Thursday, August 04, 2005

Is the United States a Terrorist State?. From The U.S. Government Guide to Surviving Terrorism,we read that the U.S. Department of Defense defines terrorism as "the calculated use of unlawful violence or threat of unlawful violence to inculcate fear; intended to coerce or to intimidate governments or societies in the pursuit of goals that are generally political, religious, or ideological." Obviously, yes, since the U.S. continues to use unlawful violence to forcibly impose the ideology of democracy on Iraq. [Antiwar.com Blog] Indeed. Of course, note the caveat about "unlawful" violence. Presumably this means that it's perfectly okay for a government to commit terrorist acts because it can give itself legal permission to do so. I would argue that the definition is more accurate without "unlawful." 8:56:01 PM    comment () Shoot-to-Kill Revisited. I've already written about the police "shoot-to-kill" policy in the UK in response to the terrorist bombings last month, explaining why it's a bad security trade-off. Now the International Association of Chiefs of Police have issued new guidelines that also recommend a shoot-to-kill policy. What might cause a police officer to think you're a suicide bomber, and then shoot you in the head? The police organization's behavioral profile says such a person might exhibit "multiple anomalies," including wearing a heavy coat or jacket in warm weather or carrying a briefcase, duffel bag or backpack with protrusions or visible wires. The person might display nervousness, an unwillingness to make eye contact or excessive sweating. There might be chemical burns on the clothing or stains on the hands. The person might mumble prayers or be "pacing back and forth in front of a venue." Is that all that's required? The police group's guidelines also say the threat to officers does not have to be "imminent," as police training traditionally teaches. Officers do not have to wait until a suspected bomber makes a move, another traditional requirement for police to use deadly force. An officer just needs to have a "reasonable basis" to believe that the suspect can detonate a bomb, the guidelines say. Does anyone actually think they're safer if a policy like this is put into effect? [Schneier on Security] Not only would this not make anybody safer, it would specifically endanger my life. I (being from a warm climate) frequently wear heavier clothes than others, carry a camera bag with protrusions, and (like any sane person) become nervous around cops. I have even been known to pace back and forth in front of a venue that I'm about to photograph in. It seems to me that if this policy where put into place, the logical response would be for everyone to simply begin shooting police officers on sight. If enough people did it, the cops would pretty quickly realize that murdering people for their fashion sense isn't such a good idea. 6:47:14 PM    comment () Quote of the day: A kid who is unfortunate enough to be stuck in public school for 12+ years has more serious problems than a teacher blathering on about "intelligent design" for a few hours out of those 12+ years. Philip Greenspun 6:25:40 PM    comment () DrunkenBlog: The Downward Spiral. DrunkenBlog: The Downward Spiral: “In a previous post, I mentioned I had to finish the last chat on another platform, because of a bunch of wonky bugs I was having to deal with in Mac OS 10.4, many of them involving text... Today we’ll follow the downward spiral that made me give up and finish it on another computer.” [inessential.com] Here's an OS X problem I haven't encountered before. 12:41:48 PM    comment () WILLIAM MARINA: How Soon We Forget!. "Al-Zaman reports that US troops are billeted in 1700 homes in Fallujah. The newspaper says that owners are largely refusing to accept rent, and just want the soldiers out of their homes." Juan Cole America's historical amnesia allows it to forget the quartering of the British standing army in Boston in 1768. The great feminist republican, Mercy Otis Warren, who, in 1805 published her multi-volume History of the American Revolution because she feared Americans had already succumbed... [Liberty & Power: Group Blog] Another sign of the US government's quest to become every evil which America once defeated. 11:00:50 AM    comment ()

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