Category: Terrorism

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Featured Terrorism

The Voice of a Crazed Mass Murderer – Adam Lanza

For the first time, the world is hearing the chilling voice of Adam Lanza, the man responsible for the horrific shooting of twenty first graders in Sandy Hook Elementary in Newtown Connecticut.

In an audiotape of a call Lanza made to an Oregon college radio station obtained by The Daily News – and vouched for by two old friends – the madman waved a giant red flag that he was about to explode almost exactly a year before the Sandy Hook massacre.

Using the name Greg and apparently taking pains to disguise his voice, Lanza weighed-in on mass murder by comparing “a teenage mall shooter” to Travis, a chimpanzee who became infamous after ripping the face off a Connecticut woman in 2009.

In doing so, Lanza provided a frightening look not seen thus far into the twisted logic and troubled mind of the 20-year-old killer.

“His attack can be seen entirely parallel to the attacks and random acts of violence that you bring up on your show every week, committed by humans, which the mainstream also has no explanation,” Lanza says of Travis at one point.

“I just … don’t think it would be such a stretch to say that he very well could have been a teenage mall shooter or something like that.”

Those words, uttered on Dec. 11, 2011, did not set off any alarms with “Anarchy Radio” host John Zerzan, who is himself a controversial fringe figure.

Listen below.

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ObamaCare Politics Terrorism

Another Dumb Republican Compares Healthcare to Genocide

Here is another Republican doing everything he can to get his name in the news. And there is apparently no better way to get in the news, than to say something dumb and in this case, insensitive to the horrors of genocide and terrorism.

A Republican state senator from North Carolina thinks that extending health care to all Americans is worse than genocide, communism and terrorism – combined.

Sen. Bob Rucho (R-Matthews) made the observation Sunday morning in a Twitter post attacking the U.S. Supreme Court’s ruling that upheld the individual mandate in a June 2012 decision written by Chief Justice John Roberts.

“Justice Robert’s pen & Obamacare has done more damage to the USA then the swords of the Nazis,Soviets & terrorists combined,” Rucho complained.

Rucho, who sponsored a bill to prohibit North Carolina from setting up a health insurance exchange or participating in the Medicaid expansion, did not explain how the Affordable Care Act was worse than the systematic murder of millions of people, but he later defended his remarks.

“Those that tweeted, put your thinking caps back on: ‘The PEN is mightier than the SWORD.’ Edward Bulwar-Lytton,1839. But surely you knew that,” Rucho posted Sunday afternoon.

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Terrorism Terrorism

Twitter Suspends Account of Terrorist Group Responsible for Nairobi Attack

The Twitter account of Somalia’s Al Qaeda-linked Shebab rebels was suspended Saturday after they used the site to claim responsibility for an attack on a Nairobi shopping mall that left 39 dead and 150 wounded.

A message from Twitter on the English-language @HSM_Press account read that the account was suspended, the third time this year that the group has been expelled from the site.

According to Twitter users are blocked “for any unlawful purposes or in furtherance of illegal activities”.

The Shebab’s previous account, @HSMPress, was suspended in January after the group posted photographs of a French commando they killed and threatened to execute Kenyan hostages. They opened another account, @HSMPress1, but were again suspended earlier this month after threatening Somalia’s internationally-backed president.

The group issued a string of messages on Twitter Saturday, claiming its fighters were behind an attack on Nairobi’s upmarket Westgate shopping mall.

“The Mujahideen entered #Westgate Mall today at around noon and are still inside the mall, fighting the #Kenyan Kuffar (infidels) inside their own turf,” the Islamist militants had said on Twitter.

“What Kenyans are witnessing at #Westgate is retributive justice for crimes committed by their military,” the group said.

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News Terror Terrorism

London Attack Suspect was Arrested in 2010 in Kenya on Terror Charges

Michael Adebolajo was arrested with five others on charges that they were preparing to train and fight with an Al Qaeda-linked terror group. Adebolajo, who was carrying a British passport, was handed over to Britain. He is now suspected of butchering a British soldier last week on a London street.

