Update from the Heartland
No.593
22.4.13 – 28.4.13
Blog version: http://heartlandupdate.blogspot.com/
To all,
The follow-up news items:
-- The U.S. Justice Department charged 19-year-old Dzhokhar
Tsarnaev [592] with one count of “Use
of a Weapon of Mass Destruction” [18 U.S.C. §2332a(a)], and one count of “Malicious
Destruction of Property Resulting in Death” [18 U.S.C. §844(i)], for his part
in the Boston Marathon bombing [591,
592]. The charges carry the death penalty under federal law. Gut-check-wise, I tend to agree with
Senator Lindsay Graham of South Carolina in that Tsarnaev should be designated
an enemy battlefield combatant and subjected to Enhanced Interrogation
Techniques [386]. Yet, at the
end of the day, I support the administration’s decision to charge him as a
common criminal who did an extraordinarily bad thing. Any links to Islamo-fascists groups appears to be very thin
and through his deceased older brother.
Regardless, he deserves to meet the same fate as Timothy McViegh [302].
Then,
we are informed by the amorphous, anonymous, “U.S. officials” that the CIA
sought to place Tamerlan Tsarnaev on the terrorism watch list based upon
information from the Federal'naya
Sluzhba Bezopasnosti Rossiyskoy
Federatsii (FSB) more than a year ago. The FSB had reason to believe Tamerlan Tsarnaev was becoming
or already was a radicalized Muslim jihadist, and they appropriately alerted
“U.S. officials.” The FBI
investigated and apparently found insufficient evidence to substantiate the
warning. I know we must go through
these painful convulsions, but they are never pleasant or rewarding. For all the successes the FBI, DHS,
CIA, and local law enforcement have had in the last decade, it only takes one
success like the Boston attack to fire up the blame-game, again. And so it goes.
According
to the Wall Street Journal, a federal
judge (as yet unidentified) made the call to advise Dzhokhar of his Miranda
rights, even though investigators apparently still wanted to question him
further under a public-safety exception.
The so-called public-safety exception was articulated and defined by the
Supreme Court in New York v. Quarles [467 U.S. 649 (1984); 12.June.1984] [440] and has been generally interpreted
as lasting nominally for 48 hours, which is what apparently triggered the judge
to invoke Miranda. I was not
there, but it seems to me the time should have been extended since his ability
to communicate was affected by his wounds and medical treatment. Regardless, what is done is done. And so it goes.
-- The disaster in West, Texas [592], has been largely overshadowed by the Boston attack.
“The Texas fertilizer plant explosion cannot be forgotten”
by Mike Elk -- OPINION
Washington Post
Published: Tuesday, April 23, 11:40 AM; on-line: Apr 23,
2013 04:40 PM EDT
Elk noted, “The plant had 1,350 times the legally allowed
amount of highly explosive ammonium nitrate, yet hadn’t informed the Department
of Homeland Security of the danger. Likewise, the fertilizer plant did not have sprinklers,
shut-off valves, fire alarms or legally required blast walls, all of which
could have prevented the catastrophic damage done.” He went on to ask the salient question, “So why did the
media choose to cover around the clock a terrorist bombing that killed fewer
people and is extremely rare while all but ignoring an industrial explosion
that killed more people, is far more common and is far easier to prevent?” He concluded, “As Ken Ward Jr. of the
Charleston (W.Va.) Gazette, who has covered the Upper Big Branch mine explosion
more than any other reporter, tweeted, ‘Terrorists want media attention, so we
give it to them. Unsafe industries
don’t want media attention — so we give that to them.’” The West, Texas, disaster may be a
simple workplace accident; if so, then I laud Elk’s illumination of the lax
safety precautions at such a dangerous plant. However, I am not yet convinced this was a simple workplace
accident. Ammonium nitrate [NH4NO3]
is not intended as an explosive agent, and it does not spontaneously combust; however,
as we have seen with the Texas City disaster and the Oklahoma City bombing, it
is a readily available material that has explosive properties in a conducive
circumstance. I suspect there is
much more to this event than we have been told so far.
-- The charges were dropped against Paul Kevin Curtis of
Mississippi, the man arrested last week for the ricin letters [592]. He was released.
Four days later, James Everett
Dutschke, 41, of Tupelo, Mississippi, was arrested at his home in connection
with the ricin letters, and is expected to be charged and arraigned next week.
-- The U.S. Intelligence Community (IC) has apparently concluded
the Syrian government likely used chemical weapons (sarin) during the ongoing
civil war. In Abu Dhabi, Secretary
of Defense Chuck Hagel told reporters, “The U.S. intelligence community
assesses with varying degrees of confidence that the Syrian regime has used chemical
weapons on a small scale.” No
public reconciliation with the British and French intelligence findings [592] was offered, and frankly, we are
not likely to gain access to those connections. Various administration officials have loosely hinted the
evidence is not conclusive, thus I suspect we are not likely to see any overt
response.
