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by caribbeantradelaw France+Paris+Attacks_FranceIf we destroy human rights and rule of law in the response to terrorism, they have won. Joichi Ito (Japanese-American entrepreneur) In the best of times human rights and national security interests enjoy an uneasy tension.

In the darkest annals of human [โ€ฆ]existence as in the aftermath of a terrorist tragedy like that

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127 responses to “Human Rights vs National Security Interests: An Uneasy Tension”


  1. In a world of imperfection there would always be weakness
    However the goal is to protect that which is humanely and possibly right. Letting our minds take flight into a world of unprotected security which limits and for bides is the ultimate one way ticket to self destruction which cultivates fear and solitude
    In the aftermath of the terror in France there would be the usual cries for more security a normal and worthwhile called as the carcasses and devastation make one face a fact that the evilness of the nature is highly possible to show up at our doorsteps an event and a challenge no one wants to see or deal with
    Now the many questions would arise out of the ashes and mayhem of the terrorist destruction which includes human lives,. One of many such questions would be asked Should Human Rights direct the cost which human lives take at the hands of terrorist .
    This indeed is a thought provocative question but one should bear in mind first and foremost that human rights are the Key to mankind survival and when one link is broken the remaining chain ceases to function in and effective manner for our survival,


  2. you see refugees I see draft dodgers and Trojan horses. How can you get people to fight for their own country if they run they get rewarded with a different citizenship. Why should our young men be put in harms way as we watch their young men do a runner. The fighting age men should be made to fight for what is there”s. Russian fighters were not as good as their german foes not armed as well but by will and sacrifice beat them .

  3. Well Well & Consequences Avatar
    Well Well & Consequences

    http://www.nydailynews.com/news/world/paris-terrorists-interrupted-birthday-parties-cafe-article-1.2437180

    The reality is that the greed of politicians ALWAYS trumps human rights, whether terrorism is the immediate issue or the next issue pops up.


  4. No This is Darwinism through and through …..animals evolve to the environment they are in ….in the west we have been living a good reasonably safe life for years …… the problem is our hearts have become bigger than our brains


  5. @Alicia

    The point is made that the very liberties we cry to protect in West are caused by geopolitics of the West. O what a tangle Web…


  6. Steupsss
    This world is a COMPLEX spiritual place, controlled by irrefutable spiritual laws …and designed with a 100% spiritual purpose in mind.
    Part of that SPIRITUAL purpose required the creation of a set of PHYSICAL, temporary brass bowls – complete with the physical laws and the physical constraints, (INCLUDING TIME), within which these LIMITED human senses could operate….

    Cuh shiite….
    How can it be even possible to logically analyse a major SPIRITUAL occurrence – as is about to occur….in such a complex world …when one is limited to the constraints of that human mind ….and to the purely PHYSICAL laws and human understanding that we have..?
    Lotta shiite!!! …and you can hear the hopelessness all day long on CNN and Aljezzera…

    In times like these, it is dangerous to lean on our own CLEARLY LIMITED understanding of the status quo…

    Super-human spiritual forces are currently at work…..and they will wreck MASSIVE collateral damage on the human and physical environment. (Much like we Humans did to the physical and animal environments during OUR ‘great wars’)

    The FACT of the matter is that unless a human individual happens to be under the specific protection of the correct SPIRITUAL forces, that person becomes susceptible to be co-opted by the dark forces for its own ends….. or at least to become collateral statistics in the coming battle….

    It is REALLY not that complicated.
    The end is finally near…..
    …and the dark forces KNOW this to be true…. and have launched their final ‘do or die’ battle for the minds of human brass bowls…
    It will obviously be the greatest and most devastating battle in the history of mankind…. but even so, most of us will continue to cling to our petty ‘money God’ of materialism… and self-gratification, BECAUSE the dark forces have largely been in control of our ‘thinking’ now for some time….

    It will be so dramatic and earth-shattering, that, IF IT WERE POSSIBLE, even the very ELECT would be deceived by the dark forces….
    ….so what can you expect of ordinary brass…..?


  7. @ David, I would hope that those who oppose the extension of human rights and basic human kindness to the Syrian refugees never themselves find themselves in a similar position. If we allow fear to strip us of our sense humanity than we are no better than the terrorists we are fighting. Gonna respond to your other comment shortly re CARICOM. Was just a bit tied up this morning.