Michael Adebolajo is among nine suspected members of the Al-Shabaab Movement arrested by Kenyan police on Nov. 22, 2010, on claims of being Al-Shabaab recruits on their way to Somalia.

NAIROBI, Kenya — A suspect in the savage killing of a British soldier on a London street was arrested in Kenya in 2010 near the East African country’s border with Somalia, an anti-terrorism police official said Sunday.

Michael Adebolajo was believed to have been preparing to train and fight with the Al Qaeda-linked Somali militant group al-Shabab in 2010 when he was arrested with five others, Kenya’s anti-terrorism police unit head Boniface Mwaniki told The Associated Press.

Mwaniki said that the suspect was then deported, however, Kenya’s government spokesman said he was arrested under a different name and handed to British authorities.

“Kenya’s government arrested Michael Olemendis Ndemolajo. We handed him to British security agents in Kenya and he seems to have found his way to London and mutated to Michael Adebolajo,” spokesman Muthui Kariuki said. “The Kenyan government cannot be held responsible for what happened to him after we handed him to British authorities.”

Michael Adebolajo (front) shouts slogans as Muslims march in London in a protest on April 27, 2007, against the arrest of six people in anti-terror raids.

The gruesome scene was captured by witnesses’ cellphones, and a video picked up by British media showed one of the suspects, with bloodied hands, making political statements and warning of more violence as the soldier lay on the ground behind him.

Hardline Muslim leaders have identified the man in the video as Adebolajo, an Islam convert who allegedly used to take part in London demonstrations organized by British radical group al-Muhajiroun. The group catapulted to notoriety after the Sept. 11 attacks by organizing an event to celebrate the airplane hijackers, and was banned in Britain in 2010.

Anti-terrorism head Mwaniki rejected allegations that Adebolajo was tortured while in custody, but said the unit would further investigate.

Adebolajo’s friend asserted in a BBC interview that Adebolajo became withdrawn after he allegedly suffered abuse by Kenyan security forces during interrogation in prison there. Mwaniki said at the time, there were no indications of torture or abuse.

Mwaniki said dozens of foreign youth are arrested every year attempting to cross the Kenyan border to join al-Shabab, which claims to be fighting a jihad or holy war against the Somali government and African Union forces.

Read more: NY Daily News

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Domestic Policies News Russia Terrorism

The Boston Backlash

Here it comes.

Immediately after one of the most harrowing, frightening, wierdly compelling and sweat-inducing weeks in our recent history, the political backlash is rearing its ugly head. It’s emotional and knee-jerk and patently American.

First up is the argument that Dzhokhar Tsarnaev is a terrorist and thus should be treated as an enemy combatant, as opposed to a citizen criminal. The Senators pushing this line, Lindsay Graham, John McCain and Kelly Ayotte are reacting from pure emotion. There is no defending what the two brothers did or the dastardly effects of their action in a major American city, but can we at least step back a bit and consider the full range of options? Here is a 19 year-old, probably in thrall to his older brother, and probably not as committed to a radical path, who commits murder. By all other accounts, he’s a law-abiding person. There are circumstances. Let’s calm down.

The Senators assume that a Federal Court would be an inappropriate venue for weighing Dzhokhar’s guilt (or innocence, by the way. Does anybody remember that he’s still presumed innocent?) and that only a tightly controlled military tribunal will assure his punishment. They think that reading him his Miranda rights is an affront to justice. Not true, and a dangerous assumption. Let’s let the FBI do its job. The genius of our legal system is that it must filter out emotional responses. That’s what we need to have happen now.

The case also seems to have jolted the immigration debate. Again, the knee-jerk reaction is to shut the door to all immigrants and to throw out all the illegals. It’s as if the debate we’ve been having over the past four months simply vanished. Yes, we should all have legitimate concerns about the FBI’s interview with Tamerlan Tsarnaev and whether government security officials should have done more to follow-up on his trip to Russia and his possible radicalization at the hands of militant Chechen or al-Qaeda operatives. But how does a family that, until last week, basically followed the law and applied for legal status according to protocol get to throw an entire system into doubt?

