Spin versus spool
Janet Napolitano’s talking points emphasizing that “the system worked” to prevent a terrorist attack seem to be fizzling just as badly as Mutallab’s bomb. Even CNN is ripping into it, as their video shows. It’s becoming a running joke. As the previous post argued, treating this problem with upbeat spin isn’t going to work. It should never have even been tried.
While the solution to the public ridicule is likely to be improved spin, it doesn’t begin to address the real problems . One of them was casually revealed by the statement that there are over 500,000 names on an extended terror suspect’s list. A list with that many records is of limited utility unless it can winnowed down to a tractable set in a given situation. You really want to be able to use this data to answer specific questions like: is this man related to such and such an event or should this person fly? Simply saying that the terrorist is in the list is like saying the needle is in the haystack. It wasn’t of much use in keeping him off the plane.
So what does the architecture of the data look like? Can you run queries with joins across different agencies or across from the goverment to the private sector? Can you take one of the names on this list of a half million and find out what calls he made on such and such a date or where he’s been? What kind of metadata is in there?
Nobody is going to answer these questions in open source, but its a good bet that the difficulties to getting the data to yield actionable information will run afoul of two contraints. One is technical, but that can be solved. The other is bureaucratic and legal. That is probably a harder nut to crack. The significance of information in a wartime setting is radically different from its import in the criminal justice system. In war information is mostly used to affect events in the future. In criminal justice it is used to interpret events in the past. Treating information as intelligence or as evidence creates radically different organizational cultures and incentive structures. It also creates different architectures in information management. Deciding to treat terrorism as a law enforcement problem will probably result in information strategies that are optimal for convicting people, but sub-optimal for preventing terrorist attacks. A justice system is by definition in the business of punishing crime, not forestalling pre-crime.
None of those defects are going to be addressed by shifting from one set of talking points to the other. Newspaper articles, appearances on talk shows and assurances in print will have no effect upon solving these information problems. And they are manifest on the face of things. If Janet Napolitano actually thinks the “system worked” then she may not even be cognizant of the problem. Maybe someone can explain it to her.
That’s probably the job of those who are conducting what the Administration says is a review of the Homeland Security system. If so, here are a few suggestions which may make it more effective. First, exclude all the lawyers from the review and get a small group of experts to understand where everything is. To understand where all the marbles are kept. Next, get these experts to figure out how all the dots can potentially be connected across the whole system. Get them to answer the question: if you could legally write a query to connect all the dots, how would you write it — never mind how many joins, how many system boundaries it crosses. That’s the simple part. Then after you’ve answered these questions, bring in the lawyers. Now comes the hard part. What you’re left with afterward — what the lawyers let you do — represents the technical potential of the system minus its bureaucratic cost. Hopefully you’ll be left with something. Then sell it to the political leadership. That’s the hardest part.
Well hope springs eternal.
Tip Jar or Subscribe for $5
Napolitano is following the ungulate theory of bureaucratic survival. She has gotten into an assemblage of the incompetents and now she merely hopes to keep a low enough profile so that she can survive. This makes sense because the breadth of the incompetents that have been hired by this administration, the numbers with backgrounds that would normally have excluded them from any position that required a security clearance, is so great that any one can hope to hide in the herd. Napolitano is like the Safe Schools Czar and Geithner and the Media flack who loved Mao and Rahm and the ostensible Boss himself. Individually it is easy to look at each one and say, “No Way.” but as a crowd they generate enough dust and noise that they cover for each other. These are the people that you want standing next to you at an inspection.
Exactly; the difference between intelligence and evidence, pro-active vs reactive. The military has systems in Iraq, etc for linking individuals in various ways, leading to breaking up groups, arrests and interrogation. It’s asking too much for this to be used for domestic security, at least for now.
Is our Zebra white with black stripes or is it black with white stripes.
This concept applies to interpersonal situations — is my husband/wife a good person who does obnoxious things once in a while, or a bad person with some redeeming qualities? Sometimes on the micro level that perception can change in an instant. And it is not a mathematical formula. It is a combination of quantitative and qualitative factors.
How does this apply to the macro?
Are we at peace with occasional interruptions by some fanatics who engage in terrorism? Or are we at war, grateful that the attacks are only intermittent?
The Bush Administration mostly saw the situation as a war. When at war it is better to be on offense than defense. When at war, certain niceties not only can, but must be breached. When at war, a captured enemy is most valuable for the information they may yield about the enemy’s tactics, capabilities, and so forth. When at war, many of the comforts and luxuries of peacetime life must be foregone, for survival is at stake.
The Obama Administration mostly sees the situation as crime during a time of peace. For them it is better to be on defense than offense. The full measure of niceties that are appropriate to peace time cannot be breached. When someone is captured, the most important thing is to establish their guilt or innocence, not the information they may be able to give. And when at peace, the comforts and luxuries of peacetime need to be expanded, even if that means reducing our military readiness.
This was a subtext of a number of comments in the previous thread and the digression about Lincoln in an earlier one.
We are at war. It is not like World War II and it is not like video game war, but it is war. Perhaps it is more like the Thirty Years War or the Hundred Years War of long ago history. But then, no one learns history in school anymore anyway, so it is futile to make such comparisons.
I have had several friends who were stricken with malignant melanoma. One of them died after a truly heroic battle against it, the other fortunately is still doing well in his 6th year of stage IV. The reason I bring this up is to make an observation about the first of these friends.
His disease, in its latter stages, had spread throughout his body. To keep from unduly alarming his 8 year old daughter, he had all the lesions on his skin removed. He knew this would not affect the ultimate timetable of his disease but he wanted what he knew would be the final holiday season of his life to look as normal as possible for his daughter.
To those who didn’t know him as well, and to those who didn’t know his diagnosis, he looked normal — even healthy. But the disease was ravaging his internal organs.
This is what is happening to us. The leftist approach to the threat is to remove the superficial manifestations of this cancer of civilization. Then things will look good enough that they can preserve the illusion that we are at a peace interrupted by a few pesky criminals, most of whom they regard either as lone wolves or as lame incompetent mules.
Meanwhile the cancer is spreading. It has metastasized to an alarming degree. (Here I strongly agree with Papa Ray.) But now we are under the “care” of a doctor who thinks we are basically just fine and who does not want to use our most powerful anti-cancer measures.
But we are facing a cancer. We are in a war. As W has pointed out far more articulately than I can, it is a different kind of war that demands a different kind of thinking and response than we are accustomed to. If we continue to see it through the lens of the criminal law we will fail.
Wretchard,
It’s fools game to assume that our leadership will allow the need to be filled. A mental exercise, not a realistic problem to solve – something of value.
My proof? I have none, other than this year’s events of weakening power, resolve and delirium of the rent-seekers in Washington. But, it’s only politics, right? Only politics…
While the solution to the public ridicule is likely to be improved spin, it doesn’t begin to address the real problems.
So? I doubt that the Obama administration is even trying to reassure us. I doubt it is trying to reassure the press. It is reassuring its own hardcore supporters.
What if the Obama administration’s spin is less about facing reality and more about appealing to the fantasies of its most emotionally invested constituencies? What if reality doesn’t even matter compared to the political imperative of staying on message and controlling the spotlight?
I think Barack Obama is more concerned about overreacting to a “minor incident” than doing anything that could upset a powerful clique of transnational capitalists led by George Soros. Think about what kind of devil’s bargain one needs to make in order to get the support of George Soros! Even if the Obama administration knows there is a problem, how can it possibly be honest about it when its power base insists upon fantasy?
Barack Obama must tread a fine line between taking his constitutional responsibilities seriously and kowtowing to the demands of his financial backers. The two realistic options for the Obama administration are to either continue the fight against the terrorists while denying that any such fight really exists or to force reality to conform to the fantasies of Obama’s political supporters. Given these constraints, a weird disconnect between this administration’s rhetoric and the reality of the world may, sadly enough, be the best possible scenario we can expect for the next couple of years.
From Andy McCarthy, posted at NRO, “The Corner”, in case you have not read it:
“Here, no thanks to the government, the plane was not destoyed, and we won’t get to the bottom of the larger conspiracy (enabling the likes of Napolitano to say there’s no indication of a larger plot — much less one launched by an international jihadist enterprise) because the guy got to lawyer up rather than be treated like a combatant and subjected to lengthy interrogation. But the terrorist will be convicted at trial (this “case” tees up like a slam-dunk), so the administration will put it in the books as a success … just like the Clinton folks did after the ’93 WTC bombers and the embassy bombers were convicted. In their minds, litigation success equals national security success.
It is a dangerously absurd viewpoint, but it was clear during the campaign that it was Obama’s viewpoint. The American people — only seven years after 9/11 — elected him anyway. As we learn more painfully everyday, elections matter.”
Litigation will prove their “point”. Of course the Nigerian will be convicted. A victory! The system works!
See how the conviction of Ramzi Yusef prevented further major terrorism attacks on the US?
If, as a thought experiment, we keep every one of the 500,000 on that list from flying until Islam’s terror war is over, what would happen? Shift the burden from the 99.9% of the innocent onto the possible and likely terror pool. Of course the Muslims would scream bloody murder — but so what? They are already the recipients of unprecedented generosity and forebearance by “infidels” — as an example, look at the pliant and humiliating way we all currently tolerate being treated as potential Muslim terrorists so Muslims don’t feel singled out as proof. Muslims still choose to depict themselves as victims of infidel oppression.
Some questions: Has our staggering level of inconvenience and personal invasion turned throngs of infidels into terrorists? Yet Muslims claim our heinous discrimination against them is part of what fuels their Jihad of terror and its recruitment. So even when we endure tremendous hardship on their behalf, Muslims seethe with resentment, foment their insurrection, and nurture their manufacted grievances and all-too-genuine hatreds against us.
This is not unsimilar to the way Jihad has worked all along. Countless millions have yielded before to Muslims only to learn too late that nothing will appease Islam’s lust for dominion or quench Muslim hatrred for the victims of their eternal Jihad.