  8. Well Well & Consequences Avatar
    Well Well & Consequences

    The Bushman….the very elect from the US to the Caribbean have become so clueless, that they have been left behind this last decade. The taxpayers are complaining that there is not one sensible candidate in the repugnant party and are wary of the democrats since Obama will soon be exiting.

    The electorate worldwide are more savvy and have more commonsense than the candidates wannabes; and if we think it’s bad in the US, well we have been brainstorming nonstop on the excuses we have for politicians in the Caribbean, the best they are doing right now is hiding and just maybe, that is for the best, until this all plays out and the new players in the game chart their course. Politicians in the Caribbean don’t have the mental power to do anything but watch and wait, the good thing is that now all of them are being watched.

    For some reason maybe it’s centuries overdue, the electorates are seeing clearly and the politicians have been blinded.

    Dudes who have obtained control over the last 2 decades will set the course going forward.


  9. @Bush Tea

    This is the conundrum isn’t it, a non secular world rule by pragmatic approaches driven by man made constructs. What spirituality what!?!

  10. millertheanunnaki Avatar
    millertheanunnaki

    @ Caribbeantradelaw November 17, 2015 at 8:09 AM
    “I would hope that those who oppose the extension of human rights and basic human kindness to the Syrian refugees never themselves find themselves in a similar position.”

    A similar question could be rephrased and posed back at you.
    We hope that when a few Caribbean-based Jihadists radicalized because they are totally pissed off with the depraved un-Islamic lifestyle of the modern Caribbean youths decide to go to heaven seeking multiple virgins by blowing up hotels or an airplane full American or European tourists you too would not oppose the rights of the family of the victims to seek revenge.

    By blaming the West for causing these acts of terrorism against innocent people you are engaging in a round of academic ego stroking.
    How come these so-called terrorists always look for easy or soft targets; always innocent ordinary people shopping, amusing themselves or travelling?

    Why not go after the decision-makers and the elite whom you would wish to blame for the current state in the ME and around the world.
    Up to now you have failed to recognize the role Saudi Arabia is playing in all of these acts of terrorism.
    Why not address the questions concerning the financial backing and material support of the same terrorist groups you allude to?
    How come Saudi Arabia is not welcoming with open arms the so-called refugees who are brothers in Mohammed and also those disenchanted youths being raised in corrupt pork eating Western societies drenched in alcohol soaking in prostitution and looking for jannah on earth.

  11. Well Well & Consequences Avatar
    Well Well & Consequences

    http://www.nydailynews.com/news/world/isis-running-24-7-helpdesk-fighters-tech-questions-article-1.2437423

    As I said, fools are not running or coordinating these shows, no rain can stop their jam.

  12. Well Well & Consequences Avatar
    Well Well & Consequences

    Moneybrain & Alvin am sure can now appreciate the dynamic being used. Encryption is a very high level of coding used by very skilled mathmaticians, certain levels only recenty introduced to a couple universities around the world. I know personally of only one kid from the Caribbean recently specializing in this discipline, suffice it to say, that kid is in real demand by companies worldwide, mostly males study at that level, very few females, which makes it more of a novelty.

    Now you can understand what that group has at it’s disposal.


  13. most encryptioners are masochists they want to be tortured


  14. As we all engage to find answers the first order of business to find the scape goat that one person or thing which isthe cause .
    For now it seems the nucleus is derived from a neurosis embedded in tactical information pointed in the direction of the syrian refugees whose lives have been caught in the tenacles of govt policies and who are looking for survival under the umbrella of Human rights
    How bad can that be? when on one side of the coin the horror of devastation comes alive while the other side comes to grips with the reality that human rights is a necessity apparatus to calm the heated waters in devastating times


  15. @millertheanunnaki I never blamed the West for the attacks. But not everyone understands nuance so I’ll let that statement go. As for the role Saudi Arabia, I seem to recall that Saudi Arabia is still the US’ major ally in the ME regardless. Feel free to consider the implications of that.


  16. “I seem to recall that Saudi Arabia is still the US’ major ally in the ME regardless.”

    Really? That’s what they teach in poli sci at UWI? I seem to recall that Washington’s main ally in the Middle East is quite far north of Saudi Arabia.

