Posted on 10/21/2002 3:08:23 AM PDT by chance33_98
UC Berkeley Panel Probes Cause of Deadly Bali Blast
Staff/Ian Buchanan Harry Bhaskara (left), an Indonesian journalist and visiting scholar at UC Berkeley, speaks about the recent bombing in Indonesia.
By BRIAN WHELAN Contributing Writer Monday, October 21, 2002
The United States may have had an active role in carrying out last week's bombing of an international nightclub, members of a panel said at a campus round-table discussion Friday.
Five academics and journalists came to UC Berkeley and examined a number of theories on the source of the explosion.
The Oct. 12 blast in Bali, Indonesia killed nearly 200 people, including more than 100 Australian tourists.
"The information received is that several groups are being looked at more closely," said Jeffrey Hadler, a UC Berkeley professor of South and Southeast Asian studies. "The most important thing is to wait for the investigation."
But the United States may have been directly involved in the bombing in order to further its war on terrorism, he added.
President Bush alleged Oct. 14 that Al Qaeda terrorists were behind the bombing because Indonesia is the world's largest Muslim country, Hadler said.
The allegation also furthers Bush's call for war in Iraq, he said.
"Al Qaeda has turned into this incredibly convenient phantom," he said.
Sylvia Tiwon, a professor of Indonesian at UC Berkeley, said Al Qaeda is too small to have perpetrated the bombing.
Some panelists said a western military response to the bombing would have negative repercussions for Islamic countries, which they described as politically interconnected.
"Muslims are global and part of a global entity," Tiwon said. "They are all connected.
Some students in attendance said the panel was insightful.
"It opened up a huge list of new questions we're not talking about in the media," said UC Berkeley graduate student Ellen Boccuzzi. "The same way as the World Trade Center is a symbol of western capitalism, so is Bali a symbol of western capitalism."
Other students said international allegations of Al Qaeda involvement in the bombing remove the need to speculate on its perpetrators.
"The U.S. and Bali governments came out and definitively said that it was Al Qaeda," said ASUC Berkeley College Republicans Senator Paul LaFata. "You don't need a big group to pull something off."
But the United States may have been directly involved in the bombing in order to further its war on terrorism, he added.
Ever heard of a little thing called evidence? Better learn what it means before you run your mouth.
Why can't Freepers try a national newspaper on the scope of USA Today?
Perhaps in their erudite discussions they might ponder how their behavior might be throwing gasoline on the flames of lawlessness, if the incident was indeed how the international community and radical Muslims state it to be.
Too much violence would happen. People would finally see the truth and riot. We have to counteract the poison of the left slowly so as not to start convulsions. Ok, I made all that up - but it sounded good.
and unusual claims require unusual evidence to be credible.
The mere fact that an action could have a positive political impact does NOT lay guilt at the feet of the U.S. Government.
Everyone involved in this round table discussion should be required to immediately publish a clarification which either lays out their evidence or retracts this very irresponsible statement.
I'd like to say they should all be deported, but I guess we can't go that far in a free society huh? :-)
Let's hope so.
That's why this global entity is quickly going to Hell.
Like the Religious Right? Like the Vast Right-Wing Conspiracy? Like "Gun-nuts"?
Here are the "negative repercussions" that I would like to see...
200 years from now, I want their children's children's children's children
to cower and cringe in fear whenever they hear the sounds of jet engines overhead
because their legends tell of fire from the sky.
I want them to hide in dark caves and holes in the earth,
shivering with terror whenever they hear the roar of diesel engines
because the tales of their ancestors talk about metal monsters
crawling over the earth, spitting death and destruction.
I want their mothers to be able to admonish them with
"If you don't behave, the Pale Destroyers will come for you",
and that will be enough to reduce them to quivering obesience.
I want the annihilation to be so complete that their mythology
will tell them of the day of judgment when the stern gods from across the sea
.. the powerful 'Mericans .. destroyed their forefathers' wickedness.
(Original created by BlueLancer ... 13 September 2001)
(Thanks to HiJinx for the accompanying pictures)
Kill them all ... nits make lice.
(COL Chivington, Sand Creek)
Uh. The idiocy of this person is breath taking.
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