H 32°, L 7° | Tomorrow: 
H 17°, L 4°I was in New York City last year hosting a special live radio show in remembrance of the Sept. 11 attacks. On the show, I had several victims' family members join me to talk about the horrors they live with every day, what they are doing about it, and the progress that has been made since that tragic day. Ironically, during the show, the NYC authorities alerted us of a credible threat against the financial district, which is exactly where the show was being produced. It was a scary situation, and everyone took the threat seriously. Fortunately, the bomb threat never materialized.
Just last week, NYC authorities once again warned the citizens of New York of a subway terrorist threat, based on specific information obtained after the capture of three Al Qaida operatives in Iraq. The plot detailed plans to use "timed or remote-controlled explosives hidden in briefcases, suitcases, or in or under baby strollers." The threat also called for a collaborated detonation of 19 bombs, the exact number of Sept. 11 hijackers who were responsible for the largest terrorist attack on American soil. Thousands of authorities were immediately deployed throughout the city, as Mayor Bloomberg called the current threat "the most specific terrorist threat" officials had received to date.
Unfortunately, there are some people in this country who are so cynical and politically motivated they place partisan politics above concern for terrorism. Just hours after the NYC threats were announced, the far left-wing website Buzzflash.com ran a headline stating, "NYC Increases Subway Security After Threat. Rove said to testify in CIA leak case. Coincidence?" Buzzflash contributor Tom Wieliczka later editorialized: "Now, is it just me being cynical — or are The Republican Party and Karl Rove just trying anything and everything to get the heat off Rove and The Administration, by making a 'Classified Threat' to New York … the Lead Story?" MSNBC's Keith Olbermann questioned the timing of the terror alert and Karl Rove's grand jury appearance on his show "Countdown," sarcastically proclaiming, "Stop what you're thinking. It's just an amazing coincidence."
I know that politics have become more partisan and heated in recent years, but preparing for possible Al Qaida terrorist threats in the U.S. should NOT cause knee-jerk apathy and conspiratorial thoughts among any sane citizen of this country. Domestic terrorist threats are a real and serious danger! Personally, I think Bush made a huge mistake with the initial invasion of Iraq, but that's not the issue here. Terrorism has recently wreaked havoc on London, Madrid and Bali. All events had connections to Al Qaida, which was also the group with specific plans to terrorize New York City.
To ignore or dismiss these threats as something to be unconcerned with is an absolute absurd and outrageous notion. By the way, citing the Bush administration or federal government for involvement in some mass conspiracy is also bone-headed given the fact that the federal government downplayed the threat, saying that it should be taken seriously but that the source was of "doubtful credibility." It was the New York City officials who called for serious law enforcement and preventative measures to be immediately taken.
Senator Russ Feingold was in New Hampshire recently while talking about terrorism. Feingold said to a crowd of people, "If there are people out there out to kill us, we should stop them first. …There is no room for simply trying to 'understand' al-Qaida. I'm no pacifist. I'm somebody who believes if somebody is trying to kill me and my kids, we better stop them." He also stated that the nation's "top priority" should be to destroy the terrorist networks. Feingold has been fundamentally opposed to the initial invasion of Iraq, but also believes that we do need to defend ourselves from terrorist groups like Al Qaida. This apparently crossed the line for out-of-touch peaceniks like New Hampshire resident Leah Caswell, who thought that Feingold sounded too "hawkish". This woman is an example of someone in this country who apparently thinks that we do NOT have the right to defend ourselves against terrorists.
The implications are clear. Everyone in this country should be fully engaged in the vital role of taking every domestic terrorist threat seriously. I'm no fan of Karl Rove, but he has no conspiratorial role in terrorist threats made against this country by the barbarians that make up Al Qaida. Every man, woman and child should be united in preparing for domestic terror threats. As James Carville told a group of Northwestern University students last week: "No Kumbayah crap." Don't be a foolish conspirator in the face of real terrorist threats.
Casey Hoff ([email protected]) is a UW student and host of "New Ground with Casey Hoff," live Monday through Friday, 9-11 a.m., on Madison 1670 The Pulse.