  17. Well Well & Consequences Avatar
    Well Well & Consequences

    Lawson….it’s has become so specialized most people don’t mind the torture…lol

  18. Well Well & Consequences Avatar
    Well Well & Consequences

    At the end of the day, although the reality is right in your face, most people remain in denial. Still living in la-la land.

  19. Well Well & Consequences Avatar
    Well Well & Consequences

    The above is the real tragedy, those losers going after the people who had nothing to do with the terrorism, losers who do not even understand the direction the world has taken, but are more than willing to lash out, as those who are coordinating it, know they will. The filthy rich who fund the criminal activities are safely ensconced in their holes, planning the next mischief to visit on people who are unable to fight back, at that level.


  20. “Steupsss … This world is a COMPLEX spiritual place, controlled by irrefutable spiritual laws โ€ฆand designed with a 100% spiritual purpose in mind.”

    Says who? That’s a large claim to make when the evidence adduced to support it is precisely zero.

    In the meantime, before we get to the final Battle of Megiddo so yearned for by the adherents of laughable millennarian cults both Muslim and Christian, the grown-ups how to figure out the best way to take out the trash.


  21. @Alicia

    I agree with your point about S Arabia and it goes back to the earlier point about how geopolitics shapes foreign policy.


  22. @Miller, well said. Ms.Nicholls has presented a well-reasoned piece but she arrives at her thesis with a heart of human kindness even as she side-steps the harsh, complex realities of being AT WAR.

    @ Ms. Nicholls: Pres Obama’s remarks were solid and truly Presidential but in times of war – by your own remarks – countries has every right to carefully rethink their immigration policies because the politics of life demand that they err on the side of protecting their citizens. Thus a Patriots Act or the interment of Japanese-Americans becomes fundamentally accepted at the moment of crisis and just as shortly thereafter as things abate citizens condemn and criticize in the strongest terms.

    Let’s be clear. Cuban spies were part of refugees coming to the US. Russian and other communist spies were included in refugees who gained political asylum over the years.

    Jihadists will infiltrate the ranks of the refugees. Of that there can be no doubt.

    Thus many folks are unwilling to allow even one such person as a refugee and in the absence of proper validation they want to refuse all. Obviously that seems unreasonable as for every Jihadi there are thousands of legitimate victims.

    But as noted above, is the death of 150+ today, tomorrow 10 or next year 1,500 perhaps my sister, or daughter, or beloved former school teacher acceptable because of an altruistic humanitarian position to save the lives of 25,000 refugees entering my country.

    For some that equation will never work!

    The Cubans acted principally against Cubans. The Russians et al played their cold war secrets game about weapons and politics. They did not directly threaten or kill the Americans (westerners) these folks have waged war against the Satan and are doing exactly that.

    This is a very complex world and in times of war everything changes. Everything.


  23. Skippa, if it takes ‘grown-ups’ to figure out how to carry out the trash …what do you think it will take to figure out the complex nature of life…?
    …and without an understanding of life-purpose, how do you establish PRIORITIES? …how do you set objectives? how do you define success?
    …how do you even know that the ‘trash’ that you are taking out is not the REAL baby…?

    Are you then arguing that we should focus our best talents on earnestly executing the basic issues of living….?
    …something that dumb animals have been doing successfully for eons – before humans triggered our various extermination practices….

    Surely you jest….

    As to “WHO says so” about the spiritual realities that drive our existence, this is an admittedly complex issue, and not a matter that can be easily grasped by the simple minded…. but is is surely debatable.

  24. millertheanunnaki Avatar

    @ Caribbeantradelaw November 17, 2015 at 10:37 AM
    โ€œWhile I absolutely and categorically condemn the attacks, western countries have to acknowledge some of the responsibility they have played in creating the environment for extremist groups like Al-Qaeda, ISIL and others like them to gain a foothold and expand in the region. Western countries played a significant role in helping to escalate much of the conflict which currently exists in the Middle East and which has served as a fertile breeding ground for these extremist groups to fill the vacuum created by the absence of the rule of lawโ€ฆโ€

    โ€œGroups like ISIL prey on young persons who feel alienated from Western societies in which they were born but are never treated like equals. In this regard, it is incumbent on western nations to address some of these issues to help reduce the attractiveness of radicalisation to these youth.โ€

    So whom are you blaming (fully or partially) for the attacks? The Chinese or Hinduism?
    How do you explain the terrorist attacks taking place in some Sub-Saharan African countries and in some Far and South East Asian territories?

