Putin shameless at levers of propaganda machine (5/6/13)
I have lived in and around Boston for nearly all of my adult life, so I have nothing but scorn and disdain for the ethnic Chechen Tsarnaev brothers' attack on the Boston Marathon.
But Vladimir Putin's claim that the marathon bombing vindicates Russian actions in the North Caucasus, particularly his crackdown on Chechnya, is shamelessly self-serving propaganda. Speaking at an annual question-and-answer session on April 25, Putin said, "I was always appalled when our Western partners and the Western media called the terrorists, who did bloody crimes in our country, 'insurgents,' and almost never ‘terrorists.'"
Moscow has had a literally tortured relationship with Chechnya over the past 70 years, bookended by Stalin's deadly winter 1944 forced deportation of about 400,000 people from Chechnya and the brutal warfare Putin launched on the Chechens in 1999. There's a long history littered with the deaths of innocents that has turned Chechnya into a hotbed for terrorism.
Chechnya has been a blot on Russia's human rights record for the past 20 years. The U.S. State Department's 2012 annual survey on human rights released last month is highly critical of Russia's record in the North Caucasus:
- Rule of law was particularly deficient in the North Caucasus, where conflict among government forces, insurgents, Islamist militants, and criminal forces led to numerous human rights abuses, including killings, torture, physical abuse, and politically motivated abductions.
- There continued to be reports that security forces used indiscriminate force resulting in numerous deaths and that the perpetrators were not prosecuted.
- Armed forces and police units reportedly abused and tortured both rebels and civilians in holding facilities. Human rights groups noted that physical abuse of women was becoming increasingly common in the region.
- Government personnel, rebels, and criminal elements continued to engage in abductions in the North Caucasus.
- Burning the homes of suspected rebels reportedly continued. Memorial (a leading Russian human rights group) reported that on April 22, two days after a special operation in the village of Komsomolskoye in the Gudermes District of Chechnya, armed men in camouflage burned the house belonging to the grandparents of Akhmed Bantaev, one of the men killed in the special operation.
Democracy, civil liberty and the War on Terrorism (4/25/13)
It appears Mayor Tom Menino and other top officials made good decisions in the manhunt for the Boston Marathon bombing suspects, including essentially declaring martial law in Watertown and "shutting down" Boston.
I don't know whether to feel deeply grateful or deeply troubled.
One of the legacies of 9/11 is an unprecedent capability for federal, state and local government to declare and enforce martial law. There were hundreds, if not thousands, of police officers and National Guard members on the streets of Watertown in less than 12 hours.
I hope our political leaders keep making good decisions with their new police state powers.
Chechen war children grow up to be monsters (4/19/13)
After variously simmering and exploding into violence over the past 20 years largely out of the media spotlight, the breakaway regions of the Russian Caucasus have become a focal point of the biggest story in the world.
It's too early to say whether the brothers accused in the Boston Marathon bombings, Tamerlan and Dzhokhar Tsarnaev, were radicalized by the fighting in their homeland. But it's unlikely they would have been in the United States were it not for the struggle between Russia and separatists in Caucasus regions such as Chechnya and Georgia.
Two wars have been fought in Chechnya since the fall of the Soviet Union. Russian President Boris Yeltsin waged the first from 1994 to 1996, and Vladimir Putin started the second as part of his rise to power in 1999. Intense fighting into 2000 was followed by years of Russian counterinsurgency warfare that ultimately led to relative stability under President Ramzan Kadyrov, who has been accused of running Chechnya as a brutal dictator.
Horrific warfare, human rights abuses and political assassinations have been hallmarks of Chechen life for the past two decades. Two children of this war-scarred generation apparently grew up to be the monsters of the Boston Marathon bombings.
CHECHNYA READING LIST
The Oath: A Surgeon Under Fire
American War on Terrorism's Heartbreak Hill (4/15/13)
Emergency workers respond to the bombing of the 2013 Boston Marathon finish line. /AP photo Charles Krupa
This leaves a dent in the American way of life.
Just as 9/11 ruined the illusion of being safe in the workplace at our biggest cities, the Boston Marathon Bombing has ruined the illusion of being safe at our biggest entertainment events.
In U.S. spectatorship, the Boston Marathon is second only to the Super Bowl.
