Back from the eye doctor with my pupils in tact (sort of). Anyway, nothing that I was going through (and it wasn’t much) could possibly compare to the latest report from Bill Gertz that 25 Chechen terrorists have sneaked over the Mexican border via the Arizona mountains. I’m not much of a scare monger, but Gertz has pretty good sources these days and I’m taking this one seriously. We all know what the Chechens are capable of. The following sentence raised the proverbial spontaneous hairs on the back of my neck.
It could not be learned whether the reported infiltration is related to the recent Education Department warning to school officials to examine security in the aftermath of the attack last month by pro-Chechnya Muslim terrorists on a school in Russia, in which more than 300 people were killed and some 700 wounded.
It’s safe to say that was one of the most barbaric acts since the Nazi period. Watching the parents of those children sobbing over the graves on CNN the other night (it was the forty day anniversary – evidently important in the Russian Orthodox faith) was heartbreaking.
Bill Gertz has a very good, if not even an excellent track record. The horror is how well the MSM are hiding this story. They obviously realize that it would indisputably help to reelect George W. Bush. Common sense dictates that Americans require more information regarding these disturbing events. When will this occur? Why is the Washington Times single handily carrying most of the burden? This newspaper possesses little of the resources of the vastly wealthier Washington Post and New York Times.
Want to be harassed by a Guardian reader? Because if you live in Ohio they’re giving out your personal information. This makes me sick. There’s also some disturbing information about foreign financing sneaking in via 527s.
40 days is the end of the formal mourning period, the period during which you grieve, sharpen your knives, and plot your revenge.
The Ossetians are Christian. Ethnically they are not Russian. The neighboring province, which borders Chechnya, is Muslim.
Chechen terrorists can do all sorts of evil, not only schools.
The Bush debate is in a few hours here in the Phoenix area. I will be counter-demonstrating against the moonbats. Selfishly, I hope they have left Arizona by now and are not planning on attacking the event.
The Guardian effort to spam the residents of Clark County, Ohio is one part creepiness, one part loopiness, and another part wretchedness.
The Guardian’s Pythonesque editors decided to run a series of “open letters” from leading British figures who are almost totally unknown to blue-collar Ohioans and who include 1) a blatantly anti-American tory snob who lives in southwest France (John Le Carre); 2) a viciously snide, patronizing and condescending Oxford prof who champions atheism wherever possible (Richard Dawkins); 3) an aging historical novelist whom no one under the age of 75 reads anymore (Lady Antonia Fraser).
http://www.guardian.co.uk/uselections2004/story/0,13918,1326066,00.html
A copy of the letter I sent the Guardian today:
Just when I thought the Guardian was determined to unseat Bush, you show your true colors by printing three obviously forged “letters” claiming to give sincere, well-meaning advice to American voters while creating precisely the opposite effect. (“Dear Clark County voter, Give us back the America we loved. Yours sincerely, John Le Carrȶ±uot;).
Karl Rove’s handiwork is clearly visible in the “letter” supposedly penned by “Richard Dawkins,” who outdoes Lord Haw Haw for sneering, condescending nastiness. A special touch is the “Tony Martin” reference, from which ironically– or rather, intentionally– small-town Ohioans will draw the exact opposite conclusion from that intended by Lord Daw Daw.
Another brilliant Rovian touch was to select an obscure France-based author of thinly-veiled anti-American pulp fiction as the mouthpiece for this patently sarcastic gem:
…please don’t feel isolated from the Europe you twice saved.
The cringing Uriah Heap tone is superb! Who knew that Rove had such powers of literary characterization? And perfectly calculated to have the opposite effect upon Americans living in Ohio, the home of arch-isolationist Robert Taft and the Dayton Accords: bitter reminders of yet another abject refusal by Europeans to act forthrightly and courageously to stop fascist slaughter.
