text:
Most Poles feel that they have been dragged into someone else's 'war on terror'.
A Muslim asylum seeker in Warsaw was in an internet café browsing sites in Arabic. The manager of the café decided that this was suspicious behavior and called the cops. Minutes later anti-terrorist units dashed into the café and arrested the asylum seeker, who was innocently checking out a few web sites.
Four years ago two Pakistanis were arrested in Warsaw central station after police decided that the men were 'acting suspiciously'. When police raided the flat the men were staying at they found a map of Warsaw with various government buildings with rings drawn in pencil around them. The police decided that the Pakistanis were obviously planning a terrorist attack.
It turned out that men were asylum seekers who had ringed the government addresses they had to visit as part of their applications for refugee status.
Such has been the irrational behavior of some Poles in the wake of September 11.
When the planes went into those buildings five years ago in what was really just a mindless display of barbaric nihilism, Poles were as shocked and awed as everyone else. The general feeling of horror was compounded by the fact that several Poles died in the attacks on the Twin Towers along with Americans, British...
But Poles also felt that this was essentially an attack on America, not Poland.
Since the Bush administration launched its 'war on terror', however, successive Polish governments have responded to calls for help and have sent troops to Iraq and Afghanistan.
Bush has admitted in a speech today that there were indeed secret CIA prisons where terrorist suspects have been detained and been subjected to an "alternative set of procedures" to get information out of them. Last year the Washington Post alleged that one of these prisons where these 'alternative sets of procedures' (torture?) had been carried out was in Poland.
"In addition to the terrorists held at Guantanamo, a small number of suspected terrorist leaders and operatives captured during the war have been held and questioned outside the United States in a separate program operated by the Central Intelligence Agency," said Bush. (see full transcript of the Bush speech here).
As this blog has often pointed out, the evidence for one of these prisons being in Poland is weak, but the accusations have helped cement in peoples' minds that Poland is up to its neck in America's 'war on terror'.
Warsaw has also been talking with Washington about anti-missile systems being placed in Poland to shoot down rockets fired by 'rogue states' such as Iran.
Polish governments eagerness to get involved in Bush's war on abstract nouns has made Poles feel vulnerable, and caused internet café managers and Warsaw police officers to act in the irrational way that they have.
Successive opinion polls have shown that a majority here do not want their armed forces involved in the carnage of post-Saddam Iraq. They do not feel it is their war. They feel that their government's involvement in the war on terror has made them a possible target for the jihadists.
What was five years ago a deep sympathy for the people of America has turned into a low level unease that Polish foreign policy has dragged Poles into a war that is not theirs to fight in the first place.
Thursday, September 07, 2006
9/11 – one view from Poland
Posted by beatroot at 9/07/2006
85 comments:
- steppx said...
the islamaphobia in the US and Europe is now just out of control. Witness the recent de-planing of two arab men in england.....why? Because they were, uh, speaking arabic.
a student of mine, a smart girl, said recently, "well, you cant teach muslims anything, the Koran has rotted their mind". She was serious. Another said, well, they are too attached to the Koran. I asked if she thought poles too attached to the Bible or to the image of JP2? She simply looked at me like I was an insane person.
Arab and muslim bashing is typical scapegoating. As for the fairy tale cover story of 9/11....well, if you believe a bunch of guys planned an attack with box cutters, then you'll believe anything. The problem with cover ups is that they cover up.
I suspect a lot of people are gradually waking up to the con game of the US (Bush and Cheney and Rummie) and realizing there is no clash of civilizations. What there IS, however, is a legacy of colonialism and poverty (they sort of go together). And there are dictators propped up by the US (House of Saud, Egypt, etc)......
Islam has its share of fanatics.....much like all religions.....but the marketing of fear, of bearded fanatics on every corner.....is purely racism and a need to find a clear enemy for the general anxiety and feelings of powerlessness that 21st life seems to generate.
- 8:16 am
- Polcham said...
Bush did NOT admit that there were secret prisons. A responsible journalist who was not intent on pushing his own agenda would have read the actual speech and reported just what he said and not merely read CNN headlines and act like a parrot with an agenda.
If you are really interested in what he said about the prisons, you can get information in the post "Misreporting The News" that you find at Polish News Roundup
- 8:43 am
- beatroot said...
Polcham – cut the 'responsible journo bit' will ya?
I refer you to reports from the Los Angeles Times, Boston Globe, BBC, CNN, Washington Post...
That's a lot of irresponsible journalists!
- 11:39 am
- beatroot said...
The parrot has put a link to the full text of Bush's speech in the text as well a quote where he admits that prisons outside of the US run by the CIA exist or existed.
- 12:22 pm
- sonia said...
dictators propped up by the US (House of Saud, Egypt, etc)......
Those 'dictators' are angels compared to anti-American totalitarian tyrants in Syria, North Korea and Libya...
Bush did NOT admit that there were secret prisons
- 3:02 pm
- beatroot said...
- This comment has been removed by a blog administrator.
- 7:33 pm
- beatroot said...
Polcham's comments are off the wall. Which I wouldn't mind if he left out the name calling. Parrot? I hope he comes here and apologizes for making an arse of himself.
islamaphobia in the US and Europe is now just out of control.
There is also a growing anti-Semitism in many countries.
As for the fairy tale cover story of 9/11.
Oh, oh…do I feel a conspiracy theory coming on? Which one is it gonna be: Mosad did it? The US government did it so as to be able to bomb arabs? Real estate agents did it?
If you want nutty conspiracies then check out here,,,
Fact is more boring. Middle class muslim nihilists radicalized in the west did it. Period.
- 7:36 pm
- steppx said...
beat.....I think its safe to say we dont know who did it. I have no theory, actually. The problem with cover ups is that they cover up.
I wont get into an elaborate "who did 9 11" debate because in the end there is no way to know --- but it seems pretty clear that the state department story is nonsense (do you actually believe the Mohammed Atta saga....guys with box cutters>????)
Anti semitism growing? For certain. The demonizing of the "other" is a sign of many things....in this case, a way to scapegoat a group for the frustrations the larger group feels. In the US for many many years it was blacks....those primitive jungle dwelling violence minded sub humans....and now, often, Latinos.....lettuce picking slackers. But today the vast majority of scapegoating is addressed to Muslims. The fact that even you accept a story about highjackers-- that was trotted out by the US state dept. and Pentagon-- is evidence of its effectiveness. Even those (like you) who harbor no racist thinking, somehow are affected.
Its a moot point, finally, because on one level it doesnt matter much. It was used by the US govt. as an excuse to invade iraq...and bomb afganistan. Funny how Osama Bid Ladin was never been captured. The entire fabric of the Al Qaeda story is unravelling....and the recent London Liquid Bomb Plot speaks to the madness of all this.
But when you say "fact".....you have to provide some....and Im betting you cant :)
- 8:37 pm
- beatroot said...
.....I think its safe to say we don't know who did it.
Of course we know who did it.
A better question would be: why has some of the crankier sections of the left started to get into pathetic conspiracy theories? That used to be the pastime of sado right wingers.
Jihadist nutters were responsible for this. But they are not the threat that many think they are. They cannot change our way of life. We have invaded other countries and bombed third world armies from 10,000 feet because we think they are a threat. They are not.
Instead of getting into weird conspiracy theories why don't you start thinking about why the west is so morally and politically vacuous that a few infantile wankers can even contemplate that they can change the world by driving planes into tall buildings or blowing themselves up on public transport in London?
Stop gaining salvation and comfort from thinking that there are dark forces controlling our lives.
- 10:07 pm
- sonia said...
I think its safe to say we dont know who did it (...) It was used by the US govt. as an excuse to invade iraq
Your 'theory' makes no sense. If Osama didn't do it, why would the US government said that HE did ? Why wouldn't they find a better scapegoat, like Saddam himself. Your paranoia is oddly selective: you really think that a government capable of lying about 9/11 would admit that they didn't find nuclear weapons in Iraq ? It makes no sense!!! Lying one moment, but being honest another ? (After all, it would have been so simple to bury an old nuke near Basra and then claim that it was Saddam's...)
Besides, Osama admitted to 9/11 in one of his videos...
- 10:11 pm
- beatroot said...
After all, it would have been so simple to bury an old nuke near Basra and then claim that it was Saddam's...0
Why would the Whitehouse and Downing Street volunteer to look like a prize idiots? They thought there was WMD in Iraq. There wasn't. Blair thought that Saddam was a real threat – he really did! .
He wasn't.
They think they can liberate people by bombing and invading them.
And now they are starting to realize that they have completely screwed that up as well.
If dark forces are controlling our lives then they are obvious complete crap at controlling it.
- 10:21 pm
Liberate people? C'mon. It's first and foremost about oil. The rest is bullshit propaganda.
But don't discount the threat of the jihadists, either. No, they won't completely change western policy but blowing up the WTC was no small act of devastation. And they did get US forces out of Saudi Arabia as a result which was one of their key objectives.
And oh yea, today al Jazeera (sp?) released video of the very tall skinny guy with some of the 9/11 guys.
- 10:57 pm
"Bush's war on abstract nouns"
It's not a war on abstract nouns. It's a fundamental clash of ideology with people who would gleefully kill every poster on this blog. The people who planned and conducted 9/11 believed they would change our way of life. And they duly did. Our world and way of life is now tearing itself apart with internal conflict over the 'war on terror'. Secret prisons - necessary or evil?Guantanamo - illegal abuse or required facility? Polish 'overreaction' - wise caution or vicious persecution? All difficult questions. British nationals blowing up other British nationals on the Tube, including fellow Muslims (and 3 Poles) - how did we get to this state of affairs? Ditto Madrid. Ditto Bali. An even tougher question.
