Wednesday, October 20, 2010

6 shots hit Pentagon Tuesday



By Washington Post Editors  - October 20, 2010 - At least six shots were fired at the Pentagon early Tuesday, according to authorities. Law enforcement continues to search for the shooter.

Two windows were struck in the incident, which occurred shortly before 5 a.m. Officials said four other bullets hit the Pentagon's facade. No one was injured.

Pentagon Force Protection Agency Director Steven E. Calvery on Wednesday said the FBI lab is examining all evidence from the scene. Investigators are studying bullet fragments and reviewing video footage from nearby buildings and roads.

Calvery said Pentagon authorities are heading the investigation, and working with the FBI, Joint Terrorism Task Force and state and local authorities.

The incident came a little more than seven months after a man opened fire at a Pentagon entrance. Officers Jeffery Amos and Marvin L. Carraway Jr., suffered minor injuries in the March 4 shootout. The gunman, John P. Bedell, 36, was killed.

via Crime Scene - 6 shots hit Pentagon Tuesday.

Has war come to American soil? If so, this story won't have legs because of the whole "We have to fight them over there so we don't have to fight them over here" argument. It could also be some angry conservative American who is ready to kill over the new Pentagon policy to let gay people into the military.
Steve Williams - Pentagon Instructs Military Recruiters: Allow Openly Gay Applicants

The Pentagon has instructed military recruiters that they should allow openly gay and lesbian people to sign up for military service, with the caveat that applicants must be told that the current injunction barring enforcement of the military's openly gay personnel ban, "Don't Ask, Don't Tell" or DADT, could be overturned at any time and that the DADT policy could once again be enforced.
via Care2

3 comments:

Ann said...

"Has war come to American soil?," you ask? If war comes to American soil, it will come in the form of a revolution; it'll come not because of them "over there," but because of us, "over here."

Don't forget your history.

On May 19, 1972, on Ho Chi Minh’s birthday, The Weather Underground exploded a bomb in a women’s bathroom in the Air Force wing of The Pentagon. The resulting damage caused a flood which destroyed classified computer tapes.

Who was the Weather Underground? What did they represent? Since "actions speak louder than words":

On October 7, 1969, The Weather Underground also blew up a statue in Chicago.

A statue, how ridiculous, you say?

But, the statue was built to commemorate police causalities that incurred in the 1886 Haymarket Riot.

You may recall, the Haymarket Riot occurred when, perhaps as now, the US was deeply divided between wealthy business interests and other people, who were then described as the "working classes."

Haymarket Riot began when people gathered in support of workers who were on a labor strike. It was a peaceful demonstration until the police came to break it up. A bomb exploded, police were killed and an unknown number of workers were also injured and killed in the ensuing gunfire. In the end, four people were convicted and executed even though the prosecution admitted none of the defendants had thrown the bomb.

On November 11, 1887, when the convicted Haymarket four were taken to the gallows wearing hoods and gowns, they sang the Marseillaise, which was then the anthem of the international revolutionary movement. Legend has it that before one of the four, August Spies, was executed, he shouted, "The time will come when our silence will be more powerful than the voices you strangle today!"

Well, the city of Chicago rebuilt the statue that the Weather Underground blew up and unveiled it to the public on May 4, 1970. By chance, it was unveiled on the same day that college students were killed by the U.S. military during the Kent State massacre.

So, the Weather Underground blew up the statue again on October 6, 1970. And, the police rebuilt it again, but this time they established a 24 hour guard, all of which was done, ironically enough, at taxpayers' expense.

But, we may go back further than the late 1880s, if you like, to talk about revolutions on American soil, or, at least the attempts at a revolution.

The Shay's rebellion occurred during the 1780s. Daniel Shay and over a thousand others rebelled against higher taxes and debts. They stormed courthouses and caused quite a bit havoc in western Massachusetts. So much so that it forced George Washington out of retirement so that he could advocate a stronger national government, as did James Madison.

No, if war comes to American soil it will be because of us, not them "over there." Anyway, as Thomas Jefferson wrote to Madison concerning Shay's rebellion, "a little rebellion now and then is a good thing."

Xeno said...

A+ again Ann. An interesting history lesson. I expect no new revolution, however, since the tea party is fluoridated.

Ann said...

The problem with the "Tea Party" is a problem that existed since the days of the American Revolution.

When wealthy groups and people, such as the Koch Brothers, owners of the multi-billion dollar oil company, financially back the "Tea Party," (if only indirectly through their "Americans for Prosperity" group), we got to think something isn't right.

The people, "the masses," or as Alexander Hamilton called them the people, "great beast," must be controlled.

How is it controlled? By co-opting it, taking it over, and making the "masses" think that their best interest is also the best interest of the powerful and elite.

Because the powerful elite follow the thinking of John Jay: President of the Continental Congress and first Chief Justice of the Supreme Court, John Jay said: "The people who own the country ought to govern it."

But:

Karin Ashley, Bill Ayers, Bernardine Dohrn, John Jacobs, Jeff Jones, Gerry Long, Home Machtinger, Jim Mellen, Terry Robbins, Mark Rudd and Steve Tappis, who wrote:

"You Don't Need a Weatherman to Know Which Way the Wind Blows" - The manifesto of the Weather Underground made this claim:

"... It is the oppressed peoples of the world who have created the wealth of this empire [of the U.S.] and it is to them that it belongs; the goal of the revolutionary struggle must be the control and use of this wealth in the interests of the oppressed peoples of the world. ..."

So, the "Tea Party" is hardly what one could even call a "revolutionary party".