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Related: Editorials & Other Articles, Issue Forums, Alliance Forums, Region ForumsThe Rude Pundit: An Older Aurora Story Might Help Us Understand the Current One
Here's another Aurora, Colorado story that at first seems to have nothing to do with the horrific massacre/terrorist act at Theater 9 in the first minutes of Friday:
Aurora resident Jamshid Muhtorov was arrested on January 23, 2012 for providing material support to terrorists. The FBI started spying on Muhtorov because he had begun to frequent a website run by the Islamic Jihad Union, which is designated as a foreign terrorist organization. They have, in fact, done some bad shit. Not against the United States, but still, bad shit. But this isn't about the IJU. Let's focus on Muhtorov. It seems he used a few words that triggered alarm with the FBI, including "wedding." That's code that was used by previous terrorists to mean that something was being planned. By February 2011, the FBI was eavesdropping on Muhtorov's phone calls and tracking his movements, online and off. They heard a phone call where he told his daughter he would never see her again on earth. In January, he was en route to Istanbul, Turkey, when he was arrested on a layover in Chicago.
When you read the affidavit, you can see that the FBI had Muhtorov completely under surveillance, from his emails to the websites he visited to his phone calls to his activities at work. The material support for terrorism was himself, his body, his life. "Agents allege Muhtorov planned to travel overseas to fight on behalf of the IJU. No attacks appear to have been planned in the U.S." He faces 15 years in prison and a quarter million in fines.
Now, again, this isn't about the activities of the IJU. It's not really about Jamshid Muhtorov. It's about the fact that Muhtorov and others like him are arrested without having committed any crimes other than those that are limitations on the First Amendment. Should one be free to cruise jihad websites without being spied on? Should one be allowed to write to those websites? Should one be allowed to even go so far as to seem as if one is planning violence? And where is the line between free speech and crime? Criminalized speech seems like par for the post-9/11 course, and it happens with barely a peep from members of Congress who are not Bernie Sanders or Ron Paul. Indeed, the very act that allows such surveillance and criminalizes much activity is called "Patriot."
While we argue all the time about what limitations on speech and press, the freedoms of which are laid out in the 1st Amendment in the Bill of Rights are "reasonable," short of things like bazookas and missile launchers and certain explosives, we're not allowed to talk about reasonable limitations on the 2nd Amendment.
The idea that the crazed James Holmes was able to purchase 6000 rounds of ammunition online, legally, without triggering any kind of alarm bells is obscene. But, for the most part, law enforcement officials at every level are barred by state and federal laws from investigating almost any suspicious gun activity. Indeed, there's very little that is even allowed to be called "suspicious." That's how successful the NRA has been in strong-arming our legislators. Guns are more sacred than speech.
We're not talking here about a ban on assault weapons and high capacity gun clips (even though a sane nation wouldn't have to because a sane nation would have banned them a long time ago). We're talking about what is more dangerous to Americans and more deserving of our monitoring resources: some jerkoff who knows how to google "jihad"? Or someone who has purchased an AR-15, big ass clip, and 6000 bullets?
In the abstract, putting the massacre aside for a moment, who do you fear more?
http://rudepundit.blogspot.com/2012/07/an-older-aurora-story-might-help-us.html
CJCRANE
(18,184 posts)That's code that was used by previous terrorists to mean that something was being planned."
That would explain why so many wedding parties were bombed in Afghanistan. Maybe sometimes a wedding is just a wedding.
lame54
(35,292 posts)Spitfire of ATJ
(32,723 posts)A guy in Lackawanna told his friends he was going to get married and wasn't going to see them for a while and Bush Era "experts" twisted it to be a code word for him saying he was going to be a suicide bomber so they swooped in to break up an al Qaeda cell.
Turns out all he was going to do was get married after all but during the Bush Era coming up with crap like that was how you got promoted.
Arrests and sentencing were highly publicized and Bush cited them as monumental successes for his part in thwarting terrorist attacks and keeping America safe but when it all turned out to be crap on appeal they would quietly drop charges and bury that little detail in the press.