But for an easy question, ask yourself this. Do you want to live in a world whose values are more like the USA/UK/Poland, or more like Iran/Syria/Somalia? In case you had forgotten, in the latter, beatroot's blog wouldn't exist, and he'd be in prison for sedition. And your freedom would be severely restricted - and not just by censorship of sonia's tits.
So maybe Poland's government is right to nail its colours so clearly to the mast. It is, I am afraid, a simple choice between a great and soulless evil (Usama's twisted Islamic extremism), and something which is far from perfect ('Western' liberal democracy, Bush and Blair). Welcome to the miserable choice we face. Let's hope our children don't have to make it too.
- 11:03 pm
- beatroot said...
And oh yea, today al Jazeera (sp?) released video of the very tall skinny guy with some of the 9/11 guys.
:-))That is the best summing of al-quaeda types I have ever read.
- 11:03 pm
- steppx said...
I think your creating a straw man here. I never said dark forces were controlling our lives.....and that kind of idiocy is an unfortunate by product of cover ups.....in point of fact. No, its not dark forces....but it is clear Imperialist strategy. Now, i also said I had no theory....no idea how it happened.....except that since there has been NO proof (again, simply to say there is proof is NOT proof.....there is no evidence.....only what the US govt says is evidence....and they swept away the debris rather quickly, no?)
I recall one NYC fireman saying 'Ive seen garage fires in Queens investigated better'.
I agree that the morally bankrupt west is responsible.....for either interpratation of 9/11.....or the threat of the abstract nouns. The war on terror is just pure propaganda. But yes.....people are resisting the Imperial and venal west in increasing numbers....and for Arabs, the long history of colonialism and petro-dollar meddling is never forgotton.
One does wonder at how easily people buy into the official line......but then thats how propaganda works I guess.
The fringe Muslim community that makes up what are termed "jihadists" is quite small. One might want to examine the state terror of the US (and count the dead in Iraq and Afghanistan......(and Kosovo and elsewhere the west has bothered to venture)....or Israeli aggression against Palestinians or now its incursion (love that word) into Lebanon. See what state terror has managed to destroy. And for that matter.....why are so many people being radicalized? Why the appeal, such as it is, of jihadism?? Might it not be a reaction to western foreign policy for the last sixty years....well, maybe two hundred years.
The US military budget is over 1.7 BILLION dollars a day (and check what it DOESNT spend on health care....for example....or education....which would be nice, since then maybe people might be forced to read history)....and with that budget (which includes, lets remember, a big black op budget) the US imperial war machine has managed to alienate a good part of the world.
Recall the anti war marches around the globe before the invasion of Iraq. Nobody really thought saddam was a threat....clearly.
Did Blair and Bush think Saddam had WMD? Of course not....how utterly naive. (remember too who helped put Saddam in power via the Bath'ist coup circa 1961). Its oil, and strategic bases, and water. Its certainly not the notion of spreading democracy (whatever that word now means). Its also the need to use up that budget....make bombs, blow them up. The entire clash of civilizations is just absurd....and pure manufactured PR. Ive spent a fair amount of time in arab lands and found the culture quite wonderful....and was treated with the utmost respect...so this need to paint the dark robed and bearded hordes of Islam as backward and brutal is simply racism.
There is EVIDENCE, by the by, that downing street and washington knew Saddam had no WMD (just read, off the top of my head, scott ritter on this one).
And so now the somebody releases a video of Osama....and pals....and we're to believe its all true? I mean, jesus....and you think gee, here is evidence.....the story about Mohammed Atta et al must be true.
Look, for all I know, it might have been Osama who planned it...but since we have about zero evidence for this....its hard to feel very confident about what the US says. (remember Iran/Contra?) I mean, you do have to agree there hasnt been exactly a through investigation of this tragedy? If there had been, i suspect the conspiracy industry wouldnt be thriving the way it is. People love mysteries.....UFOs, etc etc etc.....they love secrets and sects and love to theorize about secret forces. Probably there are a lot of reasons for that....BUT, to ask serious questions about a government with a long history of propaganda and disinformation is not unreasonalbe.
I dont disagree with a lot of what you say Beat....(forget sonia and posterboy....since this is just cartoon thinking).....but I simply dont buy the official version of 9/11....which doesnt make me what you term a conspiracy theorist.
Questioning offical US and UK versions of anything seems quite rational, actually.
So when you say "of course we know who did it"......can i ask what you base that on?
- 1:45 am
- roman said...
"...but I simply dont buy the official version of 9/11..."
Please familiarize yourself with the concept of Occam's Razor. Simply stated; when two or more theories are presented, it is the one that is the least complicated and most simple that is the most likely to be true.
Also, why is it that anyone who has a different viewpoint from yours lives in a "cartoon world"?
With statements like "The entire clash of civilizations is just absurd....and pure manufactured PR." Manufactured PR? The West, in your opinion somehow was behind all these recent suicide attacks carried out by Islamofascist terrorists? If you believe this, it is you who are residing in a "cartoon world".
- 7:12 am
- steppx said...
roman ; PUH LEEZE.......try to read what i wrote...thats a good start. The "clash of Civilizations" notion is pure PR....part of old cold war thinkers like sam huntington....and bernard lewis. I never said (and again, its tiresome to have to point this out) that the west is behind suicide bombers. The point is that these suicide bombers constitute a small fringe element in Islam (not the majority....not even remotely close to the majority) and also constitute a very limited threat to a country like the US with a 1.7 Billion dollar a day budget.
So, you see, the resistance of people under occupation (and most of the suicide bombers and most of the radical islamicists are first, anti colonial and anti occupation....a recent study indicates this...and I think its robert pape {?} who wrote the article on said study...and second are motivated by religion....but its not all that germane to this dicsussion) will resort to extreme measures to end the occupation. If you look at the French/Algerian war of indenpendence you see how this all evolved.
There is resistance.....it exists in many forms....ETA, the Tamil Tigers, Northern Ireland, and in radical islam....and in Chiapis....and in a move leftward democratically in south america now. But the PR folks at the Pentagon like to paint a picture of the Clash of Civilizations since it justifies the "war on terror" (sic). See how this works? So this posting wouldnt have been needed if you had only read things moer carefully.
Suicide bombers are pathological extremists...but they didnt fall from the sky. Things dont happen in an historical vacuum. They are reacting to conditions of hopelessness, often, and of constant humiliation. How those conditions got that way is another whole discussion.
- 8:36 am
Great post. Its just not the Poles who feel that this war on abstract nouns is not their fight. Many people across the world feel the same way. In fact, all of Latin America(except Colombia) wants nothing to do with it.
- 10:56 am
Steppx: For sure, the jihadists are fringe Islamists and are first and foremost anti-colonial and anti-occupation. Anybody who took time to read A/Q's fatwa issued before 9/11 realizes this. Posterboy's contention that their prime motivation is to forceably convert us all is truly comic book nonsense. They can't even keep their own kids immune from the onslaught of Western Culture. More Arabic/Muslim youth will move towards "modernism" than towards jihad no matter how screwed up US foreign militarism provokes a few to become admittedly very dangerous suicide bombers.
But cheese and crackers, what kind of evidence do you want that Stretch and the 9/11 Crew plotted and carried out the destruction of the WTC. It was Al Jazeera that released the footage, not Donny Rummy (please don't suggest Rummy planted it. At least come up with some alternative possibility that cannot be easily debunked.
- 2:34 pm
- Gustav said...
Forgive me for going off topic for a moment - But beatroot, I believe it was actually Human Rights Watch who claimed that Poland was one of the locations for the prisons. The Washington Post (the one with the source - HRW just had some flight logs), refused to name the countries.
- 8:38 pm
- steppx said...
Ok, well.......like I said, I really dont have a theory. All I suggest is that since a lot of those alleged highjackers have been found alive all over the Arab world (ok, maybe thats just clerical fuck ups), and since there was no investigation worthy of the word.....and since the US has been so duplicit in all this, I just sort of refuse to accept the cover story. Im not suggesting holograms attacked us via Mossad....or that the Knights Templar are creating a disinformation campaign....but I do think things like that OBL video hardly constitute much in the way of evidence. Since one never knows the providence of such items....or how they got where they are (see, my early years in Hollywood have taught me how easy videos can be made and made to look anyway you want) I just am not impressed. Lets add here the Bin Ladin CIA connection....and all the rest of the early covert connections to the fighters in Afghanistan (vs the soviets). One does wonder.
I guess my position is that a cover up creates a problem...creates a small industry for conspiracy theory nuts (and not ALL are nuts by any means) and creates a kind of collective paranoia. One can stare at endless footage of the twin towers....and listen to voice overs that describe this or that....or look at the pics of the Pentagon...and think, well, yeah, it does seem sort of weird as a crash site for a passanger jet. But then remind yourself that your not an explosives expert and have no idea what it SHOULD look like....or how buildings DO collapse. I admit I dont have a clue.
What I do know is the US covered up a lot....and I wonder why.
- 8:46 pm
- BEING HAD said...
I was in New York on September 11th, I saw everything first hand. A few months later when I got screwed over by the Polish judicial system, May of 2002, the Polaks were hand in hand with the US and kissing their ass like there was candy in there trying to get into the EU. They were crowing like cocks that they were one of the few countries to back the US in their chase into Afghanistan after Osama Bin Ladin. Of course they let the US open prisons in Poland. Of course! Most of Europe was against that war at that time, though now, after a couple of bombs in Spain they seem to changed their tune. But if the poles are changing their song now it is because they have already gotten what they were prostituting themselves for. They are already on the busses to England, they have already sold out their country for a fistful of dollars; they don't need the US as an ally any more. I don't think Polaks are particularly racist except for anti-Semitism, nor are they genuinely nationalists; they are just scammers and hysterics- if there is a chance to make a scandal, they will do it and they don't care who they hurt in the process.
