Recently in Terrorism Category

The right-wing blogosphere is frothing at the mouth this morning over the outcome of the civilian trial of Ahmed Khalfan Ghailani yesterday. Ghailani was acquitted on all but one of the 280 charges of conspiracy and murder brought against him in relation to the 1998 bombings of U.S. Embassies in Kenya and Tanzania.Pamela Geller called it, "another breathtaking Obama failure, yet again putting Americans and national security at risk."Hugh Hewitt said of those who were...

I'm sorry for the folks who died on Sept. 11, and I'm sorry for people anywhere who die because of religious, racial or ethnic intolerance, or who die because the few hoard resources needed by the many. These things are all connected and they harm and kill people all over the globe every single day. Let's work for a better and more just world....

I have taught a lot of workshops over the years, and one of the components that I cover when I deliver a workshop on change management is something called the "Emotional Contagion Theory."In the March 2005 issue of The Journal of Applied Psychology, Richard Saavedra and Thomas Sy at California State University at Long Beach examined the effects of a leader's mood on a group. They took 189 volunteer undergraduates, divided them into 63 groups of...

So the good pastor in Gainesville says he doesn't think their actions will directly provoke any problems in the Middle East for our troops if they have a Koran burning party at their little church.  I find it rather ironic that the name of his church is the Dove World Outreach Center. Doves are typically the symbol of peace, right? World outreach implies that they want to reach out and embrace others, right? It seems...

The furor over building the Islamic center in Manhattan has nothing to do with freedom of religion. There's nothing anti-Muslim about it. It's just the place that they've chosen to build. It's insensitive to those who lost their lives on September 11, and an insult to their families and friends. That's the argument we've heard over and over, right? Well, apparently that sensitivity distance extends far outside Manhattan, New York City, and even New York...

Since Republicans like to toss around the Nazi comparisons, I've got one that fits much better than any of their fabricated Obama-Hitler connections. Straight out of  Josef Goebbels' Principles of Propaganda: "A propaganda theme must be repeated...Propaganda must label events and people with distinctive phrases or slogans.They must evoke desired responses which the audience previously possesses."Three recent examples--just the latest of many-- of those employing Goebbels' principles. Sen. John Cornyn on Sunday: "I do think...

Take this paragraph from Andy McCarthy's essay on fear, paranoia, and religious bigotry at National Review Online, substitute the word "communists" for "Islamists" and it sounds like something from another McCarthy at another ugly time in our history:"Most of the American people are in a much different place. They see Islamists advancing, they are beginning to grasp that Islamists (not just terrorists but the whole Islamist movement) mean to change us in very fundamental ways,...

CIA Director Leon Panetta appeared on ABC's This Week yesterday, where he laid out some of the "problems" we face in Afghanistan along with our "fundamental purpose" there and what "winning" might look like. From Think Progress:<br />Too bad most, if not all, of what Panetta describes is not based in reality. "There are some serious problems here. We're dealing with a tribal society. We're dealing with a country that has problems with governance, problems...

As America's longest war drags on, and on, and on.... the two operative phrases seem to be " still a long way to go" and "taking longer than expected." In Marja (McChrystal's "bleeding ulcer") : "Residents of this onetime Taliban sanctuary see signs that the insurgents have regained momentum in recent weeks, despite early claims of success by U.S. Marines. The longer-than-expected effort to secure Marja is prompting alarm among top American commanders that they...

President Bush admits to committing war crimes and the media overlooks the story to report about Obama's job offers to Democratic primary challengers. You may not have heard, but  in a speech in Grand Rapids, Michigan, former President of the United States of America admitted to committing a war crime. President George W. Bush said, "Yeah, we water boarded Khalid Sheikh Mohammed. I'd do it again to save lives." In the same speech he went...