500 cameras and nothing's on
also from last week: guard tasers kid who ran out on the field during Phillies home game. photo: Stephen M. Falk, Philly.com
in "Portrait of a Patsy," Xymphora writes:
It would be ridiculously easy to set up Faisal Shahzad. New American, a little on the make, with family in Pakistan and big financial problems. Friendly government agent approaches him and appeals to his patriotism and love of adventure, plus offers to pay well (note the history). First mission: infiltrate a 'terrorist' training camp in Pakistan (little does Shahzad know that the camp is really run by the CIA). Second mission: buy a cheap used car on Craigslist. Third mission: buy some fireworks. Fourth mission: stay at home awaiting further instructions. Shahzad, seeing his car on TV, suddenly got that Lee Harvey Oswald feeling, and decided it might be better to get out of the country before he died in a shoot-out.
Despite a gazillion cameras and CCTVs in Times Square, there is not the slightest evidence that Shahzad was actually there with the car. Complete absence of forensics in the car points to a government job. Strangely enough, so does the utter incompetence of the bomb - even without any training, Shahzad could have done better - and the fact that the bomb was modelled after the incompetent car bomb at Edinburgh (which Shahzad couldn't have known to copy - we're supposed to believe it came out of training at the same incompetent bomb-making school in Pakistan!)...
the rest is here. For years, Birchers and Goldwater fans used to go around with the bumper sticker that said, "I love my country but fear my government," and practically everybody agreed it was a right-wing sentiment. I don't know how you would characterize it today-- but I don't think you can characterize it as irrelevant.
Labels: 9.11, terrorism, The Security State
posted by Jonathan Versen @ 5:17 PM
2 comments
2 Comments:
All the Birchers I met in my youth --aspiring Birchers, I guess they were... proto-JBSers-- were just thinly veiled racists who, like "Doctor" Ron Paul, wanted to close our borders to Them Durrty Messikins and Other Wetbacks.
I'd guess most have gravitated to "Doctor" Paul.
As to loving one's country while fearing one's government, the latter is obviously the inverse of how it should be (Govt should fear its citizenry) and the former always makes me wonder, what is "my country"? Presently I don't see a lot that I should love, and actually see a lot I abhor.
Guess I'm the exact opposite of a Jingoist.
Sure, the Republicans are supposed to be for a small government. Of course that is all malarkey for once they get in office the government grows. Look at what BushII did with the domestic spying and homeland security and all that.
I suppose that's possible Shahzad was set up. It's an interesting supposition though probably something that cannot be proven. But then that's true for so much of what we write about.
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