    How come โ€œChristianizedโ€ (or secular) black youths who have never been treated like equals (and in many cases shot down like dogs in the streets) in these same Western societies are not being indoctrinated and radicalized where they would blow up themselves along with hundreds of other innocent souls in any quest to go to Heaven and be at the right hand of Jesus sipping honey and eating virgin pussycat all day?

    You have not yet discussed the reason(s) why Saudi Arabia refuses to accept refugees who share the same Islamic faith and cultural commonalities albeit with their nuances albeit historical or through wider modern contact with global influences.


  25. “As to ‘WHO says so’ about the spiritual realities that drive our existence, this is an admittedly complex issue, and not a matter that can be easily grasped by the simple mindedโ€ฆ. but is is surely debatable.”

    Maybe it’s debatable and maybe it’s not. Determining that would require a debate, and a debate would require that both sides adduce some evidence. “This world is a COMPLEX spiritual place, controlled by irrefutable spiritual laws” is not evidence. It’s not even a debating point. At best, it’s a bumper sticker. You might as well tell me that you’ve seen pixies at the Kingdom Hall. Maybe you have and maybe you haven’t, but either way anyone with half a brain is going to need more than your word on it.


  26. @ Miller
    Boss … why don’t you stop giving the lady a hard time and go and give M. Hutson some assistance in putting some licks in Bushie’s tail nuh?
    You KNOW the answer to your question as to why Blacks are happy to be treated like dogs …and take it without retaliation too….
    You ever see a bowl retaliate yet?

  27. Well Well & Consequences Avatar
    Well Well & Consequences

    So many are murdered by these same extremists in Africa and other countries annually, yet you never hear any outcry. This did not just start Friday, it is a continuation of terrorism ongoing in the desert against blacks, using horses for kidnapping them and dropping them into slavery even now, back then horseback was the only mode of transportation, the descendants are still attacking the vulnerable on a daily basis in African countries, am sure they have also upgraded their mode of transportation, their technology is certainly very improved and cutting edge..

    Now we witness present day terrorism in the west for political reasons and as it benefits those involved.


  28. “The point is made that the very liberties we cry to protect in West are caused by geopolitics of the West … it goes back to the earlier point about how geopolitics shapes foreign policy.”

    In the year that Barbados became independent, Edward McWhinney rightly noted that “in an interdependent world it is inevitable and desirable that states be concerned with and try to influence the actions and policies of other states.” That’s as irrefutably true now as it was half a century ago.

    Any country that has global interests, inevitably, will be concerned about what happens in other countries on the other side of the planet.

    You can call that geopolitics if you want. You could also call it common sense.

    Even tiny Barbados, whose global reach is miniscule, has to pay a sizeable cadre of people to pursue its interests far, far away in the corridors of Whitehall and Brussels; to lobby for changes in action and policy, usually related to preferential market access.

    You can call that geoeconomics if you want. You could also call it common sense.


  29. @ M. Hutson
    Your logic sounds ominously similar to a regular blogging humbug called Boremann J. ….However that may be a pure coincidence ๐Ÿ™‚

    Look, most complex scientific laws sound like ‘bumper stickers’….and most of them would elude the analysis of simpletons too….

    …and PLEASE note that Bushie is NOT trying to tell YOU anything…. just stating a spiritual reality – take it or leave it.
    If Bushie had stated that the net entropy of our world only increases and never decreases, then you could also consider that to be a ‘bumper sticker statement’ – unless of course you are privy to the complex laws of thermodynamics…

    LOL
    …and it will take a whole (working) brain to to grasp some of these complex matters…. so ‘anyone with “half-a-brain” can be excused…..


  30. BELIEF
    Miller

    Why Linking ISIS to the Struggles of Black Americans Is Flawed
    Muslim extremists are โ€œhoping the Ferguson riots could help recruit black Americans.โ€
    By Salim Muwakkil / In These Times December 5, 2014
    Print
    7 COMMENTS
    As Ferguson, Missouri, erupted this summer over the police killing of unarmed teenager Michael Brown, radical Islamists tried to co-opt the protests for their own cause. Many right-leaning media outlets jumped on the story, quoting Ferguson-related tweets by supporters of the Iraq- and Syria-based group the Islamic State (also known as ISIS).

