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Pastimes : Don't Ask Rambi -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?

To: JF Quinnelly who wrote (60519)	10/2/2001 9:02:00 AM
From: Rambi	Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 71178

Good morning, little warrior troop, I feel rather like a den mother dropped into the middle of a Hell's Angel's meeting since I am militarily illiterate. But hey, I still have my wine and uzi in the corner, and my name on the header so move over. Fascinating articles- especially that one by the NBC correspondent. (you have to like a guy who can laugh at his own behavior during the interview-"So, Ali, you're telling me he's promising genocide, and I'm nodding like an asshole?") But it's an article that warns us of a mentality so very different from our own we can't rely on what we would think would be "normal" responses to threats and power. The guy gave me the shivers bigtime. On the other hand, I was thinking last night about Americans-- could it be that the terrorists make the same mistake about us? That what they perceive as weakness will be our strength in the longrun and that they do not understand us either? That once awakened from our complacency, as we have been, at least temporarily and hopefully for longer, we will have our own brand of commitment and intensity? Are we as decadent and spoiled as we've been branded? I truly don't believe we are- we just haven't been called upon yet to rise to an occasion- until now this stuff has seemed very removed from our everyday lives. Also, the US has so many characteristics- like a huge, very diverse, rowdy family that can beat each other up and pull each other's hair one minute and hug the next. Some of the family's talents will be useful in some situations, while others useful at other times. An enemy might see this as a weakness that we can argue loudly for our own viewpoint, but I see it as one of our greatest strengths. Last night on the O'Reilly Factor, the host interviewed some minister who had led some peace march on the White House last week. The guy was a jerk and just wanted to preach- wouldn't dialogue at all (he'd probably been warned about O'Reilly's techniques though). He thinks there should be no violence, that we should look at WHY this happened, that "Wanted, Dead or Alive" was a terrible sentiment, etc etc. After reading the bin Laden interview, I think this type of thinking is extremely misguided and in this case (and I AM a mediator/peaceable type by nature) would be a huge weakness. Yet the fact that he could have his peace march and argue his viewpoint is why we are strong; we just have to make the right choices among the arsenal which weapon is best in this case. He did have one funny line, probably an old one- he didn't strike me as an original thinker: an eye for an eye and a tooth for a tooth will just leave us all blind and toothless. To paraquote our most famous Islamic citizen: Not if we move like a butterfly, sting like a big giant really determined bee.

To: JF Quinnelly who wrote (60519)	10/2/2001 7:21:27 PM
From: Michael Sphar	Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 71178

He's got the bomb. We are trying to find it. This may turn into a worse nightmare yet. If you were him and had an unused second hand Soviet suitcase nuke, where would you plant it? Nevermind, don't answer that. Report: Bin Laden Linked to Russia Tue Oct 02 2001 12:49:53 ET ST. PETERSBURG TIMES U.S. intelligence agencies have uncovered information that Russian criminal groups have been supplying Osama bin Laden and his al-Qaeda terrorist group with components for chemical, biological and even nuclear weapons, The Washington Times reported. The Foreign Ministry called the report an attempt to undermine relations between the United States and Russia at a time of increased cooperation. The Washington Times, citing U.S. officials speaking on condition of anonymity, reported last Wednesday that bin Laden is believed by U.S. intelligence to have a secret nuclear-weapons laboratory inside Afghanistan. This is believed to be one of the sites sought for U.S. military strikes, the newspaper said. There is no hard evidence that bin Laden or his followers have actually produced chemical, biological or nuclear weapons. But bin Laden has worked with Russian mafia groups in obtaining components for weapons of mass destruction, according to officials familiar with the intelligence reports. The U.S. State Department's latest report on international terrorism says that al-Qaeda continued to seek chemical, biological, radiological and nuclear capabilities, the newspaper said. Intelligence officials say al-Qaeda is probably trying to produce the nerve agent Sarin or biological weapons made up of anthrax spores. A former State Department counter terrorism official, Larry Johnson, said the contacts between the Russian mafia and bin Laden could be related to drug trafficking and that such cooperation would not be surprising, the newspaper said. The Foreign Ministry said the new report raises a question: ``Why should such information be splashed out on newspaper pages instead of discussing it through the channels existing between our countries, including confidential ones?'' ''One may get the impression that some in the United States oppose the positive tendency in Russian-American relations that has made itself felt recently,'' the ministry said in a statement carried by Interfax. END