esrosedotblog

I am watching a three-part BBC documentary called The Power of Nightmares.

It was produced in 2004 and 2005 and is a carefully done recap of how we got to where we are in the so called War on Terror.

I got through Ronald Reagan and am heading toward the next chapter of three.

Labels: films, terrorism

Terrorism doesn't seem to get its desired effect, at least not in America.

There’s a Disconnect in Americans’ Worry About Terrorism

The implication here might be that we are dumb fucks who are herded along and that we are totally in denial about life's dangers.

I do not think so.

I think it is more the American "in your face" rebel attitude.

Fuck you ISIL or whoever the hell you are.

The point of terrorism is to strike fear in people's hearts so that they cower and hide and give in to the evil elements that perpetrate these acts.

It does not seem to work here.

People still go to concerts, they still attend ball games, they march in parades. All that.

I remember sitting in London's Heathrow Airport thinking about the lines of fire if some assholes came in and did the bullet spray thing.

I thought about it but I didn't get up from what was an obviously vulnerable spot. I had bought a cup of coffee or something and I was damn well going to enjoy it.

I suppose that there is a disconnect but not of the kind implied. More like "bring it on motherfucker" I am not going to change my life because a few nut jobs pull this shit.

And so on.

A rant from here on left to the reader to fill in for themselves.

Labels: terrorism

This pretty much says it all.

The iteration of scary photos on the teevee cannot be a good thing.

Yes. We need to see what is going on in the world but remember: The purpose of terrorism is to create terror.

I refuse to participate.

I admit to thoughts like "I will quit traveling". And so on. Traces of fear.

But fuck them. I will not play.

Franklin D Roosevelt, my first President.

Labels: terrorism

I have seen wars and "actions" to keep peace all my life.

Because bad people have decided to act out and hurt innocent people. To rule the world.

We now face, yet again, a threat from people who are basically fascists. Not just extremists with a belief, but people who want to wipe you and me out. Gone. Hate is their commodity in carrying out hateful acts.

We, as usual, lie safe overseas. But we also have allies and interests that are being hurt and harmed and we need to pay attention.

Yet again, we are in the savage reaches of the Middle East.

It used to be that no one cared about what "those bastards do to one another" (my father's voice speaks from the grave) but those days are long gone.

It is all one, it is all now and we are in it whether we want it or not.

Listen to this great speech in Parliament by Hilary Benn.

He speaks to us here in our "safe haven" as much as to his own secure Island of free people.>

Labels: terrorism

So it will be death.

Dzhokhar Tsarnaev Sentenced To Death

We are so ambivalent about the death penalty that it is difficult to imagine that Tsarneev will ever get it done to him.

It will be a long drawn out process.

I am one of those people who can handle the death penalty without any cringing.

And I am not apologetic about it although I just erased a sentence that lied and said otherwise.

See? I am intimidated by what I think is public opinion. Our right to differ.

I suppose there can be an argument made that a life sentence would have been more humane. Really?

Do you have any idea what it is like in solitary or in a prison of hard core people?

Of course there is the thought that being a regular guy we could somehow make our way. Be likable.

So I get to root for both things. That he gets death and that he has a considerable time to think about it.

I suppose they will put him in solitary. He is obviously rape bait. Pretty hair. Big eyes. The perfect punk.

Where there is a will there is a way and I am relatively sure that somebody is going to have their way with him.

It is almost assured that the guards will see to that. Extra time in the showers with a friendly thug.

Labels: death, terrorism

I am watching the news of the Tsarnaev trial very closely.

One, because it is in Boston, my adopted home town. Two because it is a fascinating case from the very start.

I do not understand murder per se. I do understand terrorism. It is an effective tool for people who wish to disrupt.

What I do not understand is the wish to disrupt.

It is just not in me.

The thing that makes this trial fascinating is that there is no question of guilt.

They have already pled guilty.

What is at hand is the question of punishment. And there lies the interest. From the beginning because as we can see, the penalty, the punishment was never enough to thwart the crime.

And never will be.

These people are driven by different motors.

They are not psychotic at least the way that lets them off. They are driven by ideology.

In this case, the defense hopes to show that young Tsarnaev was driven by allegiance to his older brother who already died for his sins. A good thing, I think. That he is dead. Gone. Finished. Punished forever. But then that was what he wanted so is that punishment?

