BERLIN (ArmRadio)–It was on March 15, 1921 that Armenian avenger Soghomon Tehlirian assassinated Talaat Pasha, one of the masterminds of the Armenian Genocide.
On April 2, 120th anniversary of Tehlirian’s birth, representatives of the Armenian community will gather on Hardenbergstraße in Berlin, the site where Talaat was assassinated, to hold an event in memory of Tehlirian
Tehlirian shadowed Talaat as he left his house on Hardenbergstraße on the morning of March 15, 1921. He crossed the street to view him from the opposite sidewalk, then crossed it once more to walk past him to confirm his identity. He then turned around and pointed his gun to shoot him in the nape of the neck.
Talaat was felled with a single 9mm parabellum round from a Luger P08 pistol. The assassination took place in broad daylight and led to Tehlirian’s immediate arrest by German police.
“I killed him, but I am not a murderer,” Tehlirian said of himself.
After a two-day trial, Tehlirian was found not guilty by the German court, and freed. He eventually moved to the United States and lived out his years in San Francisco.
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Two boys standing in a puddle at a makeshift camp for migrants and refugees at the Greek-Macedonian border near the village of Idomeni.
MERVE ŞEBNEM ORUÇ
The biggest threat to U.S. interests is no longer communism. It is others, leaders like Erdoğan who put a premium on their country’s independence, listen to the others of the world, like Muslims, refugees or the poor
Hardly a day passes without a new article in the international mainstream media attacking Ankara’s internal and foreign affairs, specifically targeting President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan.
For example, Mort Abramowitz and Eric Edelman, both former U.S. ambassadors to Turkey and co-chairs of the Bipartisan Policy Center’s (BPC) Turkey Initiative, recently penned an op-ed for the Washington Post calling on Erdoğan to reform or resign. Both names echo back to the days of the 1997 military memorandum as they were involved in coup scenarios to push then Prime Minister Necmettin Erbakan of the Welfare Party to resign and end his coalition government. It was not the first article from the two. A previous Washington Post piece in 2014 by both and another lobbyist, Blaise Misztal, who is the director of National Security at the BPC, asked for regime change in Turkey and called on U.S. President Barack Obama’s administration to overthrow the Turkish government.
Then Michael Rubin, a former Pentagon official and another committed neocon, manifested his sympathy for a coup in Turkey last week. In an article that was originally published on the American Enterprise Institute’s website that then found a platform in Newsweek, Rubin openly encouraged the Turkish military to carry out an intervention, stating that the U.S. government would work with the new regime if that happens. Again, the piece was not the one and only hostile piece written by Rubin on Turkish politics. He tried to intimidate the Turkish public last summer before the last elections in another hysterical article, asking: “Is Turkey heading to partition?” Accusing Erdoğan of almost everything bad that happens in Turkey and the Middle East, he was quick to put the blame of the outlawed PKK’s ending the cease-fire on Erdoğan and to welcome the partition of Turkey.
I do not remember how many similar pieces we have read in the last three years, although the real intentions are declared explicitly and boldly in the abovementioned ones. The basic structure in all these articles is common, easy and catchy. First, demonize Erdoğan as much as possible and say he is a threat to democracy and U.S. interests; two, sort complicated issues like press freedoms, the Syrian civil war, constitutional debates and the war with the PKK in a row and do not forget to link all to Erdoğan, ignoring fact checking since the first obligation is not telling the truth; three, call on him to go or call on others – the public, military or the U.S. – to dispose of him; four, push the Turkish people to hate, anger and polarization; five, go back to square one and declare once again that he is a dictator or a despot, adding the results and reiterate that he is a great threat to democracy, Western values and U.S. interests.
If it were the first time the international media had carried out a smear campaign against a leader and a country, we would fall into the trap. Brazil, Iran, Egypt, India, Russia and China, the international mainstream media has deliberately and systematically targeted all who do not bow down to the hegemony and the greatness of the U.S. in a similar way for years.
But what is more troubling than that is that the mainstream media is often covertly and secretly engaged with U.S. government institutions like the CIA. Carl Bernstein, one of the reporters who covered the Watergate scandal, spent six months investigating the relationship between the CIA and the press and published his findings in Rolling Stone in 1977. Bernstein says the CIA’s dealings with the press began during the earliest stages of the Cold War. “American publishers, like so many other corporate and institutional leaders at the time, were willing to commit the resources of their companies to the struggle against ‘global Communism,’ ” he states. The CIA used many journalists, and those had the reputation of being among the best in the business.
