Tag Archives: America

Link – Trump’s Deja Vu – 2004 Staff Report – National Commission on Terrorist Attacks

11 Friday Dec 2015

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The story begins with “A Factual Overview of the September 11 Border Story.” This introduction summarizes many of the key facts of the hijackers’ entry into the United States. In it, we endeavor to dispel the myth that their entry into the United States was “clean and legal.” It was not. Three hijackers carried passports with indicators of Islamic extremism linked to al Qaeda; two others carried passports manipulated in a fraudulent manner. It is likely that several more hijackers carried passports with similar fraudulent
manipulation. Two hijackers lied on their visa applications. Once in the United States, two hijackers violated the terms of their visas. One overstayed his visa. And all but one obtained some form of state identification. We know that six of the hijackers used these state issued identifications to check in for their flights on September 11. Three of them were fraudulently obtained.

Eldridge, Thomas R., Susan Ginsburg, Walter T. Hemple II, et al.  “9/11 and Terrorist Travel: Staff Report of the National Commission on Terrorist Attacks Upon the United States.”  August 21, 2004.

Of late, BackChannels’ reading has involved turning from one chilling, albeit bureaucratise nonfiction, page to the next.  Perhaps with the right coffee or spirits, another reader might set aside the latest McCarry (I’ll have to read him) or Silva (plenty of that here for the winter) and settle into the kind of obscure monograph that packs a moan a minute:

Once the operation was under way, the conspirators attempted to enter the United States 34 times over 21 months, through nine airports. They succeeded all but once. Border inspectors at U.S. airports were unaware of the potential significance of indicators of possible terrorist affiliation in conspirators’ passports and had no information about fraudulent travel stamps possibly associated with al Qaeda. No inspectors or agents were trained in terrorist travel intelligence and document practices. The culture at the airports was one of travel facilitation and lax enforcement, with the exception of programs to interdict drug couriers and known criminals.

Enough said — the staff report “9/11 and Terrorist Travel” is online, free, and, if it’s read, certain to add old flavor to the latest web chat about immigration and travel into the United States.

Reading at length — reading for hours — is practically a lost art but one nonetheless practiced around BackChannels.  The source of the tip to the publication cited above:

Gray, Mitchell.  I Heard You Were Going On Jihad: How a Minnesota FBI agent may have prevented a second wave of attacks before 9/11 and exposed the Oklahoma terror network.  Minneapolis: Mill City Press, 2015.

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FTAC – RANT – Pakistan – Bleating Hearts

13 Monday Oct 2014

Posted by in Conflict - Culture - Language - Psychology, foreign aid, FTAC - From The Awesome Conversation, Pakistan, Political Psychology, United States of America

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Americans are not victims of America.

We own America.

We work for America as Americans and whether in private industry or government, we and every neighbor is in one or the other, Main Street to Wall Street, police station to military barracks in the far reaches of the world.

Hate America, undermine America, blame America — look in the mirror.

When aid to Pakistan, domestic and military, reaches Pakistan, it’s in Pakistani hands to spend. If much of that spending gets lost, goes without audit, does not make it to The People of Pakistan, does not improve security or domestic qualities in living, we didn’t spend it: we gave it.

Secrets-keeping governments naturally inspire conspiracy thinking and paranoia. Knowing this, in the U.S., we divulge our secrets, many, most, and all across time. Some decades may pass between act and acknowledgement but the truth (here) always surfaces. Our real armies don’t wear uniforms. Sometimes they don’t even get out of their jeans and sweatshirts, but they’re up to their elbows in historical research that may be and will be examined by peers and third parties and very possibly by God Almighty himself. That knowledge tends to make everyone responsible.

Such as ISIS love ambivalence, doubt, and weakness in targets, and the degree to which the same will sacrifice others not for God but for plunder and the merciless dominance of others is breathtaking.

If you think Iraq was a mistake, look over Saddam’s palaces built on the backs of his people. Ask the Marsh Arabs about the destruction of their timeless way of life. Ask the Kurdish people about what it’s like to be gassed en masse by an implacable tyrant. Speak to the Shiite about serving the Baathist “cause”.