    Those tweets should not be surprising. Events in Ferguson offer a golden opportunity to showcase the flaws in American justice, and Americaโ€™s enemies are determined to use it. As Souad Mekhennet, an author and Harvard fellow who has written widely on radical Islamic movements, noted in an August 21 Washington Post column, Muslim extremists have long argued that racism is endemic in parts of the West, and โ€œtheyโ€™re hoping the Ferguson riots could help recruit black Americans.โ€

    This is an ongoing recruitment effort that seeks to link the legacy of colonialism in the Middle East and North Africa with that of American slavery and Jim Crow. In parallel but entirely separate trajectories, the struggles against these ignoble legacies enhanced Islamโ€™s allure: Islam offered a challenge to the Christian beliefs of both colonialists and enslavers.

    Enslaved Muslims were reputed to have instigated many of the 19th-century revolts on plantations in Brazil and the Caribbean, leading Islamic practices to be repressed by slaveholders in much of the United States. Islamโ€™s ability to provoke fear among slave owners formed the basis of its enduring racial appeal for many African Americans. Since at least the time of Edward Blyden (circa the 1860s), Islam has been associated with black militancy in the United States. That militancy became a national specter in the 1950s with the rise of Malcolm X and the group he fronted, the Nation of Islam (NOI). When Malcolm X later broke with the NOI, his adoption of Sunni Islam was interpreted as a move away from radicalismโ€”though these days, it might be interpreted quite differently.

    This focus on race differs dramatically from the view of orthodox Islam, which is explicitly non-racial. Still, jihadis have attempted to exploit the superficial similarities. In 2008, for instance, shortly after President Barack Obamaโ€™s election, Ayman al-Zawahiri, al-Qaedaโ€™s โ€œsecond in command,โ€ disparaged the first black president, calling him a โ€œhouse slaveโ€ who โ€œrepresents the direct opposite of honorable black Americans like Malik al-Shabazz or Malcolm X.โ€

    Al-Zawahiriโ€™s efforts landed with a thud among African-American Muslims. The Council on American-Islamic Relations, the largest Muslim civil liberties organization in the U.S., spoke out in a unified statement against his โ€œinsultingโ€ remarks, saying, โ€œAs Muslims and as Americans we will never let terrorist groups or terror leaders falsely claim to represent us or our faith.โ€ A group of New York City imams noted that radicalized Islamists have โ€œhistorically been disconnected from the African-American com- munity generally, and Muslim African Americans in particular.โ€

    This collective rebuttal was considered long overdue. Given their comparable historical grievances, many have speculated (especially on the Right) that there are links between the African-American Muslim community and radicalized Muslims in Islamic nations. These statements made clear that despite similar histories, the two groups have chosen widely differing responses. While there have been signs that the ISIS movement has connected with some black Americans (for instance, Douglas McArthur McCain, the first American killed fighting for ISIS), there is little evidence of any larger links.

    But ISIS is casting its net beyond the African-American community and seeking to ensnare young American Muslims of all ethnicities into its swirling meฬlange of messianic political idealism. In attempts to preempt that appeal, in September a coalition of 120 religious scholars and Muslim leaders released a 22-page open letter scrupulously refuting the ideology of the group.โ€œYou have misinterpreted Islam into a religion of harshness, brutality, torture and murder,โ€ the letter states.โ€œThis is a great wrong and an offense to Islam, to Muslims and to the entire world.โ€ The purpose of this open letter was not just to debunk ISISโ€™s theological legitimacy, but to help recast Islamโ€™s image in the public mind. Both are tall orders.

  31. Well Well & Consequences Avatar
    Well Well & Consequences

    All of this is happening simply because man is blighted with a god complex and believe they should control each other and everything else they have to die and leave.


  32. lawson November 17, 2015 at 7:36 AM #
    you see refugees I see draft dodgers and Trojan horses.

    …………………………………………………………………………’………………
    And especially so now that the Muslim ‘Generals’,know that pretty soon because of the Russian aircraft and the Paris incidents , their bases of operation in the Middle East will be obliterated. Therefore it was strategic in letting the horses out of the barns , long before the expected fire started.


  33. Link below contains an interview with Scott Bennett a reserve US Army officer who worked for a time as a financial analyst charged with tracking down sources of terrorist financing while he was employed by US gov’t consultant Booz Allen Hamiltorn.