Today, the biggest threat to U.S. interests is no longer communism. It is others, leaders like Erdoğan who puts a premium on his country’s independence, listens to the others of the world like Muslims, refugees or the poor and dares to take a stand against the deep elites of the U.S. or powerful lobbyists. The methods once used against communism are now being used against leaders like Erdoğan. As days pass, and they cannot get rid of him, they push harder and openly ask for regime change or a military coup. But it is not only about Erdoğan, it is about the future of a people, the Turkish people. It is about sovereignty and the independence of an aged country. Turkish people will not give up on him, as they are fully aware of what they are forced to do.
By Barbara Starr, Ryan Browne and Elise Labott, CNN
Updated 3:56 PM ET, Tue March 29, 2016
Turkey’s year of turmoil02:13
Story highlights
About 670 family members remain at facilities in Incirlik, Izmir and Mugla
The base is the permanent home to units of the Turkish Air Force and the U.S. Air Force’s 39th Air Base Wing
Washington (CNN)The U.S. military has ordered military family members to evacuate southern Turkey, primarily from Incirlik Air Base, due to security concerns, the Pentagon said Tuesday.
Family members will also be evacuated from facilities in Izmir and Mugla, according to a Pentagon statement.
“The decision to move our families and civilians was made in consultation with the Government of Turkey, our State Department, and our Secretary of Defense,” Gen. Philip M. Breedlove, commander of U.S. European Command, said in the statement.
A U.S. defense official told CNN that the base had been placed under Force Protection Condition Delta for weeks, the highest level of force protection for U.S. military bases. Delta level means that either a terrorist attack has just taken place in the immediate vicinity or “intelligence has been received that terrorist action against a specific location or person is imminent,” according to military guidelines.
A U.S. official said the evacuation decision was made because of the ongoing threats concerning possible ISIS attacks.
RELATED: ISIS terrorizes Europe but loses ground at home
The State Department is also ordering the departure of family members of staff at the U.S. consulate in Adana, except for family members who also work at the diplomatic post.
“The safety and security of U.S. citizens living abroad are top priorities, and we take very seriously the responsibility for ensuring the security of members of the entire official American community,” a State Department spokesman said. “In close coordination with the Department of Defense, we will continue to evaluate our security posture in Turkey and worldwide.”
In addition, the State Department re-issued its travel warning for Turkey, stating that, “The U.S. Department of State warns U.S. citizens of increased threats from terrorist groups throughout Turkey and to avoid travel to southeastern Turkey.”
The State Department has also now restricted official travel by staff in Turkey to “mission-critical” movement only.
State Department spokesman John Kirby said Tuesday afternoon that the decision to order dependents out of Adana was not related to a specific threat but rather a “running analysis of the security threat” in the area over the last several weeks.
He did not specify the number of family members leaving but said it was a “small number.”
Secretary of State John Kerry informed his Turkish counterpart of the step during their meeting Monday.
Kirby disputed the notion that the decision was deliberately announced while Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan was visiting for the Nuclear Security Summit in Washington.
He said the process was carried out “with deep consideration and careful thought” given the threat level, and the measure was taken with significant interagency communication.
“This is not the kind of decision we take lightly,” Kirby said.
Four killed in suicide bombing02:00
Nearly 100 people have been killed in Turkey in five separate terrorist attacks since the start of 2016. Two of these attacks were attributed to ISIS while the others were carried out by Kurdish separatists.
About 670 U.S. family members remain at facilities in Incirlik, Izmir and Mugla, according to the official.
The same official said the military had already closed the base’s Department of Defense School for children for weeks, with assignments being sent to children at home.
“We understand this is disruptive to our military families, but we must keep them safe and ensure the combat effectiveness of our forces to support our strong ally Turkey in the fight against terrorism,” Breedlove said.
In addition, 287 pets from military families are also leaving Turkey.
In September, the State Department and Pentagon authorized the voluntary departure of the 900 family members of personnel stationed at Incirlik and at the U.S. consulate in Adana, Turkey.
At the time, Pentagon press secretary Peter Cook said the move was done “out of an abundance of caution.”
That decision did not apply to family members of military or civilian personnel in other cities, including Ankara, Istanbul and Izmir.
The base is the permanent home to units of the Turkish Air Force and the U.S. Air Force’s 39th Air Base Wing, which includes about 1,500 American service personnel, according to the base’s website.
After months of negotiations, the U.S. military population grew significantly after Turkey agreed to open up the base to U.S. war planes participating in airstrikes against ISIS in Iraq and Syria.
Incirlik is strategically vital to the counter-ISIS campaign, as it’s located about 100 miles from the Syrian border.
