MURDER, POLITICS, AND THE END OF THE JAZZ AGE
by Michael Wolraich
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MURDER, POLITICS, AND THE END OF THE JAZZ AGE by Michael Wolraich Order today at Barnes & Noble / Amazon / Books-A-Million / Bookshop |
Comments
Equally interesting, maybe even more so; a little part of Minnesota is also al-Shabaab territory:
by artappraiser on Thu, 09/26/2013 - 8:27am
This part of the above article made me think of some past blogosphere ridicule I have read of FBI terrorism investigations as harassing and entrapping "just stupid kids doing what kids sometimes do":
Edit to add pre-emptive: not that I think the F.B.I. counter-terrorism is a whiz bang top shelf outfit as depicted on certain teevee shows....
by artappraiser on Thu, 09/26/2013 - 8:44am
No need to be preemptive. One can be wary of FBI abuses and still understand that there are dangerous people out there who would be more dangerous absent an FBI.
Black and White, more often than not, is for Crayola.
by Bruce Levine on Thu, 09/26/2013 - 8:54am
And for those interested in both American members of Al-Shabaab and in the disagreements within it, I recommend this recent piece by another terrorism specialist, specifically on Omar Hammami, recently killed, probably on Godane's orders:
by artappraiser on Thu, 09/26/2013 - 8:53am
The first page of the link is frankly enough anyone needs to know about the late American Jihadist, Omar. (It apparently goes on for 5 pages.)
The article's link to 'Sheik' Omar's Shabob video of 'The Ambush at (somewhere)' with the cheesy swirling captions reminds one of kids playing cops and robbers, and making videos of it making them 'movie stars'.
Good riddance to the delusional psychopath, thanks to his Shabob buddies for saving us the cost of a guided missile.
by NCD on Thu, 09/26/2013 - 10:00am
with the cheesy swirling captions reminds one of kids playing cops and robbers, and making videos of it making them 'movie stars'.
I think it's kind of important for people to get that whole picture. That this is a lot of what we are dealing with now. (Not to mention the "Fame! I want to live forever!" factor is also a part of many mass shootings in the U.S.) For the same reason I picked out the quote about "you'll get to shoot guns" by the Al-Shabaab recruiter in Minnesota. There is manipulation of male teen dreams, and the appeal of gangs, and it is played by recruiters of suicide bombers as well.
by artappraiser on Thu, 09/26/2013 - 10:08am
....shoot a big gun, be a Sheik, and have a harem of wives. No wonder Arab tribal societies have over millennia been ruled by a single strongman, if they aren't, each and every male wants to be top dog.
by NCD on Thu, 09/26/2013 - 10:15am
I can't get this little story out of my head, along the lines of "what would Godane do?"
Kenya mall attacker reportedly apologized to, freed British boy, 4, who called him "a very bad man", CBS News, Sept. 24.
Was this one of those teen recruits getting guilty feelings? Another one to be put on the hit list for not being ruthless enough?
That and I just got a kick out of the story, especially since I had noticed and looked at the picture of him, his sister and his Mom before I knew that he was clutching candy bars the terrorist had given him. I wondered about the accuracy of the info. package here, though, because in the picture, Mom does not look like she had been shot in the leg, though she does look like she is trying to get over being frightened to death.
by artappraiser on Thu, 09/26/2013 - 10:11am
Important for perspective: approximately 20 Indian children from Gujarat who went to the mall for the cooking competition may not have been so lucky. That number is equal to the non-adult deaths at the Sandy Hook Elementary School massacre.
by artappraiser on Thu, 09/26/2013 - 11:26am
...and Muslim nutcases are shooting at Muslim relief helicopters in the earthquake ravaged Muslim district of Muslim Pakistan.
by NCD on Thu, 09/26/2013 - 11:33am
There are splashes of red on her right sneaker and on the right side of her leg. Whether those are from her having been wounded or not is hard to say.
by Donal on Thu, 09/26/2013 - 11:40am
There's two more photos @ The Mirror. Kind of gruesome, I don't know how I feel about them. There's one of them standing next to a dead body at the bottom of the stairs and then her running down the stairs to them. The boy looks at the photographer like he might be thinking of saying "you're a bad man" again. Story says she grabbed two other kids to save on her way out.
by artappraiser on Thu, 09/26/2013 - 6:26pm
trained and fought in Afghanistan for the jihadist cause
From the WaPo article, describing Godane.
As the pesky alumni of our Mujaheddin version of the Abraham Lincoln Brigade continue to trouble the counsels of the great and wise, it occurs to wonder if anyone paused even for a moment (back when the idea arose) to reflect that harnessing religious fanaticism in the interest of Soviet defeat might not be the best idea in the world.
by JollyR (not verified) on Thu, 09/26/2013 - 11:36am
Shock and Awe by The Great White War President and Saddam Getter gave them a cause, a base of operations (al Qaeda was better off without Saddam), and a Terrorist University, complete with diploma's in IED manufacture, suicide bombing, target practice on US troops and general high explosive/ordnance use and handling.
by NCD on Thu, 09/26/2013 - 7:27pm
Well, it seemed like a good idea at the time. Judging with the benefit of hindsight isn't that fair.
by Aaron Carine on Sat, 09/28/2013 - 9:07am
I used to think like Jolly but I am waaaay past that argument now. For me, it doesn't even apply anymore. I think history has shown that that little U.S. adventure wasn't the main thing that has caused much of anything in that vein, though it did contribute in a small way to the Soviet Union's downfall.
Plus it's questionable that most of the people we are dealing with now who say they have such experience are veterans of the Afghan jihad against the Soviets. It's more likely that most who say they were "there" were trained in the proliferated training camps during Osama bin Laden's time there under the Taliban.
In which case if you're going to blame American foreign policy, the action to blame is forcing Sudan to kick Osama bin Laden out. But one place (Sec. of State Albright called Sudan a "viper's nest of terrorism" at the time) or another (Taliban-led Afghanistan,) or another (he originally wanted Saudi Arabia to start jihad against both Saddam Hussein and America) But then, to what end? Osama bin Laden was bound and determined to train a lot of people to start jihad groups allover the world. From wherever he could manage to do it.
At this point in time, I think the only thing we can really blame on "Charlie Wilson's war" is a few very old Stinger weapons still handed down to other jihadis rather than ending up in other kinds of hands. And that Osama bin Laden as part of the original Afghan Arabs got the confidence to think he could accomplish something. But once he reached that point, he wasn't going to give up his dream of getting the west out of all Muslim lands, and he was going to set up a lot of terrorist training camps somewhere or another. Back then, we funded a motley crew that included the later Northern Alliance as well as many other warlords and Taliban and Afghan Arabs, a few other kinds of foreigners. . A lot of them are enemies of each other now and aligned with states and groups that compete. And they didn't all turn out to be Osama bin Laden's or his admirers. It was only during the Taliban period under Bin Laden that it really became a movement with foreigners from all over. If we had funded re-development of Afghanistan like Charlie Wilson wanted would it turned out this way? Well, like I said, Osama was willing to train anywhere.
Meanwhile, Osama's dream fulfillment is still ongoing, see below.
by artappraiser on Tue, 10/01/2013 - 1:12am
If these sources are telling the truth, little Elliott's "very bad man" was spot on:
by artappraiser on Fri, 09/27/2013 - 3:33pm
by artappraiser on Fri, 09/27/2013 - 3:47pm
by artappraiser on Sat, 09/28/2013 - 2:14am
by artappraiser on Tue, 10/01/2013 - 12:39am
by artappraiser on Thu, 10/10/2013 - 1:58pm