- 9:07 pm
- beatroot said...
Posterboy [!] said:
It is, I am afraid, a simple choice between a great and soulless evil….and ….beatroot's blog wouldn't exist, and he'd be in prison for sedition. if I lived in Syria, Iran or Somalia…
Don't be silly. Firstly, you seem to be confusing Syria – a state which is politically from the old pan-Arabist secular ba'athist movement - and a religious, partial democratic state like Iran, and Somalia, a third world basket case failed state that has just been taken over by Taliban types.
But still, they are all full of crazy Muslims, eh?
And no, it isn't s simple choice between good and evil – only the most clueless people see the world like that.
And how will is flying a plane into a building or a suicide bomber on a train going to close down the beatroot blog?
The nihilists are not capable of doing anything (in the west) but occasional horror and carnage. We are the ones closing down web sites (promoting terrorism apparently), not THEM, because they don't have the power to close down anything.
- 10:19 pm
- Lucia Maria said...
I recommend you start reading more about just what is going on in the world. "Islamaphobia" has gotten to the point it is now, not because of some imagined phobia, but because the actions of Muslims no longer can be ignored. The Danish Cartoon Frenzy was the real wake up call for many in the West.
Here are some sites to get you started.
Western Resistance
Jihad Watch
Gates Of Vienna
And Prophet of Doom, the author of which went and interviewed terrorists after 9/11, and then based his book on extensive research of Islamic holy books.
The Islamic war against us is real. The President of Iran has recently called on all of the world to convert to Islam or else. This is a standard pre-attack warning mandated in the Qur'an.
Journalists have been very slow to identify various Muslim attacks around the world - like the Washington sniper and a guy in Canada who sent male students out of the room, then proceeded to massacre the female students. Those two incidents of a few years ago were never reported as Muslim nutters.
As for Poland hoping it's not her war - lastest people arrested in Germany for planning to blow up trains have shocked the Germans. They thought they were safe because of their opposition to the Iraq war.
- 10:25 pm
- beatroot said...
You are right Lucyna to point to Germany. There is a country not involved in the war in Iraq, so blaming the this terrorism (in the west) on that is a non starter (but the invasion of Iraq has everything to do with the terrorism in Iraq).
And neither was 9/11 about anything in particular. It's MODERNITY they don't like. Period.
And most of these type who do this sort of terrorist thing were radicalized in the WEST. Problem is: the West isn't too keen on modernity either (re: environmentalism, 'complimentary medicine' on the UK national health!, anti-science, pro horoscopes. Anti human!
Enter nutty religious fanatics.
So something must be pretty crap or weak about western values that some rather go around with headscarfs in the middle of London (I have seen burkas on Oxford Street!) and a few would like to take an early bath with the virgins. It's not that it is 'this' culture verses 'that' culture. It's US in the west not having any values in common
I am very glad that the old conservative ways have gone in most places in the west, but we have not replaced them with anything much at all, except a mess.
- 10:55 pm
Hmm, perhaps I should have explained myself better. Some caveats:
a. AQ are a tiny majority of the Muslim population, but are also unduly influential...
b. ...Partly because Western policy and actions over the last century have been so abysmally misjudged and damaging to moderate Islam that their narrative carries weight.
c. Buy my question (which nobody answered) remains - "Do you want to live in a world whose values are more like the USA/UK/Poland, or more like Iran/Syria/Somalia?"
1. My point about the beatroot blog was that it could not exist in the kind of world AQ envisage. AQ aren't big on freedom of speech.
2. I lumped Syria, Iran and Somalia together on purpose. All three variously support, shelter or permit AQ's presence. As you note, they are currently very different countries, and they are certainly not full of 'crazy Muslims'. But they will be if Usama gets his wish - one of AQ's aims being the reformation of the Islamic Caliphate that stretched from Spain to China.
3. It IS a choice between good and evil, and the choice is between accepting what AQ see as good/evil and what we see as good/evil. Alas, the two are diametrically opposed.
4. You said "The nihilists are not capable of doing anything (in the west) but occasional horror and carnage. We are the ones closing down web sites....not THEM, because they don't have the power to close down anything." Bang on. THEY have made US change the way we live, and see the world, and deal with the Islamic World. That's a huge achievement by AQ, turning our own freedoms, media and methods to acheive. their aims. The fifth anniversary of 9/11, complete with films, debate, and this kind of blog discussion, is the best advertising AQ could possibly hope for. And once we turn oursleves in into bigoted, xeniophic, Islamophobic racists, do you think AQ will be more popular or less? Will their arguments carry more or less weight in the moderate Muslim world?
Suggest you read some Wahhabist literature. One of AQ's motivations is to forceably convert all of us to their way of thinking. This is why even other Muslims (eg the entire Shi'a population) are legitimate targets for them. Don't convert and you are not even human in their eyes.
Steppx: Please don't dismiss my post as cartoon thinking. I read yours and had a good think about it, as it made some valid points. Do me the service of reading my post next time, and try to see where I am coming from.
All: Please answer the question. Our imperfect world, or the world AQ would have us live in?
- 11:17 pm
- beatroot said...
Do you want to live in a world whose values are more like the USA/UK/Poland, or more like Iran/Syria/Somalia?"
Posterboy I did answer it. Of course I would rather live in the west. But THEY won't change our way of life – because they can't. WE might by the way we react to them.
I lumped Syria, Iran and Somalia together on purpose. All three variously support, shelter or permit AQ's presence.
No they don't. Iran certainly has nothing to do with al-qaeda types. AQ are a sunni Wahhabi Muslim thing. Very different kettle of fish from Iranian shia. Muslim world is more complicated than you think.
- 11:34 pm
- Lucia Maria said...
Iran and AQ are in competition for leadership of the Umma. AQ want the caliphilate to be in Iraq, Iran on the other hand have been designing Teheran for the coming of the Mahdi.
I agree with posterboy on lumping in lumping Syria, Iran and Somalia together, in that while Iran may be competing for the leadership with AQ, AQ's actions in the West merge with Iran's aims.
- 1:54 am
Since AQ is very much the west's creation, they are certainly part and parcel of the imperfect world we inhabit. So you pose a false dichotomy, PB. And western militaristic adventurism in the Middle East continues to result in the enlistment of many more to the Jihadists' cause.
- 3:57 am
- Lucia Maria said...
ignacy, how is AQ the west's creation? They seem to draw their inspiration directly from the Qur'an, and aspire back to some sort of 7th century ideal. The west seems to have completely underestimated and misunderstood them in Iraq and Afganistan to the point of allowing Islamic law as part of both constitutions. Are you saying this has been done on purpose?
- 8:06 am
- steppx said...
Geez Lucyna;
I shouldnt bother answering this....but in the interest of fairness (per posterboy's comments about my dismissing him) I will.
You are quite simply demomizing muslims. Now you might want to check the current Murdoch media circus and its war mongering as a prelude to bombing Iran (which i suspect the US will do). Its pure propaganda. Israel has nukes and never signed any oversite treaties or aggreements....but thats ok. Iran DID sign....but somehow the "west" has decided those awful Mullahs must be stopped. Stopped from what? Who have they attacked?
The US HAS attacked people....Iraq, for no reason, and Afghanistan....also for no reason. And lets remember these are two of the most powerless countries in the world.
So, the actions of muslims bother you? But not christian fanatics in the US? Kreationism is alright? Or the BJP Hindu fanatics in India? Burning trains full of muslims....thats not to be mentioned? The Israeli settlers....that sort of fanaticism is just fine, right?
I pointed toward terrorism of all stripes....ETA, Tamil Tigers, IRA....etc. Each has its own history.....and we could discuss their legitimacy....but on a case by case basis.
Ignacy is exactly correct Lucyna....AQ is full of ex (or current?) CIA assests....dating back to the Soviets in Afghanistan. Beyond that, occupation of oil producing lands (re; saudi arabia and kuwait) rather offends some muslims.....gee, cant understand why. Beyond that, in general these loosely organized movements are REACTIONS....in this case to the "great game" (which phrase you might google).
As I pointed out at the top......AQ and other extremists are often or almost always anti-colonial and anti-occupation predicated.....they are the product of a reaction to western involvment in their cultures and lands. Please do try to read some history.
If you read Fanon's Wretched of the Earth...and Sartre's wonderful intro.....you will have a step up on the whole subject....but there are many other excellent pieces....the late Ed Said's Orientalism is one.
Western exceptionalism seems a hard bias to shed. Questions of culture like wearing of the veil....often are totally misunderstood. We simply impose our values on a culture with different values.
Now all this nonsense about the great caliphate sounds suspiciously like Murdoch's henchmen at work. Its nonsense. Period.
So beat is right, Posterboy and Lucyna....Islam is complex. Shia and sunna are the major split...but it goes beyond that. Good piece in the current NYRBs on the subject.
Not to mention Malaysia and Indonesia....where you have an imported version of the religion that has decided animist residue.....and where arabic is not the common tongue.
Turkey is muslim....but very different....a Turkic language for one thing...and a secular history more connected to the west.
The propaganda about Islam is insidious....and it saddens me to see it. It reminds me of how inner city black youth have been been demonized in the US. Pure racism.
I dont agree about 9/11....about the causes....its anti modernism etc. But then Im not at all sure I know who flew those planes....and certainly dont know exactly why. if it really is AQ....then its an amazingly well planned and organized operation....and i doubt them capable of that without help.