The U.S. began using Incirlik during the 1950s, and its proximity to the Soviet Union made it a key installation during the Cold War.
The base has supported numerous U.S. operations in Lebanon, Iraq and Afghanistan over its long history.
RELATED: Mapping ISIS attacks worldwide
Turkey, for its part, has seen plenty of violent spillover from neighboring Iraq and Syria, where ISIS has employed terrorist and other tactics against civilians and military foes alike.
Bloodshed in southern Turkey blamed on ISIS includes a suicide bombing last July in Suruc that killed more than 30 people.
The Islamist extremist group has also shown a willingness to strike in some of Turkey’s biggest cities — like a suicide blast earlier this month in a busy tourist area in central Istanbul.
Yet ISIS isn’t the only group behind recent terror in Turkey.
On March 13, the Kurdistan Freedom Falcons, or TAK — a militant offshoot of the Kurdish separatist group, PKK — boasted of its part in a car bombing that ripped through a busy square in Ankara, killing 37 people. Turkey and the United States consider both the TAK and PAK terrorist organizations.
The attack took place a month after the same group claimed another deadly bombing in the Turkish capital and threatened more violence — warning foreigners, especially, to stay away from Turkey.
“Tourism is one of the important sources feeding the dirty and special war, so it is a major target we aim to destroy,” the TAK said then.
A ceasefire between the PKK and Turkey fell apart last summer. That was followed by Turkish forces’ bombing of the terror group’s positions in northern Iraq while also imposing curfews in crackdowns on heavily Kurdish areas in southeastern Turkey.
There have been many more such actions in southern Turkey in more recent months, especially on the heels of terrorist attacks.
CNN’s Greg Botelho and Nicole Gaouette contributed to this report.
Especially when nuclear weapons are involved and you don’t—you can’t—know what the enemy is up to, and you’re scared. Then it helps (it helps a lot) to be calm.
The world owes an enormous debt to a quiet, steady Russian naval officer who probably saved my life. And yours. And everyone you know. Even those of you who weren’t yet born. I want to tell his story …
It’s October 1962, the height of the Cuban missile crisis, and there’s a Soviet submarine in the Caribbean that’s been spotted by the American Navy. President Kennedy has blockaded Cuba. No sea traffic is permitted through.
Photograph by NY Daily News Archive, Getty
The sub is hiding in the ocean, and the Americans are dropping depth charges left and right of the hull. Inside, the sub is rocking, shaking with each new explosion. What the Americans don’t know is that this sub has a tactical nuclear torpedo on board, available to launch, and that the Russian captain is asking himself, Shall I fire?
This actually happened.
The Russian in question, an exhausted, nervous submarine commander named Valentin Savitsky, decided to do it. He ordered the nuclear-tipped missile readied. His second in command approved the order. Moscow hadn’t communicated with its sub for days. Eleven U.S. Navy ships were nearby, all possible targets. The nuke on this missile had roughly the power of the bomb at Hiroshima.
“We’re gonna blast them now!”
Temperatures in the submarine had climbed above 100 degrees. The air-conditioning system was broken, and the ship couldn’t surface without being exposed. The captain felt doomed. Vadim Orlov, an intelligence officer who was there, remembers a particularly loud blast: “The Americans hit us with something stronger than the grenades—apparently with a practice depth bomb,” he wrote later. “We thought, That’s it, the end.” And that’s when, he says, the Soviet captain shouted, “Maybe the war has already started up there … We’re gonna blast them now! We will die, but we will sink them all—we will not become the shame of the fleet.”
Had Savitsky launched his torpedo, had he vaporized a U.S. destroyer or aircraft carrier, the U.S. would probably have responded with nuclear-depth charges, “thus,” wrote Russian archivist Svetlana Savranskaya, understating wildly, “starting a chain of inadvertent developments, which could have led to catastrophic consequences.”
But it didn’t happen, because that’s when Vasili Alexandrovich Arkhipov steps into the story.
Photo courtesy of M. Yarovskaya and A. Labunskaya
He was 34 at the time. Good looking, with a full head of hair and something like a spit curl dangling over his forehead. He was Savitsky’s equal, the flotilla commander responsible for three Russian subs on this secret mission to Cuba—and he is maybe one of the quietest, most unsung heroes of modern times.
What he said to Savitsky we will never know, not exactly. But, says Thomas Blanton, the former director of the nongovernmental National Security Archive, simply put, this “guy called Vasili Arkhipov saved the world.”
Arkhipov, described by his wife as a modest, soft-spoken man, simply talked Savitsky down.
