The Try-Works

The horror for the 4,000 victims of dying in those towers was inseparable from the horror of living in them—the horror of living and working in sarcophagi of concrete and steel.

Keep reading.

And if you can’t get enough, Baudrillard’s Selected Writings and this fantastic overview.

According to Serymour Hersh’s latest piece in the New Yorker, we are now officially funding Al Qaeda. (Again.) God, I love this country. No matter how vile the enemy’s painted, you’ve only gotta hold on for a year or two, and all the sudden they’re “freedom fighters” again. Because, hell, what’s a few thousand dead citizens when stacked up against the interests of Halliburton?

In the past few months, as the situation in Iraq has deteriorated, the Bush Administration, in both its public diplomacy and its covert operations, has significantly shifted its Middle East strategy. The “redirection,” as some inside the White House have called the new strategy, has brought the United States closer to an open confrontation with Iran and, in parts of the region, propelled it into a widening sectarian conflict between Shiite and Sunni Muslims.

To undermine Iran, which is predominantly Shiite, the Bush Administration has decided, in effect, to reconfigure its priorities in the Middle East. In Lebanon, the Administration has coöperated with Saudi Arabia’s government, which is Sunni, in clandestine operations that are intended to weaken Hezbollah, the Shiite organization that is backed by Iran. The U.S. has also taken part in clandestine operations aimed at Iran and its ally Syria. A by-product of these activities has been the bolstering of Sunni extremist groups that espouse a militant vision of Islam and are hostile to America and sympathetic to Al Qaeda.

. . .

Nasr compared the current situation to the period in which Al Qaeda first emerged. In the nineteen-eighties and the early nineties, the Saudi government offered to subsidize the covert American C.I.A. proxy war against the Soviet Union in Afghanistan. Hundreds of young Saudis were sent into the border areas of Pakistan, where they set up religious schools, training bases, and recruiting facilities. Then, as now, many of the operatives who were paid with Saudi money were Salafis. Among them, of course, were Osama bin Laden and his associates, who founded Al Qaeda, in 1988.

. . .

The United States has also given clandestine support to the Siniora government, according to the former senior intelligence official and the U.S. government consultant. “We are in a program to enhance the Sunni capability to resist Shiite influence, and we’re spreading the money around as much as we can,” the former senior intelligence official said. The problem was that such money “always gets in more pockets than you think it will,” he said. “In this process, we’re financing a lot of bad guys with some serious potential unintended consequences. We don’t have the ability to determine and get pay vouchers signed by the people we like and avoid the people we don’t like. It’s a very high-risk venture.”

American, European, and Arab officials I spoke to told me that the Siniora government and its allies had allowed some aid to end up in the hands of emerging Sunni radical groups in northern Lebanon, the Bekaa Valley, and around Palestinian refugee camps in the south. These groups, though small, are seen as a buffer to Hezbollah; at the same time, their ideological ties are with Al Qaeda.

. . .

In an interview in Beirut, a senior official in the Siniora government acknowledged that there were Sunni jihadists operating inside Lebanon. “We have a liberal attitude that allows Al Qaeda types to have a presence here,” he said. He related this to concerns that Iran or Syria might decide to turn Lebanon into a “theatre of conflict.”

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Any comment, Mr. Sullivan? Love to hear what you think of your tax-dollars funding Al Qaeda. And, hey, does this now make Ward Churchill’s On the Justice of Roosting Chickens a patriotic piece? After all, he was just expressing support for our foreign policy allies. Can we expect an apology from Bush administration mouthpieces like Dan Caplis, Bill O’Reilly and Vincent Carroll? Shouldn’t they be all singing Kumbaya together, now that they’re on the same side as Bin Laden? When do you think I’ll be able to buy a yellow ribbon for our Al Qaeda boys?

Oh, and whattya think the public outcry will be like? Since Ward Churchill was all but scourged for pointing out that Al Qaeda had reasons to hate the US, how long until the riots start now that the Bush administration has decided to funnel them the material support to carry on operations? How’s giving them money for disrespecting the 9/11 victims? And do you think we should prosecute and hang any US officials who’ve taken part in this? I mean, it looks like the very definition of treason to me.

Update: Video of Hersh on CNN.

Yeah, it’s old news at this point, but I just found out about it.

Another non-terrorist event foiled by the forces of righteousness. Crackerjack work, gentle(wo)men.

Two men who authorities say placed electronic advertising devices around the city were released from jail Thursday, apparently amused with the publicity stunt that stirred fears of terrorism and shut down parts of the city.

Peter Berdovsky, 27, and Sean Stevens, 28, were released on $2,500 cash bond after each pleaded not guilty to placing a hoax device and disorderly conduct for a device found Wednesday at a subway station. They waved and smiled as they greeted people in court.

Outside, they met reporters and television cameras and launched into a nonsensical discussion of hair styles of the 1970s. “What we really want to talk about today — it’s kind of important to some people — it’s haircuts of the 1970s,” Berdovsky said.

Officials found 38 blinking electronic signs promoting the Cartoon Network TV show “Aqua Teen Hunger Force” on bridges and other high-profile spots across the city Wednesday, prompting the closing of a highway and the deployment of bomb squads. The surreal series is about a talking milkshake, a box of fries and a meatball. The network is a division of Turner Broadcasting Systems Inc.

“It’s clear the intent was to get attention by causing fear and unrest that there was a bomb in that location,” Assistant Attorney General John Grossman said at their arraignment.

The 1-foot tall signs, which were lit up at night, resembled a circuit board, with protruding wires and batteries. Most depicted a boxy, cartoon character giving passersby the finger — a more obvious sight when darkness fell.

The men did not speak or enter their own pleas, but they appeared amused and smiled as the prosecutor talked about the device found at Sullivan Station underneath Interstate 93, looking like it had C-4 explosive.

“The appearance of this device and its location are crucial,” Grossman said. “This device looks like a bomb.”

Some in the gallery snickered.

Keep reading.

And for your further enjoyment, the full press conference.

Pointing out the dipshit stupidity of our counter-terrorism tactics and pissing off the media. Looks like I’ve got some new heroes.

By the way, I’ve got a bead on a counter-terrorism strategy that might actually work.

Pay attention, now, it’s rather complex.

1. Get off their land.
2. Stop killing their kids.

I can think of a few hundred historical examples that bear it out. I can’t remember the last terrorist action to take place in Algeria, for instance. Nor in the Republic of Ireland.

And, hell, we all know the consequences of our current course of action.