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So with the recent global terrorism alert I realised that we don't have a place to discuss such events as they happen and how they are being dealt with/reacted to.

    OP text (regarding events that were recent st the time) 
First however I'd like to lay down a disclaimer, this is not a place to discuss the ethics of the "war on terror" it's for talking about current global threats, if you want to debate the ethics of the war on terror than make a thread for it, this is not the place.

So now I've done that, here's the latest as I'm aware of it. Normally I'd provide sources but I'm on my iPad so it's difficult to do so.

US embassies across the Great Middle East are closed until Saturday due to the current threat, the embassies of other western nations in Yeman have also been closed with staff being evacuated from the county.

Additionally a global travel alert has been issued for all US citizens, with US/UK citizens in Yeman being told to leave immediately.

Yeman's security services have been placing much of the country on lockdown, with the army out in force due to intelligence indicating that a large number of Al-Qa'ida operatives are in the country to work on the expected attack.

They (Yeman's security forces) have also just recently announced that they have foiled an attempt by AQ to blow up several oil pipelines and seize control of costal cities, howev they remain on high alert, so there is obviously more to come.


Mod edit:
  • As of July 2024, the OTC Israel and Palestine thread is locked indefinitely and that discussion should not migrate to other threads. Discussion of terrorism or extrajudicial activity related to either of them (including speculation about a connection to them) is banned here.

Edited by Mrph1 on Jul 28th 2024 at 12:37:25 PM

Quag15 Since: Mar, 2012
#1176: Jan 18th 2015 at 6:55:09 AM

[up][up]Probably, yeah.

Thing is, would atheism be considered an extremist ideology there?

MarqFJA The Cosmopolitan Fictioneer from Deserts of the Middle East (Before Recorded History) Relationship Status: Anime is my true love
The Cosmopolitan Fictioneer
#1177: Jan 18th 2015 at 7:17:24 AM

Plain old atheism? No. Aggressively anti-religious atheism? Most probably, though I doubt even secular Western countries would complain much; I understand that doing actively anti-religious stuff is heavily frowned up by their social mores, especially if it involves violence.

Fiat iustitia, et pereat mundus.
Achaemenid HGW XX/7 from Ruschestraße 103, Haus 1 Since: Dec, 2011 Relationship Status: Giving love a bad name
HGW XX/7
#1178: Jan 18th 2015 at 8:39:51 AM

The age of aggressive and violent atheism died with the Communist world.

edited 18th Jan '15 8:40:01 AM by Achaemenid

Schild und Schwert der Partei
MarqFJA The Cosmopolitan Fictioneer from Deserts of the Middle East (Before Recorded History) Relationship Status: Anime is my true love
The Cosmopolitan Fictioneer
#1179: Jan 18th 2015 at 8:42:48 AM

Large-scale organized anti-religionism, maybe. But I highly doubt that none of the violent responses to Islamist extremism had involve a few anti-religionists melding into the bigger crown under some other, more wholesome excuse, just so they can indulge in their desire for anti-religious violence.

Fiat iustitia, et pereat mundus.
Medinoc from France (Before Recorded History)
#1180: Jan 18th 2015 at 8:45:53 AM

[up][up]I'm not even sure one can truly call it atheism with the personality cult going on...

"And as long as a sack of shit is not a good thing to be, chivalry will never die."
MarqFJA The Cosmopolitan Fictioneer from Deserts of the Middle East (Before Recorded History) Relationship Status: Anime is my true love
The Cosmopolitan Fictioneer
#1181: Jan 18th 2015 at 8:48:02 AM

Well, at least the Soviet personality cult didn't go into outright leader-deification territory.

Fiat iustitia, et pereat mundus.
Iaculus Pronounced YAK-you-luss from England Since: May, 2010
Pronounced YAK-you-luss
#1182: Jan 18th 2015 at 8:56:38 AM

Juche is weird shit. It used to sell itself as communist, but it has way more in common with monarchical fascism than even the horseshoe theory would allow for.

What's precedent ever done for us?
Achaemenid HGW XX/7 from Ruschestraße 103, Haus 1 Since: Dec, 2011 Relationship Status: Giving love a bad name
HGW XX/7
#1183: Jan 18th 2015 at 8:59:59 AM

Well, there's even a hypothesis that Juche is mostly a sham ideology invented for propaganda purposes to put Kim Il-sung on the same level as Mao: Mao had Maoism, therefore Kim Il-sung must have Juche. Mao had the Long March, Kim must have the Arduous March etc.

Schild und Schwert der Partei
MarqFJA The Cosmopolitan Fictioneer from Deserts of the Middle East (Before Recorded History) Relationship Status: Anime is my true love
The Cosmopolitan Fictioneer
#1184: Jan 18th 2015 at 9:10:16 AM

In other words, they're the political version of copycats.

Now, back to your regularly scheduled discussion of terrorism worldwide. cool

Fiat iustitia, et pereat mundus.
Barkey Since: Feb, 2010 Relationship Status: [TOP SECRET]
#1185: Jan 18th 2015 at 9:31:21 AM

There's something going on. There's got to be credible intel going around about a few very possible terrorist attacks.

Greece, Belgium, and France have all launched massive raids across their countries to snatch up terrorist suspects(Greece snatched one up who was a cell leader they thought was in Turkey). All of these took place within about 48 hours of eachother. Belgium has pulled its Army in to assist the police with manpower for the first time in 30 years.