When i say cartoon world...I mean knee jerk simplistic and reductive......and thats dangerous because it plays into the hands of the Imperial war mahcine in washington.......
follow the money.....who is profiting from terrorism??? Usually not the terrorists......but 9/11 certainly was a big boost for the authoritarian Bush gang wasnt it (??!!)
?? And my apologies for being snide.....everyone deserves their opinion.
- 9:00 am
- steppx said...
if you'll allow me....a follow up piece on Murdoch and media and Iran and muslims.....
the WSwS is often good....but they have their agenda to be sure....but they rarely are wrong regarding facts.
- 9:03 am
- steppx said...
and a final note....(I promise final)...but its relevant to the video question I think:
- 9:15 am
- Lucia Maria said...
Steppx, I do read history. You might want to reaquaint yourself with a number of historical events.
1) Two thirds of the Christian being invaded by Islam befor the first Crusade is launched.
2) Expansion of the Ottoman Empire to the point where Jan Sobiekski III had to come to besieged Vienna's aid with the Polish army.
3) Turkey is left over from the Ottoman Empire. Turned secular by Anturak in the 1920, who did it by brutally supressing Islam.
This is a very old war, Steppx.
- 9:24 am
- steppx said...
lucyna....what is your point>?
- 12:33 pm
- michael farris said...
"how is AQ the west's creation?"
More like the west's unintended consequences. Very shortened simplified version:
The disfunctional empire known as the CCCP invades the 7th century hell-hole known as Afghanistan.
They meet resistance from the religious regressive mujihadeen (nb: same root as jihad; j-h-d).
The US sensing an opportunity to make the CCCP suffer heavily support the mujihadeen as do the Saudis, one Saudi with the initials OBL becomes particularly involved.
Ultimately the CCCP sort of gives up in Afganistan.
The mujihadeen victory was mostly due to the huge amount of outside help they received and internal Soviet politics. But being religious regressives who are stuck socially and mentally in the 7th century, the mujihadeen think their victory is due to the superiority of their religion and think "if we can take down the USSR, with Allah on our side why not the USA too?"
- 1:31 pm
- beatroot said...
From Afghanistan to Bosnia the west funded and encouraged these people. In the middle east they have encouraged them by invading places and destabilizing them.
We have also created a relativist and weak culture where a a few can get very alienated indeed and turn into super victim suicide bombers.
The west has created the conditions for this nihilism to flourish.
I also think we have massively exaggerated the threat to us in the west, however.
So, all in our, our creation.
- 5:23 pm
Lucyna: This is a very old war, Steppx.
Personally, I think we should be kicking Cathar ass.
- 4:34 am
- Lucia Maria said...
Beetroot, have you read It's the Demography, Stupid by Mark Steyn?
If you haven't read it yet, I highly recommend it.
- 8:06 am
- beatroot said...
I just read it, Lucyna. It says some silly things ad some sensible things.
The design flaw of the secular social-democratic state is that it requires a religious-society birthrate to sustain it.
Guess which two countries have the lowest birth rate in te EU? First it's Italy next is POLAND…the two supposedly most religious states in the EU.
Radical Islam is an opportunistic infection, like AIDS: It's not the HIV that kills you, it's the pneumonia you get when your body's too weak to fight it off….That's what the war's about: our lack of civilizational confidence..
That has some merit. Immigration is not the problem. I am for migration in principle. America is a national of immigrants but it had this 'America' idea that was the bridging culture between all the others.
The only difference [between the IRA and jihad] is that most terrorist wars are highly localized. We now have the first truly global terrorist insurgency because the Islamists view the whole world the way the IRA view the bogs of Fermanagh: They want it, and they've calculated that our entire civilization lacks the will to see them off.
IRA had a clearly defined political goals and objectives and a political party to articulate them. Jihadists just want to make some infantile point about themselves. They want to create terror for the sake of it.
Which is why I don't think they are the threat that Steyn does. Occasional jihadist violence is just a nasty part of modern life in cities.
But we also have to be finding values we can all agree on. WE have to find the 'bridging culture'.
For me that is humanism with values based on the Enlightenment.
- 8:38 am
- steppx said...
the Steyn article (in the WSJ for christ sake) is simply moronic. I disagree with beat rather strongly here. Its PURE racism...its factually wrong on several points....but then facts can be fluid i admit....but most importantly its simply an extension of colonial thinking.
First....it demonizes muslims.....which Lucyna seems happy to do, again and again. Now I wont repeat my earlier arguments....but try to refer to them Lucynda. Where is this religious and cultural war? WHERE? Where is western society in jeapordy? Its utter nonsense. IF one reads junk like the WSJ then there is probably little hope for you.....but mark steyn is notorius for this kind of stuff.....rabid fear mongering.
Let me ask you something Lucyna, what are you afraid of regards Islam? you really think the west is about to be taken over by muslims? Because of birth rates?? Besides jerk offs like Steyn and Rush Limbaugh and Kristol.....who thinks Islam is out to take over the world? And you might think about who exactly IS occupying foreign soveriegn countries.....the US. I dont see Muslim countries occupying anyone or attacking anyone. If some fringe loonies attack people, fine...but that happens with all religions....and Steyn is mendacious to point to Hindus attacking Muslims as if its the Muslims fault.
Count the dead from Muslim fanatic attacks and then count the dead from US bombing of muslim countries. Beyond that, as pointed out above, modernism is on the rise in almost all muslim countries....and I am guessing you've never been to any or you wouldnt swallow this bullshit so easily. Visit any big arab city and you find young people watching MTV and Baywatch (too bad actually....but thats the reality). In some rural outposts you find the fanatics....and in some cases you find western educated islamicists turning to an anti mondernist theorcratic system of belief....but these are really quite quite small numbers.
Spend some time with the "other" before you tremble in fear that your western values are under assault. Its just not so....period. Not so. The US props up Egypt and Saudi Arabia.....and is allied with Pakistan.....all three are repressive regimes. If you look at most Muslim majority countries you find little if any desire to convert the Christian west.....or to take over the world. I mean again, the US defense budget is close to TWO BILLION DOLLARS A DAY. Compare that to Arab nations.....compare it to any Muslim country. But we are to believe that somehow, magically, the Jihad is about to break down the west and your daughter will be wearing a veil at the start of next semester.
NONSENSE. in fact its worse than nonsense.....its pure racialism and bigotry. Its ignorance. It ignores history and fact.
Islam has its problems but then so does Christianity,. I asked you about that before, and you conveniently ignored the question. What about the fanatics in other religions? They dont scare you? Why? If you read the war mongers at the wall street journal and Weekly Standard... or the ghouls at Little Green Footballs...I would expect you to express a hatred of muslims......because you are being told they are about to ride their camals into Omaha and Paris and London and create the great Caliphate.
Its just so damn silly.....its nonsense.
Show me where its happeneing or even about to happen? this idea that the Jihad is global and has as its stated aim a conquest of the west is sub comic book in its intellectual validity.
fear of the other is a long tradition......and as an American I can still remember the era of segragation. Blacks were sub human, stupid, and a threat to white society. People used to rant about a society of inter marriage and how it would errode western values. In 1939 in Europe the Jews were described exactly as Muslims are now....they cant be trusted....they put religion before state...yada yada yada. its the same stuff.....just recycled for a new gullable audience.
- 10:41 am
- Lucia Maria said...
Steppx, you want to know "where".
France and Sweden. Even Australia.
France used to a be a great place for
Muslim women, where they didn't have to wear the veil, where they could live as Westerners do. Over the years, those freedoms are being eliminated one by one as entire areas become Muslim dominated and a small number of fanatics somehow keep huge populations compliant.
There are no-go zones in France now for non-Muslims. Any non-Muslim women needing to go through these areas covers herself up so that she is not rape. And remember those riots where thousands of cars were set alight? Or that train where Muslim youths terrorised it for a couple of hours because the French police were too afraid to board it until enough reinforcements arrived?
And Malmo in Sweden is dominated by Muslims now as the natives leave and the remainder are subjected to attacks as a form of warfare against them.
There are places all over Europe now where European women are harrassed at best and raped at worst for not dressing properly in front of Muslim men.
In Australia, I myself was approached by a Muslim man at a train station in a Muslim dominated area and asked how much it would cost for me to come home with him. Luckily he didn't do any more than that, since the train stration was deserted. Australia has also had a number of vicious gang-rapes perpertated by Muslims against non-Muslim women. Here's an article on the Rise of Middle Eastern Crime in Australia where the police are too intimiated to go after Muslim gangs.
It's simple numbers, Steppx.
Just to recap those bald statistics: In 1970, the developed world had twice as big a share of the global population as the Muslim world: 30% to 15%. By 2000, they were the same: each had about 20%.
Big change in 30 years, don't ya think?
Do not dilute your presence
In 1980, the Islamic Council of Europe laid out their strategy for the future - and the fundamental rule was never dilute your presence. That is to say, do not integrate.
"Rather, concentrate Muslim presence in a particular area until you are a majority in that area, so that the institutions of the local community come to reflect Islamic structures. The education system will be Islamic, the shops will serve only halal food, there will be no advertisements showing naked or semi-naked women, and so on."
- 11:08 am
Beat: "Jihadists just want to make some infantile point about themselves. They want to create terror for the sake of it."
You give them too little credit. There is a defined goal and a defined ideology. And it's spreading rapidly into moderate Islam. I think it's wrong to call the act of 'martyrdom' infantile. Spraypainting walls and firebombing cars is infantile. Suicide bombing is not.
DNDYP: "In 1980, the Islamic Council of Europe laid out their strategy for the future...do not integrate."