The exact details are controversial. The way it’s usually told is that each of the three Soviet submarine captains in the ocean around Cuba had the power to launch a nuclear torpedo if—and only if—he had the consent of all three senior officers on board. On his sub, Savitsky gave the order and got one supporting vote, but Arkhipov balked. He wouldn’t go along.
He argued that this was not an attack.
The official Soviet debriefs are still secret, but a Russian reporter, Alexander Mozgovoi, an American writer, and eyewitness testimony from intelligence officer Orlov suggest that Arkhipov told the captain that the ship was not in danger. It was being asked to surface. Dropping depth charges left then right, noisy but always off target—those are signals, Arkhipov argued. They say, We know you’re there. Identify yourselves. Come up and talk. We intend no harm.
What’s Happening?
The Russian crew couldn’t tell what was going on above them: They’d gone silent well before the crisis began. Their original orders were to go directly to Cuba, but then, without explanation, they’d been ordered to stop and wait in the Caribbean. Orlov, who had lived in America, heard from American radio stations that Russia had secretly brought missiles to the island, that Cuba had shot down a U.S. spy plane, that President Kennedy had ordered the U.S. Navy to surround the island and let no one pass through. When Americans had spotted the sub, Savitsky had ordered it to drop deeper into the ocean, to get out of sight—but that had cut them off. They couldn’t hear (and didn’t trust) U.S. media. For all they knew, the war had already begun
We don’t know how long they argued. We do know that the nuclear weapons the Russians carried (each ship had just one, with a special guard who stayed with it, day and night) were to be used only if Russia itself had been attacked. Or if attack was imminent. Savitsky felt he had the right to fire first. Official Russian accounts insist he needed a direct order from Moscow, but Archipov’s wife Olga says there was a confrontation.
She and Ryurik Ketov, the gold-toothed captain of a nearby Russian sub, both heard the story directly from Vasili. Both believe him and say so in this PBS documentary. Some scenes are dramatized, but listen to what they say …
As the drama unfolded, Kennedy worried that the Russians would mistake depth charges for an attack. When his defense secretary said the U.S. was dropping “grenade”-size signals over the subs, the president winced. His brother Robert Kennedy later said that talk of depth charges “were the time of greatest worry to the President. His hand went up to his face [and] he closed his fist.”
Video Still From the PBS documentary, “Missile Crisis: The Man Who Saved the World.“
The Russian command, for its part, had no idea how tough it was inside those subs. Anatoly Andreev, a crew member on a different, nearby sub, kept a journal, a continuing letter to his wife, that described what it was like:
For the last four days, they didn’t even let us come up to the periscope depth … My head is bursting from the stuffy air. … Today three sailors fainted from overheating again … The regeneration of air works poorly, the carbon dioxide content [is] rising, and the electric power reserves are dropping. Those who are free from their shifts, are sitting immobile, staring at one spot. … Temperature in the sections is above 50 [122ºF].
The debate between the captain and Arkhipov took place in an old, diesel-powered submarine designed for Arctic travel but stuck in a climate that was close to unendurable. And yet, Arkhipov kept his cool. After their confrontation, the missile was not readied for firing. Instead, the Russian sub rose to the surface, where it was met by a U.S. destroyer. The Americans didn’t board. There were no inspections, so the U.S. Navy had no idea that there were nuclear torpedos on those subs—and wouldn’t know for around 50 years, when the former belligerents met at a 50th reunion. Instead, the Russians turned away from Cuba and headed north, back to Russia.
Photograph courtesy of U.S. National Archives, Still Pictures Branch, Record Group 428, Item 428-N-711199
Looking back, it all came down to Arkhipov. Everyone agrees that he’s the guy who stopped the captain. He’s the one who stood in the way.
He was, as best as we can tell, not punished by the Soviets. He was later promoted. Reporter Alexander Mozgovoi describes how the Soviet Navy conducted a formal review and how the man in charge, Marshal Grachko, when told about conditions on those ships, “removed his glasses and hit them against the table in fury, breaking them into small pieces, and abruptly leaving the room after that.”
Photo courtesy of M. Yarovskaya and A. Labunskaya
How Arkhipov (that’s him up above) managed to keep his temper in all that heat, how he managed to persuade his frantic colleague, we can’t say, but it helps to know that Arkhopov was already a Soviet hero. A year earlier he’d been on another Soviet sub, the K-19, when the coolant system failed and the onboard nuclear reactor was in danger of meltdown. With no backup system, the captain ordered the crew to jerry-rig a repair, and Arkhopov, among others, got exposed to high levels of radiation. Twenty-two crew members died from radiation sickness over the next two years. Arkhipov wouldn’t die until 1998, but it would be from kidney cancer, brought on, it’s said, by exposure.
