Saturday, April 18, 2015

TERRORISM NEWSLETTER #1

OMNI
TERRORISM NEWSLETTER #1,   April 18, 2015.
Compiled by Dick Bennett for a Culture of Peace and Justice.     See newsletters on War on (of) Terror and State Terrorism.

What’s at stake:  An effort to distinguish three closely related, overlapping subjects: TERRORISM, STATE TERRORISM, US WAR ON (WAR OF) TERRORISM (such a large subdivision of State Terrorism needs separate treatment).  For the poet Nizar Qabbani, “’terrorism’ is the word used by oppressors to defame a national liberation struggle.”  Tariq Ali, Bush in Babylon (pp. 6-7).

Newsletters
Index:


Contents Terrorism Newsletter #1
Howard Zinn, Three Kinds of Terror Bombing
Zinn, Google Search
George Monbiot, Orwell Would Now Be a Terrorist
Dick, Boston Marathon Bomber, Terrorist or Criminal?
2008 Mumbai Attacks
Two Books That Examine “Terrorism” and “Anti-Terrorism”
     Melissa Finn, Al Qaeda and Sacrifice
     Carrington, Transforming Terror
Arkansas Democrat-Gazette Reporting on Terrorism


HOWARD ZINN, “ON TERROR.”  NEW YORK TIMES BOOK REVIEW (August 19, 2007). 
Three kinds of terror bombings: deliberate, inevitable, unintentional.  Suicide and aerial bombings equivalent.   During the War on Vietnam War and the Wars on Afghanistan and Iraq, the perpetrators Johnson, Nixon, and Bush justified the mass killing of civilians by saying the bombings were accidental or inadvertent.  But civilian deaths in aerial bombing are inevitable.  Thus: “The terrorism of the suicide bomber and the terrorism of aerial bombardment are indeed morally equivalent.”  --Dick

Google Search Results, Howard Zinn, On Terror, Feb. 17, 2014, first page

1.    Our War on Terrorism | The Progressive

www.progressive.org/nov04/zinn1104.html
The Progressive
By Howard Zinn, November 2004 Issue. I am calling it "our" war on terrorism because I want to distinguish it from Bush's war on terrorism, and from Sharon's, and ...

2.    Quote by Howard Zinn: How can you have a war on terrorism when ...

www.goodreads.com/.../218972-how-can-you-have-a-war-on...
Goodreads
Howard Zinn — 'How can you have a war on terrorism when war itself is terrorism?'

3.    Howard Zinn on The Uses of History and the War on Terrorism ...

www.democracynow.org/.../howar...
Democracy Now!
Dec 18, 2006
Howard Zinn is one of this country's most celebrated historians. His classic work "A People's History of ...

4.    Terrorism And War by Howard Zinn - Third World Traveler

www.thirdworldtraveler.com/Zinn/Terrorism_War_Zinn.html
The continued expenditure of more than $300 billion for the military every year has absolutely no effect on the danger of terrorism. If we want real security, we ...

5.    Howard Zinn Quotes

www.notable-quotes.com/z/zinn_howard.html
It's not right to respond to terrorism by terrorizing other people. And furthermore, it's not going to help. Then you might say, "Yes, it's terrorizing people, but it's ...

6.    Howard Zinn on Obama: "If you want to end terrorism, you have to ...

www.youtube.com/watch?v=dbzkhu1CiVU
YouTube
May 14, 2009 - Uploaded by yrrmom
We ought to hold Obama to his promise to be different & bold & to make change. So far, he hasn't come thru ...

7.    Howard Zinn's Terrorism and War, a review » CounterPunch: Tells ...

www.counterpunch.org/akram0607.html
CounterPunch
Jun 9, 2002 - Terrorism and War, a collection of interviews with Howard Zinn by Anthony Arnove, is an honourable and rare exception. It is a part of a series ...

8.    Historian Howard Zinn: “Largest Lie” is the “U.S. War on Terrorism ...

www.globalresearch.ca/historian-howard-zinn...lie...terrorism/17272
Jan 29, 2010 - The “largest lie,” wrote hisorian Howard Zinn who died yesterday at age 87, is that “everything the United States does is to be pardoned ...