    Bennett claims that in his investigation of sources of terrorist funding he determined that much of the terrorist financing to ISIS and associated groups was funneled to them by the Swiss bank UBS. The money was coming through UBS accounts held by wealthy Arabs in Arab nations which are considered US allies and also from accounts held by the CIA. He claims he sent the information he discovered through official channels to his miliary superiors and to US politicians. At this point he was set up on various false charges including one of DUI and fired. He also states in the video linked below that colleagues in the US intelligent services have admitted that the US creates and funds terrorist groups like ISIS and others in order to use the terrorists to further US foreign policy goals, i.e. break up and destroy any Arab/Muslim countries which might be powerful enough to challenge the US or Israel and to weaken and destabilize Russia.

    Here is an interview with Scott Bennett. Interview is 50minutes. The first 20 minutes is background information on his work with the US Army and Booz Allen Hamilton and how he came to lose his job tracking terrorist funding and also found himself facing what he claims are trumped up charges. After the 20 minute mark is when he starts to discuss the nitty gritty of what he has learned to be the true sources of terrorist funding and where he says it was admitted to him that the US creates and uses groups like ISIS to further its own goals.


  34. And since Donald Trump has become the poster boy for anti refugees it would now make it easier for the racist and bigots to latched on with incredulous fashion spouting their racist views openly never mind that their racist rants and rage might be a cause wherby their own human rights can be attacked

  35. Well Well & Consequences Avatar
    Well Well & Consequences

    Hackers vs. terrorists: ISIS says Anonymous are โ€˜idiotsโ€™ for declaring war

    BGR News
    Chris Smith
    BGR News
    November 17, 2015

    While it sounds like a mobile game youโ€™d play to kill time, hackers vs. terrorists is sadly a real war. The hacker collective that goes by the name โ€œAnonymousโ€ recently posted a video on YouTube declaring war on ISIS in response to the attacks on Paris that left 129 dead and hundreds injured on Friday night. Anonymous wants to โ€œlaunch the biggest operation everโ€ against the terrorist group, and ISIS is apparently taking notice โ€“ though the organization apparently believes Anonymous are โ€œidiotsโ€ for even considering digital warfare.

    MUST SEE: Pyro mini is a new $150 gadget that lets you shoot fireballs from your hands like a superhero

    โ€œAnonymous from all over the world will hunt you down. We will launch the biggest operation ever against you,โ€ a masked person said in the hackersโ€™ video. โ€œExpect massive cyberattacks. War is declared. Get prepared.โ€ In response, a Telegram channel that is believed to be affiliated with ISIS hackers sent out a warning message in Arabic and English, telling others how to thwart Anonymous hacks.

    โ€œThe #Anonymous hackers threatened in new video release that they will carry out a major hack operation on the Islamic state (idiots),โ€ the statement said, according to Business Insider.

    โ€œWhat they gonna hack?โ€ ISIS asked, noting that so far, hackers have only managed to hit ISIS-affiliated Twitter accounts and email addresses.

    The message on the Telegram channel, an encrypted chat service that may have been used to help plot the Paris attacks, also says that followers should not open any links unless theyโ€™re sure of the source, change IP addresses โ€œconstantly,โ€ and โ€œnot talk to people [you] donโ€™t know on Telegramโ€ or through Twitter direct messages.

    This isnโ€™t the first time Anonymous has set its sights on ISIS. Following the January Charlie Hebdo attacks, hackers tried to identify ISIS social media accounts and take down extremist websites.

    The Anonymous video follows below.

    Related stories

    ISIS used encrypted communications with Paris attackers, officials believe

    ISIS may use PlayStation 4s to coordinate Paris-like attacks

    John Oliver righteously unloads on the ‘f*cking a**holes’ who attacked Paris

    More from BGR: Pyro mini is a new $150 gadget that lets you shoot fireballs from your hands like a superhero

    This article was originally published on BGR.com

    Privacy|Terms|About our Ads|SuggestionsBrought to you by Yahoo News Network


  36. Dompey isis don’t want no black guys from ferguson, what use is a bunch of guys with there hands in the air …… yelling hands up don’t shoot …. to them.

  37. Well Well & Consequences Avatar
    Well Well & Consequences

    Fortunately for us, the information age enables us to see, hear and understand, they are unable to hide their covert actions like before. Nowhere to hide, it’s all in the open.