They shouldn’t, and it’s up to pragmatic, level-headed citizens to see that. We certainly do need border security, but it’s not like the Tsarnaev family spirited themselves across the border under cover of night or lived on false papers or were outwardly hostile to the United States. We now know that at least one of them was, inwardly, but how could anyone know that he would commit this act? We can’t. That’s why it’s called terrorism. Because we don’t expect it.

And like the gun enthusiasts who said that background checks would not prevent another Newtown, closing the door would not stop another Boston (or, for that matter, another Oklahoma City or September 11). Tamerlan was here for 10 years before he acted. I’m sure there are other legal immigrants in this country who could similarly become radicalized and act in another city. Shall we hunt down all recent immigrants from every other hotspot in the world an follow them? Evict them? Where do we start? Are immigrants from Syria, Egypt, Iraq, Nepal, Tibet, Sri Lanka, the Central African Republic and any other area where there’s been civil unrest now eligible for government surveillance?

Speaking of the gun debate, I am extremely interested in where the Tsarnaev brothers got their guns. And whether they were registered. Or bought online. Background check? Based on the Newtown logic, I’m thinking the NRA is now going to call for all people who attend sporting events to carry guns (and for some on the left to outlaw pressure cookers). Or perhaps we should just stop having marathons. Clearly, these would solve the problem.

We need to be more diligent, to be sure, but we also need to step back and process this event logically. Only then can we look at our next steps with clear eyes.

For more, go to www.facebook.com/WhereDemocracyLives and on Twitter @rigrundfest

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Boston News Terrorism

Stop, Look and Listen America

The world as we know it has changed or should I say within the United States anyway. Periodically and without warning – as Americans go about their daily routines – of work, weekend fun and scheduled family activities, terror strikes leaving all of us to wonder why and how could this have happened?

With the domestic terrorism of the Federal Building in Oklahoma City, the Olympic bombing in Atlanta, the terrorist attack of 9/11, the movie theatre shooting in Colorado and the most recent attack at the Boston Marathon, we’ve become vulnerable to the threat of horror within our lives. As a matter of fact, places that we’ve been so accustomed to see terrorism like Iraq, the Middle East and Afghanistan, is slowly spreading its way to our soil. Those countries have had violence erupt on a weekly basis for so long that the residences have grown immune to the bombings and bullets flying throughout their neighborhoods.

But now, it’s here. Since the younger brother of the terrorists was captured on Friday evening, media outlets have posed the question of how can the government keep us safe from these attacks? While watching the coverage on several different news channels on Friday, a Terror Expert stated how we have been so fortunate that more have not taken place. Terror teams have intercepted so many chances by the enemy on our homeland. We just aren’t apprised of every chance taken for our own safety and to keep the masses from widespread panic.

Well we citizens have to do our part. STOP, LOOK & LISTEN. When we go to the airport, an announcement comes over the speakers to keep your luggage with you at all times. We are very observant at the airport for obvious reasons but now we need to be equally observant everywhere we go.

STOP: Be vigilant at all times. If something doesn’t appear right, notify the management team if you’re at the movies, restaurant or any event that you’ve noticed something out of sorts.

LOOK: Always be aware of your surroundings. No need to be paranoid but backpacks or bags carried now seem to be a popular carrying case of choice for those that would do us harm. If bags are left unattended, make someone aware of it.

LISTEN: We don’t need to eavesdrop on conversations but just be observant to things that sound suspicious. Notify authorities or management depending on where you are.

Don’t take matters into your own hands. We aren’t trained for that. But, we can do our part and that is the simple steps above: STOP, LOOK and LISTEN. Perhaps by doing those three things, we could save a multitude of lives.

So be vigilant America. We really can make a difference.Our lives just may depend on it.

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Dick Cheney Mitt Romney Politics Terrorism

Dick Cheney Says Mitt Romney Is The “Only” Candidate To Trust On Foreign Policy

Mitt Romney – the man whose only foreign experience has to do with his offshore bank accounts betting against the United States dollar and his marvelous ability to ship American jobs overseas – got the seal of approval from Dick Cheney as America’s only hope to deal with foreign crisis.

This approval, coming from the same Dick Cheney who was part of the Bush Administration that allowed the biggest terrorist activity on American soil and who plunged America into debt by starting a trillion dollar war with a country on the guise of Weapons of Mass Destruction.

