The Terrorist Attack on Mumbai, India and the Media
By Ben Furman, former FBI Counterterrorism Chief
Here are my thoughts about the media coverage of the terrorist attack on Mumbai, formerly Bombay, India. The media, as it often does, caused my blood pressure to skyrocket by its soft-pedaling of the identification of the terrorist attackers as Muslims. I guess reporting this fact was something it considered offensive and politically incorrect. But this reporting by omission follows the media’s template of not calling terrorists “terrorists” for fear of creating more terrorists; or, refusing to call our war on terrorism a war by defining it as, “regional conflicts of opposing factions.” Only the media can make sense of this circular reasoning. At least the media is consistent. It does the same with illegal aliens that have invaded our country by calling them undocumented workers; or failing to mention in the descriptions of bank robbers that the perpetrators are black, Mexican, and so on. Rather than helping, this ostrich approach to reporting is divisive. We have to get past the reluctance to discuss things as they are without the socially engineered egg shell-walking.
And what’s up with the media’s apparent lack of interest to delve deeper into the tragic fate of the innocent victims at the Chabad Jewish Center? Was the terrorist targeting of the Center about the State of Israel, or was it just a continuation of the gruesome medieval tradition of anti-Semitism? This answer is worth a line or a couple of words from the media.
Why wasn’t the media “all over” the Muslim organizations that rail with an uncontrolled fanaticism against cartoons of Mohammed that they consider insulting? Shouldn’t there be an explanation why they remained eerily silent about the atrocities in Mumbai?
The Mumbai slaughter should be a wake-up call to all Western liberals who believe that jihadism can be defeated through “I’m okay; you’re okay” happy talk. Many Americans, particularly those who buy into the media’s global vision, seem to have been lulled into a false feeling of security because we haven’t been attacked here since 9/11. But Muslim-based jihadism is a world that continues to pose a serious threat to every open democratic society.
A study of ancient history shows us that great civilizations, from Egypt and Persia to Rome and Byzantium, broke down in stages of superficially interspersed tranquil decades. We’re on the same glide path but we're moving at a greatly accelerated downward rate – the time spans are getting compressed. Because of the unprecedented fragility of our communications systems, our intertwined power grids and complex transportation systems, the technological West is highly vulnerable to sabotage and destruction. We need the media to step up, minus its rose colored glasses, and report the world as is, rather than the way the media wants it to be.
So how long will it take us to drive the final nail into jihadism? If we are ever vigilant and take the fight to the terrorists, it will probably take a hundred years or more. And if we don't defeat the jihadists our world as we know it will end.
adult counterterrorism books adult fiction thriller adult novels adventure series advice counterterrorism stories independent publishing news publisher reviews suspense thrillers writing advice
Here are my thoughts about the media coverage of the terrorist attack on Mumbai, formerly Bombay, India. The media, as it often does, caused my blood pressure to skyrocket by its soft-pedaling of the identification of the terrorist attackers as Muslims. I guess reporting this fact was something it considered offensive and politically incorrect. But this reporting by omission follows the media’s template of not calling terrorists “terrorists” for fear of creating more terrorists; or, refusing to call our war on terrorism a war by defining it as, “regional conflicts of opposing factions.” Only the media can make sense of this circular reasoning. At least the media is consistent. It does the same with illegal aliens that have invaded our country by calling them undocumented workers; or failing to mention in the descriptions of bank robbers that the perpetrators are black, Mexican, and so on. Rather than helping, this ostrich approach to reporting is divisive. We have to get past the reluctance to discuss things as they are without the socially engineered egg shell-walking.
And what’s up with the media’s apparent lack of interest to delve deeper into the tragic fate of the innocent victims at the Chabad Jewish Center? Was the terrorist targeting of the Center about the State of Israel, or was it just a continuation of the gruesome medieval tradition of anti-Semitism? This answer is worth a line or a couple of words from the media.
Why wasn’t the media “all over” the Muslim organizations that rail with an uncontrolled fanaticism against cartoons of Mohammed that they consider insulting? Shouldn’t there be an explanation why they remained eerily silent about the atrocities in Mumbai?
The Mumbai slaughter should be a wake-up call to all Western liberals who believe that jihadism can be defeated through “I’m okay; you’re okay” happy talk. Many Americans, particularly those who buy into the media’s global vision, seem to have been lulled into a false feeling of security because we haven’t been attacked here since 9/11. But Muslim-based jihadism is a world that continues to pose a serious threat to every open democratic society.
