War on Terror

The Zoo has guns.

Filed under: War on Terror

The Strib featured a recent story that played with the issues of animal escape at the Zoo. It scares the scat out of all who read it. And it makes it seem like Zoomageddon could happen in Minneapolis, although if it did, the man eating weretigers will get blown apart before they shred apart any fourth-grader licking a tootsie pop.

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Posted by Bradley Campbell at August 4, 2008 4:40 PM | Comments (3)

 

Dad Enters Triathlon in Honor of His Son and PTSD

Filed under: War on Terror

After publishing a cover story on the increase in soldier suicides and the complexities facing the U.S. Military and Veteran's Administration as they deal with an influx of veterans dealing with mental health disorders, such as PTSD, we received several e-mails from readers wanting to help.

Here's a great way.

Matt Hinton, the father of Bryan Benson, one of the marines we profiled, is pairing up with his son’s widow, Maria, to raise money for returning veterans and their families dealing with the trauma of war. At 53, he's competing in a Triathlon.

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Posted by Beth Walton at June 12, 2008 11:31 AM | Comments (0)

 

Spinning it to the blogs

Filed under: War on Terror

How do you make a very unpopular war ring favorably to Americans surfing the net? Pay the bloggers to spin your message. Just don’t tell anyone.

Danger Room reporter Noah Shachtman uncovered a 2006 report written for U.S. Special Operations Command that suggests “clandestinely recruiting or hiring prominent bloggers.”

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Posted by Beth Walton at April 1, 2008 10:38 AM | Comments (0)

 

Local liberals attend surrender party at the library last week

Filed under: War on Terror

Nearly 100 pro-Constitution radicals were on hand at the Minneapolis Central Library on June 14 to witness a pair of Minneapolis attorneys spout their anti-torture propaganda. During the hour-long discussion "The Guantanamo Bay Challenge: Finding the Balance Between Our Nation's Security & Our Nation's Ideals," James Dorsey and Nicole Moen succeeded in undermining America's War on Terror by raising questions about Guantanamo interrogation tactics, thus emboldening the Enemy.

The duo—who practice at Fredrickson and Byron—described their on-going experiences representing Ahcene Zemiri, a 39-year-old Algerian man who has been detained in Guantanamo Bay since April 2002.

"Most [of the detainees] had been tortured or abused and were not well psychologically," said Moen, who acts as an Arabic translator in addition to her legal duties.

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Posted by Matt Snyders at June 18, 2007 2:44 PM | Comments (6)

 

The Complicity Chronicles

Filed under: War on Terror

Chalk up another first for University of Minnesota physician-ethicist Steve Miles: Earlier this week the U's Center for Bioethics and Human Rights Center launched an online archive of documents Miles collected while writing a book about medical operations at U.S. prisoner of war facilities overseas. The searchable database is thought to be the first ever human rights archive documenting an ongoing series of abuses.

In 2004, when Miles, a UM medical professor, first heard the reports about abuse at Abu Ghraib, he wondered about the doctors and other health care workers who had to have known--or covered up. After two painstaking years of research via the U.S. Freedom of Information Act, much of it conducted by the ACLU, Miles had amassed 35,000 pages of autopsy reports, e-mails, memos, medical records and other grim source materials, some handwritten, some containing just a footnote or offhand reference to a prisoner's death.

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Posted by Beth Hawkins at April 25, 2007 2:35 PM | Comments (0)

 

Retired Northwest Airlines pilot joins the 9/11 conspiracy movement

Filed under: War on Terror

As anyone who spends much time trolling conspiracy theory websites knows, 9/11 has become the JFK assassination for a new generation. Naturally, there is considerable dissent among the "truth movement" types about the particulars. Some believe a commercial airliner struck the Pentagon on 9/11, others contend it was a missile. But most are in agreement that the dark conspiracy has links to the Bush White House.