9.    Howard Zinn on War Zinn Education Project

zinnedproject.org/materials/howard-zinn-on-war/
“How can you have a war on terrorism when war itself is terrorism? ... This second edition of Howard Zinn on War is a collection of 26 short writings chosen by ...

10. Book Review -- Terrorism and War

www.vvawai.org/archive/sw/sw45/BookReview-Terrorism.html
Terrorism and War This book contains a series of interviews with Howard Zinn conducted between September 2001 and late January 2002. Howard Zinn shows ...
Searches related to Howard Zinn, On Terror


Orwell Was Hailed a Hero for Fighting in Spain. Today He'd Be Guilty of Terrorism 
George Monbiot, Guardian UK , Reader Supported News, Feb. 11, 2014
Monbiot writes: "If George Orwell and Laurie Lee were to return from the Spanish civil war today, they would be arrested under section five of the Terrorism Act 2006. ... They would go down as terrorists." 
READ MORE



BOSTON MARATHON BOMBING
Yesterday, April 16, 2013, two bombs exploded……..
WHAT DID OFFCIALS AND NEWSPAPERS SAY?
WAR OR CRIME?  THE HORRIFIC DIFFERENCE A WORD MAKES by Dick Bennett
     An announcer on The Weather Channel likened the explosions to 9-11.   It is an appropriate analogy, but with an unexpected meaning.
     We allowed our leaders to turn the destruction of the Trade Towers and attack on the Pentagon into another indefinable and endless action in the “War Against Terrorism,” permitting them to rush Congress and the public into a fever of military mobilization.  In the spirit of revenge, all the bombings and shootings under the label “War on Terrorism” during the Bush administration and continuing today under President Obama followed from that initial labeling of the aggression as a war instead of a crime.   Had we not allowed lovers of cruelty to command, had the majority of the people not abandoned their sense of proportion, today literally millions of presently displaced people would be living in their former homes going to work and caring for their families, hundreds of thousands of people would not have been gunned and bombed to death, the treasuries of a dozen nations would be immensely richer, and hundreds of alleged “terrorists” would not have been imprisoned and tortured for years without charge or trial. 
     And now two young men murdered two people and injured several with bombs.   How should that act of violence be labeled?  Was it “terrorism” requiring the response of our trillion dollars anti-terrorism apparatuses?  Or a crime requiring the response of the Boston police?  What has happened to our sense of proportion in disciplined police work?   
     These young men were not the shock troops of some state terrorism or some terrorist organization.   They were young men who grew up in violence in the United States and indoctrinated by violence in the United States.   Our nation, our violent, militarized nation,  called them “terrorists” and swooped down upon them as though they were some invading army and shot to death one of them.
      Consider the consequences of magnifying local crimes into world threats.   The number of people killed in mass shootings in the United States last year was 66.   The killings were properly treated as crimes and the killers are serving sentences, preserving our Constitution and respect for law.   A few years ago Hindu right wing bigots burned up a train full of Muslims.  These fanatical mass murderers were also treated as criminals, appropriately heinous criminals, and within established law the criminals brought to justice, no resort to a global crusade against “evil” regardless of “collateral damage.”
     But the Bush Administration chose to call the World Trade Buildings plane attacks by a handful of revengeful Muslims mainly from Saudi Arabia terrorism and to launch a global crusade—a real state terrorism--against everybody even infinitely remotely associated with the killers and probably as many not.   And since President Obama took office, “more than 350 [drone] strikes in Pakistan, Yemen and Somalia have killed at least 2,400 people.”  That is, not even counting strikes in Afghanistan, “U.S. drones are killing on average at least 47 people a month.”    And after a dozen years of bombing and gunning, more “terrorists” (that is, people who oppose US behavior) appear and the “war” continues, while the Congress, Homeland Security, the Patriot Act, CIA, NSA shred the Bill of Rights.
      In this context of paranoid “war against [by] terrorists,” let us keep our heads.   Let local, national, and international police do their work:   find the killer(s) of our marathoners, charge them, give them a trial by jury, and if found guilty send them to prison.  [As indicated at the beginning, this was written shortly after the Marathon bombing.  The surviving and youngest of the two bombers was apprehended, tried, and convicted.  At this moment—April 18, 2015-- his sentence is pending.]