MD @ 7 has it.
There is no database issue here, it is entirely a policy issue. Are we at war, or not? If so, keep all 500,000 off all airplanes coming to the US.
Now, by the iron rule of 80/20 this will probably be unfair to about 100,000 of them – type 1 errors. Plus, it will probably be unfair to about 500,000 other people who aren’t even on the list, but are mistaken for those who are – type 2 errors. How do you get off the list?
Of course, a list of 500,000 worldwide is probably too small. I’m sure names are added by the thousands every month, but they may be added too late. Now, if the list were on the order of 6,000,000,000 of which 5,000,000,000 are marked “OK to fly”, you might have a database/query issue. SF writer Cordwainer Smith said perfect information eliminates crime – but he said it also killed society. On the other hand, the Pentagon has focused for twenty years on battlefield information. But data is not information, can be misleading. These are just truisms.
The real problem is the entire list idea is being used defensively. What we need is a list of targets to be assassinated. Maybe Mutallab should not (yet) have been on that list, but he probably should have been banned from getting a visa, and banned from the aircraft, or at least searched to the bones first. See the difference? Napolitano and Obama and their ilk cannot, because they try too hard not to consider the first, they think a no-fly list is as good as assassination, or worse, since the “victim” may sue. Uh-oh, lawyers and breast-beating no-fly victims, much worse than 300 quiet bodies and a smashed airliner.
But a database issue? I think not.
Obviously Napolitano either does not understand “the system” or the details of this incident or both. Either way she should be looking for another job. This is an interesting claim that passengers in Amsterdam witnessed the terrorist receiving boarding assistance without a passport.
This incident and others does not support Mr. Obama’s opinion that Islamic terrorism “grows out of a climate of poverty and ignorance, helplessness and despair.”
Malkin is concise in her post The myth of the poor oppressed jihadist.
I thought Napolitano meant
A man of Napoli
But see that Janet is no gent
And say so happily
Our Janet thinks a fizzled bomb
Is triumph for our side
She treats the thing with calm aplomb
Detractors are decried
Five hundred thousand on the list
And not a one is checked
She says so there’s one we have missed
That surely can’t affect
The way we handle terror threats
We do so with dispatch
We always try to hedge our bets
In looking for a match
If she’s the anti-terror czar
Then you would think she would
At least not let them in the car
That much be understood
She thinks that we are all so dumb
To think men mean us harm
And thinks the magic aura from
The O will be the charm
To turn this world to happy days
By making real amends
That steers them from their terror ways
And make them lasting friends
Anyone here remember the John Carpenter movie “Dark Star”?
The real life version of this is something like there are all these people on an airplane about to land in Detroit. The video screens used for the safety demonstration and the inflight movie flicker to life, and Director of Homeland Security Janet Napolitano appears on the video with a message for the passengers and crew.
“On the basis of intelligence reports, satellite imagery, and simulations run on clusters of super computers, we have have been able to predict with 95 percent confidence that by the time you see this video, a man in Seat 13B will have attempted to set his pants on fire. Our simulations also predict with 90 percent confidence that your fellow passengers by now will have stomped out the fire and stomped on the man in question. Owing to the restrictions of communication interlinks, it has taken the duration of your flight to get you this report. You should know by now whether or not your fellow passengers have been able to thwart this attack. If not, best of luck to you all . . .”
Why do I have the unsettling feeling that this event is an indicator of how this adminstration would handle a large scale 9/11 type attack? An aloof president, the head of the department of homeland security bragging that the “system worked”. Do any of them realise just how big this really is? Do any of them care? It was only by the grace of God that nobody died and yet their attitude is, “Meh! No big.”
Of course the jihadist is poor and oppressed – by his own society, generally. And of course every moslem in the world is oppressed by the Christian crusaders in the dominant US/western world, just by their existence.
Um, btw, is Mutallab Moslem? Haven’t heard it mentioned. There’s the name of course, but is Barack Hussein Obama Moslem? Just asking. Since he (Mutallab) went to Yemen I will assume so, but that’s about the only hint. After all, Obama went to Pakistan. Harumph.
Every black man, every woman, every child, is oppressed by Western Civilization. And most of the dominant white men ruling the world are oppressed by their own system, suffering under the oppression of false consciousness.
Heck, I’m oppressed by some uniformed lackey telling me to take off my shoes and keep my hands neatly folded on my lap.
Only (Marx, Mohammed – choose one) can free us from oppression.
Have a nice day.
Remember when they were first discussing and deciding on how to do airline security in Congress? One side wanted to do it like El Al and some other European countries did it.
Private companies that profiled the heck out of the passengers and use proven interview procedures. Well the Democrats pushed for and got a nice new agency that would be a source of votes and would be oh so PC.
Then there is the whole follow the money thing. For example the money from the Wahabis in oil rich Saudi going out to Madrases and organizations to spread the call for Jihad. If the US had went heavy into domestic and at least friendly areas for oil/gas/and coal production. We could have reduced the market price for Middle East oil and put a lot more pressure on those who financed the jihad movement.
I’m not even going to attempt to list or discuss the physical acts of war that I think should have been done, but by eschewing disproportionate reprisal, all we have done is encouraged the jihadis to try again.
We have met the real enemy and voted them into office.
My son (who is white as Weber’s bread and comes from stock that is as American as you can get) is on that list of 500,000. Here’s how: When he was eleven he was struck by a car after running out into the street while playing Hide ‘N Seek Tag (he was running from the girl that was “IT”). His left leg was shattered by the impact; requiring 2 1/2 hours of emergency orthopedic surgery to put it back together. The leg bones were put back together with steel pins and screws. Permanent fixtures in his body. Fast forward to when he is sixteen. He flies up to San Jose from Orange County with his best friend to stay a month during summer vacation at his friend’s mom’s house. Before he leaves on the trip he takes with him a spare video graphic card that I had because his friend’s computer up in San Jose was having issues and they wanted to do what boys like to do, play computer games. The month goes by and it is time to return home. His friend is staying for the balance of summer vacation in San Jose and my son is flying home solo, with the video card. He has a one way ticket from San Jose to Orange County. As he goes through the metal detectors he, of course, sets them off. He is ‘wanded’ and, of course, that too detects the presence of metal, but there is nothing his pockets. He shows the screener the scars on his left leg and explains that he has metal pins in his leg. Doesn’t matter as the TSA screeners then see the electronic device in his carry-on bag. He is immediately whisked away for “further processing”. He is given a full body search and given the third degree. Finally, after the intervention of my son’s friend’s step-father (who my son says was going nuts that they would treat a sixteen year old boy this way), the TSA is convinced that he isn’t some terrorist and he is allowed to continue on home. But not before they put his name (English first name, Italian middle name and German last name) into the watch list. Fast forward again to when he is eighteen and on 9/11/07 enlists in the USAF. During the recruitment process his name pops up on the watch list. Being that he is an Eagle scout and his test scores were off the charts (near perfect scores on his entrance and aptitude tests) the Air Force ‘ignores’ this. Later, when he flies out to go to basic training he is again stopped by the screeners because a) he sets the metal detectors off and b) he is on the watch list. Luckily he was being escorted by an USAF officer and the TSA screeners were “politely” told to allow my son to continue. But this continues to happen every time he flies on a civilian aircraft out of uniform. And there is no way to get his name removed from the list. Oh, the insanity.
Well she (napolitano) changed her mind. The security system did not work! Might be something wrong with the system do you think. As W said hard to work with 500000 names on a list.
http://blogs.wsj.com/washwire/2009/12/28/napolitano-reverses-course-says-air-security-did-not-work/
Instead of telling them the system will track terrorist, tell them the system will track Americans in the new health care program, which Janet Napolitano will run.
Just code name it “Healthy Folks!” We want to know if these people are doing anything that will compromise their health — like buying butter at the store or getting a little trans fatty in their eating habits. Also life style considerations. For instance, we would need to know all the drugs they take, including the illegal ones. If they a making phone calls that might raise their blood pressure. Or if they are surfing the web and visiting overseas porno sites.
Not only will the government need to know if a person is a threat to their own health and well being — but also to health and well being of others. Not just: are they drinking enough red wine? But also: are they drinking too much? Are they traveling where they might contract a contagious disease? Are they hanging with the wrong sort? Do they own a gun? Have they managed to get bullets for it? Do they carry bombs in their jock straps — but are not porn stars doing legitimate research?
If we say the terrorist is a threat to his own health and the health of those around him (or her), we should be able to collect all the information needed — just ask Ruth Bader Ginsburg. Of course, since they are terrorist we would have to put the appropriate firewalls in place and then not use the information. This will guard against abuse.
Well she (napolitano) changed her mind. The security system did not work! Might be something wrong with the system do you think.
Well, I didn’t expect that. She has a mind? Who knew?
But then, Gibbs on Sunday said there might be something wrong with the system … BUSH’s system, y’know.
So it’s still cannonical Obamanism.
–
Out of context my flaming thighbone, she said the same words on CNN and ABC and who knows what other outlets.
It could have been worse.
At least the Mr. Mutallab is the one getting arrested and not the passengers who were defending themselves from him.
Aides to Iran’s Opposition Leaders Said to Be Arrested
Top aides to Mir Hussein Moussavi were among a number of opposition figures arrested, Iranian Web sites reported, a day after chaotic street battles.
Wretchard,
You are assuming that these ‘records’ are stored in a real database – a relational one.
My money is that the ‘database’ is probably not much more than a document. Maybe a whiz bang XML file or spreadsheet some smart FBI operative came up with. It is probably barely searchable.
Joine, bah…
Otherwise, why would there be 500,000 folks in it. They cannot cull the records.
“They cannot cull the records.”
Wouldn’t a human touch be politically incorrect?
Let me add,
The Terrorist Watch List ‘database’ was probably contracted out. It will not be connected to other data. It will be a stovepipe application. It will be populated by hand from reports obtained from other organizations. This population is probably sporadic.
