Would you go to the Russian Olympics? Should our teams go?Terror threats...and yes, they're from islamists again.
I posted this recently and only one commenter responded because I had another far more timely piece up. SO.........now THIS is pretty darned timely and I wonder ...WOULD YOU GO? Would you have your family go it you were an Olympian? Should Obama do more? We know Bush was taunted for not acting against 9/11 threats.. After all, the left likes to say, Bush knew "planes might hit," ...and the left still, today, says he did nothing to thwart the attacks....as if he should have grounded all planes until terrorism was over :-). SO........will Obama get the same nasty treatment if Sochi goes bad?
And, by the way, please be praying it doesn't.
z
33 comments:
No, I wouldn't go but for the reason(s) that the time and expense just wouldn't be worth it to me.
"Should our teams go?"
Yes, at least, insofar as our Athletes, who have diligently trained for it, [want] to attend.
"Terror threats...and yes, they're from islamists again."
Failure to participate would, certainly, hand these inbred degenerates the Ultimate "Gold Medal"
Z - That's a tough question. If I had family competing in the Russian Olymics I would probably go if they did. Russia is just not a good place to hold them.
Maybe they'll come off without a hitch. Maybe they won't.
It should not be a matter of “allowing” a citizen to go to Sochi. We are a free people, and our citizens have a right to do as they wish. They don’t need (or shouldn’t need) the government’s permission. I favor giving citizens the information they need to make an informed decision and then allowing them the freedom to live with the consequences of their decision.
@Mustang:
Spot on. The government sure doesn't stop an a-hole like Rodman from going to the NK, do we? Problem is...it should be a one way ticket.
Huh?.....I thought Obama claimed he killed off the terrorists... And that al qaeda was on the run?
Mustang, the problem is those same people given the decision to make themselves will blame our gov't if there are deaths, etc...wonder where the gov't was when things went bad, etc..
When it's a team situation like this and they're going for our country, I'm not sure it works. Plus, what information could we give? There must be security issues about not giving much information?
Still...if we don't go, we'll never have freedom again in that sense...
Darn those fundamentalist Christians and Orthodox Jews (who DO get the nagging criticisms) threatening the world with terror :-)
In years past, even with looming threats, I'd have gone if a relative of mine were competing. I wasn't a caregiver back then, and now I take no unnecessary risks.
Of course, there is risk of something everywhere. See the post that I published today.
@Z … good point, but you know this only underscores the fact that too many of our citizens are idiots. First, Sochi is in Russia … so what do people think the US is able to do in a foreign country? To this we should add, “All life has an expiration date; you get up in the morning, and you take your chances along with everyone else.”
And you’re right too … I’m so sick of these Christian fundamentalists and Orthodox Jews blowing themselves up on buses full of kids …
The Uncommon Experiences....
Isn't that sort of like the left's slamming Bush when he said that battle was over? Remember the flack he still gets?
Odd the media's forgotten that "al Qaeda's on the run"........huh? :-)
Ducky, I find it unseemly and a little crass to stereotype..
Jon...I think that training all those years is a part of the equation but this could be death. For many.
I guess it's one way for Russia to win more medals than the US, huh?
HEY! Maybe THAT's behind all of this ?;)
Mustang...that dumb ol' Hegel is saying they've offered technical help, and military, to Russia and they haven't accepted...
You're right; what can we do there?
Ducky you sound a little homophobic assuming all figure skaters are gay.
I wouldn't go to the winter games because I don't have much interest but I think it is a choice the athlete needs to make. When JC decided to pull the US out of the Olympics in 1980 he did the athletes a great disservice. Work all you life for one moment and let a politician say it was for nothing.
I think "lead from behind" should draw a line in the sand that he will take action if any American is injured. That will quell any violence.
Skudrunner, the thing is that many of the athletes are a team.
If 2 from a sport are gone, the sport's gone for the others on that team; tho now that I think of it, winter sports tend to be less team than summer sports; am I right on that? I think so.
This is a big problem and I fear that Putin's pride is going to get Americans killed, God forbid. Does he have all that we have to protect (I know he's meaner and able to do less PC things than we ever could, but I mean technically)...?
imagine our entire world fearing these savages..what a horror! Happy Monday my friend~!:)
I certainly think the teams should attend. I have high confidance that the security measures within the perimeter of the Olympic venues will be locked tight against the threat of attacks. The security problem is going to be those transit and leisure locations that will be frequented by families and spectators. That we have enabling forces off shore is fine, but we will still take any rescue and response cues from the Russians.
I would absolutely advise non-athletes to catch the games on TV.
Z, Both winter and summer have a mix of individual and team events. Relay teams come to mind but there are more of them in summer than winter.
