(Exactly ten years ago this week I turned in my last graduate seminar paper, for a class on late 19th and early 20th century American literature taught by the magnificent Nancy Bentley. The paper was about the 1904 World's Fair and Geronimo, a figure I've been thinking about deeply since Sunday night. Because of the… Continue reading “A Very Kind and Peaceful People”: Geronimo and the World’s Fair
Tag: terrorism
Eric Rudolph and The Lone Wolf
I have often suggested that Eric Rudolph, who for five years successfully evaded the largest federal manhunt in U.S. history--until he surrendered himself to a rookie sheriff's deputy in the alley behind a local supermarket, exemplifies the modern fugitive. The fugitive summons forth the great machinery of government: scores of armed agents, ballistic tests and… Continue reading Eric Rudolph and The Lone Wolf
The CIA, Interrogation, and Mortimer Snerd
I've written before about the creepy interrogation manual the CIA issued in 1983 on "Human Resource Exploitation." The precursor to this manual is the infamous Kubark report, written in 1963. This CIA document outlines various coercive and non-coercive methods of gathering "counterintelligence information" from uncooperative sources. Over forty years later, some of the coercive techniques… Continue reading The CIA, Interrogation, and Mortimer Snerd
Fugitives and Detainees in American Social Life
Two years ago in Tracking the Fugitive I predicted that one of the dominant symbolic figures of the 21st century will be the fugitive. In film, literature, music, art, video games--in all these arenas, the fugitive will play a central role. And the reason, I suggested, is because there is no room anymore for fugitives… Continue reading Fugitives and Detainees in American Social Life
KUBARK on 24
Jane Mayer, an uncompromising journalist who's become a thorn in the side of the Bush administration (for her reporting on current U.S. torture tactics and the method of "extraordinary rendition"), has written a New Yorker profile of Joel Surnow, one of the creators of the hit television show 24. Her profile focuses on Surnow's support… Continue reading KUBARK on 24
Word Clouds for the State of the Union
Pattern Recognition has a word cloud for Bush's State of the Union address, in which words are weighted according to frequency. So, "terrorism" and "security" appear very, very bold, because Bush mentioned them time and time again in his address. And the word "plan" is much smaller, indicating that it was rarely used in Bush's… Continue reading Word Clouds for the State of the Union
Goodbye 2006, Goodbye US Airways
It's been one long fall. And it's finally come to a close. Late December is when everyone comes out with their "best of" or "worst of" lists, so I thought I'd throw together a few lists. There's no best and no worst, simply a snapshot of some of the things that made life as a… Continue reading Goodbye 2006, Goodbye US Airways
Joking with weapon-like toys
A few days ago I posted about the absurd attention the FBI has shown in a computer science student who created a fake boarding pass generator. The true threat of a simulated boarding pass is not that it would allow terrorists to board a plane (and get an exit row seat, no less). No, the… Continue reading Joking with weapon-like toys
Fly the Fiendly Skies
This is the scariest freaking business I've read in a long time: Christopher Soghoian, a computer science student who had created an online generator for fake boarding passes--solely to point out how ludicrously ineffective airport security is--has been visited several times by the FBI, most recently, with a 2am warrant that allowed the Bureau to… Continue reading Fly the Fiendly Skies
Simulated Terrorist Attacks; or, Drag Me out of the Ball Park
Here's the chance of a lifetime, the opportunity we've all been dying for: playing a victim in a mock terrorist attack. And this isn't just any simulated terrorist attack. This is a terrorist attack on a baseball team! The Reds, no less! As the Cincinnati Reds press release reads: On Saturday, September 30 the Department… Continue reading Simulated Terrorist Attacks; or, Drag Me out of the Ball Park
The Last Jihad
Okay, so today I venture halfheartedly to Starbucks, because it's the only coffee shop within walking distance (though there must be 8 billion within driving distance in Northern Virginia), and at the table across from me, there is some guy going on and on about how there were weapons of mass destruction in Iraq and… Continue reading The Last Jihad
MTO Database from Amazon
I'll take a break from my travel blogging to mention Applefritter's astonishing article Data Mining 101: Finding Subversives with Amazon Wishlists. Individuals' public Amazon "wishlists" are, collectively, essentially a gigantic aggregate of data, waiting to be mined, and in this post, Tom Owad details how he used the wishlists to track the reading preferences of… Continue reading MTO Database from Amazon
I’m sorry. 9/11? I’m responsible. It was me, I did it.
In his press conference this morning, President Bush was asked about the New York Times' recent revelation that the NSA was operating a covert surveillance program that monitored hundreds of Americans' phone calls and emails without any court supervision or warrants. Bush responded: My personal opinion is it was a shameful act for someone to… Continue reading I’m sorry. 9/11? I’m responsible. It was me, I did it.
If you’re a terrorist and you’re reading this, then the terrorists have already won.
I just can't leave the nuclear power plant in my backyard alone. I recently discovered a site from the Eyeball Series that lists formerly public FEMA information about McGuire Nuclear Power Station, information which was taken offline in the aftermath of 9/11. The Eyeball site faithfully reproduces the FEMA information, which, according to what I've… Continue reading If you’re a terrorist and you’re reading this, then the terrorists have already won.
The Evil Democracy
Here is a lesson in ironic juxtaposition: A freeze-frame of President Bush delivering his State of the Union address, with the closed captioning scrolling the words "THE EVIL DEMOCRACY." The Evil Democracy (Larger Image) / Posted to Flickr by kunja. Ironies abound in this photograph (which I found on the Flickr Bush cluster). First, obviously,… Continue reading The Evil Democracy