Suggested Discussion Outline

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johnkarls
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Joined: Fri Jun 29, 2007 8:43 pm

Suggested Discussion Outline

Post by johnkarls »

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Editorial Notes:

The Outline summarizes the Suggested Answers to the Short Quiz (which appear in the next section of this website entitled "Participant Comments").

Except for the Short Quiz Questions for which the Suggested Answer was "What do you think??? Let's Discuss!!!" -- which appear ver batim in the closing section of the outline.

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A. Osama bin Laden’s Fatwās

A-1 A fatwā in 1996 entitled “Declaration of War Against the Americans Occupying the Land of the Two Holy Places” (i.e., Saudi Arabia and Mecca/Medina)

A-2. A fatwā in 1998 entitled “The Nuclear Bomb of Islam” and

A-3. A fatwā in 2002 (revised in 2005) requiring all of his followers to nuke 10 million Americans - about which the Founding Dean of Harvard’s Kennedy School of Government wrote a famous book but whose recommendations have NOT been followed despite the endorsement and exhaustive supportive efforts of former U.S. Senator Sam Nunn (D-GA and Senate Armed Services Committee Chairman 1987-1995), U.S. Senator Richard Lugar (R-IN and then-current Senate Foreign Relations Committee Chairman) and Messrs. Thomas Kean and Lee Hamilton (Chair and Co-Chair of The 9/11 Commission).


B. Noteworthy Aspects of Osama’s Fatwās

B-1. They can NOT be revoked now that Osama is dead.

B-2. It is the solemn religious duty of every Muslim to do her/his best to implement every fatwā of her/his leader.

B-3. Osama’s 1996 fatwā assures martyrs that each of them and 70 close relatives will by-pass a truly-fearsome Judgment Day and proceed directly to Paradise -- a doctrine echoed by Iranian Supreme Leader Ali Khameini.

B-4. Accordingly, it is binding on EVERY MEMBER OF Al Qaeda (which brought us 9/11); EVERY MEMBER OF Al Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula (i.e., Yemen) which brought us, among other things, the Underwear Bomber on Northwest Airlines 253 approaching Detroit; and EVERY MEMBER OF the Islamic State of Iraq and Syria (also known by its acronym ISIS and originally known as Al Qaeda in Iraq), etc., etc.

B-5. Graham Allison, the Founding Dean of Harvard’s Kennedy School of Government, wrote a famous book about ObL’s fatwā to nuke millions of Americans (Nuclear Terrorism: The Ultimate Preventable Catastrophe - Henry Holt & Co. 2004) which recommended that the world’s nuclear powers (1) lock down every iota of enriched uranium and plutonium (similar, Dean Allison said, to the way America used to account for every iota of gold at Fort Knox) and (2) NOT PERMIT ANY NON-NUCLEAR POWERS, SUCH AS IRAN, TO ENRICH ANY URANIUM OR PLUTONIUM.

B-6. The Nuclear-Threat-Initiative Foundation of Former U.S. Senator Sam Nunn (D-GA and Senate Armed Services Committee Chairman 1987-1995) formed a posse comprising Sam Nunn, U.S. Senator Richard Lugar (R-IN and then-current Senate Foreign Relations Committee Chairman) and Messrs. Thomas Kean and Lee Hamilton (Chair and Co-Chair of The 9/11 Commission) which made heroic efforts to have Dean Allison’s recommendations adopted.

B-7. Despite the heroic efforts of Messrs. Nunn, Lugar, Kean, Hamilton and Thompson, the recommendations of Harvard’s Dean Graham Allison were ignored by everyone except Tim Russert and Tom Brokaw.


C. Availability of Nuclear Weapons to Terrorists

C-1. On the “black market” as a result of, inter alia, the implosion of the old Soviet Union.

C-2. Easily designed from public information as demonstrated by a student for the PBS 3/9/1975 Nova Science Program.

C-3. Per the September 1976 report of a British Royal Commission concerned about I.R.A. capabilities in the wake of the PBS Nova Science Program: “The equipment required [to actually construct the nuclear weapon] would not be significantly more elaborate than that already used by criminal groups in the illicit manufacture of heroin.”

C-4. The fact that “any reasonably-bright student” can design an atomic bomb and the fact that it is then “child’s play” to construct the atomic bomb are the reasons why Harvard’s Dean Graham Allison recommended locking down every iota of fissile material (please see B-5 thru B-7 above) -- THERE IS NO OTHER CHOKE POINT!!!


D. U.S. Governmental Surveillance

D-1. Our author claims that the U.S. government’s surveillance has not been effective.

D-2. But outside studies of the effectiveness of the U.S. government’s surveillance can NOT be believed if the U.S. government cannot disclose all of its successes without disclosing to the Radical Islamic Terrorists its sources and methods.

D-3. Law-abiding American citizens have nothing to fear from surveillance of Radical Islamic Terrorists -- unless the American citizen has been mis-identified or a Radical Islamic Terrorist has attempted to frame an American citizen for personal reasons that have nothing to do with Radical Islamic Terrorism.


E. Discussion Questions From The Short Quiz For Which The Answer Was “What Do You Think??? Let’s Discuss!!!”

Question 13

Does our author Julia Angwin seem naïve about the ability of governmental and independent organizations, both domestic and foreign, to conduct surveillance/espionage?

[Citing weapons that in the 1960’s could kill nuclear subs by disabling all electrical systems within a radius of several miles and American spy-satellite pictures in the 1960’s that were capable of distinguishing the grain of railroad ties -- suggesting that it should be child’s play for the government to replicate everything on YOUR computer WITHOUT CONNECTING to your computer -- for example, by taking an infra-red picture from long-range of your hard drive which can then be used to replicate all of your files.]

Answer 13

What do you think??? Let’s discuss!!!

Question 29

Where should the line be drawn between protecting 10 million Americans from being nuked and guarding against the possibility that future unscrupulous pols will impose a totalitarian dictatorship a la George Orwell?

Answer 29

What do you think??? Let’s discuss!!!

Question 34

Even though European countries typically have no restrictions against “unreasonable searches and seizures,” our author states that most of them have legal safeguards permitting citizens access to their records and the ability to correct such records -- would such legislation be desirable in the U.S., particularly in the example cited in our focus book of the Massachusetts law revoking a citizen’s drivers license based on facial-recognition software that often produces mistakes? Or, for example, for the U.S. Government’s no-fly list?

Answer 34

What do you think??? Let’s discuss!!!

Question 35

Is it sufficient in these instances, since the victim is aware of the mistake almost immediately (e.g., the next time a police-person checks the validity of her/his drivers license or the next time s/he tries to board a plane), to saddle the victim with the expense of hiring a lawyer who might or might not be able to force the governmental agency to disclose the basis of its action and, if erroneous, to rectify the situation?

Answer 35

What do you think??? Let’s discuss!!!

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