On “Media rush to judgment in Boston Marathon bombing”
RIP. I hope the blood of these innocent people is not used as an excuse to spill more innocent blood. The media reaction to this will foretell us the rest of the story.
Shakshamboo
16
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One would think that the media would remember its claim of Islamist involvement after the Oklahoma City bombing of the Murrah Building. It in fact turned out to be the work of Americans, Timothy McVeigh—a Gulf War veteran—among them. It also seems awkward to me that the media is jumping to the conclusion that it is an al Qaeda job, now that we know that the US is supplying arms to groups associated with al Qaeda in Syria. Talk about sowing confusion!
Carolyn
California, USA
16 April 2013
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The reasoned approach is much appreciated and I look forward to further analysis by the WSWS as this episode develops.
I almost wrote “tragedy” rather than episode, because the deaths of innocents are so tragic and horrendous. But there is something impossible to ignore about the present state of society, and I think it is beginning to be expressed in the popular mood.
Just anecdotally, I spoke to perhaps a dozen parents, teachers, other workers yesterday and all the conversations touched on the Boston bombing, which had just happened that afternoon. Every time, there was a sentiment of “what next?” or “this country is falling apart.” There is a wariness toward government statements, and as you point out, these efforts by the media to whip up a state of panic. The “alert level orange” propaganda is not going to work this time around. Several people I talked to brought up the ongoing chaos in Iraq, with dozens of people dead, that paralleled this atrocity here at home.
And that is an especially important connection, even in terms of identifying the possible culprit of this crime. How did our society get to this point? A country that is engaged in ripping up other societies will not escape the consequences.
Without demonizing the traumatized veterans of this country, one has to reflect on how many suspects of “lone wolf,” “homegrown terrorism” we now have. The government keeps statistics on this great unmentionable. How many possibly mentally deranged, weapons-equipped, explosives-knowledgeable suspects have nearly 12 years of war created?
And how, now, in the era of domestic drones, will the government use such a situation? The intelligence and law enforcement apparatus has been doing practice runs on both right-wing militia groups and left-wing radical and anarchist elements for years with frame-ups, spying, tracking and raiding.
2013 is a tumultuous year.
EG
Michigan, USA
16 April 2013
On “Government witnesses to testify anonymously at Bradley Manning trial”
“Significantly, Lind referred in her ruling to Al Qaeda, Al Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula, and a third ‘enemy’ identified only as a ‘Classified Entity.’ The Obama administration has evidently determined a threat, that it is not willing to publicly name, that is at least as dangerous to US interests as the specter of terrorism.”
An enemy to US capitalist interests that could benefit from the leaked material but won’t be named? It must be the working class.
Logan
Michigan, USA
15 April 2013
On “Moscow calls Obama’s human rights bluff”
The CIA cannot release these prisoners. They are integral parts of the 9/11 fable. If they did not “do it”...who did?
PK
17 April 2013