This is a fundamental problem in Western society. OUR inability to accept and integrate with moderate Islam, and THEIR refusal to integrate with us. A small example. The England cricket team has a Muslim player of Pakistani origin (Sajid Mahmood). He is barracked, heckled, abused and called a 'traitor to his country' by Pakistan's fans - the overwhelming majority of whom are British Muslims of Pakistani descent. They are not proud of his 'integration'. AQ's brand of Islam is at the ultra-radical end of a Salafist/Wahhabist perspective that finds increased acceptance in the Muslim world. It is not tolerant, accepting or integrating. And it needs to be fought on several levels. Cut off the head first (AQ), engage seriously with moderate Islam, effect real and sustainable political change in the Middle East, allow and encourage Islam to go through its own Enlightenment, then find and embrace that 'bridging culture'. We haven't yet acheived step one yet.
PS: Before I get accused of Islamophobia too, I lived for a decade in the Middle East. And (cliche notwithstanding), one of my best mates is a British Muslim of Pakistani descent.
- 12:49 pm
- beatroot said...
Step – I was agreeing and disagreeing with certain points of the article, not the article as a whole.
Steyn strays into right wing crank territory far too often (homophone, Europhobe…) but the bit about the west losing faith in itself is right. He doesn't like multiculturalism, neither do I.
What he and I would strongly disagree about is WHICH KIND OF WESTERN CULTURE AND VALUES WE SHOULD BE TRYING TO UNITE PEOPLE AROUND.
He is a conservative so he likes the things they were or could have been.
I am much more into looking at the future and emphasizing secular humanistic enlightenment values.
- 12:58 pm
- beatroot said...
Posterboy: I think it's wrong to call the act of 'martyrdom' infantile.
No, I'm right. If they are trying to make political points then why do they never even claim the violence they cause until weeks months afterwards? And why do they not give us a concrete program which is in the interests of a specific community?
I lived with IRA bombs popping off at regular intervals all the time I was growing up (my mum is from N. Ireland and London was frequently a target – terrorism was not invented on 9/11) we knew exactly who it was, why exactly they were doing it and who, if anyone we could engage with.
With this lot there is no clear political objectives. Look at the things bin Laden says: he changes his reasons each time he says something. He never mentioned Palestine/Israel thing for years. Saudi Arabia was what he used to go and on about.
Bin Laden takes an issue like Iraq or Palestine AFTER the western media or some on the left start claiming that is why 'he' did it.
Again, another aspect of how we have helped create al-Qaeda.
- 1:07 pm
I was approached by a Cathar in a dark, dismal and depressingly dank bus station in Detroit late one dreary and damnable wet night... Damn those dratted Cathars to hell! They're animals!
- 2:33 pm
I can actually agree with a lot of this, PB: "AQ's brand of Islam is at the ultra-radical end of a Salafist/Wahhabist perspective that finds increased acceptance in the Muslim world. It is not tolerant, accepting or integrating. And it needs to be fought on several levels. Cut off the head first (AQ), engage seriously with moderate Islam, effect real and sustainable political change in the Middle East, allow and encourage Islam to go through its own Enlightenment, then find and embrace that 'bridging culture'. We haven't yet acheived step one yet."
I question, however, the extent to which the ultra-whacky jihadist brand of Islam is being increasingly accepted throughout the world. That certainly is not the least bit true in Muslim communities in the US and I doubt that is the case in Europe either. Yes, there are an increasing number of Muslims getting drawn to it but that is largely because of western governments' repeated military adventurism and occupation of predominantly Muslim territory and the western governments' unquestioning support of Israel's military adventurism and occupation of predominantly Muslim territory...
- 2:44 pm
Ignacy said: "I was approached by a Cathar in a dark, dismal and depressingly dank bus station in Detroit late one dreary and damnable wet night... Damn those dratted Cathars to hell! They're animals!"
Same thing happened to me in Peoria but it was a priest, not a Cathar.
- 3:03 pm
- steppx said...
lucyna....oh dear oh dear.
Your last post is simply FACTUALLY WRONG>
The "riots" in Paris were at least 35% non muslim.....many were west africans. And the marginalized class in france is, of course, muslim because france colonized north africa. Buy a clue Lucyna.
I just worked on a film in Malmo -- and all you say is bullshit. malmo has a high crime rate because its a jumping off port for human trafficking (and none of the gangs are muslim run....mostly its albanian and Israeli, actually). The muslim community there is actually pretty well accepted and liked.
Where do you get this stuff? The Australian article is of limited value....but I dont know australia so I wont get into it.
As for dilution of presence......the same could be said of Israel, of the US (gerrymandering) or India (under the BJP). Its what people do.....regrettable, but not unique to muslims.
You are simply, openly, a racist. And its very sad. People such are yourself usually love to espouse ideals like democracy and western values.....and yet discourage democratic processes whenever they dont result in what you want. If muslims outnumber whites....in, lets say, wherever....and vote themsleves into power.....whats wrong with this? This is democracy and this is how democracy works.
But I ask again, WHAT ARE YOU AFRAID OF?
Your last post seems to say, Muslims rape and commit more crime than white people. Is this what you really think?? Would you feel threatened if a muslim family moved next door to you? and if so, why?
You sound most like the old colonialists....Ian Smith, or Lord Kitchner. They would be proud.
- 5:16 pm
- beatroot said...
Steps is right about the Paris thing – that was about good old fashioned inequality and racism, not some protest against the decadent west.
Ignacy, al-qaeda might be Salafist/Wahhabist but that does not make it political. They don't represent a specific community, are answerable to nobody as a result. And things like 9/11 are narcissistic 'spectaculars' that have symbolic value only. They are not political acts and therefore cannot threaten us in any real way.
- 7:24 pm
- michael farris said...
"I just worked on a film in Malmo -- and all you say is bullshit. malmo has a high crime rate because its a jumping off port for human trafficking (and none of the gangs are muslim run....mostly its albanian and Israeli, actually)"
Well most Albanians are traditionally at least nominally Muslim, but I get your point. Where did this 'Malmo being terrorized by Arabs' internet urban legend begin, anyway?
For the record, I think the existence of non-assimilating immigrants in western europe is a problem (partly due to western europe trying to pretend it wasn't an immigration destination for too long). But it's not a threat to everything the west stand for as hysterical internet hawks claim.
- 7:35 pm
- beatroot said...
Mike: the Malmo being over taken by muslim crazies thing comes from a spat between Step and Lucyna in a post about ELTON JOHN!
- 7:55 pm
- steppx said...
micheal farris......
I wanted to add that, actually, I agree that assimilation is a complex question...and in countries the size of Holland (for example) its a real issue (which is why folks like Pim Fortyn had a weird appeal). So, agreed.
- 8:01 pm
- beatroot said...
The reason why folks like Pim Fortyn had a weird appeal was nothing to do with small size….
I was talking to someone from Radio Netherlands at a party last year. I was talking about Holland's history of 'tolerance' etc and she said that the Dutch were never tolerant.
What happened was that all the political class and the media thought talk about immigration and anything intolerant was not politically correct. There was a consensus of silence. But normal Dutch talked about these things all the time. So when some mullah in Rotterdam called gays 'lower than pigs' Fortyn spoke up and said the remark was un-Dutch and if people didn't like liberal Dutch values then they should leave Holland.
The Dutch loved his honesty. Finally someone was talking about the things they were talking about. So the popularity of Fortyn was the cosey consensus among politicians and media – not size or assimulation.
- 8:14 pm
- michael farris said...
beat, no lucyna didn't originate it, it's been around a while, a couple of years at least, I've come across it on hysterical hawk sites before (along with refutations made by people who actually have been there).
I think it's a hysterical hawk talking point, I'm just not sure where it first originated.
Kind of on topic, I used to sometimes read around in the forums of a portal by and for norwegians of (mainly) pakistani ancestory (I think desi.no but I'm too lazy to look it up now) and there were religious regressives there too, but they were usually shouted down by more reasonable types.
- 8:15 pm
- michael farris said...
"she said that the Dutch were never tolerant"
I'm told there's a Dutch saying to the effect "The Dutch are so tolerant, you can't even talk about it."
- 8:17 pm
- beatroot said...
I had never heard it before, Mike, till I saw it here. But honestly, as I said earlier, nobody I know from Malmo had even bothered to mention this. So I don't think Swedish society is under mortal threat, just yet.
- 8:19 pm
- beatroot said...
The Dutch official tolerance tjing goes back 300 years. It's part of what stepxx would call the 'ruling ideology'. And it stored up loads of problems...
- 8:21 pm
aQ is not political? What are they, then? A quilting club? Simply a prayer group? The destruction of the WTC was just symbolic? Not a threat? And what happened to the expanisive US military presence in Saudi Arabia soon after 9/11? True, they are not responsible to anyone but themselves and therein lay their danger even if their numbers as small albeit growing - thanks to Dummy Rummy, et.al.
- 9:11 pm
- steppx said...
The fortyn phenomenon does have links to the size of Holland.....the question of immigration was more acute because of the limited space. All the rest of what you say is exactly right. Suddenly people were talking openly about their *intolerance*. But I think it was magnified in the Netherlands because of how geographically small the country is. Assimilation and lack thereof was more visible, as it were, because of HOllands crowded cities.
I may be making too big a point of this....but I suspect the same thing exists in Norway and Sweden etc.....they just dont feel it quite the same. (Actually, Holland was a colonial power too....the others not). My last trip to oslo I found the question of immigration a non issue....and they have plenty of Somalis and Pakistanis and Iraqis (!!). Quite a few Kurds too. But the country is so sparsely populated that it can accomodate things in a different manner.....though, clearly "fear" of the other exists,it seems, everywhere.