The government does not know how to use data, protect data, or create information.
I suspect that this is less a legal issue than an issue of different databases that still aren’t set up to “talk” to each other.
Doug,
When a ‘database’ gets that large you need good data mining tools and a lot of expertise to cull it – or to actually use it. That is why it failed.
As you can see from Tarnsman’s example, the folks who use and enter the data have forgotten why the use and enter the data. Over time it has become ‘just doing my job’ to enter the data. No decision process. Thus, Garbage In…
As you can see from the recent failure in retrieving info from the ‘database’ there are no advanced data mining filters in place. Somebody pays cash, one-way ticket, no passport? That from the front desk. And, apparently, no data warning to those screening the chap further on in the food chain.
This data is entered and not used.
It’s sort of frightening to see these people stick to the narrative – electing Obama removed the horrible stigma that Bush caused all around the world for America – so there can’t possibly be any more terrorism.
It’s the same with everything, we need a healthcare bill – in the face of majority of the people opposition – because Obama wants one for his legacy as greatest president ever. We need global warming to be real – in the face of damning doubt – because Obama believes in the warming religion. We need to cut missile defense, the F-22, our nuclear waste storage facility at Yucca Mountain – all because that is what King Bam Bam has decreed.
To see this blind obedience to the narrative over-riding life and death concerns with a terrorist attack is frightening. The Obama narrative is more important than the American reality.
Batman #3: “The leftist approach to the threat is to remove the superficial manifestations of this cancer of civilization.”
Good analogy, Batman. Can we push this a bit further?
A healthy body is fairly resistant to infection, whereas a weakened body is open to all sorts of opportunistic infections.
Maybe the challenge for the West here is that society is already weakened. If we had vigorous (real) economies, extensive innovation, full employment, rigorous education – then we might be able to deal with the jihadist threat handily. The prior decades of growing bureaucracy and stifling political correctness have left us in a debilitated state, unable to shrug off the problem.
To push the medical analogy, we may have no choice but to adopt more stringent treatments, given our weakened condition.
Its going to need a more radical re-thinking of public transport.
The bombers seem to be hiding the stuff in their rectum and assembling it in the plane toilet. Thus the hand searches around your underpants, now happening at European airports, are not entirely foolproof. In reality they need to search every passengers’ ass.
The only defence is the visa or the no-fly list.
The bomber is now saying there are other bombers trained in Yemen, waiting to move, so one hopes the visa systems/no-fly list in the west are up to the mark.
If not, will global aviation have to be substantially re-thought?
Islam is a supremacist ideology that demands absolute obedience to the will of Allah as determined by Mohammed. Persons who fail to submit shall be killed or enslaved. That is not radical Islam, that is core, mainstream Islam according to its foundational documents and teachings.
Not every Muslim is a terrorist but every Muslim is obligated to contribute something to the subjugation of non-believers. Unless and until the people in the West who are most responsible for security come to acknowledge this basic truth, we will all remain at extreme risk from Muslims who take this obligation seriously. Anybody who denies this is either ignorant of Islamic core doctrine or a liar.
A list of 500,000 names is a phone book.
Data mining for clues, after the fact is about all such a list would provide.
And, if Tarnsman’s story above @15, is remotely accurate, then the list is littered with irrelevance, clutter and PC pratfalls.
First we have to decide whether we are more interested in protecting Americans from the declared war (yes, Virginia, there is an Al Qaeda) or we are more interested in whitewashing Muslim extremism.
Since we currently are being ruled ourselves by radical anti-capitalists, “tear down the system” types at their core, it should not be surprising that they list toward those of the same bent.
If we continue to not be terribly interested in the plots to mass murder our countrymen and we spend our time rather more interested in how to phony up carbon emission science and pushing reset buttons with communist totalitarian states and euro-socialist policy wonks, then let’s just get on with it.
Call the question. Do we wish to vote out free market enterprise? Let’s just call the vote and be done with it. This stealth nonsense of pretending to be a centrist and then employing ram, cram, and jam legislation in the midnight hour is so sleazy.
You can’t get the adults in the room to vote for this nonsense, they have lived too long and seen too much, except for the aged hippies who missed a couple of decades being spoiled arrested adolescents well into their 60′s.
So, the way to cure that…is to pass “health care” plans that allow the “government” to give you “a chance to die”. William Ayers wanted to get rid of the last stubborn remnants of the fighters til the end…and this is a nice soylent green approach. A generation that has the “wrong kind” of patriotism needs to be “attritioned” out of existence, and let’s be quick about it.
I guarantee, the list of THAT 500,000 names will be dealt with efficiently and effectively. Those patriots should do the dear leaders a favor and just die on thier own.
I say, let’s just call the damn question already. America, the new Cuba. What Che you?
“Deciding to treat terrorism as a law enforcement problem will probably result in information strategies that are optimal for convicting people, but sub-optimal for preventing terrorist attacks.”
Yes, and it is also far more likely to produce circumstances that violate the rights of innocent indivduals than the “Bush’s War on Terror” approach.
The technical part is as you state easy, not trivial, but an information system is generall predictable and repeatable.
Trying to figure out what people want to do their jobs is the hard part, even if their managers don’t start loading down their report’s access to information with constraints and impediments. You then have managers all quite eager to defend their positions and the positions of their organizations by not sharing information. Now add to that mix lawyers, civil liberty concerns, and intelligence concerns.
Napolitano’s claim of success is in reality a very limited one — the air traffic & control system was notified rapidly of the event and they were able to be on the lookout for coincident attacks on other planes. In the charged atmosphere of the high stakes games that she is involved with she can not come out and publicly say there was a mess up and we will get to the bottom of it. Instead the plane did not blow up, success. Now, we’ll all be required to remove our shorts prior to boarding. The next iteration will involve the sound of snapping gloves.
Spending Christmas off grid in one of my Montana retreats proved a valuable experience and put some of my theoretical skills to practical pressure.
Now back in Florida I have watched the events of last day or so and caught up on some back threads. It all leads me to a long developing feeling whose practical time has arrived.
Over the course of the years since 9/11 I have advocated almost everything I now read on many blogs. I simply did it years earlier and was considered a murderous radical for pointing out such basics as the fact that islam and Christianity are totally immiscible and that we are in a war that will, if we allow it to, go on for decades. Nuke ‘em I said. Kill hundreds of millions so they would see our power. The chorus remained the same, even today, yet everything I proposed has come to be and now, since obama many of you have tacked toward my position albeit remaining to hold onto the fantasy that islam will cease its war on infidels without a huge loss. It will never cease without a mass killing of islams.
Early on in these predictions they were either not published or after an initial posting I was banned from certain sites. Politico couldn’t handle me eviscerating one of its writers so it immediately banned me after my first parry and thrust with the fellow.
It is good to see the changes in thinking taking place on various sites anent the dastardly islams. As for me, a new year will bring my silence, across the Internet. Joyous to many I’m sure. Blogging is not living any more so than watching a football game is playing in it. My recent experiences off grid have reinforced living a life with a bit more vigor than blogging through life. I wish you all a great year and wonderful life. Thanks W for all you do.
Habu
Earlier today a guest on MSNBC said something to the effect that all this WOT stuff was a waste of energy since far fewer people die from terrorism than car accidents and cancer in this country. Maybe this explains our current administrations restraint. It is more cost effective to just let them blow up a couple of planes every now and then. Maybe that is what Napolitano meant when she said the system was working.
She said it worked before she said it didn’t work. Standard Democrat fare.
Earlier today a guest on MSNBC said something to the effect that all this WOT stuff was a waste of energy since far fewer people die from terrorism than car accidents and cancer in this country.
That was who, Michael Dukakis?
Hmm, good point. Let’s see, about 50,000 a year from car accidents and 500,000 a year from cancer – so if we kill that many enemy per year, they should just shrug that off with a smile, too? OK.
Ionly suggested banning all 500,000 from flying as a thought experiment — I have little faith in the methods used to compile that list, and less in our government’s ability to utilize such a list. 12.25.2009 justifies such skepticism.
In another thread a poster asks Wretchard “What if the West is already dead?” It’s something I have pondered since the afternoon of 9/11 once I began to absorb and ponder the incident and its consequences. Predicting the future is like pushing on a string, but 9/11 convinces me of the following (imho) near certainties:
Muslims will not stop their terror Jihad. Jihad terror will escalate. Many more planes, buildings, and innocents will be annihilated. Nukes (dirty or otherwise) will eventually be inserted and detonated in American cities. Other WMD will be deployed by Muslims against us. Where will it all end?
This logically brings us to Wretchard’s famous “Three Conjectures”. Readers unfamiliar should google it. In the end, I think the monstrous evil of Islam, and the fact that a billion+ Muslims show no sing of foresaking or reforming their abominable religion, force us into a valley of darkness from which we may not be able to escape. Through their obscene terror Muslims will either compel us to employ such horrific means to stop/destroy them that we will no longer recognize ourselves, or we will succumb to Jihad like countless other victims Great and Small have done throughout time since Islam first slouched into existence.
Either way we lose.
I believe UBL clove the diamond of the West assunder on 9/11. Incidents like the latest terror debacle erode our confidence in our essential systems of governance. The extreme polarization of US politics, and even the ascent of the Obama radical wing are sequllae of 9/11.
Without Osama there’d be no Obama, but that is just a snapshot in a continuum. If we still knew ourselves like we did a mere 60 years ago we’d do those things today and fight today to halt those exterminationist trends now gathering within Islam. But failing that, we will limit ourselves grievously in our options once American cities smoulder in radioactive clouds or millions lay dead from poisons and disease unleashed by Muslim maniacs.
Now comes the hard part. What you’re left with afterward — what the lawyers let you do — represents the technical potential of the system minus its bureaucratic cost. Hopefully you’ll be left with something. Then sell it to the political leadership. That’s the hardest part.