David Edwards writes: During a Wyoming fundraiser, the former vice president said that his experience in Washington taught him that every president would have to deal with an international crisis that could mean sending U.S. forces into harm’s way.

“When I think about the kind of individual I want in the Oval Office in that moment of crisis, who has to make those key decisions, some of them life-and-death decisions, some of them decisions as commander-in-chief, who has the responsibility for sending some of our young men and women into harm’s way, that man is Mitt Romney,” Cheney said, according to The Associated Press.

For his part, Romney called Cheney a “great American leader,” but avoided mentioning to former President George W. Bush until a question-and-answer session when he contrasted President Barack Obama’s policies with Bush’s “freedom agenda.”

While Cheney has not been a vocal presence during the 2012 campaign season, he may have good reason to trust that Romney will be hawkish on foreign policy.

“Of Romney’s forty identified foreign policy advisers, more than 70 percent worked for Bush,” The Nation’s Ari Berman pointed out in May. “Many hail from the neoconservative wing of the party, were enthusiastic backers of the Iraq War and are proponents of a US or Israeli attack on Iran.”

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Barack Obama Politics Terrorism United States USA PATRIOT Act

Bush’s Patriot Act Pt 2 – Boiling Frogs

As an easily distracted and soundbite sized attention span nation, we are prime fodder for what is called the “boiling frog syndrome”. ‘If you put a frog into a boiling pot of water he would quickly jump out. However a frog in a cool pot of water that is gradually heated would not perceive the danger and would slowly cook to death’.

The premise of this syndrome, that is used here metaphorically, is actually quite a clear illustration of what happens with our acceptance of inflation, the use of our taxes for things that we, in an informed state of mind, would never agree to, etc. But for this particular text the boiling frog syndrome is a clear analogy for the siege on our civil liberties and, indeed, our very constitutional rights.

In October 2001, then President George W. Bush signed into law the congressional act called the “Patriot Act”. Pretty name, it conceals any potential threat to you and I personally… see? THAT’S THE COOL WATER MR & MRS. FROG.

But lets take a closer look at this craftily labeled roll back of civil rights;

This so called Patriot Act law which we are told is a law to ‘counter terrorism’ never clearly defines exactly what is terrorism. This vague definition of terrorism leaves much open to interpretation of  ‘law enforcement agencies’ and agents who are subject to human emotion and racial and ideological influences.

The first amendment says that “Congress shall make no law abridging the right to petition the government for the redress of grievances”. Dear reader, what’s YOUR grievance with the government? On any particular day you may be considered a ‘terrorist’, a potential threat and detained indefinitely. Maybe as an immigrant some law enforcement officer or agency decides you’re a ‘threat’. Keep current on the expanded deportation laws under the so called Patriot Act.

The Patriot Act clearly violates fourth amendment rights as well, which states that “The right of the people to be secure in their persons, houses, papers, and effects against unreasonable searches and seizures SHALL NOT BE VIOLATED”. Many would say “as long as I’m safe” or ” I have nothing to hide”…those are legitimate reasonings, but be very aware that evil goes in like a needle… and spreads.

Be aware that civil rights roll backs are happening ‘in stages’… the water is getting hot…slowly. The constant bombardment of terror threats makes our disappearing civil liberties more acceptable… getting hotter. The fact that it’s Barack Obama that just signed into law a continuance of the Patriot Act makes it more palatable…and look around, it’s getting steamy–but;  “I ignored it”, “The basketball playoffs are on plus I got the new iPhone”, “I heard about that Patriot Act years ago and I knew it didn’t feel right but I was scared so I didn’t open my eyes”, “Recently I saw on the news that the Patriot Act was extended but Trump said something stupid so I forgot…”

Anybody notice how warm it is in here?

SON OF MAN

Categories
Barack Obama Osama bin Laden Politics Terrorism United States

President Obama – We Will Still Go After Terrorists In Pakistan

In an interview with BBC, President Obama made clear that if we have any actionable information about terrorists in Pakistan and they are unable to get these terrorists,  America will not fail to act – just as he did when Osama Bin Laden was captured.