It is all very twisted and like a mirror world.

I find myself looking at drawings of this boy, because he is very young, sitting and listening to them talk about his life.

There are no photographs. Only artists' renderings.

So there it is. I am stuck. Just what the fuck is going on here? How does this work? What do we do?

I suppose if he gets the death penalty, this fascination will last until he dies. Or I do.

Incidentally, I really have no position on the death penalty. It is pretty final. I know that.

Labels: Boston, terrorism

Environmental terrorists.

Well, at least trouble makers, until something goes wrong.

Night Moves (2014) with Jesse Eisenberg.

Jesse moving on to serious roles. Older, not wiser in this one.

What goes wrong is that one of their attacks, blowing up a dam, has consequences and he is on the run.

There is not a lot of plot. Mostly character study. Eisenberg and the other perps.

I didn't dislike the film. But I was not moved by it. The "moral" of the story is to balance the consequences of such acts before taking them.

Labels: ecology, films, terrorism

Remember when all they could talk about was Benghazi?

Where are they now? The yakkers. The conspiracists. Even the heavily Republican House says it wasn't so.

Republican-led report debunks Benghazi theories and accusations

I gotta hand it to them. They stuck with the record and the facts and produced an adult, objective analysis of what happened there.

And this is from Fox on-line news. I deliberately went there for the article.

Do you even remember what it was about? Some rioters attacked and burned the consulate there. Libya. A fucking hothouse of terror and thugliness.

After that, it became the punchline of every GOP demagogue.

Sometimes politicians do the right thing and in this case the House GOP led committee is a good example.

Labels: terrorism

Obama has guts.

Today he faced down the critics, did his job and then went on about his business which, right now, is a much needed vacation.

But there is a lot of whinging about it. An opportunity for the haters to hate.

A Terrorist Horror then Golf Incongruity Fuels Obama Critics

Well, shit. All the Presidents do this. They have to compartmentalize.

It is tragic that a life was lost horribly in Iraq. Nothing will be served by play acting a time of grief or horror or whatever. This is what the terrorists want!

And it amazes me that so many people fall right into it. Obama has not. God bless him.

They said he was soft and squishy.

Hah! He is tough and resolute and unbending in the face of these bastards and all their tricks.

More power to him.

Long may he wave.

He is the man I thought he was and has proved it continually. At home, overseas. He is a no bullshit President.

Labels: obama, terrorism

I am fascinated by the story and the trial of the other Boston Marathon killer, younger brother Dzhokhar Tsarnaev.

I am not sure why this is. I am a bit suspicious of my interest. He is slightly sexy in a sinister way. There is a draw of some kind. He is of a type. I am certainly aware of that.

Dark, curly hair. Magnetic eyes.

The brother, the one who got shot, is less so. A fanatic. You can see it in his face. But this kid is interesting in a kind of different way. Sick and obviously batty but puppy like.

I am not the only one who feels this way. He is followed with an intense interest. His old wrestling team buddies showed up at his hearing to see him. “I really want to see what his reaction is today, if he doesn’t care, if he does care — I want to see.”

He is an interesting guy. An immigrant with a grievance. A younger brother in thrall to the older one. Friends and fellow students without a clue to this side of him.

"Dzhokhar Tsarnaev was later found bloody and hiding in a boat in a Boston suburb, having allegedly scrawled anti-American messages on the boat's wall."NYTimes article.

He came here, to America, for refuge? And now he hates us? A puzzle. The contradiction of it all.

There is no doubt of the evil of his intent. Where does this come from? That is another thing. A handsome boy with such a mind. It would not be the first time. A lot of killers were good looking.

I am reasonably sure that the defense will be psychological. More fascinating stuff.

Here is more if you want to read about it.

Marathon Bombing Suspect, in First Court Appearance, Pleads Not Guilty

Labels: terrorism, Tsarnaev

I am sympathetic with the sentiment around 9-11 but I am grateful that many have developed some perspective about it.

Not to take away from people who have lost family and friends or even something as simple and superficial as their innocence.

But it amazes me that there are people who are still wallowing in it. I mean that they are acting like they are direct survivors which they usually, always as far as I can see, are not. In any way.

This reaction extends to some of the media as well.