Maybe not so hard after all. Maybe the political leadership is way far ahead of you. You’re obviously forgetting that our President is smarter than all the rest of us. The system is working just fine, as intended. For proof, I offer his Executive Order–Amending Executive Order 12425 “making a foreign law enforcement agency exempt from American laws on American soil…”
I trust you all can see this is the perfect way to deal with the real troublemakers amongst us, conveniently circumventing the need to deal with all that messy civil rights and Constitutional lawyerly stuff.
It’s a stroke of brilliance, don’t you see? Don’t you?
Don’t you?
http://pajamasmedia.com/blog/obama-surrenders-u-s-sovereignty-his-interpol-executive-order/
Hat tip to TigerHawk: http://tigerhawk.blogspot.com/2009/12/its-not-that-we-give-up-our.html
Tarnsman 15.
There is a way to get off the watch list. I did it by contacting TSA, which has a specific procedure for doing so and has for several years. I had to provide copies of three photo IDs with my signatures on a form that TSA provides notarized.
It took a few months for them to respond, and during that period I continued to be subjected to extra screening (an interview at the ticket desk with an agent on the telephone with TSA), but I eventually was removed form the list and no longer have any difficulty.
Make all politicians and bureaucrats fly commercial.
My previous post offered in humble support of RWE’s supposition at 31.
It doesn’t seem to me that any of the people who recently “slipped through” terror detection networks were doing a particularly vigilant job of concealing their intentions from us. The problem is not borderline cases but our unwillingness to take people at their word when they openly endorse destroying America. And this is not a problem of databases but ideology.
Every day, repeat felons with long records of violent crime commit additional violent crimes. The problem isn’t identifying their proclivities: it is choosing to act on what we already, unambiguously know but have chosen to excuse in the past. Not many people act like Col. Hasan; not many fathers report their sons to the government.
When a terrorism defense system is designed to operate in the way our criminal justice system operates, I imagine that there are actually vast numbers of terrorist “recidivists” who have been stymied not by security forces but by our pathological unwillingness to so much as acknowledge their bad intentions. Start with them. Then worry about the list.
In the previous thread a troll asked if Islamic fascism presented the same kind of existential threat to the USA that Nazis and Soviets did.
My answer to that question, picking up on the points that Kinsgton34 and Josh made is yes, it does.
It does if John Q. Citizen realizes that the elites in DC and the media and the schoolhouses have decided that the loss of John Q.’s own life is not too big a price to pay for the maintenance of their cherished mythologies, valued allies, and personal privileges.
It does if the people of the country come to realize that they are not part of a Special Interests Group that the elites consider to be valuable and admirable, and are The Great Unwashed, to be sacrificed without a thought.
It does if the people who took and oath to defend the Constitution come to believe this as well, and decide that they are tired of being told they must lose.
The USA will cease to exist at that point, more thoroughly than through any defeat the Nazis or Soviets could. What will arise in its place will undoubtedly be a harsher, meaner, more Hobsian creation than the geniuses in Philadelphia brought forth in the late 1700’s. Of course that will also mean the extermination of the present Elites, but something else will die with them, and whether we can ever get back to the vision of The Founders in today’s world is questionable.
Habu,
Sorry to hear you’re pulling the plug – if you wouldn’t mind, would you email me at:
tritonspolartiger at yahoo dot com
I’ve been curious about a couple of things you’ve discussed here for a while, and now it looks like you may bow out before I have the opportunity to learn more.
Either way, all the best.
Triton
Somehow it does not seem to me a big deal to check if given name is in database having 500 000 names. Google search engine gives such data in seconds searching much more vast databases.
The Terrorist Watch List ‘database’ was probably contracted out.
I’d say the CRU of the University of East Anglia is a good prospect.
“If you could legally write a query to connect all the dots, how would you write it?”
First, sort the group into “Muslim” vs. “non-Muslim”. Second, ……. oops …. we can’t do the first !!!!!
There’s probably a lot of meaningless chaff in that file of 500,000. I remember, shortly after 9/11 that Tom Sullivan (yes, the Tom Sullivan of Fox Business now), when he was broadcasting from Sacramento, commonly complained that his name was on a no-fly list and that he was constantly hassled when he was attempting to fly commercial. Obviously, he was not the bad-guy Tom, but neverless he was forced to pay (in a small way) for the sins of the real bad-guy.
Obama’s dilemma is that it is difficult to pretend that Organized Jihadist Terrorism does not exist when objective facts keep surfacing that indicates that it does. If he keeps pretending that it does not (I wouldn’t be surprised to hear from government sources that the burning bomber was a disturbed person who “acted alone”) the fear is that such a state of affairs will lead to a successful terrorist strike of horrific proportions in which case he will look like a total fool to such an extent that all the MSM’s horses and all the MSM’s men won’t be able to put Humpty Obama’s political career back together again.
On the other hand, if he does admit that OJT does exist and is a real danger, then the question becomes what is he going to do about it, and as to this he hasn’t a clue. Making a strong response will alienate his base, and a weak response will alienate everyone else. He is caught between the chopping block and the headsman’s axe.
My own prediction is that he will continue to pretend, and hope that the next terrorist strike doesn’t happen on his watch. When it comes to the war on OJT, just vote “present” and polish up your teleprompter.
A table of 500,000 records is not a big table, but it is a table with an unknown signal to noise ratio. If the noise were known then the number of records would shrink. What it seems to represent is a list of possible suspects, not a list of suspects.
Consequently the authorities do not seem to consider inclusion in the big list to be meaningful enough to warrant definite action. Only if they are moved to a smaller list (such as the actual no-fly list) is action warranted. And even so it contains dross like the good guy with the same name as the bad guy and the good guy with metal pins in his repaired leg.
So what’s needed is a way to get people from the bigger list into the smaller lists with a low false positive rate. You need to a smaller pile with more needles and less hay. Ultimately you want a pile of pure needles.
The half million list is like a claim which agencies can mine for gold. It’s not the gold itself. Maybe it’s not even the ore. Saying you’ve a got a claim isn’t the same as saying you’ve got the gold. So Napolitano has an extraction and refining problem.
That has to be solved or else the list of 500,000 is operationally of limited value. Now we have some idea of the rate at which the processing takes place because Mutallab’s father told the US embassy some months ago that he suspected his son was becoming involved with bad people. It takes at least that long for something to get processed. The system wasn’t done moving Mutallab from the list of possible suspects into the list of suspects.
Now that tells al-Qaeda something about the speed of the defensive system. If the AQ put a dozen cleanskins through a six month training course what are the odds they can get a leaker through? How many of that dozen will make the list of possible suspects, assuming they are trained by independent cells? How many will be moved from the list of possible suspects to suspects in a given period? So you have Number of Cleanskins x P(possible) x P(actual list) as the estimated number Napolitano can stop. The complement is the number she probably can’t stop.
The government has probably busted a lot of plots nobody is talking about. We don’t know the denominator, but we do know the numerator — the plots which eventuated in actual terror attacks. We know it because they make the news. So both sides have estimates of the leaker rate. Both sides have real problems. Al-Qaeda either needs to find more cleanskins or speed up their training to outpace the data processing system. Napolitano needs to find ways to transform her dirt into gold. The side that wins the problem solving contest gets to take or save lives.
Spin and PR have their role in process of the War on Terror. But ultimately Napolitano has to solve actual problems, not just image problems, for her department to work. Can she do it? Well, let’s see. And if not, there are other managers out there who might do a better job.
cfbleachers, unfortunately it is accurate. I was in the AF recruiter’s office when he ran a background check on my son and his name popped up on the computer screen, and listened as my son had to explain at length how his name ended up on a terror watch list. I am quite sure that my son isn’t alone in this type of experience. He takes in stride and finds it amusing that our government thinks he’s a possible threat. Me? I’m not so amused. To me it shows that the only reason that we haven’t gotten attacked again is pure blind luck. And the events on Christmas in Detroit just underscores that even more. Question is, when does our luck run out?
John #39, thanks. I will let me son know he can do something about being on the watch list. Being military, hopefully, it won’t take months and month. But then after Fort Hood, who knows?
Just as ROE are hampered by PC Think, these lists are.
The criteria for gaining entry to the no-fly list no doubt stretch credulity like most things these days.
(that’s what I meant by “the human touch”)
Boghie: He bought a round tripper.
Rich kid, remember?
Tarnsman @ 15–
Wow!! Quite a story.
I bet out of 500,000 names there are several thousand similar stories.
I am reminded of how the late (un)lamented Sen. Edward Kennedy used to get stopped at airports because there was an Edward Kennedy on the watch list, even tho teh Senator was rather famous and easily recognizable, and despite what we BCers think of him, highly improbable to be blowing up his flight.
TSA is really just a bunch of idiots… the ones with any intelligence are just swamped by the idiocy all around them… low intelligence plus rampant PC. There is simply no way this can be an effective agency.
And, don’t you just LOVE the response—nothing on laps, no bathroom breaks an hour before landing. That’ll teach ‘em!!
Old insult applies: If their brains were gunpowder, they couldn’t blow their noses.
My son, a very smart 25-yr old, is of the opinion that Obama’s Nobel was a major turning point in that it gave people permission to laugh at him and his pretensions, and doubly so at those who run interference for him.
Might this be for Obama what Katrina was for Bush, with Napolitano playing the part of Mike ‘Brownie’ Brown?
She’s gone by March. Spend more time with the family, pursue other avenues, or something. She embarrasses the boss, which no President but esp. this one will long tolerate.
43) RWE,
Absolutely – just as Islam would (probably) be better off in the long run if they were dealt with harshly in the present, so too would we (“Weatern” civilization) be better off in the long run if Islam is dealt with harshly in the present.
Count me among those who will miss your contributions, Habu. When I was short of time and skimming, yours were among the handful of posts that I always stopped to read thoroughly.