Then there is retired Northwest Airlines pilot Field McConnell. McConnell, who lives in rural Glyndon, Minnesota, claims that another 9/11 attack is imminent, Muslim terrorists are scapegoats, and that commercial airliners have been rigged with "Improvised Killing Devices."

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Posted by Mike Mosedale at March 12, 2007 3:23 PM | Comments (3)

 

Minneapolis-St. Paul only one of four major metro areas prepared for a crisis

Filed under: War on Terror

A Department of Homeland Security report, due to be released today, states that only four major metropolitan areas have emergency communications allowing police, fire, and medical officials to coordinate fully during a crisis. The cities that received the "most advanced" status include Washington, D.C.; San Diego, California; Columbus, Ohio; and Minneapolis-St. Paul. To achieve this status, cities had to have standard procedures for interoperable communications, working knowledge of the emergency equipment, and plans in place to meet further communications goals. The emergency systems of 75 urban and metro areas around the nation were surveyed, with cities such as Chicago and New York City coming up short.

Posted by Corey Anderson at January 3, 2007 10:00 AM | Comments (0)

 

Minneapolis FBI: See no Evil

Filed under: War on Terror

Local agent in Moussaoui case issued 70 terror warnings

On the stand yesterday in Virginia in the sentencing phase of 9/11 conspirator, a Minneapolis FBI agent offered some horrific testimony about his attempts to investigate Moussaoui's al Quaeda ties while the convict was incarcerated in Sherburne County, Minnesota.

An FBI agent who interrogated Zacarias Moussaoui before Sept. 11, 2001, warned his supervisors more than 70 times that Moussaoui was a terrorist and spelled out his suspicions that the al-Qaeda operative was plotting to hijack an airplane, according to federal court testimony yesterday.

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Posted by Beth Hawkins at March 21, 2006 3:27 PM | Comments (0)

 

Al Jazeera posts text of bin Laden audiotape

Filed under: War on Terror

The English-language Al Jazeera website has posted most of the text of an audiotape that the network broadcast earlier today, allegedly recorded by Osama bin Laden in December. Some excerpts:

"The new operations of al-Qaida has not happened not because we could not penetrate the security measures. It is being prepared and you'll see it in your homeland very soon," the voice attributed to bin Laden said, apparently addressing Americans....

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Posted by Steve Perry at January 19, 2006 11:15 AM | Comments (0)

 

The War Comes Home

Filed under: War on Terror

A few weeks ago, Hank Kaszynski celebrated a friend's birthday at the Liffey in St. Paul. An Irish band was playing, the whiskey and Guinness was flowing, and the 80-year-old father of eight ended the night by dancing enthusiastically with all comers.

For much of the night, Hank and his wife Mary Helen sat back and played the role of wallflower party guests. They talked about their passion for walking and biking, and about the spirit of their oldest son, Bruce, who was born with cerebral palsy and who has lived with the couple all their lives. There was also some worried talk of their 39-year-old son Kyle, a St. Paul policeman who had recently taken leave from his job to work for a private contractor in Iraq.

Kyle Kaszinski was killed Thursday when a roadside bomb detonated near his vehicle as it traveled from Baghdad to Baquaba. Last night, the devastated family's home in south Minneapolis was surrounded by candles, lit by well-wishers and fellow mourners, many of whom received this email, forwarded by Hank at the beginning of the week:

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Posted by Jim Walsh at December 23, 2005 11:32 AM | Comments (1)

 

Minnesota by the numbers: Iraq war edition

Filed under: War on Terror

In terms of the number of its native sons and daughters who have been killed in Iraq, Minnesota is faring better than most of the country. As of the November 26, according to the Nation magazine, Minnesota recorded one Iraq war death for each 196,000 residents. That trailed only Hawaii (one death per 210,000), New Jersey (212,000) and Utah (265,000).

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Posted by Mike Mosedale at December 7, 2005 3:00 PM | Comments (0)