Archive for norway
All on the up and up no less. Now we’re exporting our stupidity. Sigh. From Ben’s tweet. Much more at the link.
The Norwegian madman who killed dozens at a kids summer camp claims he legally bought high-capacity ammunition clips by mail from the United States, prompting Capitol Hill’s leading gun control advocate to say on Thursday that America should be ashamed such purchases aren’t against the law.
Anders Behring Breivik wrote in a 1,500-page manifesto that he bought 10 30-round ammunition clips for his .223 caliber rifle from an unnamed small U.S. supplier, which then in turn acquired the clips from other suppliers. Norway forbids the sale of magazine clips for hunting rifles that hold more than three bullets, according to Norwegian newspaper Aftenposten.
Thom Hartmann has been referring his listeners to the FBI website, specifically its counter-terrorism division, even more specifically its chronological summary of terrorist incidents from 1980-2005, which of course includes September 11, 2001.
Now why would he do that? Because immediately after the monstrous attack by Anders Breivik, who held deeply anti-Muslim views, right-wing pundits jumped to blame Muslims and “Jihadists” for them. If that isn’t bad enough, Peter King will still target only Muslims in his terrorism hearings.
So Thom did a little digging, and then I did a little digging after hearing about his digging, and I ran across this chart that summarizes the FBI statistics. It pretty much blows all those “Muslish” (see video below) headlines to smithereens:
Terrorist Attacks on U.S. Soil by Group, From 1980 to 2005, According to FBI Database
That’s right, Islamic extremists were responsible for only 6% of terrorist incidents. Oh, and there was this:
The majority of domestic terrorism incidents from 1993 to 2001 were attributable to the left-wing special interest movements the Animal Liberation Front (ALF) and the Earth Liberation Front (ELF). Right-wing extremism, however, primarily in the form of domestic militias and conservative special interest causes, began to overtake left-wing extremism as the most dangerous, if not the most prolific, domestic terrorist threat to the country during the 1990s. [...]
The terrorist preventions for 2002 through 2005 paint a more diverse threat picture. Eight of the 14 recorded terrorist preventions stemmed from right-wing extremism, and included disruptions to plotting by individuals involved with the militia, white supremacist, constitutionalist and tax protestor, and anti-abortion movements.
Here’s another chart that Think Progress posted:
Which brings me to this must-see Colbert Report video:
We really must stop all that “rushing to accuracy” because it’s “safer go with Muslims. That’s not prejudice, that’s probability.” Gold.
Anti-Muslim activist Brigitte Gabriel presents an award to Rep. Peter King (R-NY)
Think Progress has an important post up about the influence that some anti-Muslim, anti-not-a-Mosque, American activists, aka Islamophobes, had on Anders Behring Breivik, the man who was behind the horrific attacks in Norway last week. Please take a look.
Here’s the very abbreviated version:
– Breivik cites neoconservative Islamophobe Frank Gaffney on opposition to Turkey joining the EU, and reprints a post from Gaffney’s think tank, the Center for Security Policy
– Breivik cites blogger Pamella Geller several times in his manifesto, reprints articles praising her
– Breivik posts a 45-minute interview with Brigitte Gabriel, a leading organizer of grassroots anti-Muslim activism
– Breivik extensively quotes Robert Spencer, a leading anti-Muslim writer sponsored by David Horowitz
– Breivik linked ten times to video clips for the movie Obsession, a documentary created by a secretive group called the Clarion Fund
Josh Marshall of Talking Points Memo:
“Frank Gaffney has never been a stranger to the crazy.”
Pam Geller’s Islamophobia drew this comment from Eric Boehlert of Media Matters:
“She’s been instrumental, she has whipped up hatred in the right-wing blogosphere and now that’s spilled out into the wider community.”
The hatred and blaming of all Muslims for the deeds of a few– not to mention grouping them together as if “the nation of Islam” (it’s a movement, not a country) could be found on a map– is being spread by people like these, yet we hear so little about that anywhere except in the Blogosphere. I was bombarded with tweets by one such person on Twitter just yesterday, and he actually thought that The Nation of Islam was a place, and that all Muslims were terrorists. All of them.
While the American Islamophobe machine has mostly inspired petty vandalism against mosques and racist demonstrations in the United States, the massacre in Norway is a grim reminder that dehumanizing hate can have dangerous but unintended consequences.
Come on news media, report on this. Do your job. Please.
Very little info out yet, everyone is griping that twitter has way more substance to what’s going on than the cable channels. The Telegraph is live blogging updates here.
(Reuters) – A huge explosion wrecked government buildings in central Oslo on Friday including Norwegian Prime Minister Jens Stoltenberg’s office, injuring several people, a Reuters journalist said from the scene.
The cause of the blast was unknown but the tangled wreckage of a car was outside one building and the damage appeared consistent to witnesses with that from car bombs. Police and fire officials declined comment on the cause.
The blast blew out most windows on the 17-storey building housing Stoltenberg’s office, as well as nearby ministries including the oil ministry, which was on fire.
Heavy debris littered the streets and a tall plume of brown smoke over the city center.
A Reuters correspondent counted at least eight injured people. Norwegian news agency NTB said that Stoltenberg was safe in the blast, which happened around 3:30 p.m. (9:30 a.m. EDT).
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