References
Goodman, Leonard.  “Drone Justice Is Blind.”  In These Times (May 2013) 16.
“Harper’s Index.”  Harper’s Magazine (May 2013) 15.




2008 MUMBAI ATTACKS
In partnership withProPublica
American Terrorist
COMING APRIL 21, 2015Check local listings »
FRONTLINE and ProPublica investigate American-born terrorist David Coleman Headley.
(0:31) FRONTLINE and ProPublica investigate American-born terrorist David Coleman Headley.
FRONTLINE investigates American-born terrorist David Coleman Headley, who helped plan the deadly 2008 siege on Mumbai. In collaboration with ProPublica, the film -- an updated and expanded version of A Perfect Terrorist -- reveals how secret electronic surveillance missed catching the Mumbai plotters, and how Headley planned another Charlie Hebdo-like assault against a Danish newspaper.
THE LATEST
The Mumbai terrorist attacks killed 166 people — including six Americans. Could they have been prevented?
http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/pages/frontline/art/omar/120/5978285951419184643.jpg
December 21, 2014, 8:50 pm ET · by James Glanz of The New York Times, Sebastian Rotella of ProPublica, and David E. Sanger of The New York Times
Indian and British intelligence agencies were both spying on the online activities of one of the alleged plotters, but couldn’t connect the dots.
http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/pages/frontline/art/omar/120/2614v7673.jpg
Officials have credited the program with helping to capture David Coleman Headley, but a closer examination shows the U.S. only caught up with him after a tip from British intelligence.
http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/pages/frontline/art/omar/120/4471v1271.jpg
A new study released today helps explain how Lashkar-i-Taiba, one of the world’s most dangerous militant organizations, is integrated into Pakistani society.
http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/pages/frontline/art/omar/120/2614v1212.jpg
Sebastian Rotella examines new information and materials about the Mumbai terror attacks.
http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/pages/frontline/art/omar/120/2515v3430.jpg
Although David Coleman Headley avoided the death penalty, Judge Harry Leinenweber says the sentence “will keep him under lock and key for the rest of his natural life.”
http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/pages/frontline/art/omar/120/2595v3821.jpg
A federal judge Thursday sentenced a Chicago immigration consultant to 14 years in prison for his role in supporting the Pakistani terrorist group that worked with Pakistan’s intelligence service to carry out the 2008 Mumbai attacks and plot a follow-up strike in Denmark.
http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/pages/frontline/art/omar/120/668882871429199512.jpg
An interactive film that explores the tangled web of relationships that helped the American behind the 2008 Mumbai attacks move from small-time drug smuggler to international terrorist and spy.
http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/pages/frontline/art/omar/120/2600v7231.jpg
The Obama administration’s decision to designate the leadership of Pakistan’s Lashkar-e-Taiba group as terrorists last week sends a pointed, if largely symbolic, message to a Pakistani government that remains unable or unwilling to crack down on the organization.
http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/pages/frontline/art/omar/120/3595v3611.jpg
Zabiuddin Ansari’s statements to Indian police have reinforced evidence of Pakistani intelligence’s role in a terror plot that killed six Americans at the same time Pakistan was receiving billions of dollars in U.S. aid.
http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/pages/frontline/art/omar/120/9115823111429200363.jpg
It’s the tucked-away target that David Coleman Headley cased for the terrorist group Lashkar-i-Taiba. Here’s more on the history of Chabad House, what happened there during the 2008 attack on Mumbai and how the family members of those killed are moving forward.
http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/pages/frontline/art/omar/120/7554431601429209905.jpg
David Coleman Headley isn’t a household name in the United States, but given his role in the 2008 terror attacks in Mumbai he is now as well known to Indians as Osama bin Laden is to Americans.
http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/pages/frontline/art/omar/120/2605v6671.jpg
Mumbai police crime chief Deven Bharti recounts what he learned while investigating the movements of David Coleman Headley as he scouted targets in Mumbai.
http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/pages/frontline/art/omar/120/6694275731429210707.jpg
U.S. officials say David Coleman Headley slipped through the cracks, but ex-wives and Indian authorities say the government had information about the his activities before the 2008 siege that killed 166 people.
http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/pages/frontline/art/omar/120/2594v3517.jpg
It took the 2008 Mumbai attacks for much of the world to recognize Lashkar-i-Taiba’s threat, but renowned French investigative judge Jean-Louis Bruguière had for years warned of the Pakistan-based terrorist group’s evolving international ambitions.
http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/pages/frontline/art/omar/120/2507v2628.jpg
October 20, 2011, 4:14 pm ET · by Azmat Khan and Sabrina Shankman
After years of criminality and deception that included scouting targets for the 2008 Mumbai terrorist attacks — a slaughter that left 166 people dead — Pakistani-American David Coleman Headley was arrested by U.S. authorities in October 2009.
http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/pages/frontline/art/omar/120/2060v5886.jpg
During five days as the star witness in a federal terrorism trial in Chicago, David Coleman Headley revealed details of what he described as his links to both Pakistan’s intelligence service — the ISI — and the terrorist organization Lashkar-i-Taiba.
http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/pages/frontline/art/omar/120/2057v2911.jpg
David Coleman Headley, an American who has confessed to helping plan the 2008 terrorist attacks in Mumbai, told a court that he plotted a similar attack against a Danish newspaper with the support of a Pakistani terror group and the country’s intelligence agency, the ISI.
RELATED PROGRAMS