Nuclear weapons are inherently dangerous. Handling them, using them, not using them, requires caution, care. Living as we do now with North Korea, Pakistani generals, jihadists, and who knows who’ll be the next U.S. president, the world is very, very lucky that at one critical moment, someone calm enough, careful enough, and cool enough was there to say no.
Thanks to Alex Wellerstein, author of the spectacular blog Restricted Data, for his help guiding me to source material on this subject.
22 thoughts on “You (and Almost Everyone You Know) Owe Your Life to This Man.”
Cornell Greensays: March 26, 2016 at 2:12 pm Bravo, Robert!An excellent article… and a cautionary tale, especially for those “bomb ’em back to the stone age” advocates among us. As if we are the only ones with bombs. Reply
FSWoodsays: March 26, 2016 at 8:10 pm Dad was a senior US Navy officer who on USN Destroyers for some years hunted Soviet subs. And knowing both him and my Mother, and guessing that other people can have similar character, I accept that at face vale — “Official Russian accounts insist he needed a direct order from Moscow, but Archipov’s wife Olga says there was a confrontation. She and Ryurik Ketov, the gold-toothed captain of a nearby Russian sub, both heard the story directly from Vasili. Both believe him and say so in this PBS documentary.” Reply
Robert Krulwichsays: March 27, 2016 at 2:01 pm FSW– I wondered myself. It seems strange — deeply strange — that the Soviets would have left such a monstrously important decision in the hands of field commanders. But apparently they did. And as nuclear weapons get downsized into nuclear arms, and then tactical nuclear devices, as the technology makes terrible things smaller and smaller, I hope the command system keeps the decisions and the decision-makers big and important, and most of all – steady. I don’t know who’s minding the store in Belgium at those nuclear plants, or who’s making decisions in those places I mention, but I’m getting more and more nervous. Reply
Vickie Kaspersays: March 27, 2016 at 8:04 am Good thing Donald Trump wasn’t involved in the decision. Reply
Jeanninesays: March 28, 2016 at 11:16 am My first thought exsactly!!!! Reply
FlyoverMikesays: March 28, 2016 at 3:01 pm Good thing Barack Obama wasn’t involved in the decision. Reply
Marc Lapointesays: March 28, 2016 at 6:22 pm Very good thing JFK and RFK were ! Reply
lgstarnsays: March 28, 2016 at 6:25 pm Right, he might have made peace with Cuba earlier. That would have been terrible. Reply
Marc Lapointesays: March 28, 2016 at 8:00 pm Apparently, JFK had a emissary speaking with Castro at time of his murder. Had he live , the world would be a very different place; just imagine no Vietnam war. Listen at the former president Eisenhower speak about the new world order and the power of the war industry. Reply
Charles J Gallagher Jrsays: March 28, 2016 at 7:09 am Arkhipov, possibly more than any other individual in history, did prevent a potential nuclear exchange. The article is excellent and generally accurate. In addition the four Foxtrot Class Commanding Officers were given oral orders before they departed: reach Cuba undetected or do not come back alive. They were also told that under extraordinary circumstances they should use the nuclear tipped torpedo without orders from Moscow. I was on the USS Charles P. Cecil (DDR-835) which held sonar contact on one of the four Foxtrots until it ran out of air and had to surface. Reply
Nitasays: March 28, 2016 at 12:07 pm Thank you for your service, sir. Reply
CJ Rolphesays: March 28, 2016 at 5:03 pm I was stationed at Charleston AFB when this happened…it was real scary! But not HALF AS SCARY as it is knowing this was going on!!! wow!!! Reply
Dr. Richard G. Macdonaldsays: March 28, 2016 at 9:50 am This edited Letter to Editor of the Peoria Journal Star in Peoria IL was published on Saturday, March 26. The paragraph of my wife being blocked performing her important position by NORAD during the Cuban crisis due to her ID card was edited out by the paper. I felt it was an analogy to voter ID restrictions now allowed by the ruling of SCOTUS. Enjoyed the article as I personally knew how close we were to war. I & my fellow Army doctors were in fascinating horror during those 10 days. Have many sidebar stories of that time which I experienced during those 10 days.Dr. Richard G. Macdonald To Forum PJSMar 22 at 3:53 PMAt this moment, I am sitting watching a base ballgame. It is a game between Cuba & Tampa Bay Rays in Havana Cuba. Everyone on that field and in the stands could immediately walk across our southern borders to freedom without even a wall stopping them. President Obama & Cuba President Raul Castro are sitting together high fiving each other for great outfield catches. Thanks to Congress and the Statue of Liberty, this ability to be accepted right now by our country without qualms while these two Presidents sit next to each other smiling is sign of our country’s greatness.Yet candidates for the office of the president