Thursday, January 27, 2011

Mother describes border vigilante killings in Arizona

Gina Gonzalez says her 9-year-old daughter, Brisenia Flores, pleaded for her life. Opening arguments begin in the trial of Shawna Forde of the Minutemen movement, who is accused in the killing of the girl and her father.

By Nicholas Riccardi, Los Angeles Times
8:55 PM PST, January 25, 2011
Reporting from Tucson

As her mother tells it, 9-year-old Brisenia Flores had begged the border vigilantes who had just broken into her house, "Please don't shoot me."

But they did — in the face at point-blank range, prosecutors allege, as Brisenia's father sat dead on the couch and her mother lay on the floor, pretending that she too had been killed in the gunfire.

FOR THE RECORD:
Border vigilante: A story in Wednesday's Section A on the trial of a border vigilante in Arizona accused of killing a 9-year-old girl and her father misidentified a defense attorney in the case. It is Eric Larsen, not Kevin Larson. —

Even as this city continues to mourn the victims in the shooting of Rep. Gabrielle Giffords, another tragedy took center stage Tuesday, as opening arguments began in the trial of a member of a Minutemen group accused of killing Brisenia and her father, Raul Flores Jr.

Prosecutors allege that in May 2009, Shawna Forde decided to strike an odd alliance with drug dealers in southern Arizona: Forde would help the traffickers ransack their rivals' houses for stashes of drugs and cash, which could then fund her fledgling group, Minutemen American Defense.

She and another border vigilante, dressed in uniforms, identified themselves as law enforcement officers before bursting into the Flores home, prosecutors allege. If convicted, Forde could face the death penalty.

That second member of Forde's group is scheduled to go on trial next month, as is the alleged drug dealer with whom prosecutors say the Minutemen collaborated. But on Tuesday it was the turn of the woman who prosecutors contend masterminded the attack.

"Shawna Forde organized and planned this event," prosecutor Kellie L. Johnson told a Pima County Superior Court jury.

Forde's trial was almost delayed by the Giffords shooting. Her attorneys questioned whether an accused murderer allegedly driven by right-wing passions could get a fair trial here. The man charged in the Giffords rampage left behind a trail of writings with no coherent ideology, but Pima County Sheriff Clarence W. Dupnik set off a national firestorm by insisting that Arizona's conservative politics played a role in that attack.

Forde's lawyer, Kevin Larson, told jurors that there is no evidence she was in the Flores house during the attack.

"The state will present to you absolutely no witnesses that will put her in that home on May 30," Larson said. He said his client was simply guilty of being "an exaggerator extraordinaire" for boasting of her plans to rob drug smugglers.

Forde spent several years as a bit player in the national Minutemen movement, a loose-knit affiliation of groups that believe that if the federal government cannot secure the border, armed citizens should do the job.

Prosecutors say that in April 2009, Forde told two members of the movement in Denver that she had linked up with drug dealers in the tiny town of Arivaca, Ariz., just north of the Mexican border and about 50 miles southwest of Tucson. She proposed helping the dealers raid a rival's house, which would be full of drug profits she could steal, prosecutors allege.

The plan so alarmed the members, prosecutors say, that they contacted the FBI. But Larson said it was such an obviously outlandish idea that the FBI did nothing with it.

On Tuesday, Johnson and Brisenia's mother, Gina Gonzalez, outlined the chilling sequence of events in the attack.

Shortly before 1 a.m. on May 30, 2009, Gonzalez was woken by her husband, who told her that police seemed to be at the door. The two went to the front room, where their daughter Brisenia was sleeping on the couch so she could be close to her new dog.

There were two people in camouflage outside — a short, heavyset woman who did all the talking and a tall man carrying a rifle and pistol, his face blackened by greasepaint, Gonzalez said. The woman told them they were accused of harboring fugitives and needed to open the door.

Once the pair were inside, the man —identified by authorities as Jason Bush — told Flores, "Don't take this personal, but this bullet has your name on it," Gonzalez testified Tuesday.

According to testimony, Bush shot Flores, then Gonzalez. Gonzalez was hit in the shoulder and leg and slumped to the floor. She testified that she played dead as she heard Bush pump more bullets into her husband as Brisenia woke up.

"Why did you shoot my dad?" the girl asked, sobbing, according to Gonzalez's testimony. "Why did you shoot my mom?"

Gonzalez said she heard Bush slowly reload his gun and that he then ignored Brisenia's pleas and fired.

More men entered the house and ransacked the place. After they left, Gonzalez called 911. On a tape of the recording, played for the jury Tuesday, she suddenly realized that the attackers were returning, and crawled to the kitchen to grab her husband's gun.

Prosecutors say Bush came back in and fired on Gonzalez, who returned fire and apparently hit him, forcing him to retreat.

Gonzalez testified that the woman in the house looked like Forde, but she said she couldn't definitively say it was her "because I don't know her personally." She failed to identify Forde in a police lineup after the shooting.

Forde had Gonzalez's wedding ring and jewelry with her when she was arrested days after the shooting, authorities say. Shortly after her arrest, members of the Minutemen movement disavowed her, saying they did not trust her and that she had stayed on its fringes.

nicholas.riccardi@latimes.com

http://www.latimes.com/news/nationworld/nation/la-na-minutemen-murder-20110126,0,4235852.story

When the politically fueled murder of a 9-year-old girl in Arizona is NOT national news

January 26, 2011 7:27 pm ET by Will Bunch


All of America continues to mourn the unbelievably tragic loss of
Christina Green, the 9-year-old granddaughter of former Phillies'
manager Dallas Green who was killed, along with five adults, by a
murderous madman trying to assassinate Rep. Gabrielle Giffords in
Tucson. The sight of Christina's parents and brother in the gallery at
the State of the Union address last night is more proof that the
killing of such an innocent continues to resonate with the American
people.


You've heard all about Christina Green, but do you know about Brisenia Flores? Like Christina, Brisenia was 9 years old, and she also lived in Pima County, Arizona, not far from Tucson. Like Christina, she was gunned down in cold blood by killers with strange ideas about society and politics.