- 11:09 pm
- Lucia Maria said...
Here we go: War Against the Swedes. And Beetroot, I'm surprised people you know don't talk about this - there seems to be a clampdown over here on seeing no evil, hearing no evil, speaking no evil. I suppose if you can't ignore it, it won't affect you.
Steppx, I'm a racist am I? You are a great one for the meaningless labels, since Muslims are not one race - they can be any race. And what's the bad thing about Muslims having democratic control of a country - are you serious? Muslims have democratic control in Malaysia and Indonesia, and both those countries are becoming increasingly dangerous for non-Muslims.
A sharia court in Malaysia declared a Hindu climber had secretly converted to Islam, resulting in his wife being unable to inherit his property, due to her being not Muslim. They can do that you know, declare someone who has died to have secretly converted to Islam.
Increasingly draconian Islamic laws to do with women covering up has lead to Bali threatening to seceed. East Timor was invaded Indonesia in the 70's and only just got it's independence at huge cost.
Here's the latest on what it's like for Christians living in Muslim dominated Aceh in Indonesia.
Oh, and West Africans can Muslim. Islam reached West Africa in the 8th century.
- 12:36 am
- Lucia Maria said...
Oh for the ability to edit. Here is part of my first paragraph again:
... there seems to be a clampdown over here on seeing no evil, hearing no evil, speaking no evil. I suppose if you can ignore it, it won't affect you.
And my last paragraph:
...and West Africans can be Muslim.
- 12:53 am
- Lucia Maria said...
Islam By Country
Total Population of West Africa : 268,997,245
Muslims: 133,994,675
%Muslim: 49.813%
- 12:58 am
- michael farris said...
As fun as it is to debate you, Lucyna, our sources are just too different. You read something at Gates of Vienna and believe it, hook, line and sinker. I read it and think there's probably some vague connection with something that might be going on, that's not much a basic for a debate (unless it's about the reliability of your sources).
Why is it that cultural conservatives (not just you) have no real faith in the strength of families or western civilization?
I'm confident that the overwhelming majority of society will be heterosexual and form family units of some kind and that western civilization has no real competition (from the middle east at any rate).
Typical family structures 50 years from now might not be what we're used to now (just as the current norm, probably including Lucyna's family, would be alien to people from 1956) but humans are inherently a social, reproductively oriented species so we want to live together and have young'uns around underfoot. That's not going to change by making it easier for non-dangerous sexual minorities to order their family lives as they see fit. Facing reality and dealing with those who are different is usually easier than trying again and again and again to pound square pegs into round holes.
Islamic radicals are a sporadic, unpatterned threat like lightning and largely unrelated to underperforming immigrant groups with a grudge (a similar hit and miss threat of less than world shaking proportions). And if either (or both groups) ever get their supposed wish for a conflict of civilizations (which I doubt) they won't know what hit 'em.
You seem to think however that if people aren't tricked and coerced into heterosexual marriage and child raising they'd never do it and that western civilization is a delicate souffle that'll collapse at the first loud noise.
- 1:21 am
- Lucia Maria said...
Michael Farris,
You read something at Gates of Vienna and believe it, hook, line and sinker.
You are referring to Fjordman, are you?
Two can play this game.
You seem to think that the extent of my knowledge in this subject is limited to the links I've given above.
It is impossible to explain the entirety of my position in these comment boxes.
You want to continue being an ostrich, despite the evidence (and there is a lot - demographics, constant new reports from all parts of the world), be my guest.
At least you can be confident in the knowledge that even if you don't know or don't want to know what's going on, other people will take up the slack.
And let's hope that's enough.
I'll leave you with a story on the Islamic invasion of NW Africa and Dahlia's resistance. When the men weren't brave enough.
- 1:33 am
Curious... anybody have any idea as to a number of how many Muslims are willing and ready to become suicide bombers?
As big a number as the US military in Iraq, Afghanistan, etc.?
And what kind of weaponry do they have, comparatively?
- 2:23 am
- Lucia Maria said...
Apparently Iran has 40,000 suicide bombers.
They could be bluffing, of course.
- 4:04 am
- steppx said...
I give up Lucynda.
Your not a racist, just an equal opportunity bigot.
Your sources are idiotic.
But your right.....they are at the city limits of warsaw...scimitars in hand, waving copies of the Koran....on camals....strapped with plastique.....ready to rape (espcially rape)and pillage.....Krakow will be turned into the new Mecca....the great Caliphate is upon us.
You know the chances of being killed by a terrorist are less than being struck by lightening.
The national hero of Sweden is the immigrant striker (name escapes me)who however didnt score in the world cup.....from, cue drum roll, MALMO.
but I give up.....i gotta go hide in my bomb shelter...lest any of those 40,000 suicide bombers escapes his leash and comes to central Poland.
- 11:55 am
Youse fascist liberals youse!
- 9:53 pm
- michael farris said...
Why I am a fascist (according to Lucyna):
I think people should have legal protection in ordering their family lives as they see fit.
I think people should be free to practice their religion to the extent that it doesn't impinge on other people's rights.
I'm not afraid of Muslims (I personally like a rather large majority of Muslims I've met though though as a religion Islam isn't my thing at all).
I think George W. Bush's 'war or terror' was/is a cyncial ploy to garner fear votes and if you pay attention to his actions and policies it's clear he doesn't believe there's a 'war on terror' either.
I'm sure there's more, but I've gotta go now, so many traditional values to undermine, so little time...
- 10:44 pm
- Lucia Maria said...
Ah yes, the Why Liberals are Fascists article by Dr. Jack Wheeler, creator of the very successful Reagan Doctrine.
Truth hurts.
- 1:03 am
- beatroot said...
Lucyna - are there many like you in New Zealand?
- 1:12 am
- Lucia Maria said...
Like me in what way, Beetroot?
- 3:56 am
- beatroot said...
Do a lot of people agree with the type of things you say?
- 7:34 pm
- Lucia Maria said...
It varies on what I say as to the numbers of people that agree. On some things, many people agree. On others, few people agree.
NZ is getting more conservative, though. And more people are noticing political correctness and rebelling against it.
- 1:05 am
- beatroot said...
Can you give me an example of how NZ is getting more conservative?
- 8:34 am
- Lucia Maria said...
Here's a news release on a very recent survey.
A Consumer and Lifestyles Study, released today by the University's Consumer Research Group in the Department of Marketing, reveals New Zealanders are becoming more traditional in their viewpoints, with emphasis on marriage, the family unit, showing respect to one's elders and attaining social recognition.
There's more detail in the article.
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text:
IBM Boosts Smarter Computing Initiative to Help Customers Tackle Big Data
-- New IBM Smarter Storage approach provides for greater performance, efficiencies
-- Real-time Compression, LTFS management, and Tivoli upgrades lift storage systems
-- IBM makes technical computing more accessible to enterprise customers
-- IBM Platform Computing software enables technical computing systems to deliver faster results
04 Jun, 2012, 08:00 ET
ARMONK, N.Y., June 4, 2012 /PRNewswire/ -- IBM (NYSE: IBM) today accelerated its Smarter Computing initiative by announcing a broad array of performance and efficiency enhancements to its storage and technical computing systems – the engines of Big Data.
(Photo: http://photos.prnewswire.com/prnh/20120604/NY17789-INFO-a )
(Photo: http://photos.prnewswire.com/prnh/20120604/NY17789-INFO-b )
(Logo: http://photos.prnewswire.com/prnh/20090416/IBMLOGO )
As part of its ongoing Smarter Computing effort, IBM today announced a new strategic approach to designing and managing storage infrastructures with greater automation and intelligence, as well as significant performance enhancements to several key storage systems and the Tivoli Storage Productivity Center suite. At the same time, the company announced its first offerings that incorporate software from IBM's acquisition of Platform Computing earlier this year. These offerings are intended to help a broader set of enterprise customers use technical computing to achieve faster results with applications that require substantial computing resources to process growing volumes of data.
"Enterprises are dealing with data that is increasing exponentially in both size and complexity," said Rod Adkins, senior vice president of IBM Systems & Technology Group. "The enhanced systems and storage solutions we're announcing today have the performance, efficiency and intelligence to handle this Big Data. This is smarter computing that allows our clients to organize and analyze their data to better understand and serve their customers."
IBM Smarter Storage for Smarter Computing
Constructing and evolving storage infrastructures to better respond to constant social, economic, and business change is critical to the long-term viability of every organization. To do it right, they need a smarter approach to storage – an approach that exploits automated intelligence to increase the efficiency, utilization, and performance of storage systems while lowering costs.
According to a survey of more than 300 global CIOs conducted by IBM and IDC, the most efficient companies have been able to spend more than 50 percent on new projects that were transformative to their business.
By implementing techniques such as virtualization, de-duplication, automated tiering and cataloging, IT leaders are able to reduce the amount of time their architects spend provisioning storage by up to 50 percent as well as reduce the cost by up to 20 percent.
With more than 256 petabytes of client data managed, IBM has been building a portfolio of products and technologies for the past several years toward this end and today announced a formal approach behind it called IBM Smarter Storage. With this approach, customers are able to architect storage infrastructures that leverage such leading edge technologies as Real-time Compression and automated tiering to help get more performance out of their systems, faster and for less cost.
To drive this initiative further, IBM is announcing enhancements to a several key products. For example, it is adding Real-time Compression to IBM Storwize V7000, as well as to the IBM System Storage SAN Volume Controller (SVC), the company's industry-leading storage virtualization system.