This morning at the gym in side long range of seeing Fox Friends, I remembered what day it was.

They were saying that next up was Rudy Fucking Guliani.

If anyone needed to be quelled it is that dude.

I count it among my strengths today that I could endure the entire 30 minutes of indirect exposure and never see the bastard at all.

MSNBC seemed OK with Joe Scarborough who is kind of quiet on such things but then when I went for my flu shot, there was MSNBC broadcasting, minute by exact minute their actual coverage from that day.

I was astonished. There they were having it both ways again.

At first I thought it was just an outtake. No. It was every minute of every hour without, of course, interruption by any commercials.

I stepped away, almost sickened. I cannot explain the revulsion I felt but it was probably obvious as the woman at the desk saw it.

I said that it was a shock to see they were doing it and she agreed. The other woman was not so sure. The pharmacist said he felt the same way I did but was "afraid of saying anything about it" as it might upset some people who wanted to see it.

I told him I voted for "NO" and I guess they switched as when John went in later he said that he saw some idiocy of daytime teevee and I said that was nothing compared to the 911 coverage.

At my meeting this morning I realized right off that some people were into it. I buttoned my lip.

We somehow got through the hour without any reference (it is an outside issue of course) until the very end when someone who ought to know better did a turn on it. Making it all about him. I know for a fact that he was not there, had no one there and was only the furthest away observer.

I credit the loss of innocence. I am sympathetic.

I lost mine long ago whether it was about how the world works, how the US is vulnerable or how we had been extraordinarily lucky as no matter how many people hated us they had somehow not crossed a certain divide.

But we were alone in that respect. If you are interested and empathetic beyond the borders, the rest of the world had its horrors to tell a long time ago. Killing of innocents, hostages, kidnappings, all of it. Not at such a scale as that one day in NYC but the numbers added up to hundreds of thousands.

I must say that I was and am not oblivious to our own version of the killing of innocents. The mass destruction of cities. Our tolerance for "allies" who murder and pillage every day. Our defense of the indefensible in Israel and Palestine. The divided state.

So save me the outrage.

Or put your tears where the horror really is. Dogma and political beliefs that ignore human suffering or call it heroic and worthy of a heaven none of us here can understand. Well not me anyway.

I don't get the idea of an exclusionary heaven that the christers have in their minds either. Or the bigotry. Or the torture and tolerance for violence on people they do not like.

As a gay man I am no stranger to that form of hatred which hurts and can kill. But I do not run my life on the fear that they want to generate.

The purpose of terrorism is to create fear whether it is done by a crazy jihadist or a fundamental christian anywhere anytime. Terror is a tool of the oppressor and we suffer it because it works.

If we do not cooperate then it is dead. It will not work except to hurt and maim and be the obvious evil it wants to hide.

Come out.

Get active.

But don't sentimentalize one small part of the struggle. It is still going on with our compliance. Everywhere.

Finally.

How to put this?

I spent many weeks around the Word Trade Center neighborhood. I lived in the Marriott which is/was no more. It had already been bombed when the blind guy had them blow a car up under it a few years before.

I stayed in another hotel then, the Millennium. That is gone too.

I worked a few blocks away. I knew every inch of the area because I walked to the work, I went for walks when I went to lunch and had breaks.

It was certainly queasy to get the news. Heartbreaking. Nostalgia for the old days came up. I wanted it not to be true.

I never went back again. There was nothing there.

But it stayed/stays in my mind.

I knew no one as far as I am aware who was lost.

Only buildings.

If I did know someone I would want to honor their lives by living mine better and getting on with it.

That is it. Peace. To all. Let it go. Move on.

Note: the flag is from the Towers. A poignant reminder of a former time.

Labels: terrorism

The unimaginable, The New York Times website was down for over 12 hours.

Some Syrian supporters or something.

It did get my attention but not in a good way for them. They are minor characters and will stay that way when their methods are so trivial, really.

I am sure the Times people didn't think it was trivial.

And neither did I until I realized that I had gone without the Times for four days when I was in San Diego and never thought a thing about it.

I am spoiled.

So I went through a little withdrawal as I am just resuming my crossword puzzle activity.

They are back on line and so am I.

No harm done and fuck you Syrian anonymous.