But there are also important differences. While the seriously warped
mind of Christina's Tucson murderer, Jared Lee Loughner, is a muddled mess, the motives of one of Brisenia's alleged killers-- a woman named Shawna Forde -- are pretty clear: She saw herself as the leader of an armed movement against undocumented immigrants, an idea that was energized by
her exposure to the then-brand-new Tea Party Movement. But unlike the
horrific spree that took Christina's life, the political murder of
Brisenia and her dad (while Brisenia's mom survived only by pretending
to be dead) has only received very sporadic coverage in the national
media. That's a shame, because it's an important story that illustrates
the potential for senseless violence when hateful rhetoric on the right
-- in this case about undocumented immigrants -- falls on the ears of
the unhinged.


This week, Forde is on trial on Tucson, and the details are horrific:


As her mother tells it, 9-year-old
Brisenia Flores had begged the border vigilantes who had just broken
into her house, "Please don't shoot me."
But they did -- in the
face at point-blank range, prosecutors allege, as Brisenia's father sat
dead on the couch and her mother lay on the floor, pretending that she
too had been killed in the gunfire.


Why did Forde, said to be the "mastermind," and the other alleged
killer, Jason Bush, carry out this heinous crime? Prosecutors allege
that Forde cooked up a scheme to rob and murder drug dealers, all to
raise money for the fledgling, anti-immigrant border patrolling group
called Minutemen American Defense, or MAD.


I wrote about Forde and her warped "politics" in my recent book, The Backlash. I noted that in April 2009 -- as first reported by Stephen Lemons of the Phoenix New Times,
an authority on nativist, right-wing groups in Arizona -- Forde was
amped up after attending her first Tea Party on the steps of the state
capitol in Phoenix.

"This is the time for all Americans
to join organizations and REVOLT!!!," she wrote in a blog post that was
retrieved from the Google cache by Lemons. "Refuse to be part of a
system only designed to enslave you and your children. Times will be
worse before they get worse. *Say no to illegal immigration* Lock and
Load, Shawna Forde."


It was this same month that Forde and her ragtag Minutemen band
allegedly approached drug dealers in southern Arizona with a scheme to
kill and rob their rivals for cash. One of Forde's goals, allegedly,
was to buy a 40-acre property near the border that she intended for her
group to use as a base for raids -- which she called "Delta One
Operations" -- on undocumented Mexicans crossing the border.


Forde and her co-conspirator Bush -- who reportedly has ties to the white supremacist Aryan Nation
-- broke into the home of 29-year-old Raul Flores, Brisenia's dad, on
May 30, 2009, or just six weeks after Forde's online call for a
political revolt. As related this week at Forde's ongoing murder trial:


According to testimony, Bush shot
Flores, then Gonzalez. Gonzalez was hit in the shoulder and leg and
slumped to the floor. She testified that she played dead as she heard
Bush pump more bullets into her husband as Brisenia woke up.
"Why did you shoot my dad?" the girl asked, sobbing, according to Gonzalez's testimony. "Why did you shoot my mom?"
Gonzalez said she heard Bush slowly reload his gun and that he then ignored Brisenia's pleas and fired.


In the wake of the Tucson shootings earlier this month, there was a
lot of talk about hateful rhetoric and violent imagery in American
politics, and there was a lot of pushback when it emerged that the
gunman in that case, Loughner, didn't follow mainstream politics, just
some extreme crackpot theories on the Internet. But what happened to
Brisenia Flores is different. She lost her life because a couple of
unhinged crackpots absorbed all that "lock and load" blather in our
atmosphere and actually did something about it. We should not be
shocked. But we do need to figure out how to make sure that never again
will the life of innocent girl end because of this political madness.


And just as we will never forget Christina Green, America needs to always remember Brisenia Flores.



http://mediamatters.org/blog/201101260047

Girl, 9, and her father were shot dead by 'anti-immigrant vigilantes'

'Please don't shoot me:' Girl, nine, begged for her life before she and her father were shot dead by 'anti-immigrant vigilantes'


By Daily Mail Reporter
Victim: Brisenia Flores was shot dead alongside her father in her home in Flores, Arizona

Victim: Brisenia Flores was shot dead alongside her father in her home in Flores, Arizona


A nine-year-old girl begged for her life before being shot dead along with her father by an anti-immigrant vigilante group, a court heard.

Brisenia Flores was gunned down at point-blank range in her own home in Flores, Arizona, as her terrified mother Gina Gonzalez, who had also been hit, played dead on the floor.

She sobbed as the court was told how she had heard Brisenia's desperate pleas as her killer stood over her.

'I can hear it happening,' Mrs Flores told the court describing how her daughter said: 'Why did you shoot my dad? Why did you shoot my mum?'

'I can hear her telling him to "please don't shoot me."'

The prosecution alleges that the
child and her father Raul Flores Jr were murdered in May 30, 2009 by a
group of vigilantes set up to tackle Mexican immigrants.

The shootings took place 200 miles from Tucson, the scene of the gun massacre earlier this month in which another nine-year-old girl died.

Shawna Forde, the head of the Minutemen American Defence group, is on trial accused of two charges of first degree murder.

She is allegedly orchestrated the attack on the Flores family with two male accomplices, due to face face court in.March.

Police claim that Forde believed Mr
Flores was a drug trafficker and would have cash and goods in the house
which they could use to fund their patrols.

She reportedly led the raid and gave instructions to the male accomplices.


On trial: Shawna Forde is accused of murdering Brisenia Flores, nine, and her father Raul Flores Jr

On trial: Shawna Forde (centre) is accused of murdering Brisenia Flores, nine, and her father Raul Flores Jr


Mrs Gonzalez told the court that her husband woke her up just before 1am on May 30 and said that the police were at the door.

The couple went to the front room - where Brisenia had spent the night on the sofa to be near her new dog - and spotted two people outside.

Both were in camouflage. Mrs Gonzalez said one was a heavy-set woman while the other was a man whose face was blackened with greasepaint. He was armed with a rifle and pistol.

The mother-of-one told the court the pair had demanded to be let in, claiming the family were harbouring a fugitive.

They then burst into the house. The man told Mr Flores: 'Don't take this personal, but this bullet has your name on it.'


Accused: Shawna Forde is one of three people charged with two counts of first-degree murder over the shooting of Brisenia Flores and her father

Accused: Shawna Forde is one of three people charged with two counts of first-degree murder over the shooting of Brisenia Flores and her father


He then opened fire, hitting Mrs Gonzalez in the shoulder and leg.