  38. “Look, most complex scientific laws sound like โ€˜bumper stickersโ€™โ€ฆ.and most of them would elude the analysis of simpletons tooโ€ฆ.”

    OK. False, but not worth arguing about

    “and PLEASE note that Bushie is NOT trying to tell YOU anythingโ€ฆ. just stating a spiritual reality โ€“ take it or leave it.”

    I’ll leave it, thanks, since you offer no evidence for this “reality”. With a few ball bearings and a few seconds of time, I can provide compelling evidence of Newton’s first law. You are not stating a falsifiable scientific law. You are simply making a wholly unfalsifiable assertion unencumbered by even the tiniest shred of evidence. So I’ll leave it.

    “If Bushie had stated that the net entropy of our world only increases and never decreases, then you could also consider that to be a โ€˜bumper sticker statementโ€™ โ€“ unless of course you are privy to the complex laws of thermodynamicsโ€ฆ
    LOL”

    I happen to be privy to some knowledge of thermodynamics. Not sure how it helps your argument here, and I’m at a loss as to why it makes you laugh out loud.
    โ€จ”and it will take a whole (working) brain to to grasp some of these complex mattersโ€ฆ. so โ€˜anyone with โ€œhalf-a-brainโ€ can be excused.”

    You do yourself no favours when you resort immediately to the ad hominem. It makes you seem hypersensitive and defensive, as if you understand that you are not really stating some scientific fact, no matter how much you wish you were. You’re just making a statement of personal faith. Nothing more. Faced with a challenge, all you’re left with is to label challengers as “simpletons” and tell them to take it or leave it.

    And that’s fine. No reasonable person can have any problem with that, in the abstract. You want to state that you saw pixies in the Kingdom Hall, during a particularly bravura rendition of some anthem to your deity? Fine by me. I don’t actually need any evidence for that. It’s a harmless conceit. Maybe the pixies were all riding on little purple ponies in orange wigs and ballet shoes, while the choir invisible serenaded them from the rafters. Not a problem.

    Where it becomes a problem is when it leaves the realm of the abstract, the point at which we have to deal with the patent falsehood that we should “PLEASE note that Bushie is NOT trying to tell YOU anything”. Not right now, perhaps, but it’s inevitable that you will at some point. When some critical mass of people start believing in unfalsifiable assertions, and ascribe superpowers to their pixies (let’s call these critical masses, for shorthand, “the Abrahamic faiths”), they ALWAYS want to intervere in other people’s lives, often in ways deleterious to spiritual tranquility or basic human happiness.

    But of course you’d never do that, would you? Your particular pixies are doubtless harmless.


  39. @ David
    I am happy to see that the article has generated this much discussion!

    @millertheanunnaki
    Again I reiterate that the central thrust of my article was not blaming the west but a more normative argument that human rights should not be subsumed just for narrow national security gains. I hold to my view (which isn’t just mine by the way), that actions by western countries with the support of Saudi Arabia, one of their main allies, have assisted in the continued destabilisation of the ME region which has helped strengthen the presence of fundamentalists. If you have been following what has been happening in both Iraq and Libya you should appreciate this.

    @de Igrunt Word
    Thanks for your comments. Let me reiterate that I am not in any way suggesting that it be a free for all in terms of refugee acceptance. I do state and believe that there should be thorough vetting and screen done for all refugees. I appreciate as you rightly highlight that these are not normal times. But my fear is that in trying to fight terrorism we cause an erosion of human rights we have fought for.

    Thank you all for your comments, critical or otherwise!


  40. Caribbeantradelaw

    May you permit me the opportunity ask where do you reside in the world? I am quite sure you do not reside in the West because had you, you wouldnโ€™t be so adamant about allowing these refugees easy access in the West, knowing the threat Isis propose?

    Now the Intelligence Community here in America have uncovered evidence of Isis presence embedded with the refugeeโ€™s population. So therefore, the denial of entry by the western countries is in my view, and I am quite sure in the view of those who resides in the West, a good decision.

    The story is told of a man who wanted so badly to the hangman, until his very son was sentenced to be hanged. The moral of this story is when youโ€™re not standing in the epicenter of battle, it is quite easy dictate what one ought or ought not to do.


  41. “It is incumbent on western nations to address some of these issues to help reduce the attractiveness of radicalisation to these youth.”