We live in a weird age but then maybe not. There have always been assholes.

So what else is new?

If this passes for terrorism, it is a nicer kind. I would prefer it to kneecapping.

Labels: news, terrorism

I was disappointed not to be able to see the kid have his plea hearing.

In Court for First Time Boston Bombing Suspect Faces Victims

It was pretty anti-climactic although he apparently affected a wise guy image.

There were no pictures. I saw an artist's rendering but those so suck.

I want to see this guy.

I know it is strangely voyeuristic but I want to look into his eyes as they are now. I want to see his haircut (evidently renewed to the old messy kind of afro shown in all his pix). But to no avail.

I had this same thing with Timothy McVey. There were a lot of photos of him on his way to the death chamber. I wanted to see them all.

Not as a kind of enjoyment I think. More that I want to understand.

The mail bomber Ted Kazinzky was an obvious nut. Not hard to fathom. Ugly and crazed looking.

McVey and this guy are amazingly normal looking. Virile. Alive.

What the fuck is going on in there?

We will never, ever know.

There are reams of literature on the sociopathic personality whether it is a fanatic for muslims or whatever. It is the guy in the Texas tower.

A mystery.

Labels: criminal behavior, terrorism

JUST THE FACTS

We heard a lot about the stampede for scoops last week. We also heard our President suggest that people wait for the facts.

Well, here they are. And they are a lot different, sometimes crucially from what we heard. The great thing about traditional newspapers is that they come behind the elephants and sweep up. Neatly and cleanly. When they are gone, what will we do?

Officer's Killing Spurred Pursuit in Boston Attack

This is a 'tick-tock", carefully compiled days after the events.

Some things that we did not know before.

They killed the MIT policeman to get his gun. They only had one gun, the older brother's. They did not succeed in getting the officer's. It had a triple lock holster and they couldn't figure it out.

This fruitless act called attention and started their run for escape.

The story about the Mercedes guy, still anonymous, is more hair raising than we thought. The guy in the Mobil store, obviously an Arab, saved the day. His story is here.

There was no robbery of a 7-11.

When cornered, they still only had one gun. Plus explosives, pipe bombs evidently.

The kid ran over his brother when he escaped and probably killed him although we don't know.

The kid did not have a gun so he did not try to shoot himself. His wounds are from the firing of (what I would think were gun happy) cops. Thereby almost losing the one witness who could tell anything about what happened.

The interrogators got 16 hours with the kid before the judge showed up and he got a lawyer. A long time, actually, although the law as people try to interpret would allow more, maybe 72 hours.

If you compare this with the "story" as put together by the press and networks, there is a considerable difference some of which is crucial.

Of course, they have so much on the kid that a compromised confession is frosting on the cake but still.

This is nothing new of course.

People are shocked that the press gets things so wrong.

I am not.

I was in public life for about 6 years, local government but highly visible.

I was good press bait because I said things one wasn't supposed to say and answered questions no one else would. The reporters would come to me.

But it was just hell getting them to tell the story right. Eventually, I just wrote the stuff out for them, printed.

It is not too different today. Most reporters are likable souls in dead end jobs, often with several bosses, usually drug or alcohol dependent and always bone tired.

Some of the nicest, amusing and rambunctious unhealthy people I have ever known.

Labels: media, terrorism

QUIET

Never ever saw it like this.

There is a first time for everything.

Ten Surreal Before and After Pictures of Deserted Boston

Labels: Boston, terrorism

GITMO FOREVER

I must admit that when it comes to daily outrages, the facility and the inmates of Guantanamo Bay is pretty low on my list.

This is a pretty good article of how things stand. And stand. And stand.

And probably will stand until the inmates, presently incarcerated, have all died. Or close to.

Obama's Guantanamo Is Never Going To Close, So Everyone Might As Well Get Comfortable

Well, it is not Obama's. It is mine and yours. Ours.

Yes, he promised to close it but "they" wouldn't let him. Who they? Congress of both parties, the courts, any place they thought of putting them (NOMBY) and so on.

There are 166 people currently imprisoned, down from a high of 684 in 2003. But those who remain are likely to do so indefinitely. Effectively banned from the continental U.S. by Congress, disowned by their home countries and unwelcome pretty much everywhere else, they have no place to go.