Her husband was hit multiple times before the gunman turned to her daughter.

She described hearing the murderer reload his weapon as he ignored Brisenia's pleas for mercy and then open fire.

The gunman and his accomplice left but as Mrs Gonzalez called 911, she heard him returning.

Desperately wounded, she dragged herself through the house to find her husband's gun and exchanged fire with her assailant, who police say is Jason Bush.

He was injured and fled the scene. 

Forde was arrested shortly after the shooting. She had Mrs Gonzalez's wedding ring and other jewellery, according to police.

Investigators said that she was originally a member of the anti-immigrant Minuteman Project but left to form a more extreme breakaway group.

Members claim that it is their civil duty to protect the Mexican border with weapons as the authorities are unable to do so. 

Forde allegedly funded her by group by robbing the houses of suspected drug dealers. When she reportedly proposed one such raid to two potential accomplices, they phoned the FBI - who did nothing because they believed the suggestion was too ludicrous to be true.

Prosecutor Kellie Johnson said: 'Not only will the state prove to you that Shawna Forde was in that house that night, barking orders and telling people what to do, the state will prove that Shawna Forde organised and planned this offence.'

Forde's lawyer Eric Larsen told the court that she was not at the house and that much of the evidence was circumstantial

Forde denies murder. The trial continues. If convicted, she faces the death penalty.

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-1350721/Girl-9-father-shot-dead-anti-immigrant-vigilantes-begged-life.html#comments

Why Are You So Negative? (And Other FAQ)

By Mickey Z.

27 January, 2011
Countercurrents.org

FAQ: Why are you attacking me for my way of life?

MZ: That's easy: Our way of life is really a "way of death" and is directly responsible for the current global crises I write about. We also might want to agree to save the word "attack" for, say, those living under the US taxpayer-funded predator drones, cruise missiles, and depleted uranium shells. Let's save it for countless victims of child abuse. Let's save "attack" to describe the reality of one rape every 46 seconds in America . Okay?

FAQ: Why don't offer any step-by-step solutions?

MZ: Way too many people imply that unless a critic expounds a specific strategy for change, his/her opinion is worthless. This remarkably unsophisticated reaction misses the essential role critical analysis plays in a society where problems—and their causes—are so cleverly disguised. When discussing the future, the first step is often an identification and demystification of the past and present.

Besides, what value would my "solutions" hold while we are still in the midst of myriad global crises? I like to imagine that if we began detaching ourselves from a system designed to destroy us (and all life) and began dismantling that system, we'd create a space in which we could recognize paths and options currently invisible to us.

FAQ: Why do you always focus on the negative?

MZ: Becoming an activist can be an incredibly positive experience: creating community, inspiring change, feeling empowered. While most humans choose instead to use their meager time chasing money, collecting possessions, and obsessing over pop culture, the activist sees a bigger picture, a longer view, a deeper connection. However, being an effective activist also requires us to tear off the blinders and become acutely aware of how our way of life has devastated the planet.

More importantly, what does the term "negative" mean in this context anyway?

If you went to a doctor, would you deem him/her negative for talking about how high your cholesterol levels are instead of, say, focusing on your excellent fingernail health? If you brought your car in for a tune-up, do you want the mechanic to compliment you for keeping your tire pressure at the right level but stay away from a negative topic like defective brakes? Of course not…

Why then do so many humans shut down when confronted with the realities of our current social, economic, and environmental crises? Why is analysis that presents a dose of reality smugly dismissed as "negative"? Don't you want to know what's going on and how you can help address it beyond minor lifestyle changes and the petty conflicts of party politics? Why not save your knee-jerk "negative" retort for those who directly or indirectly support the corporate-sponsored rape of our planet?

News Flash: It's not "negativity" that's the issue here, folks. It's denial .

Antonio Gramsci wrote, "I'm a pessimist because of intelligence, but an optimist because of will." I can think of no better mantra for activism. Don't shy away from learning the ugly realities of industrial civilization but never let these brutal truths prevent you from taking urgent action and believing you can create change and save lives—human and non-human lives. It's a delicate balance but our ability to walk this fine line could literally make all the difference in the world. We need a planet brimming with pessimistic optimists …

FAQ: Why aren't you marching in lockstep with me? You suck.

MZ: Of course, no one phrases this question quite so bluntly but it's astonishing to me how often a fellow human can be virtually in synch with my perception/lifestyle/worldview but choose instead to angrily dwell upon the issues on which we differ. Purity is not a realistic or productive goal.

FAQ: Since you seem to think you have all the answers, exactly what should we do?

MZ: This is the most disingenuous FAQ of all. You know exactly what needs to be done. If you walked into a room and saw a man attacking someone you loved, would you ask an obscure writer like me what you should do? Would you write a letter to congress, sign a petition, hold a candlelight vigil, vote for a Democrat…or would beat the attacker's ass from one end of the room to the other?

And for the record, I definitely do not think I have all the answers…but I sometimes feel I have more questions than most.

Until the laws are changed or the power runs out, Mickey Z. can be found on this crazy new website called Facebook .

http://www.countercurrents.org/mickeyz270111.htm

Egypt: Internet down, police counterterror unit up

By HAMZA HENDAWI and SARAH EL DEEB, Associated Press Hamza Hendawi And Sarah El Deeb, Associated Press 15 mins ago

CAIRO – Internet service in Egypt was disrupted and the government deployed an elite special operations force in Cairo on Friday, hours before an anticipated new wave of anti-government protests.

The developments were a sign that President Hosni Mubarak's regime was toughening its crackdown following the biggest protests in years against his nearly 30-year rule.

The counter-terror force, rarely seen on the streets, took up positions in strategic locations, including central Tahrir Square, site of the biggest demonstrations this week.

Facebook and Twitter have helped drive this week's protests. But by Thursday evening, those sites were disrupted, along with cell phone text messaging and BlackBerry Messenger services. Then the Internet went down.

Earlier, the grass-roots movement got a double boost — the return of Nobel Peace laureate Mohamed ElBaradei and the backing of the biggest opposition group, the Muslim Brotherhood.