With three dead and more than 170 injured, the Boston attack ranks among the worst bombings in Iraq, Afghanistan or any other front in War on Terrorism. The bombs appear to have been placed at ground level and were loaded with nails and pellets to maximize lethality.
With no one immediately taking responsibility, it's sobering to ponder who among America's enemies could have perpetrated this Boston bloodbath. At least a half dozen suspects come to mind, after al-Qaeda.
One of the worst outcomes of the hours, days and weeks after this atrocity would be a rush for revenge. Only justice can heal those scarred in the Boston bombing, and there can be no rush to justice.
I lived for several years near the Natick Town Common, where the marathon course crosses through one of the last bastions of Main Street America. It's hard to imagine being anywhere on the course now without the bombing crossing our minds.
Marathon madness: Terrorist attack shocks America (4/15/13)
Monday's bomb attack on the Boston Marathon is a reminder that the United States faces an insidious struggle with domestic and foreign terrorists. Whoever is responsible for the marathon bombings can expect retribution akin to the U.S.-led invasion of Afghanistan that followed the 9/11 terrorist attacks on New York City and the Pentagon.
Living proof that God hates the Taliban (2/4/13)
If the Taliban were Star Wars fans, they would have seen this coming.
Pakistani education activist Malala Yousafzai's miraculous recovery after an Islamist extremist shot her in the head reminds me of the classic Star Wars scene showing Darth Vader "killing" Jedi Knight Obi-Wan Kenobi. Just before the arch villain slices Obi-Wan in half with a light saber, Alec Guinness delivers one of the most memorable lines in cinema history: "If you strike me down, I shall become more powerful than you can possibly imagine."
U.S. Army losing battle with suicide (2/4/13)
Suicide is taking a daily toll in the U.S. Army. /Image via illumemagazine.com
The United States is fighting one hot war in Afghanistan and smaller scale war-on-terrorism police actions around the globe. But there's no draft, no war bonds, no calls on the American people to share the sacrifice of armed service members and their families.
For those Americans who have a hard time remembering the nation is at war, here's a grim reminder: the U.S. Army set a suicide record last year, with 325 soldiers taking their own lives.
Despite the Army's efforts to ramp up support services for soldiers and their families, mental health professionals and veteran advocates told CNN that the strains on the U.S. military are outstripping the Pentagon's response to its suicide epidemic. "The whole system being strained: more temper, stigma is rampant, leaders who should be getting more education for mental health issues but are not," said Dr. William Nash, who specializes in combat stress injuries.
Paul Sullivan, who serves on the board of Veterans for Common Sense, gave an equally pessimistic view of the efforts to address the problem. "The military is trying to improve, yet it's still falling short," he said. "For example, the military is now providing more psychological exams, but it's not doing it for every soldier coming back. And the military still reports that it's short-handed for mental health professionals and, because of the vacancies, that means either veterans don't see a doctor at all, there's delay seeing a doctor, the veteran is put in group therapy instead of individual, or the veteran is given prescription drugs instead of receiving one-on-one counseling, which is the best standard."
Mali teaching lesson in African security challenges (1/28/13)
The international community can't afford to ignore Africa.
In an opinion piece for the Concord Monitor this week, Africa security and terrorism expert Kurt Shillinger makes a powerful case for global leaders such as the United States and France to actively help African countries develop their nascent democracies and combat extremist groups. In particular, Shillinger sounds the alarm about the spread of Islamic extremist movements from East Africa into the Sahel and across North Africa.
The Sahel, a barren band of territory between the vast deserts and arid expanses of North Africa and the grasslands that stretch across the southern half of the continent, is one of the harshest environments on Earth. Most soldiers from African nations lack the training and equipment to operate in the Sahel, making it fertile soil for any insurgency to grow.
With fighting raging in Mali for more than a year, last summer's deadly attack on the U.S. consulate in Benghazi and this month's hostage crisis at an Algerian petroleum plant, it's clear that North Africa is becoming one of the hotter battle fronts in the struggle against terrorism and Islamic extremism.
War on Terrorism entering dangerous phase (1/19/13)
Worried yet? I'm thinking back to the Iraq War's prelude, when Middle East experts in the U.S. State Department warned that an assault on Baghdad would have an effect in the Muslim world akin to pounding your fist into a hornet nest.