not only think 50 years of failure is a sign of Cuban foreign policy success but now want to prevent every other country’s citizens being accepted with the same access to USA that Cuba now has. Matter of fact, a few of the candidates even brag about their heritage with Cuba and how their own family exists in the USA because of this privileged Congressional approval.As an enlisted man during the Bay of Pigs, the Berlin Wall being built and then as an officer; I had to make out a will & testament, get a yellow flu shot after standing in silence with my fellow hospital doctors in front of a black and white TV set watching President Kennedy saying we may be on the brink of atomic warfare.At the same time, my wife worked as an executive secretary for NORAD and couldn’t go to work to serve our country in high crisis as her Army dependent ID card was invalid until she obtained an Air Force ID. Reminds me of voting ID laws today by states afraid of people voting. The exception is that we aren’t on the brink of going to war with Russia in 1962 but the fear on IDs by elected office holders appears to be the same.As a Vet, I much prefer high fiving at a baseball game than using Shock & Awe to win over a country and its people.Richard G. MacdonaldTremont, IL 61568 Reply
A Pakistanisays: March 28, 2016 at 1:02 pm The blatant reference to “pakistani generals” and associating them with the likes of “jihadists” was very derogatory and sad to read. Please refrain from such remarks. You just offended 20 million people. Reply
Erik Scothronsays: March 28, 2016 at 2:50 pm No, he just offended you. Try to get a little perspective. Reply
Rhyssensays: March 28, 2016 at 2:54 pm Do be quiet, you (as a nation) are a danger to yourself and you don’t even realize it. And your comment is proof enough. Instead of taking this article as it is, your feathers get ruffled like a 12 year old girl who’s been told she cant have desert. You have 20 million generals in your country? You just offended your own civilians who mitigate for peace. Reply
gaurav rasailysays: March 28, 2016 at 1:09 pm never heard about that .all i knew was from the amercian point of view ..there are always those people in the middle of crisis who can keep calm and pull out danger with very highr risk and become reason of saving lives … Reply
Karolsays: March 28, 2016 at 2:11 pm Great story and I hope the state control of such dangeroues weapons era soon will be over. Reply
Florent Pirotsays: March 28, 2016 at 3:55 pm Interesting – didn’t knew Arkhipov was on board K19 and got irradiated.Talking about jihadists and the proliferation risk, here’s a link of interest (my work) : Metallic enriched uranium is actually being circulated because it is used in missiles, for oxydation purposes. Reply
Bob Crainsays: March 28, 2016 at 4:12 pm If you are surprised to find nuclear torpedoes in the hands of individual crews, read Command and Control, the Damascus Accident … by Eric Schlosser (sp?) Reply
Linsays: March 28, 2016 at 4:21 pm There is a similar story told by the aid of one of the Chiefs of staff of the military of the day of the confrontation. All of them were in Kennedy’s office waiting to see if the Soviet fleet would cross the red line that JFK had drawn as the “act of war” line. The guy in command of the American ships called to say that the Soviet ships had crossed the line. All the people in the room were commanding the president to give the order to attack. The guy telling his eye witness story said that President Kennedy sat there in his rocking chair with everyone yelling at him about how we “had to hit them.” This would surely have resulted in a nuclear war. His family had already been evacuated from Washington and the plane was standing ready to take him out to the caves in the Midwest. Finally, he said, with tears in his eyes, ” I can’t. I have children.” Now JFK was a decorated war hero. He was no wimp. A minute later, the phone rang. It was the commander again. It was a mistake. The Soviet fleet had not crossed the red line. They had stopped and turned around. When I heard that story, my first thought was that this was what JFK was sent to us for, for that one moment in history when one strong man stood against all his advisors and the opinion of the world and said, “I can’t. I have children” to save us all unknowingly from an error that would have had devastating consequences beyond the imagination.
About Robert Robert Krulwich is cohost of Radiolab, WNYC’s Peabody Award–winning program about “big ideas” and now one of public radio’s most popular shows. It is carried on more than 500 radio stations, and its podcasts are downloaded over five million times each month.In Curiously Krulwich, Robert looks for “the little things that catch my eye—that when I lean in, get bigger, richer, and much more compelling.”You can see more of Robert’s work at radiolab.com and follow him on Twitter at @rkrulwich.
This exclusive report by Breitbart, Jerusalem and it’s not specifically airports. Read the entire story below.