Unlike traditional storage systems that compress only "low activity" data, or data not frequently accessed, Real-time Compression on the Storwize V7000 and SVC systems compresses active data by as much as 80 percent, increasing total effective storage capacity by up to five times.(1) In addition to Real-time Compression, IBM also added four-way clustering support for Storwize V7000 block systems that can double the maximum system capacity to 960 drives or 1.4 petabytes.
"From the move to electronic records to the ballooning sizes of medical images, storage in medical centers as large as ours, is rapidly becoming ground zero for Big Data," said Rick Haverty, director of information systems division at the University of Rochester Medical Center. "IBM has recognized the need to start approaching the management of the growing data volumes in a strategic, smarter way, through built-in intelligence, automation, and the cloud, to gain greater performance, reliability and better economics."
IBM added efficiency and performance boosts to several other systems as well, including:
- IBM System Storage DS3500, designed for small and mid-sized organizations and DCS3700, designed with high density for high performance computing environments, now feature Enhanced FlashCopy capabilities that result in 50 percent more snapshots, designed to speed up backups; and thin provisioning, which helps increase utilization of disk storage while lowering storage costs by reserving unused pools of storage for applications on an as-needed basis;
- IBM Tape System Library Manager (TSLM) is new software that expands and can simplify the use of IBM TS3500 tape libraries by providing customers a single, consolidated view of multiple libraries. The TSLM works with multiple generations of enterprise and LTO-based drives and media to store data into a single reservoir of tape that can be managed from a central point through IBM Tivoli Storage Manager;
- IBM Linear Tape File System (LTFS) Storage Manager is new software that provides lifecycle management of multimedia files, such as large video files, to customers using IBM LTO 5 tape libraries and IBM's LTFS Library Edition. As a result, video archive licensing costs can be dramatically lowered, as well as video tape cartridge costs.
- New enhancements to the IBM Tivoli Storage Productivity Center (TPC) suite will enable organizations to better manage big data storage requirements. With a new web-based user interface, TPC can radically change the way IT managers view and manage their storage infrastructures. Also new to TPC is the integration of IBM Cognos, which provides intuitive reporting and modelling that can enable customers to easily create high-quality ad hoc and customized reports for better decision making. TPC offers simplified packaging that provides comprehensive management, discovery, configuration, performance and replication in a single license.
In addition to these new enhancements, IBM will advance the Smarter Storage approach further in the future when it announces plans to extend its IBM Easy Tier capabilities to direct-attached, server-based SSDs to help customers coordinate data migration between their disk systems and servers. IBM Easy Tier automatically moves data to the most appropriate storage, including multiple tiers of disk and SSD, based on policy and activity.
IBM Strengthens Technical Computing Portfolio for Enterprise Clients
Once considered the domain of supercomputing, workloads such as simulations, computer modeling and analytics are increasingly being adopted by a broader set of mainstream clients to drive business benefits.
In order to make technical computing easier to use, IBM is enhancing its portfolio of hardware platforms with software to create integrated solutions that can help enterprises more quickly derive value from high performance applications that require a lot of computing power and data. At the same time, IBM is committed to maintaining support for non-IBM systems with existing Platform Computing partners. The highlights of what IBM is announcing today include:
- The IBM Platform Symphony family, a grid manager that is now integrated with the MapReduce software framework to provide faster throughput and performance for demanding analytics and big data workloads in a single grid environment. Platform Symphony's resource sharing model makes it cost-efficient for clients to expand their analytics environment as needed.
- The IBM System x Intelligent Cluster integrated with IBM Platform HPC software to simplify cluster deployment, deliver results more quickly and improve productivity so clients can focus on research and analysis instead of managing their IT infrastructure.
- The High Performance Computing (HPC) Cloud portfolio from IBM expanded with the new IBM Platform Cluster Manager offering as well as IBM Platform LSF to provide clients with a shared pool of cloud resources available from anywhere, making it easy to create and manage HPC clouds. The new IBM Platform Cluster Manager enables clients to self-provision clusters in minutes and automatically, dynamically manage cluster environments that include both IBM Platform Computing and non-IBM workload managers.
These new offerings will help IBM aggressively pursue the over $20.3 billion combined opportunity for technical computing, which IDC is projecting for 2012 and that is expected to grow at 7.6 percent annually to almost $29.2 billion by 2016.(2)
Other technical computing offerings IBM is announcing today include:
- IBM Platform LSF family – IBM Platform LSF is a comprehensive set of intelligent, policy-driven workload management and scheduling tools that can be used to manage high performance workloads across a distributed, virtualized IT environment with up to 100 percent utilization to help keep costs low.
- IBM General Parallel File System (GPFS) – GPFS now includes Active File Management (AFM) software to provide fast, trusted access to unstructured data regardless of where the data resides so it can quickly be turned in to insight.
- IBM System x iDataPlex dx360 M4 – The latest iDataPlex system can double performance on selected workloads with the latest Graphics Processing Units (GPUs) from NVIDIA, increases maximum memory to 512GB and – with the new slotless FDR (Fourteen Data Rate) Infiniband adapter – provides superior performance and flexibility for technical computing environments.
Services and Financing
Complementing the new storage enhancements, IBM is offering a suite of services encompassing virtualization, automation and cloud technologies and that address the supply and demand side of storage. The new offerings use analytics and automation to infuse intelligence into everyday workflow with tools and services including:
- Intelligent Storage Service Catalog (ISSC) - Improves the way storage is used by simplifying how it is requested. ISSC promotes more efficient storage allocation and governance by establishing standards that can be used to optimize provisioning, backup, replication and archiving.
- IBM SmartCloud services for storage – Provides support for IBM's family of cloud storage products including IBM SmartCloud Managed Backup, IBM SmartCloud Archive, and IBM SmartCloud Object Storage, which improve data backup, resiliency and management of massive quantities of unstructured data from a cloud environment. The cloud offers clients flexibility, cost effectiveness and the ability to achieve faster recovery time making archiving, exploration, and analysis faster and easier for businesses.
Flexible financing options provided by IBM Global Financing make it simple for clients to acquire IBM storage systems, while enabling them to manage budgets more easily with predictable monthly payments. Credit-qualified clients that elect financing can quickly benefit from IBM's enhanced storage systems by taking immediate delivery and deferring their first payment for 90 days. Clients also can take advantage of 0 percent financing for 12 months.
About IBM
For more information on IBM Storage, please go to www.ibm.com/storage and follow us on twitter @IBMStorage.
For more on IBM technical computing go to www.ibm.com/technicalcomputing and follow us on twitter @ibmhpc.
For more on IBM Tivoli go to www.ibm.com/tivoli and follow us on twitter @ibmtivoli.
For more on IBM Storage Services, go to www.ibm.com/services/storage.
IBM and the IBM logo are trademarks of International Business Machines Corporation, registered in many jurisdictions worldwide. For a current list of IBM trademarks, please see www.ibm.com/legal/copytrade.shtml. Other company, product or service names may be trademarks, or service marks of others.
Except for the historical information and discussions contained herein, statements contained in this release may constitute 'forward-looking statements' within the meaning of the Private Securities Litigation Reform Act of 1995. These statements involve a number of risks, uncertainties and other factors that could cause actual results to differ materially, as discussed in the company's filings with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC).
IBM Global Financing offerings are provided through IBM Credit LLC in the United States and other IBM subsidiaries and divisions worldwide to qualified commercial and government clients. Rates and availability are based on a client's credit rating, financing terms, offering type, equipment and product type and options, and may vary by country. Non-hardware items must be one-time, non-recurring charges and are financed by means of loans. Other restrictions may apply. Rates and offerings are subject to change, extension or withdrawal without notice and may not be available in all countries.
1) According to IBM test results.
2) Source: IDC, The Broader HPC Market: Servers, Storage, Software, Middleware, and Services, #234682, May 2012
Media Contact(s)
IBM Media Relations
Mike Zimmerman
(914) 766-4935
(585) 698-9974 (mobile)
[email protected]
IBM Media Relations
Joanna Brewer
(415) 545-2270
[email protected]

subset: commoncrawl


text:
Arriving to work in Christiansburg, Va., Neal Turner didn't have any reason to believe that April 16, 2007, would be different or special or stand out from any other Monday. One phone call changed all that.
As emergency services coordinator for Montgomery County, Turner took a call from Matt Johnson, captain of the Virginia Tech Rescue Squad. A shooting was being reported at Norris Hall, a three-story engineering classroom building on the sprawling 2,600-acre campus in Blacksburg.
Turner jumped into action and raced the 8 miles to campus to set up his operations in the "hot zone," adjacent to where the Virginia Tech Rescue Squad was stationed.
"I arrived just prior to the last shot being fired," Turner now says.
When the rampage was over—the deadliest mass shooting in U.S. history—five faculty members and 25 students had been gunned down. The gunman shot himself and died at the scene of the second-floor massacre. Seventeen others were wounded in the shootings, some of them as they leapt to safety from the windows of their classrooms. The same shooter killed two other students three hours before in West Ambler Johnston, a coeducational residence hall on the opposite end of campus.
With temperatures hovering in the 30s, and as 40 mile-per-hour winds whipped up snow, victims were rushed to LewisGale Hospital-Montgomery on South Main Street in Blacksburg.
"I'm so thankful that I'm a believer in Jesus Christ because I could not have faced this horrific situation alone," Turner reflects five years later. "I wanted to cry but couldn't. That was not an emotion I was allowed to have for a long period of time."
As dark hours turned into dark days, Turner said he experienced a "train wreck" of emotions. "I've never seen war up close, but on April 16, I realized what war was all about," he says.
Eventually, Turner needed to talk with a fellow believer. A friend recommended that he connect with the Billy Graham Rapid Response Team chaplains. They had been dispatched to the campus and to the greater Blacksburg community to visit with people shaken by the tragedy and to share the love and comfort of Jesus Christ.