The Taliban-like Islamist movement battling for control of Mali that prompted French intervention this week is one of many radical armed groups fighting insurgencies or conducting terrorist campaigns across North Africa, the Middle East and the heart of South Asia. In addition to the longtime flashpoint in Israel, at least a dozen other countries in this sprawling territory are reeling with violence that ranges from simmering to boiling over: Afghanistan, Algeria, Iraq, Lebanon, Libya, Mali, Pakistan, Somalia, Sudan, Syria, Tunisia and Yemen.
It's getting hard to imagine successful strategies to end the bleeding any time soon, nevermind look forward to the end of Islamic fundamentalists seeking to create nation-states governed under Sharia law. Eleven years after the United States launched its War on Terrorism in response to 9/11, radical Islamic groups and national movements continue to pose a grave threat to peace around the globe.
Reminders of women's rights plight in 2012 (12/29/12)
The year closes with grim examples of the weak status of women's rights around the world.
On Dec. 29, an Indian medical student who had been gang raped on a New Delhi bus died in a Singapore hospital, where she had been flown for treatment of mortal injuries. Six men are accused of attacking and beating the 23-year-old and her male companion, then throwing them off the moving bus. Reuters reported: "The attack has sparked an intense national debate for the first time about the treatment of women and attitudes towards sex crimes in a country where most rapes go unreported, many offenders go unpunished, and the wheels of justice turn slowly, according to social activists."
On Oct. 9, a Taliban gunman shot Pakistani schoolgirl Malala Yousafzai point blank in the head. Soon after the attack, The New York Times reported: "She had become a symbol of resistance against the Taliban, advocating access to education for girls in an area that has been one of the Taliban’s main strongholds in Pakistan." Malala remains in the U.K. recovering from injuries to her head and neck. She "will have lifetime security" when she returns to her homeland, according to the Pakistani Interior minister.
Rape continues to be a weapon of war in the Congo, where Mother Jones reports about a half million women have been raped since the country's second civil war began in 1997. On Dec. 15, The New York York Times reported: "Many of these rapes have been marked by a level of brutality that is shocking even by the twisted standards of a place rived by civil war and haunted by warlords and drugged-up child soldiers. What’s the strategic purpose of putting an AK-47 assault rifle inside a woman and pulling the trigger? Or cutting out a woman’s fetus and making her friends eat it?"
Protecting women from this kind of abuse is a global challenge. In the United States, where sexual assault remains one of the top crimes against women and girls, there is much more that can be done at home and voices that must be raised against atrocities abroad.
Islamic extremists target cultural treasures in Mali (12/24/12)
Cultural rivalry helps fuel movements based on fundamentalist religion or ideology. There are many historical examples of these campaigns against history: The Temple was destroyed in Jerusalem to strike a blow at the heart of Jewish history, the Roman Catholic Inquisition fought against history when it condemned Galileo, and the Taliban assaulted Buddhist history in Afghanistan's Bamiyan Valley.
The latest front in Islamic extremists' cultural war is Timbuktu in Mali, where fighters reportedly affiliated with al-Qaeda have been destroying antiquities for months. Timbuktu, an early center of Islamic culture, was declared a UN World Heritage site mainly because of its ancient cemeteries and mausoleums. The Salafist Muslims of the Islamist group that has seized control of northern Mali, Ansar Dine, view the mausoleums as a form of idolatry.
"Not a single mausoleum will remain in Timbuktu," Abou Dardar, an Ansar Dine leader, told AFP on Dec. 23.
"Allah doesn't like it," said Abou Dardar. "We are in the process of smashing all the hidden mausoleums in the area."
BBC radio reported Ansar Dine fighters forced their way into private homes over the weekend and destroyed four mausoleums.
'Fierce opponent of Taliban' assassinated (12/22/12)
No front in the struggle against terrorism is more crucial than Pakistan. The killing of Senior Minister Bashir Bilour in a suicide bomb blast today is a blow. Dailytimes.com described Bilour as "a fierce opponent of the Taliban."
In addition to Bilour, dailytime.com reported eight other people were killed and 18 were injured in the Peshawar attack.
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