One problem with winter is they are spaced over a larger area and more exposed getting to the site and once there.
No, I wouldn’t go. Not because of the threat of terror, but because of the threat of snow.
Ducky’s gay? Wow, there’s a surprise.
FROM Z:
CI, thanks....I think non-athletes might want to stay put, too...which is such a shame for the parents who've put thousands of hours and dollars and hugs into these hard working kids.
Skud....I hear Sochi is right in the hotbed of terrorism in Russia, too...just next to Dagastan (sp?) etc...Chechnya..weird. WHat a choice.
Sam, did you hear about the new Mathew SHephard book, about the boy who was killed because he was gay which the leftwingers make such a huge thing about? "HOMOPHOBIA...GAY HATRED.!" Etc.
Turns out it was a drug deal gone real bad...tons of hours of interviews, etc...all points to nothing to do with his homosexuality. As it happens, the man who killed him was apparently gay as well...
Sort of like Columbine when people said the boys who shot were bullied; turns out they were bullying a black student who the football team was standing UP for. Boy, if only the truth were known...
Re: Bush. Well olbama, and more to the focus DHS completely failed to stop a couple punk ass hooligans using Decades Old technology (bags left with bombs in high value target areas) that would have been number one on any security patrol's list of things to guard against.
We know there was security at the Boston Marathon. The backpacks should have been picked up and immediately dropped into bomb proof containers as soon as they were abandoned.
I'll save the idiots some typing here. I've been through Heathrow several times in the 1990 time frame. I've witnessed abandoned luggage hauled off in large bags made of Kevlar. Assume they were disposed of via explosion in an isolated area.
Seriously, the performance at Boston was 1000 times less than pathetic.
As far as should they go? I say I will applaud anyone that does go. I saw Pikabo Street on TV or somewhere saying she would go and ski. Bravo. Else the moselm vermin scum win, right?
And if it were me, I'd go. Not gonna live forever and not going to die on my knees either.
IMP, DId you see where rodman's 'good kid' little kim has executed the entire blood line of that uncle he had executed recently?
Yea, good little kid there.
Kid, I'm not exactly a fan of DHS....but didn't BPD have responsibility for marathon security? How is it Obama or DHS's fault?
There are also several factors that render the marathon area far more vulnerable than an airport.
Is there an Olympics coming up?
I could be wrong, but I think Kid’s point is as follows: first, the Russians warned us (DHS) of this particular family. Next, the bomber-thug was a participant at the universities Jihad Association. The Face Book of the thug was replete with weird jihadi crap. So … well, I don’t know for certain, but it seems reasonable that DHS would have been working with BPD, and they would have opened a file on that miscreant, and then perhaps the massacre could have been avoided. Instead, DHS and NSA are data mining your phone CI … and to the best of my knowledge, you’re one of the good guys. It would be a novel idea to have something other than clowns inside the beltway.
CI, Ok, my comment was a little light on info. Sam graciously filled in some facts that helped form my opinion.
Yes BPD shares the blame. Question, did DHS inform BPD - given DHS was formed on the very Concept of information sharing. I'll bet DHS didn't tell BPD a thing.
Finally CI, The Finish Line? Come on. The Finish line is easily a high value target zone and Much smaller than any airport I've been to, and I've been to some small ones. (Favorite: Winston-Salem, literally 250 steps from the plane to the rental car. And you could smoke the whole way if you wanted.)
Anyway, No I'm not giving an inch on this one. BPD screwed up as much as anyone, but the stories I've read had federal level security people being captured on camera, as well as the backpack punks. Truly pathetic.
And personally, I'd bet janet, instead of heading up some logistics meeting about the Boston Marathon potential threat, was likely making whoopee in her office with her grossly overpaid and incompetent girlfriend assistant, OR the two of them were out harassing male staff as has been reported.
Not an inch on this one pal. Not an inch.
CI, Further. I saw video grabs of the perps With the backpacks and then Without the backpacks.
Someone was on video monitor of these vents as they were happening. WHY was a very Loud silent alarm not going off that there were now unattended backpacks? Again, for the benefit of people who may not realize it - If you're on this kind of security, unattended bags would be First On Your List of things to look for especially in a highly populated area like the finish line.
Especially when you're dealing with moslem vermin scum and IEDs being one of their favorite weapons and one of the easiest things to put together.
You got a long road if you wanna protest this one.
@Kid:
"harassing male staff as has been reported.."
Yes the "potential" of returning vets to be enemy combatants. Damn Christian vets too. I mean many of them wear a symbol of execution & Capital punishment around their necks...don't you know. Memo: check their dog tags for religious affiliation. And Mudslims are excluded.
