Terror in the Air
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Today I went to a "terrorism luncheon" at the austere California Club in Downtown Los Angeles. The featured speaker was Robert Grenier, a former high-ranking official at the CIA (he was at the CIA for 27 years and directed the Counter Terrorism Center for a couple years, among many other roles).
Mr. Grenier is now with Kroll, one of the sponsors of the lunch. Here's an article on Grenier and here's another.
I am very impressed with Mr. Grenier's service to our country, but most of his speech (e.g., discussion of the difficulties of dealing with terrorism), I had heard before from many other sources.
One striking thing today was that another speaker used, as a backdrop for his speech, a looped montage of a "casing video" obtained from a terrorist safe house as a backdrop for his remarks. It was basically a terrorist "casing" potential targets, including the Hollywood sign (sounds relatively innocuous until, as the speaker pointed out, you see that the terrorist's camera zooms in on the critical communications equipment that connects LA's emergency first responders, that sits just above the sign).
The other featured targets were Main Street at Disneyland and the MGM Hotel in Las Vegas.
Separate topics:
1. Mike Huckabee--nutcase? For people who missed it on The Daily Show, Mike Huckabee just bragged to an NRA convention about how his single shot on a recent hunt was "guided by an angel" into the neck of the antelope he was trying to kill. Huckabee also stated that he there will be duck hunting in heaven, which Jon Stewart pointed out would be duck hell. I used to have a much higher opinion of Huckabee...I always disagreed with him on several major issues, but found him intelligent and engaging. However, this pandering to the NRA is absurd and sickening. I am basically okay with people owning guns, but there has got to be some sensible middle ground...I don't think the NRA has ever met an assault rifle it didn't like.
2. Mahmoud Ahmadinejad--Nutcase! He keeps trying to appeal to the American left by attempting to sound reasonable and thoughtful and critical of the US without being hysterical about it. But then he repeatedly shoots himself in the foot by saying things like Iran doesn't have any gays. He would be comically bad if he weren't trying to develop nuclear weapons.
Despite all denials, I believe Iran is absolutely pursuing a nuclear bomb. Of course, I am not privy to intelligence on this, I am just saying that if I had to bet, I would give even money that Iran has a nuclear bomb in less than five years. (On second thought, perhaps the gay remarks are true, if Ahmedinejad had them all killed.) This guy is a wingnut and severely misunderstands America. With clear references to the US Government having "obedience to Satan," Ahmadinejad is approaching Hugo Chavez-type levels of absurdity. How can these guys hope to be taken seriously by diplomats with words like that?
Mr. Grenier is now with Kroll, one of the sponsors of the lunch. Here's an article on Grenier and here's another.
I am very impressed with Mr. Grenier's service to our country, but most of his speech (e.g., discussion of the difficulties of dealing with terrorism), I had heard before from many other sources.
One striking thing today was that another speaker used, as a backdrop for his speech, a looped montage of a "casing video" obtained from a terrorist safe house as a backdrop for his remarks. It was basically a terrorist "casing" potential targets, including the Hollywood sign (sounds relatively innocuous until, as the speaker pointed out, you see that the terrorist's camera zooms in on the critical communications equipment that connects LA's emergency first responders, that sits just above the sign).
The other featured targets were Main Street at Disneyland and the MGM Hotel in Las Vegas.
Separate topics:
1. Mike Huckabee--nutcase? For people who missed it on The Daily Show, Mike Huckabee just bragged to an NRA convention about how his single shot on a recent hunt was "guided by an angel" into the neck of the antelope he was trying to kill. Huckabee also stated that he there will be duck hunting in heaven, which Jon Stewart pointed out would be duck hell. I used to have a much higher opinion of Huckabee...I always disagreed with him on several major issues, but found him intelligent and engaging. However, this pandering to the NRA is absurd and sickening. I am basically okay with people owning guns, but there has got to be some sensible middle ground...I don't think the NRA has ever met an assault rifle it didn't like.
2. Mahmoud Ahmadinejad--Nutcase! He keeps trying to appeal to the American left by attempting to sound reasonable and thoughtful and critical of the US without being hysterical about it. But then he repeatedly shoots himself in the foot by saying things like Iran doesn't have any gays. He would be comically bad if he weren't trying to develop nuclear weapons.
Despite all denials, I believe Iran is absolutely pursuing a nuclear bomb. Of course, I am not privy to intelligence on this, I am just saying that if I had to bet, I would give even money that Iran has a nuclear bomb in less than five years. (On second thought, perhaps the gay remarks are true, if Ahmedinejad had them all killed.) This guy is a wingnut and severely misunderstands America. With clear references to the US Government having "obedience to Satan," Ahmadinejad is approaching Hugo Chavez-type levels of absurdity. How can these guys hope to be taken seriously by diplomats with words like that?
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