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hold my hair while i barf
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Hey Casey I hear a trumpet call for assembly, you still hear the trumpet call for a charge. I see two and one half years and 2,000 dead, tens of thousands horribly wounded for life, Iraq and Afghanistan casualties uncounted with a hundred more years of death from depleted uranium, billions of dollars wasted. I see our nation lied to, cheated, robbed, and gang raped and still treated like suckers. And with you Chicken Hawk Strategists sitting in your Lazy Boy's and loving it. They waved the flag, you charged, sacrificing others lives. No WMD, no germ warfare, no Al Qaeda, no yellow cake. Led by some career failure, inbred aristocrat, son of a double-dipping pig, a real Washington insider. This country took an army prepared to fight two superpowers, and rolled over a bunch of barefoot guys in turbans…Mission Accomplished. Well, that's one down and one hundred more Islamic countries to go. Would these pig indicted ex- felons and future felons lie to us? Hell, yes. They're backpedaling out of this quagmire and squealing as they go.
This group lied it's way through elections, lied it's way through every conceivable twist. And are still lying!! It's taken five years, but the majority of American people see that this loser, through his base action, is nothing more than a petty opportunist. He had one moment of high drama standing on the bones and ruin of New York, grabbed the helm of this country and ran it aground. The American people have to be clear eyed enough to question every thing this pig does. Remember that George Bush does nothing that doesn't serve George Bush. Antpoppa
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George Bush is our president. You should not bad-mouth him. Look what happened to the Dixie Chicks. Think you got a chance of getting away with it? Think again! Don’t bad-mouth the president. It not only makes him look bad, but it makes you and the whole country look bad.
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Well, Casey, one person’s “terrorism” can surely be another’s “heroic resistance to tyranny.” And vice-versa.
Was it terrorism when Bill Clinton bombed that Sudanese “weapons facility” in Sudan in 1998? After all, the Clinton administration was later forced to admit that it was actually an aspirin factory. How about George W. Bush’s bombing of Afghanistan, beginning October 7, 2001, supposedly in retribution for the 9/11 attacks - did you know that the cluster bombs released by US war-planes on that country, one of the poorest in the world, were so colorfully and brightly painted that little Afghan kids were blown to bits when they picked them up? How about the American bombing, (including the use of white phosphorus and Depleted Uranium munitions) strafing, shelling, shooting and other forms of killing inflicted on Iraqi civilians, especially since 2003? Two different studies, one by the British journal The Lancet, and another from Baltimore’s own Johns Hopkins University, estimated civilian deaths from that ongoing catastrophe, at 100,000 and counting. Pretty terrifying, if you ask me!
Of course, the terrorism directed at Iraq didn’t begin two and a half years ago. The first Gulf War, which killed untold thousands of civilians, was quite terrifying to the innocents who died in order to serve the interests of the first president Bush, and also to keep American automobiles guzzling gas! Subsequently, extremely severe (some might say barbaric) sanctions were imposed on Iraq by that same George Herbert Walker Bush. The Iraq embargo was maintained by Clinton for eight more years, and resulted in the death of hundreds of thousands, especially children. Could that embargo also be labeled a form of terrorism? Of course, Clinton’s Secretary of State Madeline Albright, when asked by CBS’s Leslie Stahl if the “price” of hundreds of thousands of Iraqi deaths due to starvation and disease was “worth it,” answered in the affirmative. Does that make Mrs. Albright a terrorist? A War Criminal, perhaps?
It seems to me the term “terrorism” is often arbitrarily applied, depending on who feels terrorized. I was in New York City on September 11, 2001. I never want to see another such terrorist onslaught on American soil. Nor on anyone else’s.
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Yeah, why can’t we have peace in our time?
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Well, Casey, one person’s “terrorism” can surely be another’s “heroic resistance to tyranny.” And vice-versa.