A study of ancient history shows us that great civilizations, from Egypt and Persia to Rome and Byzantium, broke down in stages of superficially interspersed tranquil decades. We’re on the same glide path but we're moving at a greatly accelerated downward rate – the time spans are getting compressed. Because of the unprecedented fragility of our communications systems, our intertwined power grids and complex transportation systems, the technological West is highly vulnerable to sabotage and destruction. We need the media to step up, minus its rose colored glasses, and report the world as is, rather than the way the media wants it to be.
So how long will it take us to drive the final nail into jihadism? If we are ever vigilant and take the fight to the terrorists, it will probably take a hundred years or more. And if we don't defeat the jihadists our world as we know it will end.
adult counterterrorism books adult fiction thriller adult novels adventure series advice counterterrorism stories independent publishing news publisher reviews suspense thrillers writing advice
Labels: ben furman, commentary, counterterrorism, terrorism, terrorist attack
1 Comments:
Media is under attack everywhere in the world, unfortunately! In Bangladesh after 8-days of attack on the office of Weekly Blitz newspaper by armed hooligans belong to ruling party in Bangladesh, members of law enforcing agencies are reluctant in taking any action, as some high ups in the government and police administration instructed the investigation officer not to 'harass' any of the accused in this case as they belong to the ruling party.
On February 22, 35-40 armed terrorists belonging to the ruling party, led by Ruhul Amin attacked the office of Blitz newspaper. They instructed the caretaker named Anwar of the commercial center named Skylark Point [where the Blitz office is located] to lock the outside gate and continued their notorious actions in the broad day light for hours in presence of members of law enforcing and various intelligence agencies.
Despite lodging of a case more than 5 days back [Case No. 65, under section 143, 448, 323, 342, 384, 380, 427 and 506], members of law enforcing agencies in Bangladesh are showing extreme reluctance in arresting any of the attackers, mostly belonging to the ruling party, who attacked the office of Weekly Blitz, physically assaulted the editor and other members, abused the female staffs and looted laptop and other valuables in a broad day light. Members of law enforcing agencies were witnessing the incident silently as the attackers were mostly activists and members of the ruling party in Bangladesh.
Others who were in the gang are identified as Shintu, Liton, Yunus, Anwar, Siraj, Lavlu, Kajol etc. According to police sources, most of them were thugs belonging to the ruling party.
At 10am Sunday, local time, internationally-acclaimed journalist Salah Uddin Shoaib Choudhury, was attacked as he was working in the office of his newspaper, Weekly Blitz, by a gang of thugs belonging to Bangladesh's ruling Awami League. Mr. Choudhury went under medical treatment for eye, neck, and other injuries those he suffered in the attack. The renewed violence marks the first against him since he was abducted by Bangladesh's dreaded Rapid Action Battalion in March 2008. It may be mentioned here that, the military backed interim regime withdrew police protection from the residence of the Blitz editor in May last year.
A large group of armed hooligans, co-led by one Shamim introducing himself to be an official of DGFI stormed Blitz premises and attacked newspaper staff until they found the editor. They locked the editor in a room and continued various forms of physical assaults thus abusing him to be a ‘Mossad Agent', ‘Israeli Agent' etc. Culprits are continuing to occupy the Blitz office.
Earlier a person named Advocate Shintu, claiming to be the advisor of Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina, phoned the Blitz editor and demanded TK. 500,000 [US$ 8,400 approximately] as extortion. Shintu also told the Blitz editor that, he is one of the decision makers helping Sheikh Hasina in appointing her cabinet colleagues.
An official of Weekly Blitz contacted some of the senior officials in Bangladesh Police, including the inspector general as well as Commissioner of Police [Dhaka] and informed them about lodging of the case on February 22, 2009. Copy of the FIR [First Information Report] was also sent to those officials with the appeal of initiating immediate investigation into the matter and arresting the culprits.
But, none of these senior officials are taking any action in this regard.
When contacted, an officer on duty at Paltan Police Station told Weekly Blitz that, they have specific instruction of neither investigating the case nor arresting anyone as the accused are from the ruling party.
Weekly Blitz editor and other staffs of the newspaper have made an appeal to the media community in the country and in the world for their kind and immediate help in this regard. Online edition of this newspaper is available on: www.weeklyblitz.net
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