While my opinion regarding the Tsarnaev
charging has not yet changed, I do have a few relevant questions for this
forum.
What
would our ancestors have done in this situation? What if an American of German descent carried out an act of
sabotage or assassination inside the United States in 1942, on behalf of the
German government? For the lawyers
among us, how would that relate to Ex Parte Quirin [317 U.S. 1 (1942); 31.July.1942]
[170]?
The
Press has uncovered what appears to be more definitive self-radicalization and
jihadist inspiration by Tamerlan Tsarnaev, who in turn apparently convinced his
younger brother to participate in their terrible act – “in defense of Islam.” There is no doubt Dzhokhar was a
willing and engaged participant.
The fragmentary information making it to the public domain verges very
close to the threshold of being an enemy battlefield combatant. The FSB alerted the FBI in 2011 that Tamerlan
may have been radicalized while on his visit to Dagestan and Chechyna. The FBI investigated Tamerlan, but
found insufficient evidence to warrant further investigation or surveillance.
As
a point of comparison, Herbert Hans Haupt was one of eight defendants in Quirin,
and they were German saboteurs in Operation PASTORIUS. Haupt claimed American citizenship, in
that he is similar to Dzhokhar Tsarnaev.
The Haupt timeline is perhaps useful and instructive.
17.Jun.1942 Haupt
& three PASTORIUS colleagues disembarked Kriegsmarine submarine U-584 and landed Ponte Vedra
Beach, Florida
27.Jun.1942 Haupt
and his parents arrested in Chicago
2.Jul.1942 all
eight PASTORIUS saboteurs tried and convicted before secret military tribunal;
6 of 8 including Haupt sentenced to death
29.Jul 1942 Quirin
appeal argued before SCOTUS
31.Jul.1942 SCOTUS
rejected appeal and confirmed conviction
8.Aug.1942 Haupt
& five colleagues executed in Washington, D.C.
In Quirin, the Supremes rejected
Haupt’s claim of citizenship in that “. . . by his conduct (he) renounced or
abandoned his United States citizenship.”
During World War II, we fought the Wehrmacht, a national military
force that was uniformed and identified per the Geneva Convention
standards. The PASTORIOUS agents
including self-professed American citizen Herbert Haupt, we neither uniformed
nor identified, thus they were consider by law to be spies. Today’s enemy is neither uniformed nor
identified. How is Dzhokhar Tsarnaev
different from Herbert Haupt? All
opinions welcome.
We
are not and never have been at war with Islam. Likewise, I cannot deny the existence of Islamophobic
elements within the citizenry of this Grand Republic. The Tsarnaev brothers succumbed to the political rhetoric of
al-Qa’ida, apparently without questioning the validity of its premise, and they
shall realize the consequences of being an enemy of the State.
Letter to the editor, Wichita Eagle [sent Saturday,
27.April.2013]:
Driving
on the highways and byways of this Grand Republic should be fairly easy and
stress free. We have wide lanes,
gentle curves, good signage, long merge lanes, and the majority of surfaces are
well maintained. Unfortunately, it
only takes one discourteous, oblivious driver to ruin the daily commute for the
rest of us.
If
you have several cars stacked up behind you and a quarter of a mile of open
lane ahead of you, move over.
If
other cars are passing you on the right, move over.
Be
aware of what is going on around you.
Check your mirrors! That is
what they are for.
Kansas
State law [KSA §8-1514(b)] states, “. . . any vehicle proceeding at less than
the normal speed of traffic . . . shall be driven in the right-hand lane then
available for traffic . . . .” If
the above applies to you, you are the slower traffic. MOVE OVER!
Good
citizenship includes respecting your fellow citizens. It is not that hard.
FYI:
“keep right” laws apply in most states; see URL:http://www.mit.edu/~jfc/right.html. If you encounter disrespectful drivers,
write to your local newspaper, and if your state does not have a “keep right”
law, write to your state legislators.
Duplication,
use and modification of any of the above are encouraged.
The legislative situation regarding the
furloughed air traffic controller remains confusing, as we are relegated to information
in the public domain only. I
believe Congress passed H.R.1765 to allow the Secretary of Transportation to
reallocate funds within the department to maintain the pre-sequester personnel
funding for air traffic controllers.
The House passed the bill by a vote of 341-41-0-30(23), and the Senate
previously and unanimously passed the bill. Sequestration began on 28.February.2013, with the mandated US$85B
in spending reductions for FY2013 [585]. While Congress apparently did not add
more spending, this action sets extraordinarily bad precedent as Congress once
again abdicated its responsibility to unilateral Executive action. I am losing hope that Congress might
actually regain its footing and do the job they are constitutionally required
to do.