    Yes, but … Yes, but … These days I seem to spend hours daily reading “yes, but” articles. Yes I condemn this slaughter, but … Yes it is horrible, but …

    So it is incumbent on western nations to address some of these issues … Yes, but … Yes, but while the west addresses these issues we should never for a second lose sight of one particular fact. These misguided youths, alienated and discriminated against, suffering all that ennui in Little Morrocco in Brussels or Little Somalia in London, subscribe to a particular ideology. And that ideology is an Islamofascist nihilist death cult, birthed in countries that treat women like dogs and dogs like lunch, that wants to wipe out you and me.

    So let me continue to try to understand their youthful angst. And bless their little cotton socks, maybe they just need a hug.


  42. And the next time Haiti goes through one of its periodic outbursts of lethal civil strife, or suffers another huge natural disaster, we should assume that the Caricom Secretariat, in consultation with the HOGs, will devise a quota-based resettlement system that involves housing a couple of hundred desperate refugees in some decnt place in St. James. We could call it Little Port au Prince. The neighbours will be so welcoming.


  43. So what are talking about .Human rights or selservng interest the latter ofthe two which has now brought all to rethink if becoming a sacrificial lamb at the alter of Human rights is worth the cause.Or if the need for selfinterest is a benelovent cause worth fighting for


  44. M Hutson not much chance of that considering the hue and cry over the old Nigerian students

  45. millertheanunnaki Avatar
    millertheanunnaki

    @ Caribbeantradelaw November 17, 2015 at 2:27 PM
    โ€œI hold to my view (which isnโ€™t just mine by the way), that actions by western countries with the support of Saudi Arabia, one of their main allies, have assisted in the continued destabilisation of the ME region which has helped strengthen the presence of fundamentalists. If you have been following what has been happening in both Iraq and Libya you should appreciate this.โ€

    Listen you bleeding heart academic pipsqueak I lived taught and worked among these same so-called disadvantaged radicalized fundamentalists for many years.
    I still interact regularly with these so-called socially disenfranchised people who own significant amounts of British real estate through the sale of food and drink to stupid black people.

    You keep holding on to your ivory tower apologetic view of the reasons for the spread of fundamentalism. We hope you would not be too shocked in the very near future when a regional brand of Jihadi-John fundamentalism ends up right on your Caribbean doorstep. Then you can blame the Western countries for corrupting the moral values of these tourism dependent enclaves of Western derived debauchery.


  46. @millertheannunaki
    Your resort to personal attacks speaks volumes of your lack of maturity and inability to engage in an intellectual and mature discussion. You have proven you are not worth my time or pity.


  47. Jesus, millertheangryman, take it easy. Take a couple of deep breaths. There’s no call for that kind of vitriol. The writer already made it plain that she’s not an apologist for these morons. It’s just that she had the “yes, but …”

    And the yes, but in this case isn’t stupid. There’s no doubt at all that the aftermath of the US invasion of Iraq in 2003 was a contributing factor in the rise of IS. The invasion itself wasn’t an awful idea, but the Bush administration’s efforts at state-building were moronic, like everything else the Bush admin did at home and abroad. It was an administration of imbeciles and ideologues, so naturally they f&$?ed up.

    That’s why IS is so well financed. It’s not because of the conspiracy theories so beloved of the terminally deranged (de CIA, de joos, de Illuminati), but because the idiots in the Bush admin de-Baathified Iraq. Why do you think IS has so many oil engineers and people trained in the manufacture of explosives? It’s not because of de Lodge or de joos or Mosanto.

  48. millertheanunnaki Avatar
    millertheanunnaki

    @ caribbeantradelaw November 17, 2015 at 5:23 PM

    How can I attack you personally!
    I know you not. I know nothing about you other than what you apologetically write about fundamentalist terrorists.
    Maybe if you have experienced what I have lived through you would understand that experience trumps academic idealism any day. Tell that story to the families of innocent people who suffered at the hands of the Jihadi Johns of this world.
    Unless you walk in the other man’s shoes you will never feel the pinch.

    Look what is happening in Germany the only European country to welcome these so-called refugees with open arms.


  49. Hutson

    During the Haitian earthquake, President Obama got on national TV and declared before the world that the Haitian people are going to be in a better position after the promised financial assistance, but I am happy to inform you that in 2015, the Haitian people are still awashed in squalor.

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