But I think I may know what’s behind your decision, because it’s what I’ve come to over the past couple of weeks as well. Not that I can live off the grid, but there is a sense that Maine has always been a bit of a throwback so as to allow for a turning inward, especially in the dark days of the deep midwinter.
I have decided that I know what’s going on in the country and the world, and even how it is all going to turn out someday, but I can never know what’s going to happen, how things will unfold, no matter how hard I try. What I can do is live my life as thoughtfully, obediently, and charitably as I can, reinforcing what’s good, true, and beautiful to whatever extent that is possible. In that way I can hopefully be an example to others and an agent of change for the better.
Our national government appears hopelessly at cross purposes to those things that matter and are enduring. I will pay the posturing of the political class less heed from now on. I mean to keep a distance from the cognitive parasites that infect them and are dangerous to my own emotional health in high enough doses. To whatever extent possible, I will reduce my dependency on the large, complex, and inherently fragile systems that constitute the house-of-cards of modernity. The things I love and value have stood the test of time, and it’s time to refocus my energy on these as much as I can.
Habu,
Just read your post about living life.
Watch your topknot, pilgrim!
14. Toad
VP Algore, of all people, actually had a workable, computerised screening system planned.
But the airlines and “other interests” got involved, and as per usual the Clinton admin took the money and folded.
Most of Gore’s criteria were simply deemed blatantly against the rules.
PC anti-profiling rules, naturally.
BHO: “Great Job
Brownie, uh,… Janet”Until further notice, that remains a fair assessment of the opinion of BO.
When I flew out of the Congo to Paris fifteen years ago, we were told to walk through a wooden frame which had no electronics in it. It was meant to simulate a metal detector. Then we were made to wait in a pre-departure lounge, where the glass panes looking out into the general airport area seemed unnaturally clear. The reason was soon evident. An itinerant vendor was selling a passenger peanuts through the “glass”. There was no glass, it was only simulated glass.
When we got down to the tarmac a long picnic table was laid out beside the Air France plane. Behind it was a Frenchman hand inspecting the carry on luggage. This was the real inspection, such as it was.
Someone remarked to me that the key error in the air transportation safety system after 9/11 is that it was assigned to the government. The TSA is now forever. But maybe there’s still a chance to get the private sector back into the picture. All we need to do is copy the airside security system in the Congo.
Suppose you consider the TSA system to be nothing but “security theater”. How would much would you pay to be really screened? If airlines were permitted to offer enhanced security flights, for say, $50 extra, then such flights would have the equivalent of the Frenchman after the TSA inspection. People might have to register earlier for those flights, provide more information, agree to more searches or interviews. Whatever. The point is that if you don’t want it, you can always fly on an airline that doesn’t offer those things and simply content yourself with the TSA security.
The airlines would have every incentive to do a good job. First they will want the business for the “enhanced security” flights. Second, they would want to build up a reputation for being terror free. Third, they probably don’t want to lose an airplane and its crew. Fourth, they may actually have more information than the government, especially if they have a release form from the passenger to get it.
One thing however, needs to be clarified. Each passenger who is rejected should consent to have no right to complain. He or she should be able to buy insurance that would protect against security rejection — and that means insurance companies would have an initial screening look at who they insure — but the screeners should not be held liable for refusing you because you fit a profile. After all, the system is optional. If you want a politically correct process, you can always take the non security enhanced flights.
So maybe the private sector can still come in via the backdoor. This process will probably help the TSA winnow down its 500K long list. Passing enhanced security multiple times should give the DHS a free look at who can be eliminated from their humongous table. In a way it amounts to people being able to submit themselves for voluntary security clearance of a limited sort. This should make things easier for the authorities because they are left with a list with smaller false positives.
Just thinking out loud.
Adieu, Habu, and aloha. Your voice of reason will be missed.
I have no problem with Muslims flying on airliners as long as it is on their own aircraft – which then reimburse air defense fighters for tracking them in local airspace.
At first this measure might seem Draconian, but is actually quite beneficial to the “normal” Muslims who are not “terrorists”. Bundling up the normals with the terrorists this way would allow normals to continue their twin roles of “denial” and “see no evil in fellow believers” posturing, and go a long way toward helping them blend in better with western civilization by assuming some of the “load”. Plus it would take away the general feeling of guilt that accompanies fatal terrorist attacks because the vast number of victims would, ergo, also be Muslims – which to their way of thinking is likely a plus.
OK, I realize this wouldn’t work because then who would the trial lawyers fly with?
Apologies for the length of this post, but hoping Napolitano and those PC hacks which inhabit even our armed forces will see there is good reason to use the data they have…to go ahead and PROFILE!!! damn it!
Let the reader see if he/she can find the common denominator!
1968
June 5 – U.S. presidential candidate Robert Kennedy murdered by Palestinian Sirhan Sirhan, in Los Angeles, which causes further terrorist attacks, as Arab terrorist groups demanded his release.
1969
Feb. 18 – Boeing 707 attacked at Zurich, Switzerland, killing the pilot and 3 passengers.
Aug. 29 – TWA 707 hijacked from Rome to Damascus, released with only wounded.
Nov. 27- EL AL office in Athens, Greece attacked. Innocent bystanders killed.
1970
Feb. 21 – Swiss airliner blown up over Switzerland, killing all 47 people on board.
Feb. 23 – PLO terrorists open fire on a busload of Christian pilgrims killing 1 and wounding 2 Americans.
April 21- Bomb explodes aboard a Philippines airliner. All 36 aboard are killed.
Sept. 6 – “Skyjack Sunday” in Jordan. 3 planes (TWA, Swissair, Pan Am) en route to the U.S. hijacked, 400+ hostages, planes blown up in Jordan, Governments agreed to PFLP’s demands, released terrorists from jails and hostages released.
Sept. 14 – The PFLP hijacked TWA flight to Ammon, 4 Americans injured.
1971
Nov. 28 – Jordanian prime minister Tal killed by terrorists at the Sheraton Hotel in Cairo, Egypt.
Dec. – Jordanian ambassador to London, England is shot by hit squad.
1972
Jan. 26 – Bomb explodes on a Yugoslav plane killing all but one passenger.
May 30 – Ben Gurion Airport, Israel attack killed 26, and wounded 78 U.S. citizens from Puerto Rico.
Sept. 5 – Palestinian terrorists seize 11 athletes in the Olympic Village in Munich, Germany, 9 hostages and 5 terrorists killed, plus David Berger from Cleveland.
1973
March 2 – Khartoum, Sudan. Cleo Noel, Jr., U.S. ambassador, and George C. Moore, U.S. diplomat, were held hostage and then killed by terrorists at the U.S. Embassy.
Aug. 5 – Suicide squad attacks Athens airport, Greece, killing 3 civilians and injuring 55.
Dec. 17 – Bomb explodes at Pan Am office at Rome, Italy killing 32 and injuring 50+. The terrorists take 7 Italian policemen hostage and hijack an aircraft to Athens, Greece, killing one of them.
1974
March 1 – Diplomats taken hostage from Saudi Arabian Embassy in Khartoum, Sudan, 2 that are killed are Americans.
April 11 – Kiryat Shmona Massacre at an apartment building killing 18 people, 9 were children.
Sept. 8 – Athens, Greece. TWA Flight 841 exploded from bomb in cargo hold, all 88 passengers killed, including 32-year-old Steven Lowe, an American citizen.
Nov. 23 – British DC-10 hijacked at Dubai, UAE, flown to Tunisia where a German passenger was killed.
1975
Jan. 19 – Arab terrorists attack Orly airport, Paris, France, seizing 10 hostages from a bathroom. French provided he terrorists with a plane to fly them to safety in Baghdad, Iraq.
Sept. 30 – Hungarian airplane explodes killing all 64 persons on board.
Dec. 21 – Carlos “The Jackal” holds 11 oil ministers and 59 civilians hostage during the OPEC meeting in Vienna, Austria. Flew to Algeria, got $300,000,000 in ransom money, Carlos and his Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine terrorists escape.
1976
Jan. 1 – 82 innocent travelers are killed aboard a Lebanese plane.
June 27 – Air France airliner hijacked, forced to fly to Uganda. Some 258 passengers and crew are held hostage. 3 passengers killed. July 4th, Israeli commandos rescue the remaining hostages.
Aug. 11 – Terrorists attack Istanbul airport, Turkey, killing 4 civilians (1 from U.S.) and injuring 20.
Dec. 4 – Terrorists occupied the Indonesian Embassy in The Hague, Netherlands, 1 official killed.
Dec. 14 – Passenger train hijacked and passengers were kept hostage, 3 were killed.
1977
Jan. 1 – F.E. Melov U.S. ambassador to Lebanon, and Robert O.Waring, the U.S. economic counselor, kidnapped and later killed in Beirut.
Oct. 13 – Palestinian terrorists hijack a Lufthansa Flight 181 Boeing 737 and order it to fly around a number of Middle East destinations for four days, pilot is killed by the terrorists, 90 hostages rescued.
1978
March 11 – Gail Rubin, niece of U.S. Senator Ribicoff, among 38 people shot to death by terrorists on a beach near Tel Aviv.
June 2 – A bomb kills 2 people at the CHOGM meeting in Sydney Australia.
1979
July 29 – Terrorist bombs two railway stations in Madrid, kills 7.
Nov. 4 – Terrorists seized the U.S. Embassy in Tehran and took 66 American diplomats hostage. 13 freed, but the remaining 53 were held until their release on January 20, 1981 – 444 days – at the inauguration of President Ronald Reagan.
1980
April 30 – Terrorists took over the Iranian Embassy in London, holding 26 hostages, 2 of whom died on May 5th after being tortured. Much of the embassy was destroyed by fire.
1981
April 19 – 13 people killed, 177 injured in a terrorist attack in Davao Philippines.
May 13 – Pope John Paul II seriously wounded in assassination attempt in Rome, Italy, by terrorist Mehmet Ali Agca.