IMP, Yea.... yea....America's BEST being called out by the janet beast herself for being the high percentage bet to be domestic terrorists.
Did we float into a wormhole or alternate universe several years ago and somehow people on the same planet as us didn't?
I think we're living that Star Trek episode where we ended up in the opposite universe, but only some of us.
Kid - I'm not sure I would say that I'm 'protesting' anything. I'm merely pointing out that events and actions seem unrealistically mitigable as hindsight.
We should surely agree that every threat cannot be countered effectively. It's simply not possible in any security situation below static, POTUS level force protection measures. So starting from that premsie, the marathon presents a temporary, linear perimeter....as opposed to a permanent, static site. Though the finish line was one of the high risk points, the entire area to be secured was linear, requiring far more resources than and area or point target. The crowd at the marathon, unlike at an airport, were unvetted, densley packed and transient.
It is ridiculuously easy to walk into a crowd with a backpack, stand there awhile while you slipif off of your shoulders...as many others do in the course of standing as a spectator....and walk away, with bags unnoticed, and undetected by cameras due to the inability of camera angles and density of the crowd. There have been red team cases run with similar parameters at populated events after the marathon bombing, and all similar scenarios went undetected, due to the situation described. Roving patrols do not have a high success rate in quickly ascertaining discarded baggage and other items, within a crowd.
CI, Heathrow was a very crowded dynamic place. And luggage all over the place sitting on the floor- 99.99999% of attended however. Your argument does not hold up given my experience there and point of view, though I do understand what you're saying.
Again, as Sam graciously pointed out, DHS was given Specific notice by Russia about this. it's not like this was a threat from out of the blue. There was No Excuse to have missed the drop of the backpacks.
Let me relay a story. Soon after 9-11, at restaurant I went to every day for lunch (A Bravo in Cincinnati) a dude, mid 30's, would come and in walk around the bar area which overlooked the main dining room, like he was looking for someone, maybe hang around a bit, never order anything, screw with people (like he came up to a guy that was sitting beside me told him he had nice shoes, guy told him to back off) then he'd leave. Did this about 8 times. He walked there because you could see him walking from the road across the lot looking out the front window where I always sat. I told the bartender if I saw him coming through the lot with a backpack on (This was right after the London Underground bombings) that there was no way the * was getting into the restaurant. I'd planned to meet him outside and detain him or put him down, whatever, he wasn't getting in, and that the bartender should call 911 when my feet hit the floor then come help if he wanted.
So, you have a situation where Russia gives very specific threat knowledge to DHS, that miracle of information sharing, you have cameras, you have people on the ground in the area, and they miss the backpacks. I'm not buying an ounce of it CI.
Do you think they'll learn something and disallow backpacks and other IED concealable items at such events in the future? I'd say no.
Kid - The difference is [and I'm very acquainted with airports both foreign and domestic] is that the airport is a confined, vetted and staffed area target. You have everyone from the janitor to average passengers on the lookout for anything out of the ordinary, not to mention the video surveillance saturation. The baggage you speak of laying around, has been screened thoroughly prior to entrance into the airport.
I'm not arguing that there are lessons learned from Boston, and I have little doubt that the after action reviews have led to tactical policy changes, but simply declaring that there was gross neglect and incompetence simply because the event occurred, does a disservice to those who put their lives on the line in the public safety arena. Likewise, if intelligence [such as it was] passed from the Russians, had contained specific tactics, techniques and procedures, then you would have a point. But said intelligence absolutely did not, both explicitly and implicitly. I'm not sure what you think they passed, but it consisted of forwarded text messages speaking of a desire for radicalization, but nothing of backpacks, pressure cookers or target selection. Could they have been cased and followed in detail? Sure, until you realize how many similar tips we receive each month, and remember that the information was passed in 2011 and early 2012.
It's easy to armchair quarterback after the fact, but the truth remains....you cannot stop every attack, no matter how sound you think your force protection measures are. We have seen that time and again on our FOBs in Iraq and Afghanistan....point and area targets decidedly more thoroughly secured than the Boston Marathon course.
"My understanding is they gave names and that they were chechen terrorist punks."
Yep. Do you know how many names get passed to us every month? Want to surveil them all? Want to pay for it?
I'll pay to have them tossed out. Guess how long I'd have stayed in England with a rep ? :)
And they're here to support the demoRAT party. Those evil * don't care where their voters come from OR what they do to the tax paying citizen while they're here. A little side note.
I wasn't aware that had expressed a preference for political parties.
Well, you didn't which is why I said side note.
We're letting a lot of vermin in here, and actually, the repubs aren't complaining either. When you invite the scorpion into your bed.
But I do think the dems are the worst at it. I don't believe the repubs would have suggested transferring the gitmo people into the states for example.
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