WASHINGTON, April 20 (UPI) -- U.S.
President Barack Obama said Saturday the United States "will remain
vigilant as a nation" following the terrorist bombing attack at the Boston
Marathon.
--UPI.com, 4-20-13
* * *
“Similar but rather less
drastic methods were used during the Korean War on military prisoners. In their
Chinese camps the young Western captives were systematically subjected to
stress. Thus, for the most trivial breaches of the rules, offenders would be
summoned to the commandant's office, there to be questioned, browbeaten and
publicly humiliated. And the process would be repeated, again and again, at any
hour of the day or night. This continuous harassment produced in its victims a
sense of bewilderment and chronic anxiety. To intensify their sense of guilt,
prisoners were made to write and rewrite, in ever more intimate detail, long
autobiographical accounts of their shortcomings. And after having confessed
their own sins, they were required to confess the sins of their companions. The
aim was to create within the camp a nightmarish society, in which everybody was
spying on, and informing against, everyone else.”
--Aldous Huxley, Brave
New World Revisited (Chapter Seven), 1958
* * *
“The Nebraska State Patrol is reminding citizens to remain vigilant in the
wake of the tragic and senseless acts of violence which have taken place in Boston.
“‘We join the nation in condemning these acts of terror on the American
public,’ said Colonel David Sankey, superintendent of the Nebraska State
Patrol. ‘We encourage our citizens to continue to help keep our communities
safe by reporting suspicious activity.’
“Nebraskans can report suspicious activity through the Nebraska Information
Analysis Center
website.
“Using the ‘Suspicious Activity Reporting’ link citizens will access the SAR
portal which opens a detailed questionnaire for the reporting party to provide
information on suspicious activities or events they believe should be shared
with law enforcement.
“Colonel Sankey said, ‘We believe Nebraskans are observant and have good
instincts. The SAR tool provides them another avenue in which to make law
enforcement aware of their concerns.’
“The Nebraska State Patrol reminds citizens that emergency situations or
situations which require immediate action should be reported to 911.
“Nebraskans can find additional Homeland Security Information by visiting
the NIAC website ‘Eight signs of Terrorism’ link.
“’Our Agency remains vigilant in its responsibilities to protect and serve
the people of Nebraska.
We encourage our citizens to remain vigilant as well,’ Sankey said.
--nebraska.tv, 4-16-13
* * *
“To these mental stresses
were added the physical stresses of malnutrition, discomfort and illness. The
increased suggestibility thus induced was skilfully exploited by the Chinese, who
poured into these abnormally receptive minds large doses of pro-Communist and
anti-capitalist literature. These Pavlovian techniques were remarkably
successful. One out of every seven American prisoners was guilty, we are
officially told, of grave collaboration with the Chinese authorities, one out
of three of technical collaboration.”
--Aldous Huxley, Brave
New World Revisited (Chapter Seven), 1958
* * *
“No matter how far away, we all felt the blast of Oklahoma City.
“Then the World
Trade Center.
The Pentagon. And now, Boston.
“Shock, confusion, sadness, fear, anger.
“We felt them all in our gut; we didn’t have to breathe the dust. But some
people have to do more than stare at a TV and cry and cuss. Because if a little
boy can die waiting for family friends to cross the finish line of a race on a
beautiful day in April, it can happen anywhere.
“On Monday, as timing would have it, a group of Kansas City area police, fire and emergency
response officials were meeting at Mid-America Regional Council when two bombs
exploded near the finish line at the Boston Marathon.
“Three dead, including that 8-year-old boy. More than 170 injured. Limbs
blown off, bones splintered. Horror on bloody faces of people who didn’t know
they were fighting a war.
“Everybody at that table in Kansas
City asked themselves: Are we ready?
“’It’s a reminder of the uncertain times we live in and how critical it is
to remain vigilant and to be prepared,’ Erin Lynch, emergency services and
homeland security program director at MARC, said Tuesday […]
“The area’s law enforcement officials
share a culture forged by Oklahoma City and
9/11, said Tom Dailey, Independence
police chief and a member of MARC’s Regional Homeland Security Coordinating
Committee.
“’We have had a whole generation of police officers come on since 9/11,’
said Dailey […].
“Terrorism is crime on steroids, and
we have developed an inventory of behaviors and activities that often occur
before terrorist acts,” Dailey said.