I know. There are still some civil liberty nuts who think that they should be released or tried or whatever.

This was always the soft spot of the now defunct "war on terrorism". In a war kind of war with the Geneva Convention rules, prisoners are to be re-patriated at the conclusion of hostilities.

Old, antiquated rules. This is not that kind of war. They are not POW's per se. They are people who got caught or swept up and put where they couldn't harm anyone.

By this time, the part that the Obamas have accomplished is the whittling down, the end of torture, the restoration of humane conditions and the reduction of population down to an irreducible number.

OK with me. How about you?

It has been awhile since I have read anything about some sad case that is still under detention. No one is speaking for them.

Look, these people have had their tickets punched. They are out of the running.

It could be worse for them. They could, in fact, be accepted back into some of the countries who would like to kick their asses, torture them and otherwise punish them without end. For the weepers. Would that be better? No dice.

Actually, I don't think there are any of those either. No one to send back anywhere.

What is amazing is that, at the present time, there are about 5000 Americans at the base. Enough to support a small economy of retail, food and other enterprises.

Those people are stuck there too. I don't know if it is hard duty or not.

Soon, someday, our relations with Cuba will be normalized and the situation will change some. At least the 5000 Americans will be able to smoke a good cigar.

Labels: terrorism

WET

There is a lot of whining about drones and targeted killings especially killings of US citizens abroad.

As though this is something new.

The drone is new, yes. The killing not so much.

The CIA and other services have been assassinating defectors, counterspies, avowed terrorists and before that soviet aparatchiks all over the world.

Not wholesale. Just occasionally.

Well, we just occasionally killed that rat. The one with the granny glasses. Anwar al-Awlaki.

I know. I am a liberal. A progressive. But I am not naive.

We have been doing this stuff as long as we could do it on the sly since the birth of our country.

This is called "wet work".

Does this go against our values? I don't think so. There have to be so many layers of decision to get to the point where we do the deed that plenty of hands and heads get involved in it. It is what we have a bureaucracy for. To draw it out, take time, deliberate.

For example, today:

From Politico:

House Intelligence Committee Chairman Mike Rogers on Sunday defended President Barack Obama’s use of drone strikes, saying he reviews every attack after it happens.

“I, as chairman, review every single airstrike that we use in the war on terror, both from the civilian and the military side when it comes to airstrikes,” the Michigan Republican said on CBS’s “Face the Nation.” “There is plenty of oversight here. There’s not an American list somewhere overseas for targeting, that does not exist. … The oversight rules have been consistent.”

But what about the conspiracy theorists? What really really goes on?

Yes. I have seen those movies too. The ones that have the conspiracies and the behind the scenes bastards pulling the strings.

Life is not a movie. Very hard to do this stuff and especially go get away with it.

Look at what is going on now.

Every so often something comes up like a nomination (Brennan) or a leak (White House letter on the legal aspect) that gives us a chance to chew it all over again.

Good. Go for it.

I am glad that they got Anwar al-Awlaki. I was glad when I heard of it and I am glad of it now. He was an open terrorist and flaunted his citizenship for protection.

This is akin to my reluctance to condemn torture. They say it does not work. I have read enough about the Gestapo's methods in WWII to know that when a member of the underground was captured, they dismantled his or her network immediately on the assumption that everyone, me included, will talk.

So here we are again. Having one of these discussions and it is a good thing.

Should there be another layer of bureaucratic second guessing? A special court? I don't know. It is OK if they do it.

The people out there on the job of keeping us safer will do what they need to do regardless. Period.

As I think that they should.

Labels: assassination, terrorism, torture

OPEC

Today's movie was the second installment of

Carlos (2010)

in which the main event is the OPEC hostage taking in Vienna.

All this stuff happened 35 years ago and has become ancient lore but I understand they researched it pretty thoroughly and the locations are as close as they can be as well as the choreography, if that is the word, of the actual taking.

It is pretty exciting stuff.

Again, the skill with which they induce you to watch him with some interest and even appreciation while he is doing awful things is right on. No glorification. If anything they show that he wasn't as bright as people thought and makes some serious mistakes in judgement as well as planning.

For one thing, if you are planning to use Libya in the escape plan you shouldn't kill the Libyan delegate when he tries to resist.