The real test will be whether Egypt's fragmented opposition can come together, with Friday's rallies expected to be some of the biggest so far.

Social networking sites were abuzz that the gatherings called after Friday prayers could attract huge numbers of protesters demanding the ouster of Mubarak. Millions gather at mosques across the city on Fridays, giving organizers a vast pool of people to tap into.

The 82-year-old Mubarak has not been seen in public or heard from since the protests began Tuesday with tens of thousands marching in Cairo and a string of other cities. While he may still have a chance to ride out this latest challenge, his choices are limited, and all are likely to lead to a loosening of his grip on power.

....

Video of the shooting of the teenager, Mohamed Attef, was supplied to a local journalist and obtained by AP Television News. Attef crumpled to the ground after being shot on the street. He was alive as fellow protesters carried him away but later died.

The United States, Mubarak's main Western backer, has been publicly counseling reform and an end to the use of violence against protesters, signs the Egyptian leader may no longer be enjoying Washington's full backing.

In an interview broadcast live on YouTube, President Barack Obama said the anti-government protests filling the streets show the frustrations of Egypt's citizens. "It is very important that people have mechanisms in order to express their grievances," Obama said.

Noting that Mubarak has been "an ally of ours on a lot of critical issues," Obama added: "I've always said to him that making sure that they're moving forward on reform, political reform and economic reform, is absolutely critical to the long-term well-being of Egypt."

"And you can see these pent-up frustrations that are being displayed on the streets," Obama said.

In a move likely to help swell the numbers on the streets, the Muslim Brotherhood ended days of inaction to throw its support behind the demonstrations. On its website, the outlawed group said it would join "with all the national Egyptian forces, the Egyptian people, so that this coming Friday will be the general day of rage for the Egyptian nation."

However, Internet disruptions were reported by a major service provider for Egypt. Italy-based Seabone said there was no Internet traffic going into or out of the country after 12:30 a.m. local time Friday.

For the Brotherhood, still smarting from their recent defeat in a parliamentary election marred by fraud, the protests offer a rare opportunity to seize on what is increasingly shaping up as the best shot at regime change since Mubarak came to office in 1981.

The Brotherhood has sought to depict itself as a force pushing for democratic change in Egypt's authoritarian system, and is trying to shed an image among critics that it aims to seize power and impose Islamic law. The group was involved in political violence for decades until it renounced violence in the 1970s.

The Brotherhood's support and the return of ElBaradei were likely to energize a largely youth-led protest movement that, by sustaining unrest over days, has shaken assumptions that Mubarak's security apparatus can keep a tight lid on popular unrest.

ElBaradei, the former head of the U.N. nuclear watchdog and a leading Mubarak opponent, has sought to recreate himself as a pro-democracy campaigner in his homeland. He is viewed by some supporters as a figure capable of uniting the country's fractious opposition and providing the movement with a road map for the future.

For ElBaradei, it is a chance to shake off his image as an elitist who is out of touch after years of living abroad, first as an Egyptian diplomat and later with the United Nations.

Speaking to reporters Thursday before his departure for Cairo, ElBaradei said: "If people, in particular young people, ... want me to lead the transition, I will not let them down. My priority right now ... is to see a new regime and to see a new Egypt through peaceful transition."

Once on Egyptian soil, he struck a conciliatory note.

"We're still reaching out to the regime to work with them for the process of change. Every Egyptian doesn't want to see the country going into violence," he said. "Our hand is outstretched."

"I wish that we didn't have to go to the streets to impress on the regime that they need to change," ElBaradei said. "There is no going back. I hope the regime stops the violence, stops detaining people, stops torturing people."

With Mubarak out of sight, the ruling National Democratic Party said Thursday it was ready for a dialogue with the public but offered no concessions to address demands for a solution to rampant poverty, unemployment and political change.

Safwat El-Sherif, the party's secretary general and a longtime confidant of Mubarak, was dismissive of the protests at the first news conference by a senior ruling party figure since the unrest began.

"We are confident of our ability to listen. The NDP is ready for a dialogue with the public, youth and legal parties," he said. "But democracy has its rules and process. The minority does not force its will on the majority."

El-Sharif's comments were likely to reinforce the belief held by many protesters that Mubarak's regime is incapable, or unwilling, to introduce reforms that will meet their demands. That could give opposition parties an opening to win popular support if they close ranks and promise changes sought by the youths at the forefront of the unrest.

Mubarak has not said yet whether he will stand for another six-year term as president in elections this year. He has never appointed a deputy and is thought to be grooming his son Gamal to succeed him despite popular opposition. According to leaked U.S. memos, hereditary succession also does not meet with the approval of the powerful military.

Mubarak has seen to it that no viable alternative to him has been allowed to emerge. Constitutional amendments adopted in 2005 by the NDP-dominated parliament has made it virtually impossible for independents like ElBaradei to run for president.

Continuing the heavy-handed methods used by the security forces the past three days would probably buy his regime a little time but could strengthen the resolve of the protesters and win them popular sympathy.

The alternative is to introduce a package of political and economic reforms that would end his party's monopoly on power and ensure that the economic liberalization policies engineered by his son and heir apparent Gamal over the past decade benefit the country's poor majority.

He could also lift the emergency laws in force since 1981, loosen restrictions on the formation of political parties and publicly state whether he will stand for another six-year term in elections this year.

Mubarak's regime suffered another serious blow Thursday when the stock market's benchmark index fell more than 10 percent by close, its biggest drop in more two years on the back of a 6 percent fall a day earlier.

___

Associated Press reporters Hadeel al-Shalchi and Tarek al-Tablawy contributed to this report.

http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20110128/ap_on_bi_ge/ml_egypt_protest

Tucson: How Culture Can Shape Killers

By James W. Clarke, New Deal 2.0
Posted on January 26, 2011, Printed on January 27, 2011

Rancorous rhetoric provides the context for a mentally unstable would-be assassin to act out.