Really hate the west: stop taking our money, time, resources, ingenuity, and available spending. The “west” for its part could and should do better to encourage better ecological and labor practices in its trading partners plus greater insistence on democracy and human rights. Beyond that, we give — Pakistan spends. If the state has problems with itself, swap out the politicians in the next round of elections.

Whether through the sewage pumped out by the solidarity movements are loose souls wandering in the shadows of one fascist past or another, there are global “Hate America First” crowds.

When cozy, they talk, inventing words that never existed, but it makes some feel good to have a central fixture for pelting with verbal stones.

Sound like something of which you may be aware?

Well, that’s language for you.  It has echoes, ghosts, mirage, murmurs, and reminders, and while it may be easy to go with so many programs that create ideas and relationships in our heads, we sometimes stop to think a moment about Iraqi poverty in the age in which Saddam Hussein maintained his palaces, and then we say “wait a minute — let’s have a closer look at how that works.”

That’s all it takes sometimes: a closer look at gross inequality, injustice, implacable will, and the numbing cruelty that accompanies them.

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FTAC – Solstice Season

27 Thursday Dec 2012

Posted by in Conflict - Culture - Language - Psychology, FTAC - From The Awesome Conversation, Religion

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Referenced HuffPost piece: http://www.huffingtonpost.com/judith-greenberg-phd/christmas-gifts-in-a-jewish-home_b_2362999.html

“S.” is a Pakistani civil servant who corresponds with some western writers, at least two Jewish ones.

In the above referenced piece, Judith Greenberg writes, “One of my new friends, S., a reader from Pakistan, teaches me over and again about the gift of writing. She responds to my blogs with thoughts about her own experiences with writing, also full of heart.”

The use of italics and an initial are mine, and S., so far as I know, is a he (this by way of a profile picture elsewhere).

Hi, S.,

It’s good to see you reading The Huffington Post.

Welcome to America!

I wrote a song a long time ago titled “Solstice Season”.

The truth is in Christian-majority America, everyone celebrates or experiences Christmas: the atmosphere of it is pervasive; however, it’s the Christians who go to Mass on the 25th, and the rest of us have a cheerful day — or try to wherever life has placed us — as it’s just about impossible to go on with anything mundane.

For going out, there are always a few Chinese restaurants open for business as usual — and for them, the traffic may be a gift.

For other enterprises, the staffing is sketchy but paid well for the holiday time. For example, around here, the groceries stores are closed but convenience stores may fill in in a pinch.

Hanuka, the not-quite-coinciding Jewish holiday, may have evolved into the present cheerful children’s gift-giving holiday in relation to Christian practices; however: the Hanuka menorah has an ancient past:

JERUSALEM — Israeli archaeologists have uncovered one of the earliest depictions of a menorah, the seven-branched candelabra that has come to symbolize Judaism, the Israel Antiquities Authority said Friday. The menorah was engraved in stone around 2,000 years ago and found in a synagogue recently discovered by the Sea of Galilee.
Pottery, coins and tools found at the site indicate the synagogue dates to the period of the second Jewish temple in Jerusalem, where the actual menorah was kept, said archaeologist Dina Avshalom-Gorni of the Israel Antiquities Authority.

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2009/09/11/archaeologists-find-early_n_283333.html

The Jewish holiday and tradition — and Maccabee story — are completely culturally and historically authentic. It’s the manner of the celebration that may be responsive to the Christian flavor of the season.

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When the “European Invasion” displaced the indigenous of the continent, the settlers could not imagine, I’m sure, developing an American culture separate from the European one, but that is what has happened in every area of expression even as the Christian tradition asserts itself at this time of year (and at Easter).  “American Transcendentalism” and the unconscious and seldom self-conscious relationship with the earth itself, something in the air and shared with the indigenous love of the land, may comprise the larger part of the American spirit.

To really head off on this topic, I need my full typing skill, but I think there is in every human a primitive love of being alive with the land and with nature.