--“Boston Marathon
Bombing Is a Sad Reminder ‘To Remain Vigilant,’” kansascity.com, 4-16-13
* * *
“
It must not be supposed
that this kind of treatment is reserved by the Communists exclusively for their
enemies. The young field workers, whose business it was, during the first years
of the new regime, to act as Communist missionaries and organizers in China's
innumerable towns and villages were made to take a course of indoctrination
far more intense than that to which any prisoner of war was ever subjected. In
his China under Communism R. L. Walker describes the methods by which
the party leaders are able to fabricate out of ordinary men and women the
thousands of selfless fanatics required for spreading the Communist gospel and
for enforcing Communist policies. Under this system of training, the human raw
material is shipped to special camps, where the trainees are completely
isolated from their friends, families and the outside world in general. In
these camps they are made to perform exhausting physical and mental work; they
are never alone, always in groups; they are encouraged to spy on one another;
they are required to write self-accusatory autobiographies; they live in
chronic fear of the dreadful fate that may befall them on account of what has
been said about them by informers or of what they themselves have confessed.”
--Aldous Huxley, Brave
New World Revisited (Chapter Seven), 1958
* * *
“It has become a depressingly familiar story in the digital
age. An alleged sexual assault occurs. Images brazenly are shared
electronically. Reputations are destroyed and, in some cases, a humiliated teen
even takes his or her own life.
“That horrifying chain of events played out shortly after school started in
the fall when 15-year-old Audrie Pott, of Saratoga,
committed suicide eight days after police say she was assaulted by three boys,
who were arrested last week on suspicion of sexual battery and distribution of
unlawful material in a case that has sparked national outrage.
“Audrie's death is only the latest in a series of cyber-related tragedies
fueling a debate about the negative effects of social media -- especially on
kids who are anxious to live their lives through electronic devices but
unprepared to deal with the sometimes harsh consequences.
‘A Canadian teen, who allegedly was gang-raped and then horrified to see a
photo of the incident circulating among friends, was taken off life support
last week after trying to hang herself. Last month, two Steubenville, Ohio,
high school football stars were convicted of raping a drunken 16-year-old girl
-- an assault that came to light when digital photos were distributed.
‘’You look at these cases and see how similar they are, and you wonder
what's happening in our society right now,’ said Parry Aftab, founder of
advocacy group Stop Cyberbullying. ‘Something new and terrible is occurring.
Why do otherwise normal kids rape people and then brag about it online for
cyberglory? These kids are setting off bombs online, and then they explode
offline.’
‘Instant communication on cellphones has become increasingly important to
teenagers. And teens can have the attitude that if they don't post something on
Facebook, then it didn't actually happen. But the full implications of that
technology also can be lost on them, and Audrie's death is yet another
cautionary tale about the perils of social media.
“’As much as the original rape of this young girl was a violation of her
soul, you could argue that the suicide was motivated by the public humiliation
of the photos rather than the private humiliation she suffered at the party,’ said
Dr. Michael Rich, director of the Center on Media and Child Health at Boston
Children's Hospital. ‘The rape was repeated every time someone passed those
photos on. It sure sounds like that's what led her to feel her life was worthless,
not the rape itself.’
“The photos going viral, according to accounts provided by authorities and
family attorney Robert Allard, only magnified the teen's emotional pain -- and
ultimately became too much to bear.
“Audrie, who played musical instruments, loved to sing and enjoyed playing
soccer, attended an unsupervised house party Labor Day weekend. Audrie had
passed out drunk when she was assaulted by three Saratoga High students, police say.
“Allard said digital photos ‘spread like wildfire’ among students, and that
seems to be reflected in a series of tortured Facebook postings by Audrie in
the days before her Sept. 10 death, including one describing the ‘worst day in
her life.’
“It was only after her death that a Santa Clara County
sheriff's deputy assigned to the school began hearing whispers about the
sharing of the images and that her parents became aware of the assault.
“Tina Meier knows first-hand what the Pott family has been going through the
past seven months. Her 13-year-old daughter, Megan Meier, committed suicide in
2006 after the teen was embarrassed by a cruel Internet hoax where a friend's
mother pretended to be a boy who liked her.
“’I'm sure this girl knew that she didn't have control over those images and
what was being said about her,’ said Meier, who founded the Megan Meier
Foundation. ‘Kids many times feel that the things that they hear are what
everybody is going to believe, and that there's no way out.’
“Just turning off the cellphone or computer is not a solution, she said.
“’Social media is the way that teenagers communicate today,’ Meier said. ‘It's
their whole life, and when you're pushed aside and humiliated in that world,
it's truly devastating for them. Kids are conditioned to have their cellphones
with them everywhere and even go to bed with them. They set up alerts that ding
anytime there's a message. It's a vicious, 24-hour cycle that they can't get
away from.’