Over a long academic career, I have researched and written about 21 American assassins, would-be assassins, and domestic terrorists. It is pure nonsense to suggest, as some have, that the political environment has nothing to do with the actions of very disturbed individuals — as the Tucson shooter, Jared L. Loughner appears to be — who plan and attack political figures in public venues. I’ve identified four types of perpetrators in these troubling events. They range from rational political extremists, like Robert Kennedy’s assassin Sirhan Sirhan, through two types of emotional disturbance that differ only in degree, to those who are clearly psychotic, like Theodore Roosevelt’s would-be assassin John Shrank. Loughner’s actions fit the emotionally disturbed pattern that includes President Reagan’s attacker, John W. Hinckley, Jr., and Arthur Bremer, presidential candidate George Wallace’s would-be assassin.


There are many similarities, but let me mention the most significant. Both Hinckley and Bremer considered the option of mass murder before selecting their political victims — Hinckley on the Yale campus, Bremer at a busy Milwaukee intersection. Then both shifted their attention to well-known political figures. Hinckley, after stalking President Jimmy Carter, selected his more popular successor, Ronald Reagan. Bremer, after stalking President Nixon unsuccessfully, shifted his attention to Nixon’s challengers in the 1972 election, George Wallace and George McGovern. Bremer chose Wallace only because he was polling better than McGovern. It was their victims’ political popularity that made them attractive targets. What motivates this type of would-be assassin is the notoriety that comes with either killing a great number of ordinary people or a prominent individual. Loughner went for both.


The connection between cultural influences and heinous acts can be clearly identified in the case of Bremer and his link to the film Taxi Driver, featuring Robert DeNiro as Travis Bickle, the eerie cab driver/assassin/mass murderer. In developing the Bickle character, Paul Schrader’s screenplay shows the influence of Arthur Bremer’s own “An Assassin’s Diary” — a record of the musings of a troubled young man intent on violence. Art then influenced the life of John Hinckley, who saw the film multiple times and fell under its spell to the extent that, in dress and behavior, he began to take on the attributes of the Bickle character. Hinckley’s well-known romantic interest in the actress Jodi Foster began with his infatuation with Iris, the teenage prostitute Foster played in the film. One cannot say whether the final bloody scenes in the film, as Bickle rescues Iris from her pimps, were contemplated by Hinckley as he considered mass murder at Yale and, ultimately, as he opened fire on President Reagan and others on March 30, 1981. But the influence on his general mentality is undeniable.


For Hinckley, Bremer, and — until the evidence is in, I’m willing to bet — Jared Loughner, their victims become trophies in a suicidal quest for lead-story notoriety. In Tucson, Gabrielle Giffords was Loughner’s primary target, the first to be shot. As Giffords has recognized and acknowledged, she had been targeted in a particularly toxic re-election campaign. For example, in addition to being placed in Sarah Palin’s “cross hairs”, her Tea Party-backed opponent ran the following invitation on his campaign website: “Get on Target for Victory in November. Help remove Gabrielle Giffords from office. Shoot a fully automatic M16 with Jesse Kelly.”


It is easy to see how the threats and rancor of that time could have provided a facilitating context for an angry, depressed person to act out. Someone like the shooters at Columbine and Virginia Tech or Jared Loughner — troubled young men intent on violence, who had easy access to exceedingly deadly weapons.



James W. Clarke is professor emeritus of political science at the University of Arizona and the author of Defining Danger: American Assassins and the New Domestic Terrorists and On Being Mad or Merely Angry: John W. Hinckley, Jr. And Other Dangerous People.


http://www.alternet.org/rights/149690/tucson%3A_how_culture_can_shape_killers?page=2

Reports of ‘massacre’ in Suez as protests in Egypt move into third day

By Daniel Tencer
Wednesday, January 26th, 2011 -- 10:06 pm

Anti-government protests in Egypt moved into their third day early Thursday, with unconfirmed reports of police "massacres" of civilians in the port city of Suez.


In Cairo, protesters "played cat and mouse with police" into the early hours of Thursday, Reuters reported. Opposition groups reported on their websites that electronic communications had been cut off in the city center, and parts of the city were experiencing blackouts.


The official death toll stood at six over the first two days of protests, but social networks were abuzz with claims of police shooting at protesters, many of those reports focusing on the city of Suez, where protesters torched a government building on Wednesday.


"Security forces are committing heinous massacres and there is zero media coverage," read an update on the web page of Suez from Egyptian Association for Change - USA, an opposition group that had joined the call for an uprising starting on January 25.


"Government is trying to cover up what happened in city of Suez. Media banned from entry," read another update. "Reporters from Suez, Al Jazeerah, Dream and Al Mehwar were prohibited from entering Suez to enforce a media blackout on the subject."


Others reported on the web page that a curfew was placed on the city and police were using "live ammunition."


Yet another update asserted that communications and electricity in Suez had been completely cut off, something also asserted by the We Are All Khaled Said protest group, which didn't report a "massacre" but did warn of an impending one.


Suez is completely cut off. Police has been evacuated. Protesters there are very angry. The army is being brought in according to reports. Some sad speculations say that a massive crackdown will take place in Suez on protesters which could end up with a REAL Massacre.


Some 130 people were reportedly injured in clashes between protesters and police in Suez on Wednesday. Officials confirmed that more than 1,000 people have been arrested in protests around the country.


Anti-government protesters appeared to be encouraged by news that Mohamed El-Baradei, a former chief UN weapons inspector and prominent figurehead for Egyptian opposition groups, would be returning to the country amid the protests.


Others noted a significant "shift in tone" in Washington towards the government of President Hosni Mubarak, whom the US has long supported with billions in foreign aid. Reuters reported:


The United States bluntly urged Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak on Wednesday to make political reforms in the face of protesters demanding his ouster, in a shift in tone toward an important Arab ally.


In issuing a fresh call for reforms after a day of clashes between Egyptian police and protesters, Washington appeared to be juggling several interests: its desire for stability in a regional ally, its support for democratic principles and its fear of the possible rise of an anti-U.S. Islamist government.


Although Western observers have been cautious thus far not to declare the protests a Tunisia-style uprising, the mood among opposition groups suggested they believe that this is a seminal moment in Egyptian history.


"Egyptians' desire for freedom has reached the point of no return," We Are All Khaled Said declared. "Egyptians have said their word. They want change ... freedom and justice ... There is no coming back. They had their chance."


"Protesters are being released. They say will not stop. Change has come to Egypt. There is no going back. The people have spoken and their demands must be met," the Egyptian Association for Change declared.