Then I went to LAX to drop off my fiance at the airport, cops and checkpoints everywhere. Not really impeding traffic in any way, but it's like they were looking for someone. About 100 extra officers at the airport, all keyed up and walking around like they are hunting for someone, scanning everyone they can see with the level of scrutiny that shows they know who they are looking for.

edited 18th Jan '15 9:32:14 AM by Barkey

AnSTH Lawful Evil Since: May, 2013 Relationship Status: Showing feelings of an almost human nature
#1186: Jan 18th 2015 at 9:42:28 AM

[up] Maybe. I doubt there's some giant terrorist conspiracy, but I'm not sitting on a ton of intelligence that proves one way or the other.

I think it's more likely that the CH attack ratcheted fear Up To Eleven across Western Europe and the governments there are simply going after a lot of people on their suspected terrorist lists in order to look like they're doing something to prevent further attacks.

But that's a story for another time.
Barkey Since: Feb, 2010 Relationship Status: [TOP SECRET]
#1187: Jan 18th 2015 at 9:47:41 AM

There's got to be some sort of credible intel, at least on the LA side. LAPD doesn't spend hundreds of thousands on manpower for what was going on at LAX for no real reason other than a generic show of force.

AnSTH Lawful Evil Since: May, 2013 Relationship Status: Showing feelings of an almost human nature
#1188: Jan 18th 2015 at 11:12:51 AM

Ah. I misread your post then. Didn't read LAX as Los Angeles International. Thought you were in Europe for some reason. Brain smart good.

But that's a story for another time.
SocketClosed Since: Jan, 2015
#1189: Jan 18th 2015 at 1:07:38 PM

.

edited 27th Jan '16 1:54:42 PM by SocketClosed

Gabrael from My musings Since: Nov, 2011 Relationship Status: Is that a kind of food?
#1190: Jan 18th 2015 at 1:24:24 PM

Eh, because most conspiracy theorists take a small fact or even a chance of truth and take it to a horrible and dumb extreme that has no credibility.

"Psssh. Even if you could catch a miracle on a picture any person would probably delete it to make space for more porn." - Aszur
Iaculus Pronounced YAK-you-luss from England Since: May, 2010
Pronounced YAK-you-luss
#1191: Jan 18th 2015 at 1:40:49 PM

Also, whenever we get a look into the inner workings of any organisation with the motives and resources for a properly huge conspiracy, we usually find that they're a bunch of shortsighted backstabbing fuckups whose successes were more accident than design. That applies to both terrorist organisations and national intelligence agencies.

What's precedent ever done for us?
AnSTH Lawful Evil Since: May, 2013 Relationship Status: Showing feelings of an almost human nature
#1192: Jan 18th 2015 at 1:43:54 PM

[up][up][up] Occam's Razor. A lot of things have to be true that currently seem highly unlikely in order for an effective giant international terrorist conspiracy to be real. Based on what I know about human and government nature it just doesn't take quite as large of a leap for me to believe that people are overreacting to the threat.

edited 18th Jan '15 1:44:14 PM by AnSTH

But that's a story for another time.
SocketClosed Since: Jan, 2015
#1193: Jan 18th 2015 at 1:53:43 PM

.

edited 27th Jan '16 1:54:51 PM by SocketClosed

DeMarquis (4 Score & 7 Years Ago)
#1194: Jan 18th 2015 at 2:08:12 PM

I'm sure there's some non-specific intel on potential attacks that everyone is responding to.

The French are honoring the satirists of Charlie Hebdo by … prosecuting satirists:

"In the wake of the recent terrorist attacks in Paris, the principal message has been, quite rightly, to defend free expression and to condemn those who would use violence to respond to messages they dislike. Yet at the same time, the French Ministry of Justice has ordered prosecutors to enforce with “utmost vigor” a law that itself imposes violence, albeit of the state-sanctioned variety, on speech whose messages the French majority dislikes."

Another version of "That defeats the purpose of opposing terrorists..."

I'm done trying to sound smart. "Clear" is the new smart.
desdendelle Hooded Crow from Land of Milk and Honey (Sergeant) Relationship Status: Hiding
Hooded Crow
#1195: Jan 18th 2015 at 2:53:59 PM

Dieudonné should be prosecuted because he's an antisemitic prick, not because he feels like a dead terrorist...

On empty crossroads, seek the eclipse -- for when Sol and Lua align, the lost shall find their way home.
Aprilla Since: Aug, 2010
#1196: Jan 18th 2015 at 3:04:42 PM

[up] Has he committed any actual crimes?

SeptimusHeap from Switzerland (Edited uphill both ways) Relationship Status: Mu
#1198: Jan 18th 2015 at 3:07:57 PM

Yes, incitement of racial/ethnic hatred. Including saying it's a bad thing that a Jewish journalist didn't end up in gas chambers or something like that.

"For a successful technology, reality must take precedence over public relations, for Nature cannot be fooled." - Richard Feynman
Aprilla Since: Aug, 2010
#1199: Jan 18th 2015 at 3:15:06 PM

...

...You guys aren't seeing the double standard going on here?

desdendelle Hooded Crow from Land of Milk and Honey (Sergeant) Relationship Status: Hiding
Hooded Crow
#1200: Jan 18th 2015 at 3:18:38 PM

-Quizzical Tilt-
It might be the late hour, but saying people should be in gas chambers is a bit a lot worse than mocking their religion, I think.

On empty crossroads, seek the eclipse -- for when Sol and Lua align, the lost shall find their way home.

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