Oct. 6 – Egyptian President Anwar Sadat machine gunned dead by Islamic Jihad in Cairo for working for peace. 7 others
killed, 28 wounded. The assassins are later executed.
1982
Beginning of the 8 years of terrorism in Lebanon.
July 19 – David Dodge, President of the American University in Beirut kidnapped, spends one year in captivity.
Aug. 19 – Two American citizens, Anne Van Zanten and Grace Cutler, were killed along with 6 others when the PLO bombed a Kosher restaurant in Paris, France.
Sept. 14 – Lebanon’s President Gemayel and 26 others assassinated by a massive car bomb in Beirut.
1983
Mar. 16 – 5 Marines wounded in hand grenade attack on Beirut International Airport.
April 18 – CIA’s Middle East Director, and 83 others are killed, 120 injured in truck bomb on the US Embassy in Lebanon.
Sept. 29 – Gulf Air Flight 771 is bombed, explodes killing all 166 aboard.
Oct. 23 – Simultaneous suicide truck bombs in Lebanon: 1st crashed into lobby of US Marine Corps Headquarters, 241 Marines dead, 82 seriously injured – and 2nd was French compounds killing 58 paratroopers.
Dec. 12 – US Embassy in Kuwait targeted to destroy the building with a truck bomb, attack foiled by guards and the device killed 5 people and injured 80.
1984
Jan. 18 – Malcolm Kerr, President of the American University of Beirut, was killed by two Hizballah gunmen.
Mar. 8 – Rev. Weir and wife kidnapped in Lebanon and held for 16 months.
Mar. 9 – Car bomb kills 80 (22 Americans) and wounds more than 200 civilians when it drove past the checkpoint at the U.S. Embassy in Awkar.
Mar. 16 – Hizballah kidnapped, tortured and killed William Buckley, an officer at the U.S. Embassy in Beirut.
Apr. 12 – Hizballah bombed restaurant adjacent to US Air Force base in Torregon Spain, 18 servicemen killed and 83 Americans wounded.
Sept. 20- US embassy in the Beirut is bombed – 2 servicemen and 23 employees are killed, 21 Americans injured including the U.S. and British Ambassadors. 50+ Lebanese were injured.
Dec. 4 – Terrorists hijacked Kuwait Airlines Flight 221 and demanded the release from Kuwaiti jails of some members, serving sentences for attacks on French and American targets. 2 Americans murdered.
1985
March 16 – US journalist Terry Anderson kidnapped in Lebanon, finally released in Dec. 1991 – 6 years later.
April 5 – Bomb explodes outside Hezbollah headquarters in Beirut killing 80 people.
April 12 – Bombing of U.S. soldier’s favorite restaurant in Madrid, killing 18 and injuring 82.
June 14 – TWA Boeing 727 Flight 847 hijacked en route to Rome, 8 crew and 145 passengers were held for 17 days, U.S. Navy diver was murdered. After being flown twice to Algiers, the hostages were released after the US pressured to release 435 Lebanese and Palestinian prisoners.
Sept. 30 – Four Soviet diplomats kidnapped in Lebanon, 1 killed but other three released unharmed after a relative of the terrorist leader’s was kidnapped and killed by the Soviet KGB.
Oct. 7 – Terrorists seize the Italian cruise liner, Achille Lauro, during a cruise in the Mediterranean, taking more than 700 people hostage for 3 days. Disabled U.S. citizen, Leon Klinghoffer, was murdered in front of other hostages by throwing him in the ocean, before the Egyptian Government offered the terrorists safe haven in return for the hostages’ freedom.
Nov. 23 – 98 passengers and crew of an Egyptair Flight 648 are held hostage by Palestinian terrorists in Malta. 5 passengers shot, 2 died, later 57 additional passengers killed when the terrorists set off explosives in the aircraft.
Dec. 27 – Suicide grenade and gun attacks in passenger terminals at Rome and Vienna, Italy airports results in 16 people being killed plus 5 Americans and more than 100 civilians injured.
1986
March 30-April 2nd – A bomb exploded on a TWA flight 840 from Rome as it approached Athens airport. The attack killed 4 U.S. citizens who were sucked through a hole made by the blast, 1 infant, and 9 injured, although the plane safely landed.
April 6 – An explosion at the “La Belle” nightclub in Berlin, U.S. soldiers’ hang-out, was bombed, killing 3 and injuring 230 people, including 79 U.S. soldiers.
Sept. 5 – Pan Am Boeing 747 Flight 73 en route to Frankfurt and on to New York hijacked by Palestinian terrorists, with 379 passengers, including 89 Americans, 22 hostages killed, 127 wounded.
Sept. 9 – Hezballah kidnapped Frank Reed, President of American University in Beirut, and held for 44 months, and Joseph Cicippio, and Edward Tracy who were each held for 5 years.
Sept. 17 – A 10-month series of terrorist bomb attacks in France begins. One bomb in Paris kills 5 and injures 52.
1987
A car bomb exploded outside the back gate of the U.S. Embassy in Rome and rockets were fired at the compound from across the street. One passerby was injured in the attacks.
1988
Feb. 5 – US Marine Corps Lt. Colonel Higgens, Chief of the U.N. Truce Force kidnapped and murdered by Hezbollah.
March 16 – 4000+ Kurdish civilian bodies found after Saddam Hussein ordered nerve gas attack (weapon of mass destruction) in northern Iraq, after they revolted against his rule from Baghdad. 1.5 million relocated, 200,000 disappeared.
April 5 – 122 held hostage after a Kuwaiti Boeing 747 was hijacked and diverted to Iran, then Cyprus. Kuwait refused requests by hijackers to release 17 convicted terrorists. After 15 days the hijackers were granted asylum in Algeria and released their hostages.
June 26 – US Naval Attache killed in Athens, Greece.
Dec. 21 – Pan Am Flight 103 – Boeing 747 from London to New York, blown up over Lockerbie, Scotland, by a bomb. All 259 passengers and 11 on the ground were killed, including 35 Syracuse University students and many U.S. military personnel.
1989
June 12 – A bomb exploded aboard an unoccupied boat used by U.S. consular staff.
Sept. 19 – 171 passengers killed when French UTA flight 772 explodes in mid-air over Niger.
October 11 – Izmir, Turkey. A bomb went off outside a U.S. military PX.
1990
Feb. – Attack of tour bus in Egypt killing 11.
1991
Feb. 7 – Incirlik Air Base, Turkey, U.S. civilian contractor shot as he was getting into his car.
Oct. 28 – Ankara, Turkey. Victor Marwick, an American soldier serving at the Turkish-American base, Tuslog, was killed and his wife wounded in a car bomb attack.
Oct. 28 – Two car bombings killed a U.S. Air Force Sergeant and severely wounded an Egyptian diplomat in Istanbul.
Nov. 8 – Bomb destroyed part of the American University in Beirut, killing 1 and wounding 12.
1992
March 17 – Israeli Embassy in Buenos Aires, Argentina, destroyed by bomb killing 29, injuring 60.
Hotel in Yemen bombed and U.S. servicemen killed, Operation Restore Hope.
1993
Jan. 25, Virginia, U.S.A. A Pakistani terrorist opened fire with AK-47 on CIA employees standing outside the building. Two agents, Frank Darling and Bennett Lansing, were killed and 3 others wounded.
Feb. 26 – World Trade Center in New York badly damaged by a massive bomb by Islamic terrorists. The van bomb was planted in an underground garage and left 6 people dead and 1042 injured and almost � billion dollars in damage.
Feb. 26 – A bomb exploded inside a cafe in downtown Cairo killing 3, 18 wounded, 2 U.S. citizens.
July 5 – In 8 separate incidents, 19 Western tourists traveling in southeastern Turkey were kidnapped, including U.S. citizen Starger, after weeks in captivity, they were released.
Oct – Killing of U. S. soldiers in Somalia.
1994
July 18 – 86 civilians killed and 300 wounded in bomb attack on Jewish social centre in Buneos Aires, Argentina.
July 26 – Israeli Embassy in London is car-bombed, wounding 20.
Air France Flight 8969 is hijacked to crash the plane in Paris but didn’t succeed.
A small bomb explodes on board Philippine Airlines flight 434, killing a Japanese businessman.
1995
Jan. 22 – Islamic Jihad militants blow themselves up amid a group of soldiers near Netanya, killing 21. Operation Bojinka is discovered on a laptop in a Manila, Philippines apartment, in which Osama bin Laden was planning to blow up 12 planes as they flew to the U.S., plus kill the Pope.
March 8 – Attack on US Diplomats in Pakistan.
April 9 – Islamic Jihad suicide bomber attacks military convoy in Gaza, killing 7 soldiers and an American tourist.
May 5 – Five foreign oil workers murdered by Islamic GIA terrorists in Algeria.
June 26 – Assassination attempt made against Egyptian President Honsi Mubarak by Islamic radicals who ambushed his motorcade.
July 4 – Six tourists, including two U.S. citizens taken hostage in Kashmir, India. Terrorists demanded the release of Muslim militants held in Indian prisons. On Aug. 13 the decapitated body of the Norwegian hostage was found with a note stating that the other hostages also would be killed if the group’s demands were not met. They were not and all other hostages were killed in 1996 by the terrorists.
July 25 – Islamic terrorists explode bomb in metro station in Paris, France, killing 7 people and injuring 84.
Nov. 13 – Car bomb exploded at US Army Office of the Program Manager for Saudi Arabian National Guard Modernization, in Saudi Arabia, killing seven, five of them U.S. citizens, and wounding nearly a hundred.
Nov. 19 – Islamic radicals plant bomb in Egyptian embassy in Pakistan killing 17.
Dec. 11 – 15 concurrent car bombings in Algiers kill 15 civilians and over 200 injured.
1996
Feb. 11 – Terrorists explode car bomb in Algiers killing 17. The following month, 2 more killed in another bomb and 10 are killed in a train ambush in western Algeria.