Rove also uses this mouthpiece to re-cycle an obvious canard that “Bush was waging his father’s war.” As if Bush’s father, who refused to overthrow Saddam and abandoned the Shi’a and Kurdish rebellions, was not decisively rejected by his son, who broke ranks with his father and Scowcroft and all the other cynical realpolitikers in finally summoning the will and courage to end Saddam’s slaughterhouse! So sly and subtle, these inductions dangerous!
As to the third Rovian mole, “Lady Fraser,” this seems an odd choice, but surely the master judged that any British female would do, given that the only contemporary British woman known to most Ohioans– she of People’s Princess fame– died years ago, her memorial teddy bears having been diverted recently to Mr Bigley, the latest symbol of Euro-fortitude.
Auntie Antonia is a suitable vehicle for yet more sure-to-backfire “advice”: If you vote for Kerry, you will help to avert a move backwards towards women’s suffering. Perfect timing, that: the same week that Ohioans see joyous scenes of Afghan women celebrating their right to vote, run for office, attend school, run businesses– and all of this due to Bush’s war to overthrow the Taliban– a barmy old Englishwoman announces that day is night. Bravo, Karl!
Here’s hoping the Rove/Guardian machine drafts and sends a thousand such letters to every Ohio household. More, please.
Best regards,
[thibaud]
I doubt that any Muslims, especially home-grown ones, would dare provoke the public here with a Beslan-style attack. Mosques would burn and Arab-looking people would die. Perhaps they are counting on the ensuing press firestorm and endless interviews with grieving relatives to incite guilt and a sympathy vote precipitating a Kerry election. Perhaps I overestimate their intelligence.
The operation in Beslan relied on weapons which had been hidden in the school during recent construction. These guys would need a lot of assistance (probably including linguistic assistance) to pull off an attack on a large school; the more coordination they need, the greater the communications, and the greater our intelligence agencies’ opportunities to catch them.
I would expect some other kind of attack requiring little or no meeting/cooperation with domestic jihadists.
It’s very scary, & going after is exactly the sort of thing these cowards do. The disgusting thing is that nobody is doing anything about the border situation for fear of offending the Hispanic vote.
This is not Beslan, it would be very difficult for anything like that to happen here.
And as for its effect on the reelection, who knows?
Thibauld:
I live in Indiana, my ex was born and raised in Ohio as was his family.
I don’t think the Guardian is really going to help Kerry much there. in fact….
Terrye -
“This is not Beslan, it would be very difficult for anything like that to happen here.”
Ma’am, I respect and honor your dreams…but that is all they are.
If I was inserted into an open border/open society such as ours as a team leader with twentyfive subordinates ready to die to complete the mission, given three or more months to gather site intelligence or confirm the intelligence for a briefed mission, just what do you think what I would be capable of? I’m just a former Marine, ma’am. A former sergeant…
If there is in fact a crew from abroad here now they will have at least rudimentary English skills…which describes half the people in the southwest. There will be an executive cell that concentrates the overall commander and his two or three subordinates. There will be at least three cells – probably four to be safe, since more than four or five foreigners may attract attention even in the illegal camps and barrios of California and points east. The executive cell might even have a legend set up – a cover story and documents that gives them some higher degree of survivability should they have a casual encounter with police or other authorities. If they don’t cause trouble the worst that can happen is deportation. Even if an entire cell gets rounded up, I bet they speak Spanish well enough to pass inspection by a bored INS officer or two.
I assume this cell structure arbitrarily; if the team is being shielded by a host (sleeper agents with a business to hide them in, or a mosque, etc) there’s no need for nearly as much subterfuge. The point made about carrying packs really jumped out at me. You can buy guns anywhere in the states, legal or illegal…but explosives and detonators are tougher to come by and raise the possibility you will be detected when trying to acquire them. Plus, you are always safer using demo that you are already familiar with.
