Attackerman

When The FBI Puts Your Mosque Under Surveillance

Hamed Aleaziz was hard at work factchecking Trevor Aaronson's excellent Mother Jones feature on FBI surveillance in Muslim communities around the United States. Then a disorienting reality hit him: one of the mosques Aaronson reported to be infiltrated by FBI informants was the same one he prayed at as a kid in Oregon. 

Go read Aleaziz's moving reflections. His kicker gets at the heart of the issue:

As the FBI releases more and more informants (right now there are at least 15,000 of them) into Muslim communities, it hopes to create a hostile environment for potential terrorists. But from my vantage point, it looks like the FBI is creating a hostile environment for regular Muslims as well. If life in Corvallis is any indication, these events do plenty to silence the voices of an already unfairly scrutinized minority. Reports indicate that many of these FBI stings violate the civil rights of Muslim communities in America; when that's the case, it's more important than ever that Muslims are able to speak out and be represented fairly in media reports. After my unsuccessful experience trying to shed light on the impact of this FBI sting on my former home, I wonder if anyone will ever be able to understand what life's like after the FBI targets your community.

No one likes to frame the issue this way, but this is a case of surveillance being the enemy of law enforcement. F'r instance, let's say you're Denis McDonough. You're determined to sell non-Muslim Americans on the mutually reinforcing goals of counterterrorism and countering bigotry against their Muslim neighbors. And you're also determined to sell American Muslims on the goal of cooperating even more closely with law enforcement. What can you possibly tell someone like Hamed Aleaziz that can counteract the feeling he's got knowing his childhood mosque is under government scrutiny? Clearly he's not interpreting it as just his mosque, but his entire community. 

Put another way: let's say the "lone wolf," self-radicalized, homegrown terrorism problem really is the paradigmatic domestic-terror threat of the moment. Focusing on the subset of lone wolves that might come from and prey upon U.S. Muslim communities, you have to recognize that however good law-enforcement surveillance and intelligence-gathering methods are, it's going to be the average person in the community who spots the lone wolf first. Ask yourself: she more or less likely to alert law enforcement to a looming danger if she feels like her entire community is under the heavy manners of the police and the feds? Is she more or less likely to alert law enforcement to a looming danger if she feels like law enforcement considers her as much of a potential threat as this wolf in the night?

 

 

In Iraq, a 9/11 Per Month For Three Years

Over at Danger Room, I report on a New America study that speculates the Islamic State of Iraq might have little reputational choice but to attack western and U.S. targets. Personally, I'm proudest of that Trotsky paraphrase in the lede, but that's what happens when I edit the blog. 

Something from the study a bit too far afield to make it into the post is a startling statistic about what's happened in Iraq to civilians ever since the U.S. "won" the war. Author Brian Fishman:

[M]onthly terrorist attacks in Iraq fell from nearly 700 at their peak to around 200 per month in mid-2008. It has remained relatively constaint since. The 300 or so deaths they caused per month is far fewer than the deaths from terrorism during the peak of violence in 2007, but the casulaty rate is still extremely high for a country of only 24 million people. If the 2010 per capita rate of terrorism deaths in Iraq occurred in a U.S.-sized population, more than 3100 people would be killed every month, more than were killed on 9/11.

That's the equivalent a 9/11 per month, every month, for three years. Anyone who laments Iraqi political "dysfunction" should stop and grapple with that thought. Then add another: three years' worth of monthly 9/11s is relative normalcy after three preceding years of even worse horror. How could that not leave a people traumatized beyond recognition?

Bushwick Bill

Spent much of my morning being interviewed by Josh Rushing of Al Jazeera for a forthcoming newsmagazine piece. I won't step on Josh's thunder, but it's very Danger Roomy. More information as we get closer to the piece coming out, presuming my yammering makes the final cut. I left very impressed with his curiosity, sophistication and interviewing style. Also we talked off-camera nerdily about e-readers and tablets. Anyway.

Also: so one of Lil Wayne's lines in the (very good so far on first listen) Carter IV record is a Bushwick Bill reference, which got me reminiscing. Anyone remember the BoxTalks interviews that The Box used to run during the mid-90s? You remember the Box, I trust:

Anyway, The Box ran a promo for a post-Geto Boys interview with Bill, which cold-bloodedly began (cue white-man-announcer voice), "Bushwick Bill is taking no shorts." If anyone has a copy of that out there in the internet world, say something in comments. 

All Apologies

James Joyner watches George Will take Dick Cheney to task for not apologizing for the Iraq war in his new memoir. James:

The notion that Cheney owes us an apology is interesting. It depends entirely on whether the Bush administration took us to war knowing Saddam did not have a nuclear weapons program or simply downplayed evidence casting doubt in order to make the case for war they genuinely believed was necessary.

I don't think that's correct. The case for an apology doesn't rest on the acknowledgement of deceit. It rests on the less-indicting (morally, not legally) ground that the war was a strategic blunder. Execution, in other words, not intend. In retrospect, I think it's fair to say that even if Saddam Hussein had stockpiles of WMD and was a bosom buddy of Usama bin Laden; and then a post-Saddam occupation became everything it ultimately became -- it would be a closer call, but even then, the Iraq war probably wouldn't have been in the interests of the United States.

Absent that counterfactual, arguing the opposite is outright bizarre, even when assuming only the most generous premises for the Bush administration's intention. Results matter.

Not that anyone should expect an apology from Cheney. And the real apology, if one is owed at all, is owed from George W. Bush. The more interesting question is whether Cheney actually believes the Iraq war is in the U.S. interest, and why, as opposed to whatever he asserts in his book. But we'll probably never know the answer.