Labels: films, Middle east, terrorism

GOOD AND DEAD

There is some weeping and wailing on the left because due process wasn't followed.

Anwar al-Aulaqi, U.S.-born cleric linked to al-Qaeda, killed in Yemen

I read that this is a horrible thing and that more brutality will follow on the part of the US!

I have watched this guy for some time. I have read about his activities and listened to more than one of his harangues.

He is an American. Dual citizenship. He joined the other side. He is an operational enemy of the nation of his birth. Well, one of them. He is also a Yemeni. So, I look at this way. If you don't like killing Americans who have joined Al Queda and have run many operations against other Americans, then rejoice in the fact that the Yemeni side was killed and the American side of him was collateral.

I know. It is all semantics. But I have a hard time with the bleeding heart aspect of this kind of thing. This is a bad guy. If he were on US ground doing what he has done he would very well have been wiped out on a raid on his compound.

Whatever.

He is dead and so is his assistant also a duel Yemeni/American.

Good riddance.

Does that make me a fascist? OK.

Labels: Administration Obama, terrorism

911

Well, I can't not write something about it.

I seem to be out of step with a lot of my reactions though.

I was at the gym. Doesn't everyone remember where they were?

My workout was done, I was getting up from situps and looked up to the teevee screens in the big balcony on the second floor. Smoke from one of the towers.

Someone said a small plane hit.

I immediately thought of the plane that flew into the Empire State Building when I was a kid.

I went out to the car and turned on NPR. Confusion. Looking back, I realize that no one knew anything.

We didn't have television and there wasn't much access to streaming video on the internet.

Slowly, the images came in. A very long day.

Of course, we personalize all of this.

For years I trained near Wall Street and stayed in the hotel right next to the Towers. What became a Marriott.

It had been rebuilt after the car bomb in the parking lot below. The blown part was right in "my" restaurant.

For awhile then I stayed at the Millenium Hotel across the Street from the WTC.

I walked this mall every day I was in New York for several years.

All of that. Gone with the Towers.

Later, I became obsessed with the pictures of the people who jumped. Why? Don't know.

I have never faced the attacks as anything but an extension of the war already being waged.

Osama Bin Laden and his serious intentions had been grist for the fear mill in the Clinton administration. Now he was here.

Before that, I traveled the world a lot and remember the fear in London Heathrow. I used to check the field of fire around the cafe where I had my last scone and clotted cream before getting on the plane.

I remember canceling a trip to Austria on points because there had been a gun down in their baggage claim area.

I think somewhere in there, I checked fear at the door. It was, to me, a sign that they were winning.

I read the other day of the phenomenal amount of money, trillions, that attack has cost us. The useless war in Iraq. The surrender of personal freedoms. The barricades in front of public buildings. The ruin of the joys of air travel. All the rest. What a cost. Fear.

Mourning. I didn't know anyone lost in the attacks. I mourned the loss of these innocents. The people who jumped. The people who stayed.

I don't minimize any of it but I do recognize that each day for decades people in the world had been dying as a result of the same terrorism. We didn't care much about them. In fact, at times, it seemed that our stance was that it was deserved. Suddenly it was on our front porch. Our people. Our families. Our government.

It is still "dangerous" to say that we have been wallowing in emotionalism about all this. Fear and rampant emotions of this kind are a powerful mix. We hunkered down.

I won't go on about this.

That means that for today, my mood is defiant and humble. Defiant because I do not want to participate in anything that is fear based. Humble in the realization that we have had it good here and to that extent we have been given a warning. We should pay attention.

I am proud to say that my President has liquidated more terrorists in two years than other administrations did altogether. I am glad that the Obamas reignited the hunt for Bin Laden. And killed him.

I am glad that we commemorate this day with not a "war on terrorism" but a determination that we will track down the terrorists. A different way to see it.

I am happy to see that fear is not manipulated and stage managed with the colored alerts, the phony rhetoric, torture. The rest. That we are micro processing the former war on terror pragmatically and situationally. Rationally. Not as global triumphalism.

I probably do not mourn the deaths as much as others. I am always suspect of long term mourning. But I know that our lives and way of living changed that day ten years ago. Bless those who gave their lives. Bless our country and its people. Bless the anger and pain that drives men insane enough to do such things wherever they happen.

Labels: terrorism