The Face of Terrorism
On the 12 March 2009 edition of The Rachel Maddow Show on MSNBC, Rachel Maddow spoke at length about the recently late James G. Cummings. He died in December 2008 at the hands of his wife who, according to witnesses, suffered through years of physical and mental abuse from her now dead husband. What I found most striking about Rachel Maddow's story was not the "Burning Bed" vengeance of Mrs. Cummings but what authorities found in their home after she killed her husband: materials and ingredients for a dirty bomb.
A dirty bomb is similar to a conventional explosive device except it is laced with an amount of radioactive material (depleted uranium for example) so when it detonates, the radioactive material disperses over a small yet particular area, rendering it unsafe. It does not produce the mushroom cloud since the radioactive material itself does not explode. Dirty bombs, in certain circles, causes an understandable amount of concern. Many of these people are worried that foreign terrorists will find a way to construct a dirty bomb and detonate it somewhere in the United States. It is what the Bush Administration claimed Jose Padilla attempted to do, giving them justification to hold Padilla as an enemy combatant without due process and other Constitutional protections guaranteed to U.S. citizens (Padilla is native to Chicago). But I digress...
Given that this story had almost no coverage outside of Maine for nearly three months disturbs me. What distresses me more is ever since the terrorist attacks of 11 September, 2001 we think of brown men who may wear keffiyeh, speak Arabic, Farsi, or Urdu when we think of "terrorist". Shouldn't we be more vigilant and concentrate our efforts to spot potential terrorists wherever they may lurk? This certainly does not look like the image that comes to mind when we think about the word "terrorist", but he was. I have not seen any photographs of James G. Cummings but I would guess that Cummings did not look like someone with Arabian or Persian ancestry.
A dirty bomb is similar to a conventional explosive device except it is laced with an amount of radioactive material (depleted uranium for example) so when it detonates, the radioactive material disperses over a small yet particular area, rendering it unsafe. It does not produce the mushroom cloud since the radioactive material itself does not explode. Dirty bombs, in certain circles, causes an understandable amount of concern. Many of these people are worried that foreign terrorists will find a way to construct a dirty bomb and detonate it somewhere in the United States. It is what the Bush Administration claimed Jose Padilla attempted to do, giving them justification to hold Padilla as an enemy combatant without due process and other Constitutional protections guaranteed to U.S. citizens (Padilla is native to Chicago). But I digress...
Given that this story had almost no coverage outside of Maine for nearly three months disturbs me. What distresses me more is ever since the terrorist attacks of 11 September, 2001 we think of brown men who may wear keffiyeh, speak Arabic, Farsi, or Urdu when we think of "terrorist". Shouldn't we be more vigilant and concentrate our efforts to spot potential terrorists wherever they may lurk? This certainly does not look like the image that comes to mind when we think about the word "terrorist", but he was. I have not seen any photographs of James G. Cummings but I would guess that Cummings did not look like someone with Arabian or Persian ancestry.
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