happen by 2013. According to CNN.com, terrorists “are more likely to use a biological weapon than a nuclear one — and the results could be devastating.”

What am I supposed to do with this information? It’s not that I don’t want to be clued in, but I just don’t see how this information does anything for me — other than terrify me.

After reading this I wondered if there was anything I could, in fact, do to prevent becoming a victim. Should I move somewhere less likely to be a target? I can move to Dallas in an effort to still be in a city — just not New York City. I hear Colorado is nice and maybe it would be good to slow my pace down a bit. But would this even help my family to avoid being the next victims of terror? The report didn’t specify which city is most likely to be hit — only that America will, most definitely, be attacked. Should I be building an underground bunker of some kind? Would that even keep me safe from a biological attack? How are we, as average American citizens, supposed to deal with this information? Can we really even prepare?

I’d venture to guess that no one living, working, and visiting Mumbai thought a bunch of insane terrorists were going to descend on them last weekend. These warnings do nothing for me. I pay my taxes to have an effective government protect me. I take back what I said earlier… it is that I just don’t want to be clued in!

Tags: terror & war by Amy Boshnack
12 Comments »

I am a book collector and have a weakness for modern first editions, although many of these are no longer in my price range (or that of anyone I know). And so, on a Saturday morning last April, I dropped by the Park Avenue Armory, site of the New York Antiquarian Book Fair, hoping to simply say hello to a few dealer friends, peruse the books quickly, and get back home in time to catch the Mets-Braves game. As it happened, I found a nice copy of Kurt Vonnegut’s anti-war masterpiece, Slaughterhouse-Five. But what really interested me was a rather incongruous sideshow, also with a wartime theme.

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Tags: books & writing, terror & war by Jeff Scheuer
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This piece by Jason Stein ran a couple of days after September 11, 2001, in the original When Falls the Coliseum.

My 9/11

Tuesday morning, September 11, 2001, I leave my apartment around 7:45 a.m., as I am always very excited about going to the deli and ordering two eggs on a roll for $1.25 for breakfast, which I will eat when I get into the office. After breakfast is secured I head over to the A train in the Times Square area going downtown to 60 Wall Street. I take the elevator up to the 42nd floor, thinking I’m glad I don’t have to walk up 42 flights because by the time I get up to 42 it would be time for lunch and there goes my special breakfast. [Read more →]

Tags: terror & war by Coliseum
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