Feb. 25 – A suicide bomber blew up a commuter bus in Jerusalem, killing 26, including 3 U.S. citizens, and injuring 80 others, among them another two U.S. citizens.
April 19 – Eighteen Greek tourists were gunned down near the historic Pyramids in Egypt by Islamic terrorists aiming to destroy the country’s tourist industry.
May – Osama bin Laden unites the Islamic Fundamentalists worldwide in their Jihad against Jews and Western Gentiles, such as al-Qaeda, Palestinian Authority, Hezbollah, Hamas, Mujahideen, using the Taliban’s organization to help fund the operations.
June 25 – Terrorists explode a truck bomb next to a USAF Khobar Towers housing facility at Dhahran, Saudi Arabia, killing 19 American servicemen and 515 injured including 240 U.S. personnel.
Islamic terrorists attack tourists in Luxor, Egypt, killing 71 people, most of them vacationers.
Aug. 26 – Sudan Airways A310 Airbus airliner hijacked en route to Jordan and diverted to England. British authorities negotiate with hijackers who release all the 13 crew and 180 passengers unharmed.
Dec. 3 – A bomb exploded aboard a Paris subway train, killing four and injuring 86 persons, including a U.S. citizen.
A terrorist opened fire on tourists at an observation deck atop the Empire State Building in New York City, killing a Danish national and wounding visitors from the US, Argentina, Switzerland and France before turning the gun on himself.
Dec. 23 – A car bomb in the Algerian capital, Algiers, kills three and injures 70 people in cafe near the port. Again a week later, a car bomb kills 28 people and injures 35 people. 3rd car bomb in the past two weeks, killing additional 13 people and injuring more than 250.
1997
Jan. 2 – Major cities worldwide and U.S. get letter bombs with Egyptian postmarks at newspaper bureaus in DC, New York, London, Riyadh, S.A., and Leavenworth, KN. Experts defused all but the 1 in London, injuring 2.
Jan. 7 to 21st – Islamic terrorist rampage during these 14 days with car bombs and beheadings in Algiers, total of 238 dead, 139 wounded.
Feb. 23 – Palestinian gunman opened fire on tourists at an observation deck atop the Empire State building in New York, killing 1 and wounding over a dozen visitors before turning the gun on himself.
March 7 – Two killed in bus bomb attack in Beijing, China.
April – Terrorists behead innocent civilians this whole month with a total of 272 murdered and over 100 injured. Knives, axes and chainsaws were used and many of the bodies were burned while still alive.
Sept. 18- 9 German tourists killed when Muslims fire bombed bus in Cairo, Egypt.
Nov. 12 – 2 Terrorists shot to death 4 U.S. auditors of a Texas petroleum company and their driver at a Sheraton Hotel in Karachi, Pakistan.
Nov. 17 – 58 western tourists killed and 30 injured in gun attack at historic monuments in southern Egypt. 6 of the Islamic terrorists are killed in shoot out with police.
1998
Jan. 15 – U.S. Embassy bombing in Peru.
Feb. 23 (Published) – A Statement signed by many Islamic Jihad Leaders from most Muslim countries, first by Sheikh Osamah Bin-Ladin: “…In compliance with God’s order, we issue the following fatwa to all Muslims:
The ruling to kill the Americans and their allies–civilians and military–is an individual duty for every Muslim who can, in any country in which it is possible… We — with Allah’s help — call on every Muslim who believes in God and wishes to be rewarded, to comply with Allah’s order to kill the Americans and plunder their money wherever and whenever they find it. Unless you go forth, Allah will punish you with a grievous penalty, and put others in your place.”
Aug. 7 – Simultaneous bombs in US Embassies in Kenya, and Tanzania, heavily damaged by massive attacks. In the Nairobi attack 292 people were killed, including 12 Americans, and 5,000 injured. 10 people were killed and 86 injured in Tanzania incident for a total of 302 dead, 5086 injured within an hour.
Aug. 25 – 3 people killed and 25 injured in bomb attack on Planet Hollywood restaurant in Cape Town, South Africa.
Dec. 28 – 16 Western tourists kidnapped, 12 Britons, 2 U.S. citizens, and 2 Australians on the main road to Aden, Yemen. Four victims were killed during a rescue attempt the next day.
1999
Aug. 31 to Sept. 22nd – Russian apartment bombings kill almost 300 and injured 100.
Oct. 31 – EgyptAir Flight 990 crashed off the U.S. coast of Massachusetts, killing all 217 people on board, including 100 Americans.
Nov. 12 – Six rockets were fired at the U.S. and U.N. offices in Islamabad, Pakistan.
Dec. – Millennium terror plots foiled as customs agents arrest a man smuggling in explosives. Plan to attack Los Angeles airport and other sites intercepted by CIA. Also Jordanian authorities foil a plot to bomb US tourists in Jordan, pick up 28 suspects.
Indian Airlines Flight 814, en route to Delhi, India is hijacked, 1 passenger is killed. After negotiations with the Taliban, the hostages are released.
2000
The last of the 2000 millennium attack plots fails, as the boat meant to bomb USS The Sullivans sinks.
Oct. 12 – A suicide boat exploded next to the U.S.S. Cole (guided-missile destroyer), blowing a hole 40 feet in diameter, killing 17 American sailors and injuring 39.
2001
Feb. 5 – A bomb blast in Moscow’s Byelorusskaya subway station injures 15 people.
March 28 – Bombing at bus stop in Yemen. U.S. citizens injured including a 15 year old boy from NY.
Aug. 9 – Bombing at Sbarro’s pizzeria, killed 15 and wounded over 90, 2 of which were U.S. citizens.
Sept. 11 – 4 U.S. jetliners hijacked and forced to crash into the World Trade Center and the Pentagon like missiles, and 1 crashed in Pennsylvania on the way to the Capital Building in D.C. In all, 266 people perished in the four planes, 2602 people were killed on the ground, plus 343 firefighters, and 184 people at the Pentagon. Almost 5000 injured, 500 rescue workers now have respiratory ailments. 7 buildings collapsed in NY and 23 damaged, plus 4 subway stations.
Paris embassy terrorist attack plot foiled
Oct. 27 – Darya Khanah bombed
Dec. 13 – Terrorist attack on Indian Parliament.
Dec. 22 – Richard Reid, attempting to destroy American Airlines Flight 63 from Paris to Miami, is subdued by passengers and flight attendants before he could detonate his shoe bomb.
2002
Jan. 27 – A Palestinian woman triggered a massive explosion in Jerusalem killing 1 Israeli and injuring more than 150, including American Mark Sokolow, his wife, and both teenage daughters. Sokolow had survived the 9-11 attack on the World Trade Center, escaping from his law office on the 38th floor of the South Tower before it collapsed.
Feb. 16 – Bombing in Karnei Shomron, in a group of teenage girls from the U.S. 2 killed, 4 wounded.
Singapore embassies terrorist attack plot foiled
March 24 – 20 people die and 93 injured in 3 bomb attacks on Russian towns near the border of Chechnya.
April – Explosion at most historic synagogue in Tunisia left 21 dead, most are German tourists.
May 9 – A bomb exploded in Dagestan kills 42 people and injures 130 during Victory Day festivities.
French oil tanker Limburg bombing off Yemen
Kidnapping and murder of journalist Daniel Pearl
Oct. 12 – Bali car bombing of holidaymakers in a nightclub kills 202 Australian citizens.
Zamboanga bombings in the Philippines<
Oct. 19 – Car bomb explodes at McDonald’s restaurant in Moscow, killing 1 person and wounding 5.
Oct. 23 – Moscow theater hostage crisis begins; 120 hostages and 40 terrorists killed in rescue 3 days later.
Nov. – Kenyan hotel suicide bombing kills 16 safari tourists.
Marines attacked / murdered in Kuwait
2003
May 10- Suicide bombers killed 36 (10 U.S. citizens), at housing compounds for westerners in Riyadh, S.A. Many wounded.
May 12 – attack outside U.S. Consulate in Karachi, Pakistan, killing 12.
May 14 – 16 die in a suicide bombing at a religious festival in southeastern Chechnya.
May – 4 bombs killed 33 tourists (8 U.S. citizens) in Casablanca, Morocco.
July 5 – 15 people die and 40 are injured in bomb attacks at a rock festival in Moscow.
Aug. 1 – An explosion at the Russian hospital in North Ossetia kills 50 people and injures 76.
Aug. – Suicide car bomb killed 12 and injured over 150 at Marriott Hotel in Jakarta, Indonesia.
Sept. 3- A bomb on a passenger train in southern Russia kills 7 people and injures 90.
Oct. 15 – Bombing of US diplomatic convoy in the Gaza Strip: 3 U.S. citizens killed.
Nov. – Explosions rocked a Riyadh, S.A. housing compound, killing 17.
Nov. – Truck bombs detonated at London bank and British consulate in Istanbul kills 26, injures 22.
Dec. 5 – Suicide bombers kill 46 people in an attack on a train in southern Russia.
Dec. 9 – A blast in the center of Moscow kills 6 people and wounds at least 11.
Bombings of United States expatriate housing compounds in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia kill 26 and injure 160.
Attacks in Casablanca, Morocco leaves 41 dead. The attack involved 12 bombers and 5 targets. The targets are “Western and Jewish”.
Istanbul Bombings: Within five days, truck bombs go off at two synagogues, the British Consulate, and the HSBC Bank in Istanbul, Turkey
2004
109 Kurds are killed in 2 suicide bombings in Arbil, Iraq
Feb. 6 – Bomb on Moscow subway kills 41.
Feb. 27 – Superferry 14 is bombed in the Philippines by Abu Sayyaf, killing 116.
March 11 – 10 Simultaneous bombings of busiest rush hour commuter trains in Madrid, Spain kills 202 people and injures more than 1,400.
April 21 – Bombing of a security building in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia kills 5.
