ATTACK 'LIKELY'

Panel warns biological attack likely by 2013

WASHINGTON—The United States can expect a terrorist attack using nuclear or more likely biological weapons before 2013, reports a bipartisan commission in a study being briefed Tuesday to Vice President-elect Joe Biden. It suggests the Obama administration bolster efforts to counter and prepare for germ warfare by terrorists.

"Our margin of safety is shrinking, not growing," states the report, obtained by The Associated Press.

Left I on the News is excellent in tearing apart news stories and thinks this one's a lot of hokum.

"Likely"? That's not a scientific term, but according to another report, the opening sentence of the summary says such an attack "is more likely than not," which says there's at least a 51% chance of such an attack.

Talk about blatant fear-mongering. My guess is these sensational stories sell a certain mind-set to the public, when they're not being trampled to death at mall entrances ('tis the season to patriotically spend).

Edger at the OOIBC writes

Boo! The boogeymen are out to get you.

This story is all over the left blogs today, and most of what I read is people lapping it up as easily and thoughtlessly as the 26 percenters lapped up all of Bush's years of Rovian manipulations, and using it as justification for "pragmatic" hide their heads in the sand denial of Barack Obama's obvious militarist tendencies and full intentions to continue the war on terror memes and determination to militarily dominate the earth while blaming the blowback on "terrists" on behalf of the corporatocracy that rules America.

Today NPR featured this story in its news, too. Along with coverage about "India's 9/11" over the holiday weekend, was the story of this report. ("Report: WMD Attack Inevitable Before 2013"). WMD? WTF! Haven't the media pushed this before?

Before that NPR Day-to-Day segment came an afternoon staple on our local NPR station: The Story, which talked about what happened in Mumbai and then lead into a story told by a man who'd been on a plane hijacked by PLO sympathisers back in the 1970s ("A Tourist and Terrorists").

He talks with Dick Gordon about what it was like to find himself in the middle of an international terrorist incident long before the world was so familiar with terrorism.

These kinds of programs just put terrorist=damn Arabs/Palestinians in peoples' minds. Whether it's intentional, I don't know, but it makes me question media's pushing a particular narrative - that of fear - more and more.

MUMBAI ATTACKS

Look at any newspaper front page in the last day or two and you'll see screaming headlines about the blood and gore in Mumbai, India. As for analysis, there's little, because most people have just not followed India closely. Those people sort of thing, mainly because what's happening is not european or USA focussed (unless, of course, they start counting westerns caught in the mess). Or maybe it's just the holiday this week and people are away eating turkey and we'll read more after they're back from quality family time. Alot of the American bloggers reactions remind me of the reactions to the Georgian invasion into South Ossetia last summer: taken by surprise and a show of ignorance about the area and its politics - and even the media did not do its homework and still (along with both major party candidates) claim it was Russia's provocation.

But on my regular/daily/favourite blog reads, they are paying attention.

Craig Murray

The attacks in Mumbai are appalling, but the truth is that to date the numbers killed are small by the standards of inter-communal religious violence in India.

But this time Westerners are involved, so there is far more media attention than when it is "Only Indians".

Lenin's Tomb goes to some length...

The shocking and depressing news from India would seem to defy any glib conclusions or slogans beyond the patently obvious - namely, that this grotesque hunting and killing of innocents is likely to succeed in (what appears to be) its principle aim of generating both a repressive response from the Indian state and a communal reaction.

Moon of Alabama has some here and here:

There was no clear target.

The major attacks were on a railway station, two big hotels, a multiplex movie theater and a bar. Two taxis were blown up. Two terrorists allegedly were at a hospital.

Of the dead only 6 were foreigners, of the wounded 7. While those hotels and the bar frequently have foreigners those numbers and the attack on the railway station and the cinema do not fit to an "attack on foreigners" scheme.

Ten Percent cites the Tomb article & points us to twitter.

And the commentator Tariq Ali chimes in, too.

The terrorist assault on Mumbai’s five-star hotels was well planned, but did not require a great deal of logistic intelligence: all the targets were soft. The aim was to create mayhem by shining the spotlight on India and its problems and in that the terrorists were successful. The identity of the black-hooded group remains a mystery.

All I can say is

Lord, have mercy
Christ, have mercy.
Lord, have mercy.