You are quite right that this isn’t Beslan, Terrye. We aren’t next door to a shooting war. The last domestic attack we faced was 9/11. In Beslan the cops don’t even have enough radios for every car…but if they think you are a bad guy, they will call the Army. They routinely search without warrants and set up roadblocks, and that’s at the beat cop level. In spite of the lowering pall of fascism attributed to Patriot and heightened homeland security paranoia, we are about as defenseless a terror target as could be dreamed of in the wildest dreams of a jihadi.
Once they are here and undetected for a ridiculously short period, they become just another member of the illegal subculture. There are even cities that publish policies of non-compliance with our own INS/HS regulations.
What more could Johnny the Jihadi ask for?
9/11 cost the enemy two or possibly four national hosts and severely limited the willingness of others to be associated with them. There hasn’t been an objective worthy of the risk associated with attacking us domestically. Until our elections. They’d die by boatloads in order to see Kerry elected…but just as many will line up for the glory of proving that they don’t care who we elect, because they intend to kill us as long as we refuse to wipe them out.
We are going to get hit again, Terrye, and the opportunities the enemy will exploit will be those that do so drastically differentiate us from Beslan. Whether there were or were not any 25 Chechens, I don’t doubt for a minute that we’ll likely get hit before or on election day. That’s why it’s called a war.
I know exactly what I could do with five or six subordinates in a public place like a school. There won’t be any hostage scenario – not with our domestic law enforcement and communications capability. An attack here will without a doubt be carried out with suicidal tactics and intended to generate max casualties. The act will be executed and the aftermath will leave no opportunity for arrest or prosecution or closure. Just grief and fear.
They do not know who they are dealing with…but in the end it doesn’t matter. Maybe we will end this faster because of what we will suffer soon. I hope so. But don’t ever allow yourself to say “It couldn’t happen here”.
It already has.
“one of the most barbaric acts since the Nazi period”
Roger, I’m reasonably certain that the Khmer Rouge and the Hutu militias, among others, would qualify as post-Nazi atrocity generators. To say nothing of of the recent examples Iraq or Darfur.
Nazi examples should never be forgotten, of course, but they shouldn’t be allowed to overshadow fresher horrors. I think using Nazism as a high water mark for political violence and terror has the drawback of giving a pass to anything that falls short in scale or intensity.
It’s like the height test for roller coasters: “If you’re shorter than Goofy’s gloved paw you’re too short to ride!”
“If the genocide is limited to your own nation and doesn’t threaten the right people, you’re not qualified to ride the As-Bad-As-Nazis ride!”
Hmm, that metaphor really got away from me. The point is that all of the Marxist, Maoist, and now Islamist murderes of the post-WWII era seem to get to hide in the shadow of Nazism. It seems like a real failure of the media and our educational system that “Hitler” is the default smear to use against certain unpoular leaders. As if Stalin, Mao, Pol Pot, et al. hadn’t provided fresh examples…
Tmj nailed it. Our nation is vastly more vulnerable than we, in our habitually complacent stupor, care to imagine.
The illegal alien workforce creates a perfect cover for any number of jihadis to operate within the vast and sparsely populated American west. On top of that, you have our retail economy, which is vitally dependent on automated container loading of literally thousands of containers every minute across our ports.
How would you secure that system without simultaneously throwing a spanner in the works of a multi-trillion dollar consumer economy that by most estimates accounts for 2/3ds of our GDP?
I think Beslan should have alerted us that we’re now in Phase II of this war, which involves not Afgh and Saddam but Iranian and other nations’ proxies’ efforts to attack us at home. Fasten your seatbelts.
tsol:
I’d say that the failure of the media and our educational system to appropriately inform us about those monsters is this: They Were On The “Right” Side. I think it is intentional.
Stalin? Uncle Joe? Why, he’s a Leftist hero.
Mao? Think back to the ’60′s and what the hippies were chanting in their protests.
Pol Pot? Who’s He? Cambodia? Where’s That?
And so on and so forth…
No, those were monsters on the Left, and the Left isn’t about to remind us of that, or them.