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Tuesday, January 11, 2005
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Are There No Terrorists Under the Bed?: " Robert Scheer writes in the LA Times, Is Al Qaeda Just a Bush Boogeyman?
Is it conceivable that Al Qaeda, as defined by President Bush as the center of a vast and well-organized international terrorist conspiracy, does not exist?
To even raise the question amid all the officially inspired hysteria is heretical, especially in the context of the U.S. media’s supine acceptance of administration claims relating to national security. Yet a brilliant new BBC film produced by one of Britain’s leading documentary filmmakers systematically challenges this and many other accepted articles of faith in the so-called war on terror.
‘The Power of Nightmares: The Rise of the Politics of Fear,’ a three-hour historical film by Adam Curtis recently aired by the British Broadcasting Corp., argues coherently that much of what we have been told about the threat of international terrorism ‘is a fantasy that has been exaggerated and distorted by politicians.
Wouldn’t that be something? You know, these are good questions:
… consider just a few of the many questions the program poses along the way:
• If Osama bin Laden does, in fact, head a vast international terrorist organization with trained operatives in more than 40 countries, as claimed by Bush, why, despite torture of prisoners, has this administration failed to produce hard evidence of it?
• How can it be that in Britain since 9/11, 664 people have been detained on suspicion of terrorism but only 17 have been found guilty, most of them with no connection to Islamist groups and none who were proven members of Al Qaeda?
• Why have we heard so much frightening talk about ‘dirty bombs’ when experts say it is panic rather than radioactivity that would kill people?
• Why did Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld claim on ‘Meet the Press’ in 2001 that Al Qaeda controlled massive high-tech cave complexes in Afghanistan, when British and U.S. military forces later found no such thing?
‘Trust but verify’ — and there hasn’t been much public verification, has there? "
(Via Discourse.net.)
4:11:36 PM 
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Damned Radio was acting up again, and no posts since the 5th had streamed up to the server. So now you've got a bunch of stuff to read for the last week! Thanks to Jim for the headsup.
2:20:41 PM
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Wow! Word from the various people posting from Steve Jobs' keynote talks about the mini-Mac, a new, small, monitor-less $500 Mac. Yes, Gary, I am sometimes wrong. In this case, I'm glad I was, and I'm going to place an order as soon as I can.
10:49:31 AM
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The three Dylan concerts I saw in 1993 don't stand out much in my mind. Bob had a cold, and the Concord show was short and unexciting, except for It Takes a Lot to Laugh, It Takes a Train to Cry and I and I. The Shoreline show a couple days later had memorable versions of All Along the Watchtower (yes), and God Knows. Seems like just another Bob year to me.
Until this week. A bunch of "pre-boards," which are apparently line recordings taken from the lines before they reach the soundboard, have emerged, and they are stunning. First of all there's the quality of the recordings. Where soundboards can sometimes feel cold and lack depth, these things are warm and intimate. Bob's voice is mixed, thankfully, very high, it's clear and concise. Beyond that, the performances are just fantastic. I'm listening now to the February 13, 1993 show from the Hammersmith Apollo in London (free registration may be required). The setlist is fantastic: Pretty Peggy-O, Shooting Star, Jim Jones, and What Good Am I? for starters. Fantastic listening, and many thanks to those who liberated these tapes, and to everyone who is sharing them on BitTorent. 1993 is a changed year!
10:46:57 AM
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Armstrong Williams: I Am Not Alone: "Scandal-struck right-wing pundit tells me others do it, too. But he won't reveal names. (from The Nation) [bandelier.net]..."
(Via Drudge Retort.)
Until names are revealed, then, everyone espousing an administration point of view is suspect. How much money did they hand out? To whom? Who is still getting it? Note to the administration: I'll take money.
9:33:30 AM
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Send a Message to God: "He has gone too far this time."
(Via Slate Magazine.)
Centuries of uncritical worship have clearly produced a monster. God knows that he can sit passively by while human life is wantonly mowed down, and the next day, churches, synagogues, and mosques will be filled with believers thanking him for allowing the survivors to survive. The faithful will ask him to heal the wounded, while ignoring his failure to prevent the disaster in the first place. They will excuse his unwillingness to stave off destruction with alibis ("God wasn't there when the tsunami hit"—Suketu Mehta) and relativising ("for each victim tens of thousands yet live"—Russell Seitz), even if those excuses contradict God's other attributes, such as omnipresence or love for each individual life. Where is God's incentive to behave? He gets credit for the good things and no blame for the bad. Former U.S. Attorney General John Ashcroft is fond of thanking God for keeping America safe since 9/11; Ashcroft never asks why, if God has fended off terrorist strikes since 9/11, he let the hijackers on the planes on the day itself. Was God caught off guard the first time around, like the U.S. government? But he is omniscient and omnipotent. So slavishly do his worshipers flatter God that they give him credit for things he didn't even do. Let a man rape and murder a child, and it's the man's offense; but if someone tends to the sick or shares his wealth, it's God's hand at work. The Most Rev. Gabino Zavala from the Los Angeles Roman Catholic Archdiocese rejects any suggestion that God forsook the tsunami victims, according to the Los Angeles Times, but he credits God with the subsequent charity: "You can see God in the people's response—how they're reaching out."
9:20:11 AM
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Holy cow! Be sure to check out this fantastic picture of Comet Machholz near The Pleaides. I was really disappointed that it was cloudy Friday night. I picked up Maccholz Saturday and Sunday night and last night as well for a moment, but it had already passed this cluster. What a beautiful picture of a beautiful sight!
8:33:58 AM
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© Copyright 2005 Steve Michel.
Last update: 2/28/2005; 10:36:45 PM.
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