As in Rome, as before Constantine, as it has been always on this continent, EVERYONE knows the shortest day of the year, the bitter cold weather to come, the longer days to come too, and poor or rich, by way of donations or presents, from home to the homeless shelters, the country gets cozy and enjoys itself.

Perhaps all is not not quite as bright as I paint it — there’s tragedy too revolving around the “Hellidays”, an immense period of review, a difficult time for the dysfunctional within families that have been somewhat artificially forced to gather for a meal, a most depressing time for those on the outs with society, and an unsafe period for those with problems plus alcohol and drugs and fast cars and such (and those unlucky to be in their path) — but all that too is America at this time of year.

Celebrate the differences, my friend: take it all in.  We’re all here on an hospitable “blue marble” floating in a universe that for as far out as man can see is overwhelmingly inorganic .

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FTAC – A Pox on the Extremes of Both Houses

09 Friday Nov 2012

Posted by in FTAC - From The Awesome Conversation, Politics

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This, which was inspired within correspondence this morning, may be more revealing than I like, and yet should even one Democratic or Republican stalwart read it, it might do a little something (I believe in the pebble in the pond, the outbound ripples and the reflection of their energy off the surfaces they encounter).

Beneath the surface of the two-party systems, Americans may pick up on the necessity of building a new, more centered political machine. This last election became not only obscenely polarized but silly in its inability to distinguish between true issues and trivia. I hate to say it, but I think Obama got in on women’s rights, which I support, liberal morality, which I support, and a politics of inclusion, which I support, and such have been the hallmarks of the Democratic Party. These idiots drifting off to Hezbollalaland and running up their numbers to as much as 50 percent of that party essentially block me from supporting the party.

As investments support my sorry ass, I have also got my feet planted in the other camp!

My wallet tells me it’s really a Republican.

And then Jewish identity, character, and ethics tell me neither of these parties are working for me. Or representing me. The Democrats least of all; the Republicans not much.

FTAC – In Brief Defense of Capitalism, American-Style

02 Friday Nov 2012

Posted by in Conflict - Culture - Language - Psychology, FTAC - From The Awesome Conversation

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On one of his forums, a Pakistani friend quoted a socialist screed as a strawman.  I took a whack at it.

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American capitalism, at least, is a melange of public-private compacts and mixed individual incentive and social programs. Our military is a socialist program — if you’re in, you get medical and dental services, base exchange pricing, base housing, housing allowance, etc. for the term of service, butyou may be stuck where Uncle Sam’s machinery places you — defending massive public works, Federal campuses, bridges, roads, dams, forests, wilderness, parks, and so on, that provide employment in big numbers that then serve other development, business, and community (and human) needs. The American tax system supports Medicare and Social Security, services to military veterans in retirement; also public education, college and university research (not to mention student loans). The entire “Capitalist Evil” (!) is a complex of basic public services, public investment spread throughout the constituency, public infrastructure programs supporting private development, and then plenty — PLENTY — of “degrees of freedom” for people to enjoy their lives and — blessed, gifted, or lucky — do great things.

The system supports many ways of life, but it does not manage either the lives of all the humans within it, nor does it secure them.  For too many unemployed, under-employed, deeply exploited in their employment, or just marginal as persons, we have our human flood. Nonetheless, in light of public and private resources, between government departments and private charities, everyone gets some attention, and I think it actually takes effort to avoid “food banks”, “clothing banks”, “shelters”, “rehab” programs, “jobs programs”, and all the rest.

It’s true a few of our bankers and boardroom people could have been — and could be — better behaved (“The problem with capitalism is the capitalists”) but our capitalism is anything but pure capitalism, and, for the record, in response to the “socialist” critic,  the democracy IS 24/7/365 (not “once in four years”) and the public will toward both self-enrichment and altruistic community-wide improvement is constant.

Political dogma, especially in the U.S. this election season but in general  and worldwide too, may be more dangerous than nuts-and-bolts everyday politics because it is so easily, incautiously, and thoughtlessly, swallowed. Bottom line: by way of taxes, the American republic, overall, invests heavily in its human capital more than it does any other form of national resource, and out of that comes the greater freedom of the people to set their own courses and manage their own lives with a real minimum of “official guidance”.

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