JOURNALISTS UNDER ATTACK


The protests in Egypt have taken a particular toll on reporters covering the conflict, with the Committee to Protect Journalists reporting that security personnel beat at least 10 reporters in the first two days of protests.


Egyptian authorities have blocked access to at least two websites of local online newspapers: Al-Dustour and El-Badil, the CPJ stated.


Guardian reporter Jack Schenker described in detail being beaten and arrested by Egyptian security forces.


Other protesters and I were thrown through the doorway, where we had to run a gauntlet of officers beating us with sticks. Inside we were pushed against the wall; our mobiles and wallets were removed. Officers walked up and down ordering us to face the wall and not look back, as more and more protesters were brought in behind us. Anyone who turned round was instantly hit.


An Associated Press cameraman and his assistant were arrested while filming clashes between protesters and police in Cairo on Tuesday, the first day of protests, and had not been released as of this report.


State Department spokesman P.J. Crowley said the US was putting pressure on Egypt to release the AP staffers. "We have raised this issue already with the ministry of foreign affairs and we will continue to monitor these cases until they are successfully resolved," he said.



http://www.rawstory.com/rs/2011/01/reports-massacre-suez-protests-egypt/

Clarence Thomas revises disclosure forms

By: Jennifer Epstein
January 24, 2011 06:09 PM EST

Supreme Court Justice Clarence Thomas has amended 13 years’ worth of disclosure reports to include details of wife Virginia Thomas’s sources of income, documents released on Monday show.


The documents indicate that Thomas’s wife, who goes by Ginni, had worked for Hillsdale College in Michigan, the Heritage Foundation and the Republican leadership in the House of Representatives, among other entities.


Like all federal judges, Thomas must file annual disclosure reports on his personal finances, but he had omitted details of his wife’s earnings in what he wrote was a “misunderstanding of the filing instructions.” He also had checked a box marking no spousal income.


Thomas did not include in his new submissions any information about Ginni’s work for Liberty Central, a tea-party-affiliated group. The group’s 2009 990 tax form did not include any payments to her and she stepped down from her official role with the group in November.


Last week, watchdog group Common Cause reported that none of the nearly $690,000 the Heritage Foundation said it had paid Ginni Thomas between 2003 and 2007 had been reported on Justice Thomas’s annual financial disclosure forms.


In a statement Monday, the group said did not believe Thomas’s explanation.


“Justice Thomas sits on the highest court of the land, is called upon daily to understand and interpret the most complicated legal issues of our day and makes decisions that affect millions,” said Bob Edgar, Common Cause’s president. “It is hard to see how he could have misunderstood the simple directions of a federal disclosure form. We find his excuse is implausible.”


Until 1996, Thomas included his wife’s income on his disclosure forms.



http://www.politico.com/news/stories/0111/48086.html

The propagation of neo-Orientalism

Soumaya Ghannoushi Last Modified: 27 Jan 2011 14:39 GMT

The media continually builds an association of Islam with war,instability and repression, creating a false stereotype.

A constant stream of war images from Iraq and Afghanistan are re-inforcing an association of Islam with violence and instability [EPA]

It is hard to imagine amidst the omnipresence of discourse currently on Islam that a mere three decades ago, Islam had been a marginal concern situated on the periphery of western consciousness.

If ever encountered in press reports during the cold war, it would most likely have been in the figure of the "mujahideen" confronting the Empire of Evil in Afghanistan. Islam appeared as a benign ally of the forces of freedom camped in New York and London.

What finally brought it to the heart of Euro-American preoccupations were the events that occured on 9/11.

Islam became a local and globalised issue at once, transmitted in countless daily images across the globe.

Since then, rarely does a day go by without hearing, reading, or watching reports of a terrifying Muslim-related event. The presence of Muslim minorities within western capitals has further complicated things, aggravating the intricate interplay of the local and the global.

Fears of a perpetual Muslim danger overlapped with deep-seated fears of immigrants, aliens, and strangers.

Explicating the truth

Coverage of Islam has turned into an industry specialising in the engineering of images, scenes, and messages.

In a globalised world governed by the power of the image, the question is no longer what has sparked this event or that incident and how it has unfolded on the ground, but how it gets captured by the camera and reported to viewers, listeners, and readers at home.

Some might argue, that the media merely reports what is already in existence. However things are not so straightforward in the real world. For the lens is neither neutral nor objective.

It is subject to a set of pre-defined choices and calculations that decide what we see and do not see, know and do not know.

The media is not a mirror reflecting what is out there. Its role is not simple, passive transmission, but active creation, shaping, and manufacturing, through a lengthy process of selection, filtering, interpretation, and editing.

The hidden arms that hold the reins of our media - the giant news corporations and their masters - are not benign charities driven by the love of humanity.

Paradigms of dissemination

Of the 57 countries in the vast geographic and cultural expanse known as the Muslim world, some are rich, others poor; some royal, others republican; some conservative, others liberal; some stable, others less so; some where women preside over the state, others that deny them the right to vote; some that oppress in the name of religion, others that do so in the name of secularism...etc

But this strikingly varied mosaic is absent from mainstream coverage of the subject. What is compound, complex, diverse, and multi-faceted turns into a plain surface without depth, reduced to a narrow set of narratives about blood-thirsty terrorists, shouting mobs, black turbans, battered wives, and caged daughters.

The Muslim world becomes a silent object that does not speak, but is spoken for, an anonymous background against which stands the reporter dispatched from the metropolis.

S/he is the agent of understanding, the one who deciphers this strange entity's mysterious codes and uncovers its secrets for us; the one who gives it meaning, truth and order.

Nowhere is this will to superficiality and reductionism more evident than in reports of conflicts in the Middle East.

Viewers are given a few minutes during which they watch and hear descriptions of wreckage, smoke, burnt cars, scorched bodies, severed limbs, blood, and wailing widows.

With no attempt to explain the underlying causes and histories of the crises in question, the reports merely compound existing misunderstanding.

The confusion is such that roles are often reversed, with the victim mistaken for the oppressor.

Prisms of perception

This is confirmed by a number of studies, such as the one conducted following the Palestinian Intifada by Greg Philo and Mike Berry of the Glasgow University Group.