God put RRT chaplains Jack and Becca Dowling on Turner's path. "Man, they threw theirs arms around me and hugged me and loved on me and let me know that I had somebody who would be there, who would pray with me and for me," Turner says, looking back.
The Dowlings, along with RRT director Jack Munday, exhibited the compassion of Christ when Turner felt he was at a breaking point.
"God used the Rapid Response Team to help save my life at such a critical time," explains Turner, who has since received RRT training at the Billy Graham Training Center at The Cove in Asheville, N.C. "They taught me that God is love and that I could find His love even in the worst of circumstances."
As a result, Turner says he's now a better pastor. Since 2001, he has led Cedar Springs Union Church, which Turner describes as a "little country church" of about 65 people. "The Lord used the Billy Graham chaplains to show me how I can love people with greater Christlike compassion and demonstrate I genuinely care," he says. He adds that Jack and Becca have recently visited him and his wife, Carolyn, to encourage them.
"A major part of the ministry at Virginia Tech, as it is in all deployments, was coming alongside established churches and Christian ministries and standing with them as they reach out for Christ in the midst of the disaster," explains Jack Dowling.
"While we were there on campus, especially on the university's Drillfield, we saw so many grief-stricken people who poured out so much emotion," Jack says. "You could have caught buckets and buckets of tears that flowed out on that ground."
Jack adds it's been a privilege for him and Becca to invest into Neal Turner's life and ministry. "We've had an ongoing relationship with him, and we're thankful to the Lord that He's allowed us to see first-hand the lasting impact of sowing love and compassion into someone's life," Jack says.
During their seven-week deployment, Rapid Response Team chaplains—73 throughout that span—prayed one-on-one with almost 2,000 people, 114 of whom made spiritual commitments to Christ.
The university also expresses its thanks to the Billy Graham Evangelistic Association for sending its chaplains five years ago and for the lasting difference they made.
"A day does not go by that I do not remember the families who were affected by this tragedy," says Dr. John Dooley, chief operating officer of the Virginia Tech Foundation. "I knew some of the victims personally. They were friends. The outpouring that we received from the global faith community was remarkable, impressive and heart-stirring."
Himself a Christian and a member of Blacksburg Baptist Church—one of many congregations that responded—Dr. Dooley said he drew tremendous solace from knowing there were people willing to share in the pain of those suffering and to come and extend the compassion of Jesus.
"The Billy Graham chaplains were willing to listen, to pray and to bring hope," Dooley says. "They constantly asked me how I was doing, and that only confirmed that they were not here to fulfill their own agenda, but to help meet the spiritual needs of our community."
Virginia Tech will not be defined by this tragic incident, Dr. Dooley says. "Unfortunately, it is a part of our legacy and we recognize that, but we will never forget those we lost and we will continue to endure," the administrator notes.
Also touched by the influence of the RRT chaplains was Pastor Dick Gilbert. He was pressed into duty that fateful Monday as a volunteer chaplain at LewisGale Hospital-Montgomery.
The next day, RRT's managing director of training Michael Beresford found Pastor Gilbert. Putting his arm around Gilbert's shoulder, Beresford asked, "Dick, how are you holding up?" Gilbert broke down. He felt like a man who had jumped into ice-cold water, initially losing his breath and barely able to keep his nose above the surface.
"I feel like I don't know what I'm doing," Gilbert admitted to Beresford. "I'm just a volunteer. I don't have any resources."
After listening patiently and praying silently, Beresford responded: "You have to remember something, Dick. You're the guy God put here for such a time as this."
That answer stunned Gilbert, like a wake-up slap. And God used it to reenergize the hospital chaplain, who also is the longtime pastor of Slusser's Chapel Church of God in Blacksburg. Gilbert realized that he wasn't "caught in something but had been sent to something."
"That exchange with Mike changed everything," Gilbert recalls. "Mike pointed me back to Christ, and I was able to once again draw on Him and His strength to reach out and minister to people, including our hospital staff."
The impact of the Rapid Response Team chaplains in his life was profound, Gilbert says. "I appreciate the chaplain training I've since received at The Cove, and Mike and his wife recently stayed with us for a weekend," Gilbert says. "Their continued friendship means so much."
A university-wide commemoration and candlelight vigil will be held on the Drillfield at 7:30 p.m. Monday. Virginia Tech students will coordinate the event, and the program will recognize the 32 students and faculty who lost their lives on April 16, 2007.
Used with permission from the Billy Graham Evangelistic Association.
To contact us or to submit an article, click here.
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text:
Home Page Chess Life Online 2009 April USCF Legal Update
|USCF Legal Update
|By Bill Hall
|April 17, 2009
Legal Update
As mentioned in the March Chess Life (page 48) or on this CLO link , Executive Board member Susan Polgar has filed a Texas lawsuit against USCF, most Executive Board members, and others. The $25 million suit alleged twelve causes of action. On February 19, the presiding judge dismissed four of these alleged causes, ordered the plaintiff to file an amended pleading to uphold jurisdiction over four defendants, and rejected defendants' motion to require a more definite statement from plaintiff. On March 5, USCF filed a third party complaint against Paul Truong, alleging defamation, breach of fiduciary duty, fraud, and conspiracy. For details of this and other legal cases, see www.uschess.org/legalupdates.
On February 13, Susan Polgar was served in the Illinois lawsuit USCF vs. Polgar and Truong, which seeks to remove the defendants from the Executive Board. At the time of this writing (March 10), USCF has still been unable to serve this complaint on Paul Truong.
Sam Sloan is appealing dismissal of his $20 million New York lawsuit against USCF, its Executive Board and numerous others. Sloan's request for a delay in the deadline to file moving papers to April 3 was granted, and defendants have until May 4 to file opposition papers.
Life Memberships
USCF has revised its member categories, dividing most into "Premium" with paper magazine and "Regular" with online magazine only. This allowed a necessary dues increase for those receiving the paper magazine, but with the option of a decrease in most categories for those who are price sensitive and/or comfortable reading an online publication. The new setup appears off to a good start financially.
For Life Members, the new structure requires no major change. The Federation will soon send a letter to Life Members asking them to choose between Premium and Regular benefits. Those satisfied reading the online magazine may select Regular benefits, saving USCF some money; they will be able to switch back to Premium benefits at any time.
Life Members who do not reply will be assigned Regular benefits, but can switch to Premium upon request. Our intention is to ask Life Members to reconfirm their choice approximately once every three years, with no fee for Premium benefits.
Benefactor Memberships
A new option now available to donors is the Benefactor Membership , priced at $3000 (existing Life Members, $1500). Benefactors receive a special membership card, and are recognized on a Benefactor page of our website and periodically in Chess Life.
LeCornu Bequest and Olympiad Fund
USCF is greatly indebted to the late life member Philip LeCornu, a former Michigan Open champion, who has left the Federation a $350,000 bequest. $50,000 of these funds are being used to start a Philip LeCornu Olympiad Fund, with 10% of the fund available each two years to support American teams. We expect investment and donations to exceed this payout so that the fund can grow to eventually provide significant, regular support for our players. USCF will also apply at least $100,000 of this bequest to pay down our building mortgage. For information on how you can establish long term support for a favorite project, please contact Bill Hall at [email protected] or PO Box 3967, Crossville, TN 38557.
~Bill Hall, Executive Director


text:
BALTIMORE -- Ryan Mallett struggled in place of injured quarterback Joe Flacco, throwing DeSean Jackson Jerseys for only 58 yards while playing the entire first half, and the Baltimore Ravens beat the Washington Redskins 23-3 on Thursday night in a sloppy preseason opener.
The Ravens scored 13 points while Mallett was in the game, including a 2-yard touchdown run by Terrance West following two costly penalties by the Redskins: pass interference for 23 yards on a third-and-8 and an illegal formation on a field goal try that hit the left upright.
Flacco has yet to take a snap this summer because of a bad back. John Riggins Jerseys That left Mallett to run the first-team offense; he went 9 for 18 and was sacked once.
Redskins: First-round draft pick Jonathan Allen sacked Mallett in the second quarter while playing with the second-team defense. ... RB Samaje Perine fumbled and dropped a wide-open pass on consecutive plays in the second quarter. ... Jordan Reed Jerseys Seventh-round draft pick Joshua Holsey was called for a 23-yard pass interference penalty in the first quarter and broke up a long pass attempt by Mallett in the end zone in the second.
Ravens: Second-round draft pick Tyus Bowser had three tackles and a "quarterback hurry" in the first half. ... Rookie free agent Quincy Adeboyejo was targeted three times and had one catch for 10 yards.
Redskins: TE Jordan Reed (toe), WR Jamison Crowder (hamstring), WR Josh Doctson (hamstring) and LB Junior Galette (hamstring) all sat out. Kirk Cousins Jerseys Reed is on the physically unable to perform list and hasn't practiced all training camp. ... LB Trent Murphy sprained his left knee in the first quarter and did not return. He was also scheduled to have an MRI.
Ravens: The offense was without OLs Marshal Yanda, Ryan Kerrigan Jerseys Alex Lewis and Austin Howard; WRs Jeremy Maclin, Mike Wallace and Breshad Perriman; TE Benjamin Watson; and RB Danny Woodhead. The defense was missing top draft pick Marlon Humphrey, who participated in pregame agility drills but did not dress.
Redskins: LB Zach Brown, signed to a one-year deal after a Pro Bowl season with Buffalo, had a tackle for loss and was one of the best defenders early. Brown is behind Will Compton and Mason Foster at inside linebacker.
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