TWO BOOKS EXAMINE “TERRORISM” AND SUGGEST ALTERNATIVES TO WAR

Al-Qaeda and Sacrifice:  Martyrdom, War and Politics

Melissa Finn.   Pluto, 2012.
Publisher’s blurb:
(Mohammad-Mahmoud Ould Mohamedou, Graduat)
(Wanda Krause, Assistant Professor and Co)
(Shannon Bell, Department of Political Sc)
(Rohan Gunaratna, Professor of Security S)
(Mohammed M. Hafez, Associate Professor, )
(Professor Beverley Milton-Edwards, Schoo)
(Christina Hellmich, University of Readin)
(Richard Jackson, University of Otago, Ne)
(Alex Houen, author of Terrorism and Mode)

Al-Qaeda and Sacrifice is a pioneering critical intervention into the study of terrorism. Challenging the commonly held idea that ‘suicide-bombings’ are motivated by a nihilistic hatred of life, Melissa Finn argues that it is more honest and helpful to examine such violent agency through the concept of ‘sacrifice’. The book provides a unique look at the way ‘sacrifice’ is used in the Arabic language and in the writings of Islamists and jihadis.

Finn offers penetrating insights into jihadi thought on its own terms, arguing that it constitutes a political theory which can be usefully compared and related to western political theorists, from Machiavelli and von Clausewitz to Hannah Arendt, Julia Kristeva and Judith Butler. She critically examines the strategy of ‘sacrifice’ in martyrdom operations and ultimately concludes that the heedless certainty of such violence undermines attempts to redress political grievances.
Al-Qaeda and Sacrifice is a unique contribution which goes beyond simplistic or apologetic explanations of terrorism and allows the authentic jihadi voice to speak for itself.

About The Author

Melissa Finn is a lecturer in the Department of Political Science and the Department of Global Studies at Wilfrid Laurier University in Waterloo, Canada. She is the co-editor of a special edition of Comparative Studies of South Asia, Africa and the Middle East, entitled Veiled Constellations: The Veil, Critical Theory, Politics, and Contemporary Society (Spring 2012).





Transforming Terror



Publisher’s blurb:
Transforming Terror by Karin Lofthus Carrington
This inspired collection offers a new paradigm for moving the world beyond violence as the first, and often only, response to violence. Through essays and poetry, prayers and mediations, Transforming Terror powerfully demonstrates that terrorist violence-defined here as any attack on unarmed civilians-can never be stopped by a return to the thinking that created it. A diverse array of contributors-writers, healers, spiritual and political leaders, scientists, and activists, including Desmond Tutu, Huston Smith, Riane Eisler, Daniel Ellsberg, Amos Oz, Fatema Mernissi, Fritjov Capra, George Lakoff, Mahmoud Darwish, Terry Tempest Williams, and Jack Kornfield-considers how we might transform the conditions that produce terrorist acts and bring true healing to the victims of these acts. Broadly encompassing both the Islamic and Western worlds, the book explores the nature of consciousness and offers a blueprint for change that makes peace possible. From unforgettable firsthand accounts of terrorism, the book draws us into awareness of our ecological and economic interdependence, the need for connectedness, and the innate human capacity for compassion.

