Originally published at: http://boingboing.net/2017/02/03/a-good-american-a-documentary.html
…
3 Likes
Years ago, I remember hearing compelling arguments that the most effective approach to terrorism is not war, but old-fashioned law enforcement. I guess war is more exciting. Also the rocket lobby has more money than the handcuffs lobby.
18 Likes
You don’t need a massive system of surveillance if you have people who know and understand many cultures and languages. You can learn virtually anything you need to know by asking the right questions.
9 Likes
Cory:
“Moser’s documentary is riveting, enraging, and beautifully crafted, and it tells an important story. You can watch it today.”
Well, I can if I live in NYC, or Italy. That probably rules out a few people who are reading your article.
For anyone who has seen it, or does see it before it gets to Ohio, I’d like to know whether it makes a convincing argument that 9/11 could have been prevented.
The case that what we had in place was mostly useless is easy to make. The case that something else would have found and stopped Bin Laden during the interval between Bush’s inauguration and 9/11? Not so easy I think.
2 Likes
Oliver Stone
6 Likes
note to self: never mention Zwiebelkuchen again when hungry.
3 Likes
There’s a documentary out there, it was shown to me in middle school i think, and there was this NSA agent talking and said that they knew it was going to happen, and that they didn’t know who to go to because it was against the law/de rules to tell other people what they heard over surveillance, i thought it was the stupidest thing, that’s what its for
1 Like
Take a look at the rules around disseminating information derived from ULTRA, which is where a lot of these kinds of restrictions came from. The basic idea is that the source is more important than any single piece of data, because it gives you on-going access to loads more pieces which combines into worthwhile information. If you let on that you know some super sekrit, or super esoteric, piece of data, then the opposition can start to guess how or where you got it from, and close that hole. And that is a real problem. The paradox is that there is always some threshold where it actually is worth revealing the data and therefore risking the source, but you generally don’t know you’ve crossed that threshold until it’s too late.
3 Likes
I think this is what I’m getting at
“Rossini is well placed to do just that. He’s been at the center of one of the enduring mysteries of 9/11: Why the CIA refused to share information with the FBI (or any other agency) about the arrival of at least two well-known Al-Qaeda operatives in the United States in 2000, even though the spy agency had been tracking them closely for years.”
2 Likes
Well, another approach might be to stop invading and bombing countries around the world (with emphasis in the middle east). It would also be wise to stop supporting countries like Saudi Arabia who export radical Islam. If we had a Manhattan-style project to develop fusion energy we could get away from oil dependence and invading other countries - e.g. Iraq - for their oil which only served to help the PR of Islamic radicals - as well as having to work with the Saudis who have a penchant for beheading people. And of course there’s our undying support of Israel which which essentially an apartheid state. Maybe cut off their yearly billion dollar military support unless they give the Palestinians a separate state and stop screwing them over?
1 Like
The Oil lobby & Israeli lobby are simply too strong, but just today trump told Isreal to cut it off with settlement expansion in the West Bank, hypocritically, after slamming obama for letting the U.N pass a resolution that prevented Isreal from expanding 
3 Likes
arresting Dick Cheney would have prevented 9/11
Prevented?
Heh.
Grow a brain. Discern.
I do not remember it being made public that law enforce.ment worked when it came to terrorism. I do remember it did work. There were once many incidents of terrorism that ussually were attributed to Communist inspred organizations.
The problem as the powers that be see it is that terrorism is good because it means the state must have more power. Whic is why USA loves to destroy not only states but millions of people in the process.
UN tesolutions never stopped Israel from doing anything it wanted.
That is an alibi not a reason. The .DIA was tracking the hijackers too but were ordered to stand down. There was no intelligence failure the FBI was clearly months into its investigation only hours after the attacks.
I was screaming that online in the days and weeks after 9/11.
The near-universal response from Americans was that even suggesting anything other than a global military response was an insult to the victims.
As soon as you characterise a crime as an act of war, you transform the criminals into soldiers.
6 Likes
Unfortunately true
Yeah i get that much, its just that part where the agents were not allowed to do anything to stop it, when they could have
I keep hearing how airport security just isn’t the same as it use to be
