Glenn Greenwald on the response by the commentariat to the Oslo attacks.
Being, as he is, a real journalist, Greenwald provides numerous links to his sources and reasoned analysis of the reactions. He comes down especially hard on The New York Times for its too rapid condemnation of "Muslim terrorists" and its blatantly self-serving attempts to save face with it turned out the attacker was a white, anti-Muslim fundamentalist Christian. As Greenwald notes:
Despite that, The New York Times is still working hard to pin some form of blame, even ultimate blame, on Muslim radicals (h/t sysprog):
He also notes the atrocity penned by Jennifer Rubin at WaPo, which still has not been taken down or corrected. The comments there are uniformly condemnatory, with good reason -- it's one of Rubin's usual fact-free, reason-free screeds, this time in the service of more money for defense. The fact that the American defense establishment has been notably unsuccessful in rooting out any kind of terrorism doesn't seem to penetrate.
Being, as he is, a real journalist, Greenwald provides numerous links to his sources and reasoned analysis of the reactions. He comes down especially hard on The New York Times for its too rapid condemnation of "Muslim terrorists" and its blatantly self-serving attempts to save face with it turned out the attacker was a white, anti-Muslim fundamentalist Christian. As Greenwald notes:
Despite that, The New York Times is still working hard to pin some form of blame, even ultimate blame, on Muslim radicals (h/t sysprog):
Terrorism specialists said that even if the authorities ultimately ruled out Islamic terrorism as the cause of Friday’s assaults, other kinds of groups or individuals were mimicking Al Qaeda's brutality and multiple attacks.
"If it does turn out to be someone with more political motivations, it shows these groups are learning from what they see from Al Qaeda," said Brian Fishman, a counterterrorism researcher at the New America Foundation in Washington.Al Qaeda is always to blame, even when it isn't, even when it's allegedly the work of a Nordic, Muslim-hating, right-wing European nationalist. Of course, before Al Qaeda, nobody ever thought to detonate bombs in government buildings or go on indiscriminate, politically motivated shooting rampages. The NYT speculates that amonium nitrate fertilizer may have been used to make the bomb because the suspect, Anders Behring Breivik, owned a farming-related business and thus could have access to that material; of course nobody would have ever thought of using that substance to make a massive bomb had it not been for Al Qaeda. So all this proves once again what a menacing threat radical Islam is.
He also notes the atrocity penned by Jennifer Rubin at WaPo, which still has not been taken down or corrected. The comments there are uniformly condemnatory, with good reason -- it's one of Rubin's usual fact-free, reason-free screeds, this time in the service of more money for defense. The fact that the American defense establishment has been notably unsuccessful in rooting out any kind of terrorism doesn't seem to penetrate.
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