26 Miles

Is Joseph Stack A Terrorist

// February 19th, 2010 // No Comments » // Security & Privacy

Apparently not to most of the people voting in the CNN.com poll.

Look it up people, it’s terrorism.

Wouldn’t you say the Oklahoma City bombing was terrorism? The news media sure did. Joseph Stack harbored a grudge against the US Government for perceived wrongs, much like Tim McVeigh.

Several easy-to-find definitions of terrorism (although a widely agreed-to definition somehow still escapes us).

Princeton.edu

The calculated use of violence (or the threat of violence) against civilians in order to attain goals that are political or religious or ideological in nature; this is done through intimidation or coercion or instilling fear.

Wiktionary.org

1. The deliberate commission of an act of violence to create an emotional response through the suffering of the victims in the furtherance of a political or social agenda.
2. Violence against civilians to achieve military or political objectives.

An act of violence against civilians in the furtherance of a political or social agenda is terrorism no matter who the perpetrator is.

Portrait of the Modern Terrorist as an Idiot

// June 18th, 2007 // No Comments » // Business & Politics, Security & Privacy

Bruce Schneier has an excellent article that aligns exactly with how I feel every time I hear news of a new “terrorist plot” that has been disrupted. Inevitably, the story that follows paints a picture of a marginalized, incompetent set of characters who had little chance of carrying out a mass-casualty attack, and who often hadn’t progressed beyond the “yelling-at-the-TV” phase of their so-called “plot”.

I’m sure there is real investigation going on and real plots are being uncovered and disrupted. But the ones that seem to get the most attention are the ones that revolve around sensational targets or the potential, however remote, of mass-casualties, regardless of the actors’ operational capacity.

As he says in his article: “[...] in this country, while you have to be competent to pull off a terrorist attack, you don’t have to be competent to cause terror.”

Perhaps these stories are the security equivalent of an opiate for the masses. The appearance that the security folks are “on the job” and “getting things done”. The reality sometimes seems so different.

There are real terrorists out there that pose a real threat to us. Too often, the ones you see getting arrested on TV or simmering in their cages at Gitmo aren’t the ones we should worry about.

Childhood Risks Perceived and Real

// June 11th, 2007 // No Comments » // Security & Privacy

I ran across a timely article that may help assuage the collective parental panic that inevitably follows news of the loss of a child in an apparently random act of violence.

BBC News has an article reflecting on the shrinking boundaries within which parents limit their children. Parents today can easily be overwhelmed by compelling and tragic stories of losing a child — to illness, accidental death, kidnapping or worse. There are people whose careers are built around keeping attention focused on these tragedies (some I prefer to others).

The result of this deluge of despair is a cadre of parents who feel feel that — to keep from having to bear the weight of a similar tragedy firsthand — they must take all possible steps to protect and sanitize their kids experiences from not only real threats, but from all possible threats they (with the help of 24-hour-global-news) can imagine. The result is an ever-shrinking bubble of pseudo-reality parents attempt to craft for their kids that may ultimately do more harm than good.

The BBC article discusses this trend, and it’s possible impact on childhood development.

From the article:
[...]
“There is increasing concern that today’s ‘cotton-wool kids’ are having their development hampered. They are likely to be risk-averse, stifled by fears which are more phobic than real. Their lack of unsupervised play may also reduce the opportunity to form deep friendships in early years.”
[...]

There remain cultural differences as well. Many American’s (including me I’ll admit) were shocked to hear that Madeleine McCann was taken from her bed in a Portugal resort while her parents were having dinner 50 meters away.

I’ve written about kids and security before. I rarely watch “mainstream” news simply because — as my wife says — it doesn’t improve my life or make me happier. But stories like this have a way of bringing themselves into focus, despite my intentional ignorance.

It’s something to think about — most all of us do it to some degree. Always keeping our kids uber-clean, on a short leash, loaded-up with vitamins, and in the air conditioning may help us sleep better at night. But many of our concerns are really just pop-phobias, and our preoccupation with them may be keeping our kids from living open, imaginative lives unencumbered by our own fears, both real and imagined.

Welcome To Boston! Let’s Blow-Up Something!

// March 2nd, 2007 // No Comments » // Security & Privacy

If you haven’t been following the various terrorism false alarm stories in the last few months, you’ve been missing what has to be both one of the funniest and saddest security stories of the year.

That said, it has given us some quality satire and art to reflect the humor we find in collective paranoia and overreaction.

But sadly, these stories represent more about what we lost after 9/11 than what we gained. Stories of Homeland Security pork begging to be spent are available for almost daily digestion.

Our perceived threat matrix has become far too broad and our methods for dealing with diverse threat vectors too narrow (e.g., “blow it up!”). While blowing things up is unquestionably fun and makes for great TV, it’s not cheap and worse, when not outright embarrassing, does little to quell public fear about the authorities’ ability to prevent whatever real threat there may be.

This even reached me personally last year at our neighborhood elementary school. One of the children had left their backpack outside after school was dismissed for the day. Eventually someone noticed it and (of course) phoned 911. The bomb squad from a neighboring community was called in to show off their toys. The media also came, complete with a helicopter overhead to observe what would inevitably be a dramatic detonation of the suspicious backpack. The police robot gently tugged at the backpack and dragged it away from the building, then, however they do these things, the backpack was blown up on live TV.

Scattered across the schoolyard were the guts of what used to be some poor kids backpack — books, multi-colored folders, etc., and what remained of the backpack. It was all very exciting, and all very ridiculous to most any casual observer….

Praise for PBS FrontLine

// June 22nd, 2006 // No Comments » // Business & Politics

I’ve been a fan of the PBS series Frontline® for some time, and just wanted to take a moment to say that I think the program is, bar-none, the best source of public affairs programming on television.

Feeding the 24-hour news monkey has resulted in non-stories getting major airtime and all but eliminated thoughtful analysis by intelligent people of complex events.

In college I grew to be a bit of a news junkie, especially when it related to politics or foreign policy. I even read Foreign Affairs for a while (nerd alert!). But 9/11 and having kids has caused me to push television news aside almost entirely. It’s just too depressing. I’ve found a few news websites that manage to trim the random-tragedy and deliver the stories that impact me directly, or are at least interesting.

I rediscovered Frontline® a few months ago and now crave Tuesday nights like a fat man does the lunch buffet at Pizza Hut.

The format allows the time to explore the story in adequate depth. The cinematography is excellent — creating an atmosphere for relaxed reflection both on the part of the viewer and the interview subjects. Sometimes the video is difficult to watch, especially those relating to war or genocide, but it always makes me think, and I always learn.

Kudos to the people at Frontline® for getting it right.