“The circumstances of Audrie's death quickly gained national attention in
part because of two other high-profile cases. Rehtaeh Parsons, 17, from Halifax, Nova
Scotia, was removed from life support on April 7
after a suicide attempt. She was depressed over being allegedly raped and
bullied by four boys in November 2011 when she was 15. She reportedly had been
tormented at school after a photo allegedly showing her having sex with a boy
was circulated among friends' mobile phones and computers.
“In March, two Ohio
football stars were convicted of raping a drunken 16-year-old girl -- an attack
that came to light when digital photos of the naked 16-year-old were
distributed digitally.
But David Finkelhor, director of the Crimes Against Children Research
Center, said it's wrong to place the blame with technology
“Instead, he said: ‘Kids feel like they can commit these kinds of acts and maybe
even get away with them.’
“Rape among teenagers, he added, has decreased substantially since the 1990s
and cellphones even might be part of the reason for that drop. That's why he
calls the issue of technology ‘complicated’ when discussing sexual assaults.
“’If someone knows their images could be out there because everyone is
carrying around smartphones, they will be fearful of committing a crime,’
Finkelhor said. ‘The problem with sexual-assault crimes always has been that it
can be his word vs. her word. So while an image of what happened can be
tremendously humiliating, it also can identify the offenders and lead to
convictions.’
“Aftab has a different view. She believes once technology becomes involved,
young people can lose a sense of empathy. She theorizes that whomever took the
alleged images might be teens who feel like they're the stars of a reality
television show. Teens who viewed and then disseminated the photos become the
audience.
“’It's not just the plain, old, horrible crime of rape,’ said Aftab, an
Internet privacy and security expert. ‘The cyberworld has a different reality
as far as kids are concerned. It's not real life. For them, it's a show and not
a rape of someone their own age. It's almost as if entertainment has taken over
their humanity.’
“The Pott family has been public about the circumstances of Audrie's death
in hopes it can prevent further tragedies and lead to an ‘Audrie's Law’ to
better address cyberbullying that follows sexual assaults.
“Rich isn't sure if changes in the law are the answer, but he's convinced
there needs to be changes in societal attitudes.
“’We need to reframe the whole act, including the photos, as rape because
that's exactly what it is,’ he said.
--“Saratoga Girl’s
Suicide Fuels Cyberbullying Debate,” mercurynews.com, 4-13-13
* * *
“After about six months
of this kind of thing, prolonged mental and physical stress produces the
results which Pavlov's findings would lead one to expect. One after another, or
in whole groups, the trainees break down. Neurotic and hysterical symptoms make
their appearance. Some of the victims commit suicide, others (as many, we are
told, as 20 per cent of the total) develop a severe mental illness. Those who
survive the rigors of the conversion process emerge with new and ineradicable
behavior patterns. All their ties with the past -- friends, family, traditional
decencies and pieties -- have been severed. They are new men, re-created in the
image of their new god and totally dedicated to his service.”
--Aldous Huxley, Brave
New World Revisited (Chapter Seven), 1958
* * *
“Homeland Security Secretary Janet Napolitano told lawmakers Wednesday that
there is ‘no current indication’ that the deadly Boston Marathon bombings
earlier this week were a part of a larger plot but she urged the American
people ‘to remain vigilant’ in light of the explosions.
“’There is no current indication to suggest the attack was indicative of a
broader plot,’ Napolitano said at a Senate committee hearing on the Department
of Homeland Security's 2013 budget requests. ‘But out of an abundance of
caution we continue to keep in place enhanced security measures, both seen and
unseen, in coordination with federal, state and local partners. We continue to
urge the American public to remain vigilant and immediately report any signs of
suspicious activity to local law enforcement.’”
--“Napolitano: ‘No Current Indication’ Boston Bombing Was
Part Of Bigger Plot,” livewire.talkingpointsmemo.com, 4-17-13
* * *
“Brainwashing, as it is
now practiced, is a hybrid technique, depending for its effectiveness partly on
the systematic use of violence, partly on skilful psychological manipulation.
It represents the tradition of 1984 on its way to becoming the tradition
of Brave New World. Under a long-established and well-regulated dictatorship
our current methods of semiviolent manipulation will seem, no doubt, absurdly
crude.”
--Aldous Huxley, Brave
New World Revisited (Chapter Seven), 1958