The researchers monitored hours of BBC and ITV coverage of the 2002 Intifada, examined 200 news programmes, and interviewed over 800 people about their perceptions of the conflict .

The researchers encountered an alarming level of ignorance and confusion among the viewers, of whom only 9 per cent knew that the "occupied territories" were occupied by Israel, with the majority believing that the Palestinians were the occupiers.

This is hardly surprising given the unbalanced coverage and its tendency to obscure the central truths in the conflict: It does not tell us that over 418 Palestinian villages were destroyed in 1948, that their inhabitants were expelled in their hundreds of thousands, that Israel was largely established by force on 78 per cent of historic Palestine, that since 1967 it has illegally occupied and imposed various forms of military rule on the remaining 22 per cent, or that the majority of Palestinians - over 8 million - live as refugees today.

Reports of the Iraq war do not fare better. The viewer is given the impression that the country's ills are rooted in its people's bloodthirstiness and love of self-mutilation, with one sect and ethnicity vying for the other's destruction.

The Americans emerge as benign mediators whose role consists in imposing order and preventing the different groups from exterminating each other.

The causes of the ongoing state of chaos are increasingly being brushed under the carpet, viz the 150,000 strong army deployed to invade a country hundreds of miles away, the destruction of its infrastructure, systematic demolition of its national collective memory, desecration of its cultural heritage, erection of an ethnic and sectarian based political system, dissolution of its army in the name of "de-baathisation", and arming of one faction against the other - first the Kurdish Peshmarga, then the Shia militias in the name of "confronting the Sunni triangle", and finally al-Anbar's Sunni tribes under the pretext of combating Al Qaeda.

What the media reports do not tell us is that Iraqis continue to suffer not because they are Arabs, Muslims, brown-skinned, or followers of an "inherently violent" religious culture, but because they are the victims of a heartless power game that saw them as little more than insects, worthless creatures to trample on without bothering to count the dead.

The west seems to have created its own "machinery of truth" about Islam, Muslims, Arabs, and the Middle East.

Through it the lens is directed and small narratives are produced and reproduced ad infinitum.

The titles and headlines may vary, but they lead back to a narrow ring of notions that define Muslim society in the eyes of manufacturer and domesticated consumer alike.

These boil down to violence, fanaticism, irrationality, emotiveness, stagnation, subordination, and despotism. They are the pillars of an orthodoxy, which is popularised by the media and bolstered by a complex network of power centres and institutions.

To defy it is to place oneself outside the mainstream and within the margins, alongside outsiders, heretics, and truth monsters.

Soumaya Ghannoushi is a freelance writer specialising in the history of European Perceptions of Islam. Her work has appeared in a number of leading British papers including the Guardian and the Independent.

http://english.aljazeera.net/indepth/opinion/2011/01/201112611591745716.html

Egypt unrest enters third day, ElBaradei to return

By Dina Zayed and Shaimaa Fayed

CAIRO (Reuters) - Egyptian police fought protesters in two cities in eastern Egypt Thursday and Nobel Peace Prize winner Mohamed ElBaradei headed back to the country to join demonstrators trying to oust President Hosni Mubarak.

Police fired rubber bullets, water cannon and tear gas at hundreds of demonstrators in Suez on a third day of protests calling for an end to Mubarak's 30-year-old rule. Protesters chucked rocks and petrol bombs at police lines.

In Ismailia, hundreds of protesters clashed with police, who dispersed the crowds with tear gas.

The clashes erupted in Egypt Tuesday inspired by a popular revolt in Tunisia, which also fueled anti-government protests Thursday in the Arabian Peninsula state of Yemen and Gabon in West Africa.

Protesters complain about surging prices, a lack of jobs and authoritarian rule that has relied on heavy-handed security to keep dissenting voices quiet.

ElBaradei told Reuters in Vienna before heading to Egypt to join in demonstrations it was time for Mubarak to step aside.

"He has served the country for 30 years and it is about time for him to retire," said ElBaradei, a campaigner for reform in Egypt who won the peace prize for his earlier work as head of the U.N. nuclear agency.

"Tomorrow is going to be, I think, a major demonstration all over Egypt and I will be there with them."

Arabic satellite channel Al Arabiya said later in a brief screen headline: "ElBaradei: ready to take up power for a transitional period if the street demanded it."

ElBaradei's arrival could spur protesters who have no figurehead, although many activists resent his absences in recent months.

Egyptians torched a police post in Suez early Thursday in response to the killing of three demonstrators earlier in the week, a Reuters witness said. Police fled the post before the protesters burned it using petrol bombs.

"Our government is a dictatorship. A total dictatorship," said Mohamed Fahim, a 29-year-old glass factory worker, as he stood near the charred skeleton of a car.

"It's our right to choose our government ourselves. We have been living 29 years, my whole life, without being able to choose a president."

Wednesday evening, people in Suez had set a government building and another police post on fire and tried to burn down a local office of Egypt's ruling party. The government has said it intervened in Suez against what it called 'vandalism'.

The fires were all put out before they engulfed the buildings but dozens more protesters gathered in front of the partially burned police post later Thursday morning.

The anti-government protests, unprecedented during Mubarak's rule of a state that is a key U.S. ally, have seen police fire rubber bullets and tear gas at demonstrators throwing rocks and petrol bombs. One policeman has been killed in Cairo.

Al-Arabiya television said Thursday Egypt's general prosecutor had charged 40 protesters with trying to "overthrow the regime."

A page on Facebook announcing Friday's protest gained 55,000 supporters in less than 24 hours.

"Egypt's Muslims and Christians will go out to fight against corruption, unemployment and oppression and absence of freedom," wrote an activist on Facebook, which alongside sites like Twitter have been key tools to rally people onto the streets.

Egypt's stock exchange halted trading Thursday morning after the benchmark index slid more than 6 percent for a second day. The prices of two London-listed stocks focused on Egypt also tumbled.

The Egyptian pound has fallen to its lowest level in six-years against the U.S. dollar.

DRAGGED AWAY

Interior Minister Habib al-Adli, whose resignation is being demanded by the protesters, has dismissed the demonstrations.

"Egypt's system is not marginal or frail. We are a big state, with an administration with popular support. The millions will decide the future of this nation, not demonstrations even if numbered in the thousands," he told Kuwait's al-Rai newspaper, according to the newspaper's website.