CJCRANE
(18,184 posts)who were there simply because they wore a certain type of Casio digital watch. Apparently this type of watch was used in bomb timers. However it also happens to be probably the best-selling watch in the world, there are millions of them, they're popular because they're very cheap but also durable.
(I bought one a few years ago for the retro chic but then found out about its dubious connections after reading about it on Wikipedia. I never wore it in the end).
Spitfire of ATJ
(32,723 posts)Can you imagine what it must have been like for them? You're minding their own business when a bunch of Northern Alliance (warlords) show up and grab you and drag you away from your family (who may have watched get raped and slaughtered) and then you are hooded and tied in the back of a cargo plane.
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I really believe a lot of the people are being held so they can't tell their story because it would prove to the world that the whole "War on Terror" is based on fiction.
What the hell am I thinking,...the "world" already knows that. The crowd in DC are the ones who refuse to let it go. They are of the opinion that until they say it, it doesn't count. They really believe reality is something you can put to a vote.
villager
(26,001 posts)Yup. Nor have the arsenals of the fetish-worshippers kept us "free," either...
appal_jack
(3,813 posts)The first two Amendments of the U. S. Constitution protect fredom of speech, worship, assembly, and the keeping and bearing of arms. All of these rights are sacred to me, and should be so for all Americans.
I'm normally a fan of the Rude One, but I find it regrettable that he is busy trying to erode the Second Amendment, when he should be focusing on restoring the First. The fact that freedom of speech has been trampled in the US is no excuse to go trampling more rights.
-app
Gregorian
(23,867 posts)OK, this is as conspiracy theory minded talk as it gets. And it's not coming from me, but from someone who I heard talking about it. She was saying that things are not adding up in this case. After listening to things James Holmes has said over his life (at least what is available to us), and looking at what kind of person he is, and hearing character witnesses, she has some degree of difficulty with the present story that this guy just took up arms and shot at people. I won't even go on with the rest. I just want to see if anyone else is feeling that something odd may have happened to get this man to turn on people.
klook
(12,155 posts)experiences a "psychotic episode" at some point in their lives. I have no idea of the source, or if this is accurate.
But -- regardless of how common it is -- certainly there are people with a predisposition to schizophrenia or other mental illness, who don't demonstrate those symptoms their entire lives but who manifest them during a period of extreme stress, in response to chemical changes within their body, or some other factors. I've seen it in more than one person I've known.
Obviously total conjecture on my part, but this guy could be one of those people, and the events or other changes in his life over the past year or two triggered a flare-up of psychosis.
However, his methodical acquisition of weapons, ammunition, and explosives, and his very thorough preparation for the attack, do not indicate somebody who is "out of control." On the other hand, this is somebody who -- at least in terms of planning and execution of this massacre -- was totally in control.
Myrina
(12,296 posts)Starring Michael Douglas?
I don't think anything more odd than that is happening: people are just at their tipping point these days, and coping mechanisms are few & far-between.
Ineeda
(3,626 posts)so did not trigger any scrutiny or flags, red or any other color.
davepc
(3,936 posts)Most people buy in bulk because ammo doesn't go bad or expire so it behooves someone who shoots a lot to buy as much as possible when they find a good price.
Tens of millions of Americans own firearms and a good number of them participate in things like recreational target shooting. So the answer is for the police to knock on the door of every one of them any time they buy equipment for their hobby?
ieoeja
(9,748 posts)You would have to be really fucking obsessed with shooting to manage that. I wouldn't even call that a recreational shooter. Perhaps, "gunic" as in alcohol-ic?
spin
(17,493 posts)Handgun shooters frequently shoot far more rounds than rifle shooters.
At the range I would usually limit my shooting to 150 to 200 rounds. I found that my concentration would drop off in that area and I was just wasting ammo.
1-Old-Man
(2,667 posts)I do not fear being shot by someone gone nuts in a public place - not now, not tomorrow, not ever. I do, however, very much fear a Government run amok, and we seem to have one has just about reached that point.
xchrom
(108,903 posts)malaise
(269,022 posts)as usual