Ebook Details
Pages:
392
Size:
4.4 MB
Publisher:
Date published:  
Apr 2011




REVIEWED IN YES! MAGAZINE (Fall 2011) by Valerie Trueblood.



“TERRORISM” IN ARKANSAS DEMOCRAT-GAZETTE
[The best I can do with these few references from 2012 at this moment is to hope our scholars and students will study our state newspaper’s reporting of “terrorism” from 9/11 to present--substance enough for many student papers, MA theses, and a dissertation or four.]
Foreign War on Terror  11-26-12
Fajez, Rahim.  “5 Taliban prisoners OK transfer to Qatar.”  ADG.   3-20-12
Rittel, Claudia Isabel.  “Terror suspect’s trial begins in Germany.”   ADG 3-20-12
Savage, Charlie.  “Delays sour detainees on plea deals with U.S.”  3-25-12
Islamabad.  “Pakistani militants’ leader waves off $10 million bounty.”  ADG.  4-4-12
Kabul.  “Financier of Afghan attacks captured.”   ADG. 4-8-12
ADG Staff.  “Bin Laden Documents released: They show terrorist losing touch with allies, keeping aim on U.S.”  ADG  5-4-12
Dallas Morning News.  “Trial descends into mockery.  ADG  5-21-12
Abbot, Sebastian.  “Afghan al-Qaida Boss killed in strike.”  ADG  5-30-12
Youssef, Maamoun.  “Successor remembers bin Laden.”  ADG  6-4-12
Sana, Yemen.  “Yemen reports 21 from al-Qaida killed.”  ADG.  6-4-12
Myers, Steven Lee. Schmitt, Eric. “U.S. Labels Haqqani network as terrorists.”  ADG  9-8-12
Sana, Yemen.  “Yemen says drone got al-Qaida leader.”  ADG.  10-19-12
Houser, Jerry R. (Editorial.)  “Libya: A disgrace for the nation.”  ADG.  10-20-12
ADG Staff.  “ Jordan arrests 11 militants in terror plot.”  ADG.  10-22-12

Domestic War on Terror 10-30-12
Washington.  “Court: Detainees families can’t sue.”  ADG.  1-22-12
Bloomberg News.  “Bomb conspirator’s father sent to prison.”  ADG. 2-12-12
Bloomberg News.  “Yale Law School will limit loan help beginning this fall.”  ADG.  2-12-12
Finn, Peter: The Washington Post.  “U.S. outlines slain cleric’s role in ’09 bomb plot.”  ADG.  2-1-12
Al-Haj.  “Army’s rout by al-Qaida stokes Yemenis’s ire.”  ADG.  3-7-12
Peltz, Jennifer.  “Suspect in terror plot pleads innocent.”  ADG.  3-14-12
Rising, Malin.  “ Beaten, quizzed on mosque, says U.S. man seeking Swedish asylum.”  ADG.  4-19-12
ADG Staff.  “Immunity stands in detainee suit.”  ADG.  5-3-12
Tarm, Michael.  “3 aimed to firebomb Chicago sites.”  ADG.  5-20-12
Lavoie, Denise.  “Man admits planning to bomb Pentagon.”  ADG.  7-21-12
Schmidt, Michael.  “Airport program a magnet for racial profiling.”  ADG.  8-12-12
Yost, Pete.  “Terror surveillance query left unanswered by agency.”  ADG.  9-12-12
Forliti,, Amy.  “Jury finds man a terror recruiter.”  ADG.  10-19-12
Leverett, Beth.  (Editorial.)  “The world we live in.”  ADG.  10-10-12
Days, Tom.  Long, Coleen.  “Bangladeshi arrested in plot to detonate bomb outside Fed.”  ADG.  10-18-12
Johnson, Gene.  “Airport plotter gets tougher prison term.”  ADG.  10-25-12
Blaney, Betsy.  “Saudi man gets life.”  ADG.  11-14-12


END TERRORISM NEWSLETTER #1


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