"Our country is stable and not shaken by such actions."

Witnesses say demonstrators have been dragged away, beaten and shoved into police vans. The Interior Ministry said on Wednesday that 500 had been arrested. An independent coalition of lawyers said at least 1,200 were detained.

ElBaradei launched a campaign for change last year, raising hopes his international stature could galvanize the opposition. But many activists have since complained that he should have spent more time on the street than abroad.

He said many Egyptians would no longer tolerate Mubarak's government even for a transitional period, and dismissed as "obviously bogus" the suggestion that authoritarian Arab leaders like Mubarak were the only bulwark against Islamic extremism.

'NO RELIGIOUS DIRECTION'

"If we are talking about Egypt, there is a whole rainbow variety of people who are secular, liberal, market oriented, and if you give them a chance they will organize to elect a government that is modern and moderate," he said.

Web activists seem to have acted largely independently of more organized opposition movements, including the Muslim Brotherhood, widely seen as having Egypt's biggest grassroots network with its social and charity projects.

Washington, which views Mubarak as a vital ally and bulwark of Middle Eastern peace, has called for calm and urged Egypt to make reforms to meet the protesters demands. It fears that Islamic radicals could exploit continuing anger.

An Islamist insurgency challenged Mubarak in the 1990s and was crushed by his vast security apparatus. But this is the first time since taking office in 1981 that he has faced such widespread protests from Egypt's large, youthful population.

"The people want the regime to fall," protesters chanted.

Egypt's population is about 80 million, two thirds of them under 30. That age group accounts for 90 percent of the jobless. About 40 percent live on less than $2 a day, and a third are illiterate.

A presidential election is due in September. Egyptians assume that the 82-year-old Mubarak plans either to remain in control or hand power to his son Gamal, 47. Father and son both deny that Gamal is being groomed for the job.

(Additional reporting by Shaimaa Fayed and Marwa Awad in Cairo, Alexander Dziadosz in Suez; Writing by Edmund Blair and Philippa Fletcher, Editing by Angus MacSwan)

http://www.reuters.com/article/idUSTRE70O3UW20110127?pageNumber=1

Exclusive: Soon, people will ‘stop expecting anything from Washington,’ author tells

By Nathan Diebenow
Thursday, January 27th, 2011 -- 8:23 am

As many in the American empire longingly talk of "recovery" from the most devastating economic condition since the Great Depression, others have begun thinking in a very different direction, urging fellow citizens to prepare for the worst.


Dmitry Orlov, author of "Reinventing Collapse: The Soviet Example and American Prospects," is one of the later.


Soon, he told Raw Story in an exclusive interview, Americans will "stop expecting anything of Washington," turning the US into more of a "banana republic" than a super power.


Orlov, who witnessed the Soviet Union's collapse from within, lamented that the American empire's condition is so severe there is "absolutely nothing" most can do to keep it alive or hasten its demise.


"Basically the people in this country are powerless," he suggested. "So they should probably focus on things closer to home."


Orlov, born in born in Leningrad (now known as Saint Petersburg), moved to the United States at age 12 and became an engineer. In his book, he detailed his experiences with the Soviet collapse on numerous visits to Russia in the late 1980s, early 1990s. He covered similarities between the two superpowers in their twilight and suggested ways for Americans to adapt to their new post-empire environment.


Amid horrid unemployment and a national deficit soaring past World War II levels, Orlov theorized that the US empire would eventually collapse -- not from finances or war, but from a lack of faith in the system.


It would happen over three overlapping stages, he said: financial, political and commercial.


"We're fairly far along in the financial collapse trajectory while political collapse has now really only started with the last election," he said.


By the next election cycle, Orlov figured, the United States would be in the throes of a "banana republic" such that the voters would exchange one inept political party for another inept political party while expecting different results.


While nothing constructive would result from this behavior, he said, the next meaningless shift in 2012 may be the last straw.


"That will run its course where people walk away in disgust and stop expecting anything of Washington," he said.


Environmental and social catastrophe


dmitryorlov Exclusive: US empire will fall due to lack of faith, not finances or war, author warnsAs the financial collapse runs its course, Orlov said, people can expect some imports to be cut off. Energy, above all cheap oil, will be the most important import to dry up. Transportation fuels will also become scarce, bringing on the next stage of social collapse: the commercial sphere, he noted.


"People will lose access to various products that they need," Orlov said.


Much has already collapsed in the commercial sphere. Vacant strip malls and deserted grocery stores clutter the landscape in many parts of the country.


"You also have people whose only source of food is food stamps," he said. "That's becoming predominant in a lot of communities."


But let's not fail to mention an overemphasis on military expenditures and unused industrial areas, Orlov insisted, describing them as mis-investments made by both empires.


"To this day, the former Soviet Union is littered with abandoned or semi-abandoned industrial sites just as the United States is," he noted.


By Orlov's estimation, the US military will never voluntarily quit being the world's largest oil consumer and largest polluter. Moreover, any plans suggested to the military to end its oil dependency in 30 years are an act of "desperation," he said.


"They have set their hair on fire and are running around in circles. That's their drill right now," Orlov quipped.


But what really seemed to rock the Soviet empire to its foundations, Orlov explained, was devastation of Russia's physical environment as a result of industrialization. The prime example was the nuclear reactor accident in Chernobyl in 1986. To this day, the site continued to produce a very high levels of childhood leukemia, cancers and other diseases.


"[The Chernobyl accident] caused a great number of people, including people in some positions of authority, especially in the scientific community in Russia, to seriously mistrust the government, and [they] started doing their own research, making their own observations that disquieted them even more," Orlov explained.


Former Soviet President Mikhail Gorbachev's "glasnost" policy allowed enough truth out to undermine the remaining Soviet authority to the point where those who operated the system lost interest in perpetuating it, Orlov said.


While likening the Chernobyl disaster to the Deepwater Horizon accident in the Gulf of Mexico on his blog, Orlov said that he expects no hearts of American leaders to bleed over their destroyed environment any time soon.


"I don't see the elite in the United States at quite that level of desperation quite yet -- probably because they are a little bit less attuned to what's going on," he said. "They are a little bit more sheltered from the public at large. But that might change."


With editing by Stephen C. Webster.