News from the economic front:
-- The EU Commissioner for Internal Market and Services
Michel Barnier has demanded that Federal Reserve Chairman Ben Bernanke rethink the
Feds requirement for banks such as Deutsche Bank and Barclays to hold extra
capital in their U.S. operations. The
transatlantic kerfuffle highlights the growing discord between global
regulators, whose efforts to protect local taxpayers are raising fears that
international finance will be forced to retreat behind national borders.
-- Seven large U.S. financial-services firms said they are
scaling back the maximum bonuses awarded to executives who beat their
performance targets, implicitly in concession to regulators’ concerns about the
size of executive pay and its role in financial industry risk-taking. The seduction of monstrous, personal,
financial gain has been suspected as one of several mechanisms inducing banking
executives to take inordinate risk, and collaterally jeopardize the stability
of the entire banking system.
-- The Wall Street
Journal reported, “GE Capital is cutting off lending to gun shops, as the
company rethinks its relationship to firearms amid the fallout from the school
shooting in Newtown, Connecticut.”
This is a double-edged sword, and it cuts quite well both ways. I do NOT see this little news bit in a
positive light.
-- The U.S. Gross Domestic Product (GDP) rose at an annualized
rate of 2.5% in 1Q2013, stronger than the 0.4% rate in 4Q2012, but less than
the 3.2% growth rate expected by economists.
Comments
and contributions from Update no.592:
“Yes indeedy, quite a week as you say. Please add to that
the funeral of our own Margaret Thatcher, probably the most influential British
politician since Winston. Certainly the most aggressively determined. She made
many enemies but got the job done taking on the miners and newspaper moguls not
to mention the land grabbing regime in Argentina and other European leaders. You may or may not have liked her
politics but she was a 'leader'. And leaders we need Cap.”
My response:
In
American vernacular terms, Margaret Thatcher had balls – big brass ones. She did what had to be done with
Argentina in the Falklands. She
was not afraid of controversy and seemed to relish the opportunity. I did not always agree with her, and I
always admired her chutzpah. Yes, Baroness Thatcher of Kesteven was
an extraordinary woman and an exemplary leader. May God rest her immortal soul.
Another contribution:
“Comment on the timing of the Boston Marathon bombing and
the chem plant explosion in West, TX:
‘Once is happenstance,
Twice is coincidence,
Thrice is enemy action.’
“I was inclined to put the West plant explosion to the
weakness of the EPA and the extremely lax regulatory and zoning structured in
TX. Having a school that close to
a plant? Then I learned that fire,
by itself, should not cause ammonium nitrate to explode. Am interested in the
forensics.”
My reply:
Good
point; thus, my inclination in writing.
I am still absorbing as much as I can on all four. It just struck me in a very odd way
that four major events happened in THAT particular week.
Another
good point. As I recall the
history of the Grandcamp disaster, the hold fire had
been burning for hours. The crew
was afraid to get down there to fight the fire. They wanted to flood the hold to extinguish the fire and the
captain refused as that would destroy his cargo. It was a combination of heat, pressure and initiation on
pure ammonium nitrate, as I recall.
I suspect the same mechanism in the West explosion; I just don’t know
how as yet. That event remains on
my curious list.
I
must add that I thought the assassinations of the Texas DA & DDA were
related to the warden assassination – prison white supremacists. Turns out to be a homicidal malcontent
and his accomplice wife.
Yep,
we need to pay attention to these events.
Comment to the Blog:
“The more things change, the more they stay the same.
Congress has yet to either effectively regulate guns or competently address
mental health issues. There is some possibility we have seen genuine unplanned
emotion from Obama, but other than that nothing new. While all that drew
attention, the CISPA bill to take away our freedom on the Internet passed the
House quietly.
“I am relieved, grateful, and a little surprised that the
Kansas Supreme Court saw fit to guard the interests of the children in the
same-sex parenting case. At least in this, Kansas is a role model.
“The world economy continues to confuse any and all
observers. Transparency and simplicity are appropriate but not likely to
occur.”
My response to the
Blog:
Re:
gun violence. Someday Congress and
our state legislators will get the message that if they really wish to
intercede before Newtown-type tragedies happen, then we must find the means to
treat the root cause of these events.
Re:
CISPA. First, CISPA = Cyber
Intelligence Sharing and Protection Act [H.R.624] was passed by the House
[288-127-0-17(3)], and was sent the Senate and referred to the Intelligence
Committee. There are good and
necessary provisions in the bill; however, as with many of these
well-intentioned bills, the real threat to our freedom lays in the
interpretation by law enforcement and especially by prosecutors. Nonetheless, the bill has a long way to
go, and will be subjected to considerable amendment, most likely.
Re:
Kansas. We do see glimmers of hope
and enlightenment on occasion, here on the Great Plains.
Re:
world economy. We need a lot more
than transparency and simplicity to get us back to stability and growth. We need banking reform to reduce the
likelihood of repeating the collapse of 2008. Progress by jerks . . . as they say.
My very best wishes to all. Take care of yourselves and each other.
Cheers,
Cap :-)