EXCLUSIVE by BREITBART JERUSALEM:
TEL AVIV – The Islamic State has agents working in Western airports, metro stations and “very sensitive facilities in the world,” a leading Islamic State-allied militant claimed in an exclusive interview.
Abu al-Ayna al-Ansari, a Salafist movement senior official in the Gaza Strip, made the claim in a pre-recorded, hour-long interview to air in full on Sunday on “Aaron Klein Investigative Radio,” the popular weekend talk radio program broadcast on New York’s AM 970 The Answer and NewsTalk 990 AM in Philadelphia. Klein doubles as Breitbart’s senior investigative reporter and Jerusalem bureau chief.
Ansari is a well-known Gazan Salafist jihadist allied with Islamic State ideology. During the interview with Klein, Ansari seemed to be speaking as an actual IS member, repeatedly using the pronoun “we” when referring to IS and even seemingly making declarations on behalf of IS.
IS has been reluctant to officially declare its presence in Gaza for fear of a Hamas clampdown, but the group is known to be active in the coastal enclave and Ansari is a suspected IS leader. IS-aligned militants have taken responsibility for recent rocket fire from Gaza aimed at Israel.
Ansari claimed IS infiltration of Western transportation systems.
Ansari stated:
The Islamic State is a state. The Islamic State has agents all around the very sensitive facilities in the world, like metro stations, like airports and other places whether in the West or in the Arab world. We have our mujahedeen implanted in those facilities as workers, as employees, even in the security field in the airports.
And they were recruited to work with the Islamic State and we proved that we succeeded to reach a very deep infiltration in these facilities. We showed it in Sinai with the Russian jet. We show it now. And everybody should understand. This is a state. This state will not disappear. It will only become bigger because this is the message. This is the prophecy of Muhammad and this is the promise of Allah.
No evidence has emerged indicating any IS penetration of the work force at Brussels airport or the metro system, the two targets hit in terror strikes on Tuesday, killing at least 34 people and wounding some 270. IS claimed responsibility for the attacks.
In the wake of Brussels — at least for now — we’re back in the bad old days of the War of Civilizations narrative.
In the face of terror most foul, fury and vengeance are once more in the air. It’s not quite Christianity versus Islam, but it’s close.
Some anecdotal evidence. Two comments on a story in The Independent, worlds apart, suggest that two great swaths of humanity are once again on an unnecessary and tragic collision course.
Bobby said: “All the whole Mideast and ALL their ilk are Hated by me and mine.”
Ceycey replied: “Is your humanity only for Europe?”
Both commenters were responding to a story in the British newspaper written by Yasmin Ahmed in the wake of the terrorist bombings in Belgium. Ahmed pointed out that just before ISIS operatives set off bombs in Brussels, the Kurdistan Freedom Hawks detonated a car bomb in Turkey near a transportation hub, killing 37 and injuring 70 more. A closely-timed second attack killed four more people. In fact, Turkey has been beset by a spate of bombings by Kurdish separatists and ISIS, who in 2015 alone killed 141 and injured 910 others.
In both Brussels and Ankara, innocent people were killed indiscriminately by fanatics who believe political causes sanctify murder. But what struck Ahmed was the profound difference in the Western reaction to these atrocities. In social media there were safety check-ins on Facebook, hashtags on Twitter, and shared cartoons in response to the bombings at Zaventen Airport and Maelbeek metro station. In fact, “Brussels” garnered 17.5 million more Google news results than “Ankara”.
While the world mourned Brussels, Ankara was treated as a mere regional event. Case in point: After this week’s Brussels bombings, European countries raised the Belgian flag above their national monuments — a fitting tribute. The Eiffel Tower was illuminated in the colours of the Belgian flag, as was One World Trade Center in New York (though in truth, the colours looked more like red, white and blue). So Yasmin Ahmed posed an awkward question: Why didn’t Downing Street raise the red and white Turkish flag after the atrocities in Ankara?
Ahmed’s unease was mirrored by a young woman who knows a thing or two about being victimized by terrorism. Malala Yousafzai blazed to international fame after standing up for education for girls in Afghanistan and getting shot by the Taliban for her defiance.
In the flash of two bombs, the world is suddenly standing back in the rubble of 9/11 with President Bush repeating his With Us or With the Terrorists ultimatum. All the old, familiar and — I might add — failed solutions are once more being put forward by a real estate mogul who is being embraced as though he were King Solomon.
She too has spoken out about the dangers of dividing the victims of terrorism between East and West, providing global media funerals for some, mute indifference to others.
