Terrorism

Latest Articles

Richard Clarke’s dark vision

IT Dept.
Richard Clarke famously warned his superiors in the Clinton and Bush White Houses about the destructive potential of a small terrorist network run by Osama bin Laden. To little avail.
By DAVID SCHARFENBERG | November 22, 2011

The United States v. Tarek Mehanna

Does talking about jihad make you a terrorist?
On a late-fall day in 2008, a 26-year-old Massachusetts College of Pharmacy PhD named Tarek Mehanna left his parents' Sudbury home to start a new life in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia, where he had received a prestigious appointment in the diabetes department at the King Fahad Medical City. He didn't make it.
By NATE HOMAN | September 28, 2011

What's wrong with the Palestinians' U.N. gambit

A dangerous charade
The Palestinian campaign to upgrade their diplomatic status at the United Nations is a train wreck in the making.
By EDITORIAL | September 14, 2011

By | January 01, 0001

Declare yourself

Press releases
The 8000-plus-word play-by-play of the raid that killed Osama bin Laden, written by freelancer Nicholas Schmidle and published in the New Yorker recently, is a fascinating read, with lots of juicy details (example: the plan was always to kill bin Laden, not capture him) delivered in the rapid-fire pace of a military thriller novel.
By JEFF INGLIS | August 24, 2011

Holding on

Death’s confluence: Amy Winehouse and the Norwegian terror victims
Of all the details to emerge from the Norway atrocities last Friday, one of the most harrowing was the thought of those frightened, bewildered youngsters leaping from the shores of Utøya, dragging their limbs through the gloppy water as if in some kind of terrible dream, gunfire crackling at their backs.
By CHRIS WRIGHT | July 29, 2011

Review: Better This World

Our government opposes social justice
Young activists sometimes do stupid things.
By CHRIS FARAONE | April 28, 2011

The State vs. the People, Pt. 1

A variety of cesspools; the right to know; taking aim
On Monday, the most prominent headline on the front page of our daily paper or, as the Bud-I calls it with a unique mixture of glee and sadness, "The Pamphlet," was "Cesspools given notice."
By RUDY CHEEKS | April 06, 2011

Review: Of Gods and Men

Thoughtful true story about the search for peace and purpose in a chaotic world
Xavier Beauvois co-wrote and directed this thoughtful true story of a small Trappist monastery situated in a poor Algerian Muslim village overrun with fundamentalist mercenaries.
By PEG ALOI | March 17, 2011

Terror and the MBTA: You don’t look harmless

Freedom watch
Racial profiling meets war on terror: The highest federal court in New England has said it’s okay for government officials single out dark-skinned people for searches, as long as they can concoct some cover rationale, ginned up with vague allusions to terrorism.
By HARVEY SILVERGLATE | December 29, 2010

Review: Four Lions

Why not make a comedy about some bumbling terrorists?
In the biting satiric style of In the Loop comes this peek into homegrown Muslim terrorism, British style.
By BETSY SHERMAN | November 02, 2010

Former inmate, activist now free to speak out

New releases
Last year, when Ray Luc Levasseur was invited to speak on the University of Massachusetts — Amherst campus to commemorate the anniversary of a federal sedition trial held in Springfield, the speech prompted vehement protests from police groups and state officials.
By RICK WORMWOOD | October 12, 2010

'Sorry' was the wrong word

Diverse-city
I’ve waited a long damn time for this state to become less white. Now, I can see at least a few people of color every day without breaking a sweat, when nearly nine years ago I could go days upon days without seeing a single non-white face.
By SHAY STEWART-BOULEY | September 16, 2010

By | January 01, 0001

Deval Patrick and the mosque

Letters to the Boston editor, July 2, 2010
I was extremely disappointed to read your close-minded, ignorant, and bigoted position on Governor Deval Patrick’s meeting with Muslims at the Islamic Society of Boston Cultural Center in Roxbury.
By BOSTON PHOENIX LETTERS | June 30, 2010

Mickey Mouse Multiculturalism

Governor Patrick's problematic Mosque visit. Plus, Bush — and the GOP — vote yes for torture
Massachusetts treasurer and independent candidate for governor Tim Cahill was off base when he accused incumbent governor Deval Patrick of "playing politics with terrorism" in the wake of Patrick's visit to the controversial Roxbury mosque maintained by the Islamic Society of Boston.
By EDITORIAL | June 14, 2010

Review: The Oath

An indictment on the War on Terror
The oath referred to is that swearing fealty to Al-Qaeda and Osama bin Laden.
By PETER KEOUGH | June 09, 2010

Physics lesson for Diamon

Letters to the Portland editor, May 21, 2010
Newton’s laws of gravity and motion are universally understood laws, not subject to anyone’s opinion.
By PORTLAND PHOENIX LETTERS | May 20, 2010

Open Your Mind to 9-11 Truth

Letters to the Portland editor, May 7, 2010
I was disappointed but not surprised to read Al Diamon’s shallow and cynical column on Dr. David Ray Griffin.
By PORTLAND PHOENIX LETTERS | May 05, 2010

High ideals and crazy dreams

Truthers hurt
I have nothing against conspiracy theories.
By AL DIAMON | April 28, 2010

Not your cup of tea?

Letters to the Boston editor, April 30, 2010
David S. Bernstein asserts that Glenn Beck fans his audience’s fears, yet the headline for his piece on the Tea Party is “ ‘Tea’ Is For Terrorism.”
By BOSTON PHOENIX LETTERS | April 29, 2010

Elena Kagan’s shaky record

What a Kagan appointment to the Supreme Court could mean for civil liberties
As a potential Obama nominee for Supreme Court justice, Elena Kagan has liberal bona fides and the likely support of the right. But if her record is any indication, she’s more likely to side with the conservative bloc on matters of executive power and war-time presidential authority.
By HARVEY SILVERGLATE AND KYLE SMEALLIE | April 16, 2010

'Tea' is for terrorism

When even the most ‘legitimate’ voices of the right validate dangerously unhinged anti-government rhetoric — DUCK!
A year ago, the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) produced a memo outlining the growing threat posed to this country from right-wing extremists. It compared the situation to that of the early 1990s — which culminated in the 1995 bombing of the Alfred P. Murrah Building in Oklahoma City, killing 168.
By DAVID S. BERNSTEIN | April 12, 2010

By | January 01, 0001

Obama's year two to-do's

What Have You Done for Me Lately Dept.
This week marks the one-year anniversary of Barack Obama's inauguration. Can you believe it?
By MIKE MILIARD | January 20, 2010

Flynn-terrogation

Obsessed with the wrongs of Abu Ghraib, local author Nick Flynn traveled across the globe to meet its victims
In his powerful new memoir, The Ticking Is the Bomb (W.W. Norton), Scituate native Nick Flynn recounts a conversation he had with a man in Turkey.
By MIKE MILIARD | January 13, 2010

An Obama confidant on the surge in Afghanistan

War Dept.
Twenty-four hours before President Barack Obama announced a 30,000-troop escalation of the Afghan War, one of his key foreign policy advisors provided a view of the president’s thinking at Brown University.
By STEVEN STYCOS | December 02, 2009

Western-style martyrdom

Idiot Box
Ali wanted to kill Americans but found terrorism way too tedious
By MATT BORS | November 25, 2009

By | January 01, 0001

Afghanistan: Just say no!

Plus, Obama and the Nobel
The idea that the war in Afghanistan has reached a critical junction, a “now-or-never” moment that requires an additional 40,000 troops to win, is rubbish.
By EDITORIAL | October 14, 2009