 

When There's Nothing On The Horizon, You've Got Nothing Left To Prove

IMMEDIATE RELEASE

No. 746-11

August 28, 2011

DOD Identifies Army Casualty

The Department of Defense announced today the death of a soldier who was supporting Operation Enduring Freedom.

Spc. Michael C. Roberts, 23, of Watauga, Texas, died Aug. 27 in Kandahar province, Afghanistan, of injuries suffered when insurgents attacked his unit using an improvised explosive device. He was assigned to the 561st Military Police Company, 716th Military Police Battalion, 101st Sustainment Brigade, Fort Campbell, Ky.

For more information related to this release, the media may contact the Fort Campbell public affairs office at 931-561-0131.

Are You Responsible

This reflects well on Libya's Transitional National Council:

The leadership of the transitional government, meanwhile, was increasingly focused on meeting the most basic needs of Tripoli’s residents. Government officials acknowledged that most of the city lacked running water or electrical power for a second day as temperatures hovered around 90 degrees. Hospitals, overcrowded with patients wounded in the fighting, were running short on crucial medicine. Gas shortages have driven the price of filling a tank as high as $150. And many residents said they were increasingly worried about how the provisional government might regain control of the weapons stockpile that was looted from Qaddafi armories. 

To many, though, the lack of running water was an especially pressing concern. Libya is a desert country without a river, and Tripoli residents get their water from desert wells through a vast system of reservoirs and ducts known as the Great Man-Made River. Its operation requires electrical power, and the electrical power relies on fuel, so both problems may be related to the fuel shortages from the civil war and NATO blockade.

That's focusing on the right things, at least. Update: On the other hand:

The worst treatment of Gaddafi loyalists appeared to be reserved for anyone with black skin, whether they hailed from southern Libya or from other African countries. Darker-skinned prisoners were not getting the same level of medical care in a hospital in rebel-held Zawiyah as lighter-skinned Arab Libyans, Eltahawy said.

 

Trouble on Jay-Z's Mind: The Mixtape Yeezy, Odd Future, And Bandwagoning

 

Marc Lynch comes through with another international affairs lesson taught through the prism of Shawn Carter's career. This time, he contends that Watch The Throne is an attempt to bolster Jay-Z's hegemonic position in an era of decline through yoking it to the power of Kanye, especially as Kanye himself becomes a network, establishing G.O.O.D. Music the way Jay created the Roc. Marc calls it a "savvy strategy of institutionalizing hegemony in the face of potential decline."

His bottom-line position isn't wrong. But his focus is askew. If the establishment of the network is the crucial factor here -- and I think we can agree that it's at the very least barometrically significant -- then looking at the central figure is a mistake. We need to look at the periphery, the actors invited to join the network, to test the value added by the coalition. As Marc will surely agree, given his contentions about the role of social media and al-Jazeera during the Arab Spring, international power is hardly evenly distributed -- but more of it resides at the bottom of the ladder than the top likes to admit; and if the top doesn't diversify, it's liable to get Hosni'd, Gadhafi'd, or Ben Ali'd. 

That's why he shouldn't be looking at Watch The Throne. He should be studying "Trouble On My Mind," Pusha's collaboration with Tyler, The Creator.

The shining gem in the G.O.O.D. franchise is Pusha T, Marc very correctly observes, the "lyrical monster" whose incorporation into the fold signaled that G.O.O.D. was a "strong new alliance." On the strength of three incredible (one classic) Clipse albums and four classic Re-Up Gang mixtapes (I include Road To Till The Casket Drops, which is slept-on and sick), Pusha is the most undervalued stock in rap music. Geopolitically, he's Brazil: all his fundamentals are strong and likely to get stronger. 

When There's Nothing On The Horizon, You've Got Nothing Left To Prove

IMMEDIATE RELEASE

No. 744-11

August 27, 2011

DOD Identifies Army Casualty

The Department of Defense announced today the death of a soldier who was supporting Operation Enduring Freedom.

Pfc. Jesse W. Dietrich, 20, of Venus, Texas, died Aug. 25 in Kandahar province, Afghanistan, of injuries sustained when insurgents attacked his unit using small arms fire. He was assigned to the 2nd Battalion, 87th Infantry Regiment, 3rd Brigade Combat Team, 10th Mountain Division, Fort Drum, N.Y.

For more information the media may contact the 10th Mountain Division public affairs office at 315-772-8286.

The Final Word on The DC Reboot

Comes from Barbara Gordon. Not that I'm invested or anything. Although to wait out Irene, I bought Batman, RIP and The Killing Joke.

 

Via Jill Pantozzi at Newsarama.

Atiyah on Ice

I was way skeptical of Leon Panetta's swaggerific boast of al-Qaida's near defeat. But Atiyah Abd al-Rahman just got got. A/K/A Shaikh Atiyallah, Atiyah was operational leader, ideologue and all-around underboss. Despite some hasty tweeting, it's not clear yet how Atiyah was killed, though the AP -- which I believe broke the story -- suggested that it was by a drone strike in North Waziristan on August 22.

Hang 'em high. If I was Zawahri, I'd be pretty nervous. Especially because now I probably have to promote Adam Gadahn. al-Q is down to the scrubs, the flunkies and the nerdstroms. 

 

 

UPDATE: Chris Albon adds this brilliance:

UPDATE UPDATE: Mark Mazzetti reports it was a drone whut done it.