Was it terrorism when Bill Clinton bombed that Sudanese “weapons facility” in Sudan in 1998? After all, the Clinton administration was later forced to admit that it was actually an aspirin factory. How about George W. Bush’s bombing of Afghanistan, beginning October 7, 2001, supposedly in retribution for the 9/11 attacks - did you know that the cluster bombs released by US war-planes on that country, one of the poorest in the world, were so colorfully and brightly painted that little Afghan kids were blown to bits when they picked them up? How about the American bombing, (including the use of white phosphorus and Depleted Uranium munitions) strafing, shelling, shooting and other forms of killing inflicted on Iraqi civilians, especially since 2003? Two different studies, one by the British journal The Lancet, and another from Baltimore’s own Johns Hopkins University, estimated civilian deaths from that ongoing catastrophe, at 100,000 and counting. Pretty terrifying, if you ask me!
Of course, the terrorism directed at Iraq didn’t begin two and a half years ago. The first Gulf War, which killed untold thousands of civilians, was quite terrifying to the innocents who died in order to serve the interests of the first president Bush, and also to keep American automobiles guzzling gas! Subsequently, extremely severe (some might say barbaric) sanctions were imposed on Iraq by that same George Herbert Walker Bush. The Iraq embargo was maintained by Clinton for eight more years, and resulted in the death of hundreds of thousands, especially children. Could that embargo also be labeled a form of terrorism? Of course, Clinton’s Secretary of State Madeline Albright, when asked by CBS’s Leslie Stahl if the “price” of hundreds of thousands of Iraqi deaths due to starvation and disease was “worth it,” answered in the affirmative. Does that make Mrs. Albright a terrorist? A War Criminal, perhaps?
It seems to me the term “terrorism” is often arbitrarily applied, depending on who feels terrorized. I was in New York City on September 11, 2001. I never want to see another such terrorist onslaught on American soil. Nor on anyone else’s.
IP hash: 2d8ad5ab
Much as I dislike the Christian fundies, I like the Moslem fundies less.
Too bad there’s no third choice.
Abu Bakar Bashir: They have to stop fighting Islam. That's impossible because it is sunnatullah [destiny, a law of nature], as Allah has said in the Koran. If they want to have peace, they have to accept to be governed by Islam … We'll keep fighting them and they'll lose. The batil [falsehood] will lose sooner or later. I sent a letter to Bush. I said that you'll lose and there is no point for you [to fight us]. This [concept] is found in the Koran.
http://timblair.net/ee/index.php/weblog/why_ners/
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Dear Casey,
If you aren’t aware of the degree which the Bush Administration used/uses propaganda and fear as tools to push their agenda — an agenda which otherwise would have no public support — you haven’t been reading the news for very long.
You can start with this:
http://digbysblog.blogspot.com/20051009digbysblogarchive.html#112910098940371679
And read the PDF that article links to:
http://www.indybay.org/news/2003/10/1653148.php
Best,
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Hey Casey,
Sometimes cynicism is rooted in reality. In this case, it was true. Your “terror threat” turned out to be a giant hoax. Perpetrated by an unnamed, unlocatable Iraqi to Defense Department officials. Sometimes, when the feds are saying it’s bogus, it’s bogus. And besides, this was about partisan politics, but obviously not the kind you pay attention to. Mayor Bloomberg is taking it in the chin for avoiding debating Ferrer in the NYC mayoral race. Probably because that whiny voiced rich boy will take it on the chin from Ferrer, and namely because the debate he skipped out on was in the Apollo Theater, a crowd Mayor Bloomberg (rightly) assumed would not be kind to him. So guess what? This terrorism “threat” was all about making New Yorkers forget that their mayor was a dolt, not about terrorism.
Honestly, I’ve said it before and I’ll say it again, there is no war on terrorism. Counter-terrorism is something our government does and should do. But a “war on terror” is a jingoistic, meaningless phrase that fools fools like yourself into thinking Bush can do something, anything right.
And to keep you scared.
IP hash: 8c6bb553
Cartman: It’s an Afghanistan goat, so it can’t stay here, or else it’ll choke on the sweet air of freedom Antpoppa