“We are very respectful of the sovereignty of Pakistan, but we cannot allow someone who is actively planning to kill our people or our our allies’ people, we can’t allow those kind of active plans to come to fruition without us taking some action.

And our hope is and our expectation is that we can achieve that in a way that is fully respectful of Pakistan’s sovereignty. But I had made no secret.  I had said this when I was running for the presidency, that if I had a clear shot at Bin Laden … that we’d take it.”

And take it we should. After all, isn’t protecting the people of the United States the primary job of its Commander-In-Chief?

Categories
Osama bin Laden Politics Terrorism

Pentagon Release New Videos of Osama Bin Laden

The Pentagon has released videos seized from the Bin Laden raid last week. In the four videos released, Osama Bin Laden is seen sitting on the floor with a remote control in his hand, watching a small television showing images of himself.

The videos were offered as further proof, that the most wanted man in the world was killed last Sunday by United States Navy Seals.

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Barack Obama Featured Osama bin Laden Terrorism United States

Fox Employee Says “President Obama Is Dead!”

Yes, we can certainly understand a slip of the tongue, mistaking “Obama” for “Osama,” but not coming from a reporter or someone who is supposed to know the difference, whose job is to know the difference. And not when this reporter put the title of “president” in front of the name.

But then again, we are talking about Fox News.

Right after President Obama delivered the news on Sunday that Osama Bin Laden was killed in Pakistan, the Fox News anchor said that “President Obama is in fact dead.”

Where do they find these people?

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Barack Obama Osama bin Laden Politics Terrorism United States

Is Bin Laden Dead? No Man Is An Island

Now that it’s has been reported that Osama Bin Laden has been killed, we must bear in mind that Bin Laden–the individual– represented ‘an ideology‘ to thousands, possibly millions of people in several nations and in the Afghan region in particular. No man is an island, the man represents the state of mind of the people for which he speaks or acts on behalf of.

Over the years of seeing the televised reports on Al-Qaeda, it was easy to see the enthusiasm of the young people shown around Osama Bin Laden.  The more idealistic among us are saying that “this is an end to all the violence”. I hasten to remind the naive among us that martyrdom is a serious thing and Osama Bin Laden is now a martyr.

To some, Osama Bin Laden is a monster who is responsible for atrocities across the span of several continents. To others Osama Bin Laden is an inspiring figure who stood against imperialism and outsmarted “the beast” for years. For those of us who are peace loving American citizens, let us remember that peace starts at home.

We must continue to impress upon our fellow citizens that people are people, all worthy of the common decency and respect that we would want for ourselves. Our country is truly great…truly great in terms of the constitutional ideas in which we aspire to. BUT!  This country’s hands are not clean, we live in the biggest international war mongering nation in the history of all mankind.

We have long become the ‘military industrial complex’  that President Eisenhower warned we would become, where our war machine has become a disproportionate part of our country’s budget and  an unfortunately a significant part of our existence. Covert operations of deposing leaders of other countries and installing puppet regimes have been a common occurence at our hands.

Let us not forget who armed and trained Osama Bin Ladin… if you dont know, look in the mirror. Let us not forget who installed one time “friend” and later named ‘boogie man’, Manuel Noriega, when it was convenient. Let us not forget Saddam Hussein was armed by billions of  U.S. taxpayers dollars to fight against Iran in the 80’s, Hussein later named ‘boogie man’, was incarcerated and hung when it was convenient.

Let us not forget that we have a long way to go to live up to our country’s great potential. Let us not forget  that no man stands alone. We may have just made 10,000 more Bin Ladins by his reported assassination. His body allegedly was immediately “buried at sea”…sure…whatever.

The minds and emotions of the masses are but a marionette. Believe what you must, but  let us love and enjoy an individual and collective peace, and as we digest these current reports we should do so consciously and with a mindset that recognizes the fact that we are under the universal law of ’cause and effect’. Our actions and indeed our thoughts are creative and for better or for worse they are productive. And let us not forget that we are all connected and that ‘no man is an island’.  For those that have an ear…let him/her hear.

Son of Man

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