All things Boston Marathon bombing investigation related go here. Fluffy stuff goes in regular OT. Continue reading
terrorism
11 posts
On May 20th, 2010 police officers in West Memphis, Arkansas pulled over a white minivan during a drug interdiction patrol. The police pulled 45 year-old Jerry Kane from the minivan. A scuffle ensued and Kane’s 16 year-old son Joe emerged from the vehicle with an AK-47. He hit the officers with 25 bullets, killing both of them. Ninety minutes later both of the Kanes were killed in a Walmart parking lot in a standoff with the police. Why did Joe Kane kill two police officers (and wound two others in the second altercation)? Because Joe and Jerry Kane were Sovereign Citizens, people who believe that courts and cops have no authority over them, and who believe they have the right to defend themselves from them, by force if necessary. Continue reading
Earlier this week news reports broke that Putin’s Russia had upped the ante from merely enabling the carnage in Syria through cynical obstruction to actively aiding it as a Marine squad of Russian “anti-terror troops” arrived at Tartus, home to Russia’s only remaining foreign naval base. The news should not come as a shock to anyone who’s been paying attention, given that independent Russian journalists on the ground have now for some time been reporting that groups associated with Russian special forces have been operating in the country as “volunteers” in support of the Assad regime, and the fact that Russia’s defense minister has even acknowledged the presence of “military and technical advisors.” Continue reading
Today, the TSA has apologized for sifting through the colostomy device of 89-year-old Ruth Sherman and putting 85-year-old Lenore Zimmerman’s back brace through an X-ray machine during the Thanksgiving holiday in 2011 at JFK. Even though the utter ridiculousness of these actions is pretty obvious, the TSA is still reassuring that there was no strip search of any kind. Continue reading
Last night the US Senate approved the National Defense Appropriations Act (NDAA) by a vote of 93-7. The bill contains a controversial provision that requires the US military to take custody of all defendants accused of terrorism and allows for the indefinite detention of US citizens, even if they have not been charged with a crime. The bill must still be reconciled with the House version of the legislation. President Obama has threatened to veto the bill if it contains the detention provision. However, it now looks like there are enough votes in the Senate to override the veto. Continue reading
On Tuesday of this week Federal Bureau of Investigation agents arrested four Georgia men in connection with a plot to unleash a terrorist attack on residents of Atlanta and several other US cities. The four men, all from Toccoa, Ga. and all over the age of 65, planned to unleash the biotoxin Ricin as part of a larger campaign to strike out at the federal government. The four men were fringe players in the right-wing militia movement.
The plot was well into the development stage by the time federal authorities stepped in after being tipped off by an informant in March. Lab equipment seized from one of the defendant’s homes tested positive for Ricin. The four men also had discussed assassinating government officials and blowing up government buildings. According to government affidavits defendant Frederick Thomas was recorded saying, “There’s no way for us, as militiamen, to save this country, to save Georgia, without doing something that’s highly illegal — murder. (…) When it comes to saving the Constitution, that means some people gotta die.”
Air passengers flying into LaGuardia or JFK, take note: New York City police commissioner Ray Kelly told 60 Minutes anchor Scott Pelley on Sunday that the New York City police department has both equipment and trained personnel to shoot down a plane over New York in case of another terrorist plane threat.
“In an extreme situation, we would have some means to take down a plane,” Kelly said on Sunday night’s broadcast.
After the show aired, sources told the New York Post that the weapon is a Barret .50 caliber rifle, which can be mounted on almost any police chopper. The weapon, according to the Post sources, is stored in an NYPD safe and is deployed only for “special occasions,” such as when the president is in town.
September 11, 2001 meant many things to many people. When it occurred to me that I wanted to write something about that day, I had a hard time coming up with a subject that I felt I could confidently tackle within the confines of this space. Should I address the war on “tear“, as Bush pronounces the word? The discrimination imposed on Muslims? How we started a war against a country that had nothing to do with the attacks based on faulty intelligence?
I had second thoughts on even writing about this subject at all. Between the news this past Friday being all 9/11, all the time, and the round-the-clock Very Special Episodes of coverage on practically every channel, those doubts persisted. The supposed “credible threat” about an attack on NY and DC on the tenth anniversary did nothing to ease the media frenzy. I ultimately decided to just share what the day was like for me. Continue reading
So The Markets are freaking out again. I feel like Markets should be capitalized because “the markets” has become this phrase you hear all the time now, some presumed entity with a will of its own. News anchors will say things like “let’s see what the markets are doing,” or “the markets are not responding well to this news,” like they’re talking about some unruly sentient being, a deranged stallion to which all our fates are tied.
- Homeland Security has announced a new deportation policy that will allow many illegal immigrants to stay in the US.
- An Egyptian border guard has been killed in an Israeli raid on militants.
- HP will no longer be making PCs and shitty laptops.
- British Council offices have been bombed in the Afghan capital.
Public interest and transparency advocacy group Judicial Watch filed a federal Freedom of Information Act Request to force the Obama administration the release photographs of the raid on Osama Bin Laden’s compound in Pakistan last weekend. Included in the suit is a request that pictures of Bin Laden’s corpse be released to the public.