May 29 – Al-Khobar massacres–Islamic terrorists kill 22 people and one American at an oil compound in Saudi Arabia.
June 8 – Robert Jacobs, a US defense contractor employee is assassinated at his home in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia by Al-Qaeda terrorists.
June 11 – Terrorists kidnap and execute Paul Johnson, Jr. in Riyadh.
Aug. 24 – Russian airplane bombings kill 90.
Aug. 31 – A blast near a subway station entrance in northern Moscow, caused by a suicide bomber, kills 10 people and injures 33.
Sept. 1 – 3 – Beslan school hostage crisis in North Ossetia, Russia results in over 330 dead.
Sept. 9 – Australian embassy in Jakarta, Indonesia was bombed, killing 9 people.
Oct. 7 – 3 car bombs explode in the Sinai Peninsula hotel, killing 32 and wounding 114, most of them tourists
and the list goes on and on and on and on…..
Marty @54:
Actually, I’ve heard that the Boss likes her…some have her pegged as the next Supreme Court nominee from the Obama team.
Just sayin’…
I don’t think Obama picked many for their intellect, but either for their ideology, their pliability…or their ruthlessness.
the system did work. he was on a “watch” list and we “watched” as he nearly blew up that plane and killed hundreds.
They’re talking about Federalizing the scale for Realtor’s Commisions,(!) now Wretchard, so we have a long row to “ho” ourselves back toward the free market!
Al Qaeda has just scored a major victory even though the plane was not destroyed and no one was killed. Terrorists win by spreading terror.
Terrorist wins if they permanently disrupt our lives.
They have permanently made air travel worse — less pleasant, more degrading, more humiliating, more difficult, more terruifying, less free. Fewer people will travel by air. Who wants to be strip searched?
Clearly the US government is terrified. It has decided to punish US air travellers because it is afraid to attack the terrorists directly. They are afraid to even acknowledge that organized, state-sponsored terrorism exists.
This government cannot protect our free way of life. The only protection they offer is the same protection they give to the terrorists at Guantanamo.
Subotai Bahadur @ a earlier related post;
“Otherwise, that might have been yet another “unprecedented” event”
Wrong!
Pres Obama called this an “isolated incident” (he saw your earlier post!)
Now, pay no attention to the man behind the curtain and his 25 Nigerian friends!
(currently training in Yemen)
Still love you dude, but you gotta keep up!
I don’t honestly think that the next attack will be via airplanes. This smacks of misdirection. I have no doubt a big attack is coming, but to me it would be along the lines of Bombay.
As I outlined earlier, attacking Times Square with the same methodology provides a greater ability to generate tv coverage and mass casualties, particularly if done by non-Muslim looking European converts OR simple mercenaries, the “Day of the Jackal” solution.
Professionals who expect to live and get away.
The other aspect is of course hostage taking, but CELEBRITY hostage taking. Many B and lower list celebrities are on hand at places like Las Vegas, and make tempting targets. A few well known TV and Movie actors and actresses, a few directors, and other personalities, threatened with death unless KSM and others were released? THAT would be AQ gold. And Obama would no doubt release them.
Lets not forget the role of Interpol. Obama WANTS successful attacks, so he can force rule by decree/martial law, suspend the constitution and elections, and be President forever. The left wants this as well. Interpol can be used to arrest Americans for “insulting Islam” as well as US Soldiers, as Obama’s private, outsourced secret police, to suppress dissent. By sending Americans to Egypt for trial, or Saudi Arabia, or Iran. This is Obama’s dream.
Eventually, this will spark our own big conflict over this.
Obama WANTS a lot of Americans killed, so he can order a surrender in Afghanistan and Iraq, a complete withdrawal, suspend the Constitution, and get about his real business which is making America into Venezuela. That’s sure to generate a fight, Obama HAS his European and other Secret Police to arrest and send off dissidents to Iran (his ally) but its a big country.
For many years after the explosion of the TWA plane over Long Island
(a disaster that was later found to have nothing at all to do with international religious nihilism),
you could not board an aircraft without being asked whether you had packed your own bags and had them under your control at all times.
These two questions are the very ones to which a would-be hijacker or bomber would honestly and logically have to answer “yes.”
But answering “yes” to both was a condition of being allowed on the plane!
Hitchens via Bob
#33 Habu
I have a pretty strong feeling that you are going 10-7 on this frequency instead of 10-42 when you go dark. Good luck, good hunting, and hope to see you on the other side of all this. It has been a pleasure.
Subotai Bahadur
Wretchard #61:
Recall when the big debate was going ion in DC over whether the Executive Branch would have the ability to fire TSA employees? I was stunned at the dialogue, because such high priority sites as Cape Canaveral, AFS, the Kennedy Space Center, and the Savannah River nuclear plant are NOT guarded by government employees, but by a contractor security force. That eliminates any discussion as to executive privilege applying to firing individuals, because it simple is matter of telling a contractor he is not doing the job correctly.
It was transparently obvious that the Democrats wanted to protect union workers (like the SEIU) from the consequences of screwing up. But it was inexplicable that the Republicans did not point out that the “norm” for such tasks is not government workers but contractors.
sol @ 67 said:
“This government cannot protect our free way of life. The only protection they offer is the same protection they give to the terrorists at Guantanamo.”
A local headline:
“Security boost gives travelers some comfort”
http://www.starbulletin.com/news/20091228_security_boost_gives_travelers_some_comfort.html
RCM @ 64
You’re probably right—Lord knows, she’s no threat to upstage him.
Well, this didn’t take long – “In-flight security rules ease…”
http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20091228/ap_on_bi_ge/us_airline_attack_passenger_tolerance
Doug @ 70
But you have to think like a lawyer, this would be another charge (lying) to bring against the corpse after he blows up the plane.
Actually preventing the crime is not on the screen. It’s all about the prosecution after the fact.
Thanks, Habu, for lots of stretchmarks on my brain.
_____
By the way, the 1973 kidnapping and murder of US Ambassador Cleo Noel, diplomat George C. Moore, and Guy Eid, Belgian Chargé d’affaires to Sudan were done by the PLO “Black September” faction, on personal telephone orders of the pervert Yassir Arafat.
Arafat later was awarded the Nobel Peace Prize.
It is well to remember the company in which our wonderful Obama of the Towering Intellect wallows.
Marty,
You’re right.
That the system works after a human caused incident is all important.
Janet tells us so.
Habu,
Say it ain’t so… Check in every once in a while anyway to let everyone know how it’s going…
You do realize that you’re expecting the same people who have been tracking weather the last 20 years and reporting fur shur global warming is happening to get it together to successfully track bad guys? Surely bad guys are just as erratic as the weather. If they have a blindered mind-set that there *is* global warming, what sort of blindered mind-set do you suppose these geniuses will have on whether or not Abdul is a terrorist?
You been granted quote of the day NahnCee.
There is much more that these rotters are up to, but your common-sensible observation is worth repeating. You convey — in a nutshell — the mental illness of those who’ve come to power.
I have suggested that passengers screen for acceptable companions.
I have yet to be attacked by a fellow passenger of my own choice.
I want to see the passenger list, have access to any criminal records, whether they are being watched, where they have lived, traveled, etc.
This really is only a hard job due to the mass production aspects. One off’s don’t work very well in a mass production facility. The only way it could work is an extremely empowered edge.
Derek
What the new rules will do is destroy the Airlines. Air Travel will now be for rich people (on charter/private/government jets only). This is what Obama and Company want. Dems, the media elitists, millionaire marxists, all want ordinary life worse for ordinary people.
You will see MAJOR changes, as PC/Diversity/Multiculturalism is defended to the death. Ann Coulter says profile Muslims. The Obama rep on O’Reilly says “never! Abuse ordinary people with deep scans of them ‘naked’ via backscatter X-rays, which can be sold on the internet.”
This is part and parcel of treating Joe Average like a Jihadist and a Jihadist like Joe Average.
So, people just won’t fly. They will video conference, or not go. Caribbean and Hawaiian resorts (haha!) will be devastated by the drop-off in air travel, on top of the bad economy. People will “vacation” in Summer mostly at home, at best about 400 miles away (about a day’s drive at 50 mph) from where they live. This is I suppose good news for Minnesota lakefront cabins, serving the Chicago Metro area, the Appalachians, Mammoth Mountain, and Santa Fe / Taos (for Dallas/Fort Worth).
The airline industry is just dead. There is no way the PC defenders will allow profiling, of any kind, to “offend Muslims” who want to blow you up. No reading material, bathroom visits, laptops, Ipods/Walkmen, in the last hour of a flight? Please.
This shows the power of PC/Diversity/Multiculturalism, and what will come AFTER it is overthrown, Wretchard’s “Reconquista Western Nations.”
whiskey,
Right. I’ll just stop flying commercial and fly only military. Except there may be a Maj. Hasan aboard, who won’t be screened at all.
Each failed attempt costs US. Younger jihadis cost more. Trial = $millions. Life sentences = 23 yr. old living to 80 in maxium security on our dime. 57 X $75K = huge waste X failed attempts. (The only good news – the coming healthcare system may insure they die at 60; a “real savings” of $1.5M)
19. Habu
Google this
site:pajamasmedia.com/richardfernandez “Habu”
Habu is a thoroughly dangerous man. His decision to reduce his silicon footprint is an indicator of . . . exciting times ahead.
Vaya Con Dios.
If there were to be a knock at the door, and the faceless person there introduced himself as Habu from Belmont Club and asked me to follow him, I would be sore tempted to do so. I’m getting really tired of throwing snitty little tantrums at all the El Stupido Liberals and their Messianic leader I am surrounded by, while nothing is being done about the terrorists among us except to propose cavity searches for Amish grandmothers. I agree with Cannoneer that Habu is not likely to be disappearing to go hug a tree and meditate on what the meaning of “is” is, and that strikes me as being a preferable choice any more to being a “good citizen”, paying my taxes quietly, and continuing to take what they choose to dish out.