“Do you not see that this indifference to the non-Western lives is EXACTLY what is creating and feeding terror organizations like ISIS? … If your intention is to stop terrorism, do not try to blame the whole population of Muslims for it, because that cannot stop terrorism,” she said.
And that raises an interesting question. Is the West mute on the subject of innocent lives lost to terrorists in Turkey because the motivations behind those attacks were different from the reasons behind the killing in Europe — or because Turkey is 98 per cent Muslim? Has the West’s accusatory finger moved from ultra-extremist groups like ISIS and al Qaida to designate the members of an entire religion — again?
In this season of presidential politics in the United States, the answer is, sadly, ‘Yes’.
CNN, which fielded carpet-coverage of the Brussels bombings in a way that repeated rather than advanced the story for three gruesome days, has already come up with a poll showing that Republican frontrunner Donald Trump is now the first choice of Americans on anti-terrorism matters.
That is astonishing for a few reasons. First of all, Trump has zero experience in fighting terrorism in any official capacity. He has never held public office, and his chief advisor on foreign policy is The Donald. Trump has been widely denounced by military, national security and senior police leaders for his unconstitutional, illegal and flatly dangerous approach to some of America’s deepest problems.
The list is well known. So far Trump has proposed banning all Muslims from entering the United States, deporting 12 million illegal aliens, building a wall on the Mexican border, bringing back torture and instituting racial profiling in Muslim communities in the U.S. Now he has added that he wouldn’t rule out using nuclear weapons against ISIS. That’s right — nuclear weapons.
In the flash of two bombs, the world is suddenly standing back in the rubble of 9/11 with President Bush repeating his With Us or With the Terrorists ultimatum. All the old, familiar and — I might add — failed solutions are once more being put forward by a real estate mogul who is being embraced as though he were King Solomon.
Though there are many particulars to the new fundamentalism for defeating terror, it comes down to the familiar mantra of guns, gates and guards. If the police just had enough unconstitutional powers, if free citizens just gave up enough civil liberties, if the West could just exert enough hard power against Islamic terrorists, if only there could be more forced regime change, if only Muslims would begin denouncing the evil-doers in their communities, the world would never have to see the cities of Europe and the United States burning again.
Those answers have been tried for fifteen blood-soaked years and all the West has to show for it is millions of deaths, trillions in squandered treasure — and ISIS.
The time has come to recognize solidarity with all the victims of terror. As James Taylor, a U.K. citizen living in Ankara, posted on Facebook, “You were Charlie, you were Paris, will you be Ankara?”
Apparently not.
Michael Harris is a writer, journalist, and documentary filmmaker. He was awarded a Doctor of Laws for his “unceasing pursuit of justice for the less fortunate among us.” His nine books include Justice Denied, Unholy Orders, Rare ambition, Lament for an Ocean, and Con Game. His work has sparked four commissions of inquiry, and three of his books have been made into movies. His new book on the Harper majority government, Party of One, is a number one best-seller and has been shortlisted for the Governor-General’s Literary Award for English-language non-fiction.
Readers can reach the author at [email protected]. Click here to view other columns by Michael Harris.
The views, opinions and positions expressed by all iPolitics columnists and contributors are the author’s alone. They do not inherently or expressly reflect the views, opinions and/or positions of iPolitics.
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carrie_liberte• an hour ago
“First of all, Trump has zero experience in fighting terrorism in any official capacity. He has never held public office, and his chief advisor on foreign policy is The Donald.”
First of all, Trudeau has zero experience in fighting terrorism in any official capacity. He was a snowboard instructor before he held public office, and his chief advisor on foreign policy is The Butts.
hahahaha
Pat Wilmot carrie_liberte • 10 minutes ago
You really should seek professional help for your obsession. Harris doesn’t even mention PRIME MINISTER Trudeau in this column, but still you have to blather on irrelevantly about him. In this War of Civilizations, Canada is a bit player – and one of the more calm and sensible ones, now that your hijab-hating heroes have been kicked out.
MrCoreyandTrevor Pat Wilmot • 8 minutes ago
The hijab was fine, it was the niqab that was objected to.
Dutchcourage• 2 hours ago
Isis has murdered far more Muslim than non Muslims. The fact that Saudi Arabia and Iran cannot get organized to eradicate this nihilist sect tells you that there is a proxy war going on. The victims of terrorism, both Muslim and non Muslim are just collateral damage.
Lymetime• 2 hours ago
The double standard is obviously present and speaks volumes about how the West views the non-West. Scratch that, it’s probably more “white money culture” vs. “Colour any-other-culture”. This divide only ensures that this continues to happen.
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